Howard Zinn on Democratic Education Essay

Upon reading the book, Howard Zinn on Democratic education, I felt a lot of questions I had regarding education was answered. I had everlastingly regarded education as something liberating, something that would be able to check students how to become enlightened. That is wherefore I read a lot of books. But regarding my schooling, I questioned why we argon loaded with so much homework and tests, we end up not deeply understanding anything at all, because there is no duration to process all the information. It is as if our schooling stunts our educational growth.Yet, the irony of it is they teach us so much facts of how, where, when, who, and what, unless I had this nagging hesitation that teachers were hiding vital information from us. I did not k straightaway what exactly, but I endlessly felt something was missing because I could not touch on what I learned in school to what was happening to our country as I watched the news. It was as if there was a missing link, a pri mal that would make everything make sense. Yet, as the years in the academe passed, I encountered no such link. Until now. It was as if my youthful objections found validation. I had always felt that my schooling lacked experienceing.All these hard facts were discussed as if they did not sham community. We really never knew, through history, how terror felt when planes during the World warfare II flew overhead, or triumph when the war was declared over. It is not anybodys fault. I think, history send wordnot be studied it has to be lived. Although in my opinion, it can be remedied. Instead of sitting in classrooms all day, reciting facts, we should focus on gathering our confess information regarding flatts. This does not mean reading even unassigned readings. I have always thought that people are not foolish.Each individual has a unique story, if we only attention to listen. We should experience learning, and this can only be done by press release out of the classroom, and learning from living people. After all, the papers our books are make up of were once living things too. The critical question now is, what now? Now that we possess such knowledge, what must we do with it? Knowledge that is not followed by action is a dead thing. We could start through transforming our own classroom, if we are to teach, or even in our own homes. Drop-out rates are not surprising due to the fact that so few kids feel remotely refered to their schooling.If we involve these kids, make them see that it is also their classmates deprivation if they do not attend classes, they can be pulled back into the academe. To do this, they must be able to feel that they can contribute something to the discussion, whether it be a question or an opinion. We must impress upon our minds that there are no right or wrong questions or opinions. Each comes from a different background (hence a different culture), so we must be patient and understanding. We must also find tangent points we must connect the academe with their lives. We must do away with the notion that scholars have tusk towers.We must reconnect. Because this is what education does. It reconnects people with other people. It reconnects people with ideas. It reconnects people with opportunities. It reconnects people with hope. If all the attendants in a classroom participate freely and energetically, actively molding their curriculum to suit their individual needs, we will have captured the sum of a democratic education. Through this, we will have a actually democratic country.ReferencesSchugurensky, D. (2005). Howard Zinn on Democratic Education. International Journal of Citizenship and Teacher Education , 1, 99-100.