“Town meetings are to liberty what primary schools are to science; they bring it within the people's reach.” PeopleSchoolLibertyDemocracyTownsMeetingsPrimariesPrimary School Book:Democracy in America: Volumes I & II Source: Democracy in America: Volumes I & II
“Meaningful student involvement is the process of engaging students as partners in every facet of school change for the purpose strengthening their commitment to education, community & democracy.” SchoolPurposeProcessCommunityDemocracyStudentsCommitmentPartnersMeaningfulEngagingInvolvementFacetsStrengthening Author:Adam Fletcher
“Running a school where the students all succeed, even if some students have to help others to make the grade, is good preparation for democracy.” IfsHelpingRunningSchoolDemocracyStudentsSucceedHelping OthersPreparationGrades Author:William Glasser
“This is regrettable indeed for a nation that aspires to teach democracy to other nations, because, as Burke said: "Example is the school of mankind, and they will learn at no other."” SaidSchoolNationsTeachDemocracyAtheismMankindExampleAspire Book:The Arrogance of Power Source: The Arrogance of Power
“Uncontrollable consumerism has become a watchword of our culture despite regular and compelling calls for its end. The United States has more malls than high schools; Americans spend more time shopping than reading. ... Some of the most insightful writing about the American character over the nation's history has been about neither freedom nor democracy but about the crazed impulse to acquire things.” WritingHas BeensEndsStatesCharacterSchoolCultureReadingNationsUnitedUnited StatesDemocracyHigh SchoolDespiteImpulseAcquireMore TimeInsightfulShoppingCompellingConsumerismMallsUncontrollableAmerican Character Book:Loud and Clear Source: Loud and Clear
“Nowhere has democracy ever worked well without a great measure of local self-government, providing a school of political training for the people at large as much as for their future leaders.” PeopleWellsSelfGovernmentSchoolPoliticalLeaderDemocracyTrainingLocalsProvidingSelf-governmentFuture Leaders Author:Friedrich August von Hayek
“When people first vote for democracy, they have extremely high hopes, excessive expectations, and they're not realized. They don't instantly get richer and the schools don't instantly get better and the garbage isn't instantly picked up quicker. So they get disillusioned.” PeopleFirstsSchoolDemocracyExpectationsVoteGet BetterGarbageGet RichDisillusioned Author:Jimmy Carter
“Schools need not preach political doctrine to defend democracy. If they shape men capable of critical thought and trained in social attitudes, that is all that is necessary.” IfsMenNeedsSchoolPoliticalSocialEducationAttitudeDemocracyShapesCapableCriticalDoctrine Author:Albert Einstein
“I always maintain that playing in an orchestra intelligently is the best school for democracy. If you play a solo, the conductor and everybody in the orchestra follows you. Then, a few bars later, the main voice goes to another instrument, another group, and then you have to go back into the collective [sound]. The art of playing in an orchestra is being able to express yourself to the maximum but always in relation to something else that is going on.” IfsArtPlayAbleSchoolSoundVoiceDemocracyGroupsRelationInstrumentsBarsCollectivesSoloOrchestraMaximumExpress YourselfConductorBest School Author:Daniel Barenboim
“How can we speak of Democracy or Freedom when from the very beginning of life we mould the child to undergo tyranny, to obey a dictator? How can we expect democracy when we have reared slaves? Real freedom begins at the beginning of life, not at the adult stage. These people who have been diminished in their powers, made short-sighted, devitalized by mental fatigue, whose bodies have become distorted, whose wills have been broken by elders who say: "your will must disappear and mine prevail!"-how can we expect them, when school-life is finished, to accept and use the rights of freedom?” PeopleChildrenHas BeensMadeRealUseBodySchoolLife IsSpeakAcceptingDemocracyRightsStageMinesBrokenAdultsSlaveFinishedDisappearTyrannyDictatorEldersFatigueMouldSchool LifeShort SightedReal FreedomBeginning Of Life Author:Maria Montessori
“If you look at the early nineteenth century you see the idea that we educate children to be voters and to be participants in our popular democracy. And then at the turn of the century when more and more immigrants are coming into the schools, Americanization becomes a more explicit part of the agenda.” IfsLooksChildrenIdeasSchoolTurnsDemocracyCenturyImmigrantsAgendasVotersEducateNineteenth CenturyParticipantsExplicit Author:Dana Goldstein
“It's a democracy, and the reason why the conservative movement loses is because it believes that it is elite, that the smartest in its midst who have gone to the right schools and who have worked at the right think tanks and have the right opinions and the right friends can run it for the rest of America. That's why I'm a Tea Party adherent over a Republican or conservative establishment adherent.” ThinkingBelieveReasonRunningSchoolAmericaLosesPartyOpinionGoneDemocracyMovementRepublicanConservativeTeaReason WhyMidstEstablishmentElitesTanksTea Party Author:Andrew Breitbart
“All of those on the left, as I am, have always vastly preferred the democratic society over the hierarchical society and still do, but the democratic culture doesn't exist without highly informed citizens capable of thinking well, and if you have schools in which 40 percent of the people coming out of them cannot make change for a dollar, you don't have a democracy. You have a sibling society.” PeopleIfsThinkingWellsStillsSchoolCultureLeftDemocracyCitizensCapablePercentDollarsDemocraticComing OutSiblingDemocratic SocietyInformed Citizens Author:Robert Bly