Democracy, Values and
American Culture
Reweaving the Fabric of American
Society
Timothy Stagich, Ph.D.
The fabric of American Society is unraveling before our eyes. Our organizations and businesses are coming apart at the seams and our institutions are failing. Our once trusted and dependable financial companies have sold out to the high risk buyers and sellers on Wall Street. Our recent government leaders have forgotten how to protect Free Enterprise from monopolies and the undue influence of dominant business interests. Our health care system has failed to provide care and help to over fifty million Americans. And, our educational system from k-12 through higher education has failed to create collaboratively and critically literate graduates with the appreciation for democratic values and the moral compass to lead our institutions in a way that sustains and builds American Society based on the model of our forefathers of democracy (See Leadership in Education). Why is this happening and what can we do to reweave the fabric of American Society?
Rationalizations, excuses and vague explanations abound as we try to understand what is going on and how to fix it, institution by institution and business to business. Some have even tried to describe the collapse of our financial system and the deepening recession as the “perfect storm” of circumstances when it is clear that the deregulation of banks, the development of a shadow banking system and greed for profits at any cost have combined to bring our system down. In health care profit has taken priority over the necessary controls on waste and spending while much better models for health care exist in other countries and are ignored. And, in education very few people have even begun to take the responsibility for the fact that the graduates of even our most prestigious universities have shown a systematic lack of concern about the implications of their actions on the lives of others while the concern for greed and profit guide their decisions. Why are these bright, practical and well-educated minds ignoring the importance of protecting our citizens and our free enterprise system? And, what is their understanding and appreciation of American Values and Democracy in a nation that was founded on values? What did they really learn in school? Finally, what is now necessary to reweave these values in a way that restores order, purpose, meaning and mission to our organizations and American Institutions?
The answer to these questions is found
in learning to implement new ways of teaching the next generation of leaders in
Our success in reweaving the fabric of American Culture and Society will be determined by how well we tell the stories of our great leaders of the past as well as the stories of everyday Americans who are practicing these values in ways that make a difference in society today. These stories that include great practical examples can be weaved into the curriculum of every course of study from k-12 through higher education to help students learn in a way that will not only help them succeed as collaborative leaders but will help them develop a moral compass and direction that will guide them to helping others and lifting them to greater levels of performance. These examples and stories will be the substance upon which the curriculum and education of our future leaders can be built. And, these same stories can be told and retold in family circles and in the workplaces of the future to help create a new context for American Values and learning that will help to build stronger leaders as well as institutions.
This new process of building cultural
democratic context and values into education and all areas of American society
is essential for developing the collaborative leaders of the future and a
society that is much closer to the ideals of our founding fathers of democracy.
This is the American Dream at its best being implemented by real Americans as
intended by our forefathers and taught successfully through democratic context
and examples in our educational classrooms, businesses and institutions in ways
that bring the best out of every subject and student, and create rich learning
environments for everyone from students to teachers to employees. We need to
find new ways to build this democratic context into learning. And, it can start
in the family circles of
However, this effort cannot be just some loosely knit educational process by a few dedicated volunteers. It is much too late for that. If we are really serious about returning our society and culture to the democratic foundations and ideals of our forefathers, then we must build these cultural examples and democratic context into the curriculum of education as part of our system of education at every level from k-12 through higher education. Just as we have systematically taught our students the raw technical skills that have been used to destroy the economy, we can now systematically give them the necessary collaborative and critical thinking tools that will enable them to succeed as leaders by helping everyone to succeed. Since all of our democratic values are already supported by laws this process should be no problem for those committed to helping our country to succeed in the way our forefathers had originally intended.
In addition to reweaving democratic values into our educational system, we can continue to find ways to encourage and help businesses and families to teach these same values and examples of democracy in the home and our places of work. This can be accomplished as part of leadership development and collaborative training for business leaders and employees as well as connecting families and parents more closely to the educational process of our children and students. The connections among families, communities and schools that have always been important in theory can now become important in fact as schools involve parents more in the education of their children. The government can encourage this effort in many ways as part of the curriculum building and funding process. And, both union leaders as well as educational administrators can be required to participate in ways that will make a difference before they move on to the next more lucrative job in another school district. We need to begin to reward the commitment and performance of our leaders based upon how much organization building and teamwork they do to achieve goals that make schools better and stronger in the traditions of American Democracy and Participation. And, we need to commit ourselves to moving beyond self-interest to build leaders and organizations of the future based on real American and Democratic Values.
- Why is the fabric of American Society unraveling and what can be done to reverse this trend in our institutions, businesses, families and organizations?
- What are the democratic and American Values that must be rewoven into our culture in order to begin to realize once again the vision of our founding fathers?
- Why are our bright young students graduating from school without an understanding of the collaborative and critical thinking skills necessary to put the well-being of others in the forefront of decision making and leadership?
- Is it enough to teach only the raw technical skills involved in a discipline or career path without the understanding of the social skills necessary for leadership?
- How can we best begin to weave democratic values, leadership and team building skills into the curriculum of education?
- Discuss the benefits of a well-rounded education over a one-dimensional education that focuses only on raw technical skills. What role do democratic values play in the learning process and why are they necessary for success?
- Discuss the roles of
families, teachers, school principals, business leaders and the media in
the process of educating our young people and teaching values.
