at the heart of our struggles to maintain and strengthen a democratic way of life are the nation's schools now as never before american education is challenged to help prepare the new generation for the vital business of acting as free individuals in a free society the public continues to expect certain immediate results from our schools whatever else my children ought to know when and where important events happen teach them the facts in my opinion make them strong and healthy my kids are to do better than me why they are to be taught to read and write good english there's always been this rich variety of individual demands but nowadays almost every adult agrees on one basic goal for all students schools are to turn out good citizens yes good citizens that's right absolutely this country always needs good citizens teaching students subject matter in democratic situations that develop better citizens is being done more and more in alert school system this school happens to be in michigan but it could be any other school anywhere any school where parents and teachers are concerned about how and what their children learn to prepare them for citizenship let's ask some questions there arthur davis not his real name but it'll do teaches american history been doing it for years let's talk to him excuse me mr davis we've heard fine reports about this school and about the good things that you and your students have been doing can you tell us something about how and why you came to use your present method of teaching well that's pretty big order i might tell you how i first became interested in trying it out its fairly typical of our other teachers experiences our staff for some time had been aware of the limitations of its teaching methods through considerable reading committee work discussion experimenting and in meetings with parents and seven groups we tried to find the answer the authoritarian method with the teacher dominating we felt wasn't the answer letting the students do as they pleased the laissezfaire method also was inadequate neither method produced the best citizen we discovered as others have that the answer sprang from the very nature of our democratic society in essence it's to use teaching methods which will produce better citizens while teaching subject matter teaching methods which develop and draw upon the knowledge skills and attitudes of all the students our first problem was to find a workable definition of the characteristics of good citizenship the detroit citizenship study gave us one of the best answers but what interests us is how do you develop qualities through a regular school program well suppose we take last year's class no group is identical of course but it was an average group davis felt the familiar excitement that every teacher feel at the start of a new term following my preplanned rather closely the first few days were spent on orientation getting to know each other's names background and hobbies learning is best accomplished among friendly youngsters acquainted with each other we talked a little about what we learned in other social studies classes and took several tests to determine how much knowledge of american history the students already had and what their interests and attitudes where there was the usual number of personal problems that with the democratic method could be adjusted helen sky hal domineering and and ignoring others rights and harold coren harold always running away from facts harold's attitude for instance was apparent when the class was choosing among various ways by which the class could be conducted authoritarian laissezfaire or democratic so how can we run a class democratically everyone for themselves they discussed it from every conceivable angle then they voted against the autocratic method with the teacher dominating against the laissezfaire method with the students doing just about what they pleased and they settled for the democratic pattern shared responsibility mutual respect with the teacher as a resource a consultant and the guide to better learning hey what do you think about what oh i'm not sure do you think we learned as much by letting us kids run the class oh we're not going to run it by ourselves mr davis is going to help well i don't know i sort of like what he said getting everybody's ideas and talk over what we want to do i think it's fair and i think we'll learn more come on let's go they've begun to see some of the possibilities of working together democratically share responsibility and set up goals for the year choose topics to study to find answers to problems to think critically share and discuss findings and finally evaluate their accomplishments and discuss together ways of improvement harold had been against trying out the new method but he was popular enough to be elected class chairman shared responsibility continue with the election of a secretary the chairman lead the discussion and set up goals of course i had helped my suggestion now and then and mostly the steps were to read and think individually then for each student to make his own list of goals next their ideas were combined and resigned in small groups finally the whole class and i together for discussion the outcome was this from the study of american history they wanted to achieve the following goals to become a better citizen to learn how to read and write better to understand our american way of life to learn own how to solve problem to understand the united states as a major power in the world today parents continued to keep in touch with what was happening and occasionally one would be more impatient than the others isn't it all this is a waste of time after all your job is to teach american history orientation really doesn't waste time is to cory you'll find these students interested in learning because they had a part in making the decisions ok but when you get around to studying history well our next steps were what you would probably call studying history we've selected our first topic for study in the same way as we had established our goals first i presented background material and ideas then individually they read and did some thinking then discuss topics in small groups finally we arrived at a consensus through class discussion we chose as our first general topic what democracy means to me out of our discussion on the main topic emerged several problems how did the democracy to get started and develop how important is democracy in the world today how does the democracy differ from other forms of government what contributions have the outstanding leaders made to democracy how can democracy be improved in our city each student voted for the problem he wanted to work on four problem groups were formed and the chairman and record are selected in each the groups began by filling in the work plans i worked closely with each group this step was a test as to whether the groups could work