Ms Yanow reflects on some of the insights gained by the editors of this journal as they discussed the struggle for democracy and shared governance in the many spaces they refer to as adult education.
Long-time readers will know my difficulty with précis so I don't intend to try. I will, instead, pick some quotes.
- Understanding democracy reminds me a little bit of learning to play the guitar. It's pretty simple. If you know three chords you can play almost any rock and roll, blues or folk song.
- When Jimi Hendrix played Voodoo Child it was anything but simple [and all but impossible to replicate].
So, it's simple but …
There is a difficulty in that Americans [and the British] commonly call their form of government a democracy – it’s not. A pure democracy is a form of governance in which all citizens have an equal input not one in which a small subset of representatives create the laws by which all shall live.
- Perhaps it [pure democracy] is as Hendrix said, “easy to play, but hard to feel”.
And this, of course, is the difficulty when you try to operate a truly democratic process within a learning environment. Those who currently have no voice in the affairs of the nation, the locality or the learning institution cannot suddenly acquire one – they have to be taught. But it does not seem to be in the interests of the nation, the locality or the learning institution to allow decisions on governance to be made by those not in control of the processes!
Make of it what you will. I found it very interesting.
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