Reform Begins at Home
The challenge of a Deweyan reformer is to somehow form a functioning community out of a vast society – to create close enough links between geographically disparate people such that one will consider the effect of his actions on the other even if they never become acquainted in person, or indeed ever become specifically aware of the other’s existence. It is a difficult task, even if the reformer successfully exploits the technological and media tools available to her. It may be tempting, therefore, for the reformer to focus her efforts on the national scale – writing essays for national magazines, staging events designed to be covered by the large news networks, etc. Dewey, however, was quite cognizant of the role of local communities in the eventual establishment of the Great Community, and the democratic reformer ignores this role at her own peril.
Vibrant local communities are vital to Dewey’s vision of a flourishing democracy. Many social challenges will need to be addressed at a local level, and the experience of working together to address said problems will give citizens the skills and mindset to tackle larger issues in a similar fashion. The impetus for change often begins at the local level as well, as a grass-roots response to a particular local problem calls attention to a larger issue and galvanizes feeling about it. If a national reform movement is to be a true model for the desired democratic society, it too must function as a network of thriving, coordinated local reform movements.
This requires more than simply organizing political protests at the local level. The reform movement must strive to transform and enrich every local community in which it involves itself. To the extent that this can be done within existing institutions, it makes sense to work within the current structure – if local schools are amenable to working with reformers to create a more active, engaging, living-centered method of education, for example, then this is the best outcome for all concerned. If the existing local institutions resist change, however, the reformer must as much as possible establish parallel institutions that will serve the required function. Since such parallel institutions will be both a drain on the reformers’ resources and reliant on the voluntary interest of the local community, it is likely that they will not be as successful as if the existing institutions were reformed, but they will be far better than nothing.
Education is merely one of the functions a local reform community must undertake. Economic and personal development are equally vital. Wherever possible, reformers must help provide jobs and job training, and strive to make local residents more self-sufficient. By helping residents take control of their economic lives, reformers will be advancing the educational ideals of the Deweyan movement as well. Likewise, reformers must find ways to tap into whatever unique talents community members possess, and provide a forum for the development and sharing of those talents. In doing so reformers will ensure that community members know each other better – creating the personal identification so vital to a community – while also creating an enriching aesthetic environment.
Such involvement is also required as a safeguard against the dangers of a local population that wants to be involved in governing itself, but does not understand the larger context of the affairs in which they attempt to intervene, or even that there is a larger context. Without this understanding, self-governing citizens can too easily be manipulated into decisions that neither serve their self-interest nor have the results that citizens desire. This phenomenon is common enough that it has spawned its own acronym, NIMBY – Not In My Back Yard – to represent the attitude of local communities that mobilize against measures that require some kind of sacrifice in order to benefit the larger society of which that community is a part. Such shortsightedness can also take place within a community, as when non-parents mobilize to block local tax increases to benefit area schools. Even worse is the danger of local groups becoming “echo chambers,� in which members reinforce each other’s prejudices, erroneous information, or incorrect judgements and then press for action based on those mistakes.
Dewey wrote:
While participation in town meetings is good as far as it arouses public spirit, it cannot provide the information that enables a citizen to be an intelligent judge of national affairs – now also affected by world conditions . . . The void created by lack of relevant personal experiences combines with the confusion produced by impact of multitudes of unrelated incidents to create attitudes which are responsive to organized propaganda.
Reformers must find ways to fill this void. Citizens that attend town meetings and get involved in local community affairs have already taken one of the most crucial steps in achieving an education in the Deweyan sense – they have identified a problem and begun searching for solutions. They have engaged a problematic situation, which opens up the potential for reflective thinking. Reformers must integrate with these groups, show them the efficacy of a pragmatic or instrumentalist empirical approach to the problem, and help guide them to the information and other resources that will point toward an effective solution. They must be patient in the face of resistance and make sure they do not come across as lecturers or agitators trying to impose an agenda from outside the community, the latter being a frequent complaint directed at would-be mobilizers. In the process, reformers will themselves learn more about their local groups and hopefully develop and test new methods of communicating and organizing. By staying grounded and locally connected, they will be better able to promote what Dewey calls the
Dewey wrote:
Development of local agencies of communication and cooperation, creating stable loyal attachments, to militate against the centrifugal forces of present culture, while at the same time they are of a kind to respond flexibly to the demands of the larger unseen and indefinite public.
As with so many things, reform really begins at home.
About Dave Thomer
Born and raised in Philadelphia. Studied philosophy at Fordham University in the Bronx, where I made many great friends and met my wonderful wife. We moved back to Philadelphia, where I studied philosophy some more and became a teacher. Online and off, I'm looking for ways that we can be better citizens and build stronger communities.