I have learned that before we can begin to see the wisdom of empowering students, we must determine the meaning of schools. Some writers and educators believe that the nature of schooling and education is inherently repressive, and that it alienates students from self-education and creates a culture of meaninglessness and an adherence to top-down authority. Others say that schools can serve as a vehicle towards freedom and anti-oppression, if given that duty, allegiant to that purpose, and constantly reflective upon their purpose and outcomes.
However, the diagnosis of their current status as engines of capitalism and competition is correct. Unfortunately, right now on a whole, schools serve only to set students against each other, adults, and their communities. Commonly that becomes translated as a struggle for "power", which has too many definitions for too many people to grab a hold of. Consequently we merely wrestle in the proverbial darkness for an intangible award, just the way that our consumerist, capitalist, and competitive school systems have taught us. (I have succumbed to that thinking too long myself - http://www.takingitglobal.org/discuss/showthread.php?s=&threadid=1004).
BUT SCHOOLS CAN BE centers for justice and freedom; rather than binding, than can be liberating. We must "re-purpose" them as such. That is, instead of charging schools to simply creating good workers and happy citizens, we can dedicate education to the common good of all people; service, citizenship, and empowerment can become the norms through which the global community can grow democracy and interdependence. That is a constantly challenging, consistently demanding, regularly rigorous route to take, and one that many educators avoid. When teachers work in school systems that demand they be 'experts', and when students are constantly told how ignorant and ill-aware they are, why should we teach anything but obedience? I believe that ultimately it is because we are purposeful, powerful, creatures whose ability to change, manipulate, and grow this planet is infinite, unlike many other animals. Because of that we must grab a hold of our destinies, as a humankind, and move forward towards common liberation, common purpose, and common unity (community).
If that is our goal as a people then as a people we must change the way our schools operate. And it must begin in our schools, for no other institutional body on earth has the capacity or ability to change and sustain the direction of humankind for so many people. Education is a common thread that runs through all of our intentions for global change, and together we free schools, teachers, and students from the destructive bondage they've inherited. Together we can change our schools, as students who stand up and demand change, as leaders who rally our families and neighbors to demand change, as teachers who infiltrate education with this passionate purpose, as voters who elect political leaders who demand change... All of these are options, all so that all people throughout the world might experience democracy, empowerment, and community.
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