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Goodlad, Stephen J. (Editor). (2001). The Last Best Hope:
A Democracy Reader. San Francisco: Jossey Bass.
304 pp.
$24.95 ISBN 0-7879-5681-3
Reviewed by Pieter Vanhuysse
University of Haifa
March 2, 2004
This reader collects nineteen articles on a still greater
number of basic themes and theories about the relationship
between democracy and education, broadly conceived. It came into
being during a workshop sponsored by the Institute for
Educational Inquiry in Seattle, as a background and companion
volume to another edited book produced by that workshop (Soder,
Goodlad & McMannon, 2001). A brief look at the titles of the
seven parts into which the present book is divided gives an
indication of the range of topics tackled: ‘Why
Democracy?’, ‘Concepts and Complexities,’
‘Citizens and Character,’ ‘Democracy and its
Troubles,’ ‘The Public and the Personal’,
‘Education in a Democratic Society,’ and ‘Human
Potential and Democracy’s Future.’ The editor,
however, remains somewhat vague about the aims of this reader and
about its targeted readership. Regarding the latter it is
suggested (p. xvii) that the citizenry at large is aimed at;
regarding the former we are told (p. xv) that this is not a
‘debate book’ delving deeply into the pros and cons
of any particular issue. Rather, it seems, the book sets out to
survey a number of ideals, background conditions, rules,
qualities and behaviors central to living and being educated in a
contemporary democracy dominated by mass media and market
demands.
As such, The Last Best Hope presents a colorful
patchwork of historical and contemporary influences. Frequent
references to the ancient Greeks and the American Founding
Fathers stand side by side with references to important late
twentieth-century concerns about the natural environment and
women’s rights. Of course, there is nothing wrong with the
concept of such a reader: focusing on fundamental ideas and
values is as welcome as ever for educating citizens in
contemporary media-driven democracies. But to make such a book
truly noteworthy, the editor would need to ensure a constant high
quality of the contributions selected and to make clear
the relevance and interconnectedness of the different ideas
presented. As I will point out below, the present volume suffers
from some flaws in this respect.
Given the book’s vagueness regarding its own aims and
readership it is hard to know whom to recommend it to. Readers
who have never encountered classic or near-classic thinkers such
as Michael Oakeshott (on mass society), John Dewey (against the
human nature argument), Martin Buber (on the education of
character) or Robert Putnam (on social capital) would definitely
find much stimulation here. But if such readers are the target
audience, essential theorists on democracy and education such as
Emile Durkheim (1979), John Stuart Mill (1993), Bertrand Russell
(2002/1932; 2003/1926) - even George Orwell (1982/1946) –
are missing. On the other hand, readers looking for a
state-of-the-union survey of problems and challenges in
contemporary America will no doubt enjoy chapters as diverse as
Robert Kaplan’s blunt take on democracy’s prospects,
Amy Gutmann’s careful essay on nonrepression and
nondiscrimination in liberal education, and Benjamin
Barber’s plea for an aristocracy of everyone. Psychologist
Mihaly Sikszentmihaly’s portrait of two outstanding
creative citizens is the odd one out in this company – and
a particularly good choice. And in an all too brief essay, the
late Neil Postman reminds us that the modern conception of
democracy was tied inseparably to the printed word, which
stimulated the processing and presentation of robust arguments,
rather than making citizens float helplessly amidst waves of loud
stimuli, as is often the case today: ‘The influence of the
printed word in every arena of public discourse was insistent and
powerful not merely because of the quality of printed matter but
because of its monopoly’ (p. 8).
Other contributions are essentially reminders of what most of
us know already -- Mary Midgley’s and Mark Johnson’s
respective praises of the virtues of imagination, for instance,
are obviously hard to disagree with. Another set of contributions
should perhaps not have been included altogether. Examples
include a critique of the ways in which colleges allegedly
‘package the myth of modernity’ by C. A. Bowers, and
Philip Green’s rejection of self-interest politics and
identity politics in favor of a rather wishful notion of
‘egalitarian solidarity’ based on a universal
‘we-are-all-human’ philosophy. Likewise, David Orr
tears down a set of strawman myths in favor of another set of
self-evident rules: the power of example over words, the need to
combine knowledge with responsibility, the fact that education
does not guarantee decency, prudence or wisdom, and more such. To
be sure, it is both relevant and important to keep hammering home
the dramatic scale and effects of environmental damage: ‘If
today is a typical day on planet Earth, we will lose 116 square
miles of rain forest, or about an acre a second. We will lose
another 72 square miles to encroaching deserts, the results of
human mismanagement and overpopulation. We will lose 40 to 250
species…’ (p. 231). But I suspect that in order to
oppose these problems, old-style political mechanisms such as
lobbying, mobilization and awareness campaigns, combined with the
right financial and electoral incentives, will be vastly more
effective than educating new generations with well-meaning
principles alone. And approvingly quoting someone else in saying
that ’The vast majority of so-called research turned out in
the modern university is essentially worthless’ (p. 234),
as Orr does, is empathically not the last best hope for
educators. In sum, this is a worthwhile reader but not one of
constant quality. It is not a substitute for more substantive
edited volumes on education in contemporary democracies currently
on the market such as, for instance, McDonough and Feinberg
(2003) on normative political philosophy and Lazear (2002) on
positive political economy. This said, the Goodlad volume
presents a diverse set of papers which can be used or sampled
according to need or taste by anyone interested in the influences
of democracy on education and vice versa.
References
Durkheim, E. (1979). Essays on Morals and Education.
Routledge Kegan and Paul.
Lazear, E. (ed.) (2002). Education in the Twenty-First
Century. Stanford: Hoover Institution Press.
McDonough, K., Feinberg, W. (eds.) (2003). Citizenship and
Education in Liberal Democratic Societies. Oxford: Oxford
University Press.
Mill, J.S. (1993). Utilitarianism, On Liberty,
Considerations on Representative Government. London:
Everyman.
Orwell, G. (1981/1946). A Collection of Essays. San
Diego and New York: Harvest Books.
Russell, B. (2002/1932). Education and the Social
Order. London and New York: Routledge.
Russell, B. (2003/1926). On Education. London and New
York: Routledge..
Soder, R.S., Goodlad, J.I. & McMannon, T.J. (Eds.) (2001).
Developing Democratic Character in the Young. San
Francisco: Jossey Bass.
About the Reviewer
Pieter Vanhuysse
Faculty of Education; Faculty of Social Welfare and Health
Studies
University of Haifa, Mount Carmel 31905
Haifa, Israel
Pieter Vanhuysse has recently obtained his PhD at the London
School of Economics and will shortly take up a double lecturing
appointment at the Faculties of Education and Social Welfare and
Health Studies of the University of Haifa. His research interests
are in political economy and political sociology as applied to
education, work and welfare states, and transition contexts.
Recent articles have appeared in Political Studies, the East
European Quarterly, Politics, Europe-Asia Studies, the
International Journal of Sociology and Social Policy, and
the Journal of European Public Policy.
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