An Opinion Piece: Education and Democracy

An opinion piece by Eileen Servidio-Delabre, Ph.D.
Professor of International Law and President of the American Graduate School in Paris

One’s set of values should be the roadmap one uses to live by. This is true not only for individuals but Nations also. The notion of natural law with its corresponding natural rights was essential during the colonial period and certain values found their way into the Declaration of Independence such as the right to life, liberty and pursuit of happiness. However, there are other values that Americans put importance on; creativity, efficiency, the spirit of adventure, honesty and so many, many more.

This piece will not attempt to demonstrate if these values are respected in today’s America. I will leave that up to the reader to judge. It rather would like to mention just one value that I hold dear and share with Francis Parkman; the value of education. Parkman, 19^th century historian, referred to formal higher education and its importance to a true democracy. [1]

I, on the contrary do not use the notion of education in the formal sense of the term but the importance of the responsibilty of citizens to educate themselves to make valid decisions be it through formal education or otherwise. I suggest that this essential value is not given the respect today that it merits and that ignorance is detrimental to a true democracy.

Parkman wrote about the harm that ignorance can cause:

“In a country where the ruling power is public opinion, it is above all things necessary that the best and maturest thought should have a fair share in forming it.”

He underlines the importance of “a class of strong thinkers” as the “palladium of democracy”. “They are the natural enemies of ignorant, ostantatious, and aggressive wealth, and the natural friends of all that is best in the heart”.

He envisioned the existing civilization of his time as “a creature with a small and feeble head, a large, muscular, and active body, and a tail growing at such a rate that it threatens to become unmanageable (…).

According to Parkman, what he refers to as “partial education” produces “a prodigious number of persons who think, and persuade others to think, that they know everything necessary to be known, and are fully competent to form opinions (…).”

These he proclaims are the “persons who make the most noise on the most momentous questions of the day, who have the most listeners and admirers, and who hold each other up as shining examples for imitation, their incompetence becomes a public evil of the first magnitude”.

The only solution for Parkman is to “infuse into the disordered system the sedative and tonic of a broad knowledge and a vigorous reason”.

This is of course assuming that the majority can be capable of a broad knowledge and a vigorous reason. Nevertheless, education in civic, social and political matters as early as possible can only permit and help public opinion to be as informed as each person can be.

One does not expect the great majority of the people to be what he refers to as “efficient thinkers”. However, it is only through education, formal or not, that one can hope to come close to this ideal.

Parkman blames the lack of increase in the number of what he refers to as “efficient thinkers” to the “ascendency of material interests among us (…) A prodigious number of persons think that money-making is the only serious business of life (…)”. He adds that the “drift towards material activity is so powerful among us that it is difficult for a young man to resist it”. Add to this today, “a young woman”. I could not agree more with him.

The public did not demand reason according to him but “elocution rather than reason (…) something to excite the feelings and captivate the fancy rather than something to instruct the understanding”. In other words the public want sensationalism and it is certainly receiving its share of it today.

As already mentioned Parkman referred mostly to higher education, a certain educated elite. However, this is not in my sense what one should be working towards. If taught as early as possible—most children and then adults can think for themselves. They do not need to “buy” what is given as facts but to constructively think through what they learn and take the time to question it and to discuss it and to keep their minds open. One does not have to be part of the educated elite to achieve this. But it takes work. Democracy is a gift. Democracy is not something that comes easy, it needs to be worked at; to be earned. I suggest that today we are far from earning it.