democratically sometimes they got into trouble i think i'd like to preview those film strips on the constitution no i want to do that i know how to work the projector now wait a minute why can't you both do it jane owns about filmstrips and al you're good with a projector that sounds like a good way to do it yeah how about it al well i guess you're right i'll try it the influence of the class gradually was causing al to respect others a second group was doing as well they'd seen the importance of individual responsibility now who'd going to report on jefferson oh helen you took at trip last summer how about it i'm not sure i could do it oh sure you can you could use your snapshots and i'll give you a hand with it helen's selfconfidence was being bolstered in time she'd make a fuller contribution the third group however was tussling with our local skeptic mr davis we're not getting any place well what seems to be the trouble i can't seem to get started in spite of what harold cory has to say we still think we have some democracy in this town no we haven't we just think we have all politicians are crooked everything's fix what are your facts harold we just know that's all everybody know it hey do you have any facts to prove your point we'll never get any place this way why don't you give us an assignment mr davis now just a minute folks faith says our community is democrat harold says it isn't now they both can't be right how can we find the truth look we talk about what democracy man in orientation now let's talk with people around town here and see what they think too small we know it and discuss it again i think we all know for sure what we're talking about a very good idea how about the rest of you so we doing yes that's a good idea why don't we go to mister mayor for first thing they were learning a basic lesson democracy doesn't operate by itself in a vacuum critical thinking based upon facts is very important and so they work they struggled they plan and they grew each group was now engrossed in its problems students found the library a valuable source for needed information outsiders may have been surprised at their eagerness but for teachers using this method it's a familiar and rewarding result local citizens had to think twice when asked to compare democracy with other forms of government the communities mayor and city manager were interviewed by one of our groups harold was introduced to an exciting new world of facts while each individual talent found a way to contribute each group organized its growing mass of information our class had become a team and every student was the better for it the projects were nearly complete at last each group made its report helen thank you this is station w usa today we have a most unusual program featuring early leaders of our democracy the year seventeen eighty seven our speakers george washington thomas jefferson alexander hamilton the topic for a discussion is the need for a federal constitution mr washington will present his view as first madam chairman fellow countryman the reasons for a federal constitution are social economic military and political i should discuss these one of the time our group worked on the problem how did democracy get started in the south our report is built around a series of filmstrips and chapter three in our textbook james caviler introduced first illustratively discussion are all around on our projector our group has studied the problem how can democracy be improved in our city we couldn't all agree to decided to give individual report and to invite two leading citizens who could talk with us this is why and this is emerson this is emerson chairman of the league of women voters who suggest how young people and adults can work together to improve democracy in our city is the reason mr chairman and members of the client our organization is concerned with this matter we're glad that you are discussing it in class because you see we need citizens who not only talk about democracy but who are willing to work to improve it carol corey will report when he found out from the mayor here thank you and first i've got to admit i thought i knew all the answers to this problem then we visited the mayor the mayor changed my mind about a lot of things he had solutions to several problems they were harold spa there should have heard that he wanted harold to learn the facts class discussion following each of the reports they deal some important inclusion interest was greater facts were learned better and remembered longer because they were related to very real everyday problems this was also clearly shown through various kinds of evaluations by the entire class on worksheet by each group by taking several kinds of achievement tests and through teacher pupil conferences between myself and each student and now i've just been looking over your progress sheet tell me why didn't you evaluate yourself on respecting rights of others how do i rate myself on that i never thought about it much so i got in this class i don't know what to do about it anyway i know you already have done something about it i have certainly you recognize that you have this problem that's the first step towards improvement well i have listened to people without interrupting them good what else could i do in conferences like this one i could gauge the extent to which my students were improving gradually in the give and take of the class sessions have had begun to develop more respect for the rights of others helen gain self confidence and became a responsible member of the group arrow in making skillful use of information was reaching towards maturity in this class some grow a great deal some grow a little but all gain something from their experience a last question that today this can other subjects be taught this way they certainly can and many are actually i haven't been talking just about american history i've described democratic method of teaching which can be used to varying degrees by any teacher on any grade level in any subject for example here is a third grade on a field trip with say a plan to get first hand information about their questions in science here is a sixth grade class sharing their findings as to how fractions are used in their home there is a latin student and his teacher evaluating his progress through a teacher student interview it's true there are easier ways to teach but i know of no more effective way to help our students learn not only to learn more facts but to learn how to put democracy into practice these days parents and teachers alike realize it must be their serious concern to help our young people become better citizens for democracy is not only an effective use of facts but a dynamic way of people living and working together americas you our next generation must be prepared to help build their future of life will step in that direction is practicing democracy in the classroom