How NICE WORDS Disarm Us
John Dewey in his march to transform education (and the world) in a collectivist direction used “democracy” as a convenient cover. His first book in this category, Democracy and Education (1916), was hugely popular in the English-speaking world and in the countries he visited, Russia and China.
“Democracy” was this nice, unthreatening concept that could lean in a number of directions and still remain the clarion call for reforms. In fact, Clarence Carson in his book “The Fateful Turn: from Individualism to Collectivism” shows how Dewey used the word “democracy” 30 different ways!
“Community” is another such nice, comforting word. And of course, it expands into “communitarian”, which is the term covering these devolution moves to community-based decision-making.
The movement for expanding community schools should be examined with sharp eyes. Sounding nice and comprehensive and even practical community schools could very well be a trap to further separate parents from their children and their responsibilities and duties to them. See: “Obama’s ‘Community Schools’ Aim to Replace Parents” http://www.thenewamerican.com/culture/education/item/21395-obamas-community-schools-aim-to-replace-parents
Just announced that Madison, WI will start implementing 'community schools' next fall.