Superintendent: Educated Citizenry Necessary to Thrive
The following statement was made by Superintendent Tom Ahart at the November 15, 2016 School Board meeting:
This artwork, created by Lincoln High School senior Zhaoying Qin, is featured on the front of the Superintendent’s Thanksgiving card.
The purpose of public education has been defined in a variety of ways by different thinkers, but there is widely shared agreement by scholars and statesmen as diverse as Thomas Jefferson, Horace Mann, John Dewey, and Mortimer Adler. Each argued that an educated citizenry is necessary for our still young country to thrive.
According to Jefferson,
“Democracy cannot long exist without enlightenment,
that it cannot function without wise and honest officials,
and that talent and virtue, needed in a free society, should be educated regardless of wealth, birth or other accidental condition
so that each citizen can know his rights, exercise with order and justice those he retains; choose with discretion the fiduciary of those he delegates; and to notice their conduct with diligence, with candor, and judgment.”
This is a tall order for our schools, especially in the most challenging of times. And this fall has been a challenging one for our school district, our community, and the country. We have lost three students due to accidental deaths, we have lost two police officers, one a former DMPS SRO, and we have endured one of the most contentious national elections in history.
The strain of these events is felt with particular weight by those that are engaged but have few ways to meaningfully participate.
I am proud of the students of DMPS for their civic engagement, despite most not being eligible yet to vote, and I encourage them to remain engaged: peacefully, respectfully, and vocally. Whatever your individual political views, it is important that you are respectful of those that may not agree and to honor their right to express opposing views.
To quote Horace Mann, considered by many education scholars as the father of the common school movement, “Education then, beyond all other devices of human origin, is the great equalizer of the conditions of men, the balance-wheel of the social machinery.”
Later this month, our country will celebrate one of our first national holidays, Thanksgiving. In 1863, President Abraham Lincoln made a proclamation setting the same date for all of the states to celebrate Thanksgiving in an effort to foster unity between the Northern and Southern states. I am hopeful that we will all use the upcoming Thanksgiving break as an opportunity for reflection, to give thanks for this incredible and still young country in which we are privileged to reside, and to understand the role that each of us has to play to keep our democracy alive and vibrant…and unified.
I will close with one more quote, this one from the noted education philosopher John Dewey: “Democracy has to be born anew every generation, and education is its midwife.”
This Thanksgiving we have so much for which to be thankful, despite our recent challenges; and these same recent challenges have made it clear to me that we educators are engaged in a mission that is as important as ever.
To our entire community, our School Board, our staff, our parents and families, and especially our students: here’s to a safe, restful, and peaceful Thanksgiving.
