Individuality, Equality, and Creative Democracy--The Task before Us

Education is ubiquitous and inevitable; schooling is an institutionalized activity usually confined to designated times and places. Public schooling is subject to public regulation and control, presumably for the common good. The author contends that true democratic education seeks educational equality as a way to educate individuals capable of criticizing and recreating society--not simply reproducing the status quo. Surprisingly, many of the author's student teachers find the notion of creative democracy puzzling. They assume their democracy is complete and only requires preserving. This essay arises out of the author's efforts to reply to their perplexity. The author stresses that educators must assail the very idea of one-size-fits-all standards as a vehicle for educational equality in a democratic society, especially in such a society's public school system. He argues that equality is the antithesis of sameness, at least in the sense of democratic equality, or what Dewey sometimes calls "moral equality." Democratic moral equality celebrates incommensurably unique, one-time-only qualitative individuality. When people interpret equality in terms of quantitative sameness and one-size-fits-all standards, it destroys democratic moral equality while corrupting the ideal of equality of educational opportunity. (Contains 4 notes.)