Sunteți pe pagina 1din 9

McDermott 1

Daniel McDermott

Dr. Erin Dietel-McLaughlin

FYC 13100

October 14 2010

Democracy through Literacy

In the United States today one of our most precious possessions is the freedom to

participate in our own government, a political system we call democracy. Around the

world there are many other countries that have the same political system, and in most

countries they find this freedom just as sacred and important as Americans do. On the

entire scale of human civilization, though, self-government is a fairly new phenomenon.

Many scholars have asked over the years where this idea of democracy came from, and

why it is so popular around the world. While there are many reasons that have been

proposed by various academics, the reason that has had the most impact on the

development and sustainability of democracy is mass literacy. We must remember this

fact and promote literacy in our own country, as well as other countries, to help promote

democracy itself.

The first democracies were created in ancient Greece around 800 BCE. These

strongly independent city-states, or poleis had just developed their own alphabet and

writing system after having lost their previous writing system centuries ago (Hollister

85). More and more Greek citizens started to learn how to read, and soon a literate,

educated class outside the aristocracy began to arise (Hollister 81). In the polis of

Athens, especially, this new tier of society began to demand more rights, and eventually

demanded the right to participate in government (98-99).


McDermott 2

Many argue that it was the fact that in Greece the middle class fought the wars,

not the aristocracy, that led to the democracies in ancient Greece. This may have been a

factor, but was not the leading cause. This becomes evident when one looks at the similar

setup in ancient Rome where the exact opposite happened. In ancient Rome the people

who fought the wars were also part of the middle classes (Hollister 189). Instead of this

leading to a democracy in Rome, the armies, made up of the middle and lower classes,

proclaimed their general, Julius Caesar, emperor and destroyed Rome’s aristocracy

(Hollister 191). In two fairly alike situations two different outcomes happened. This

affirms that you cannot prove anything from the fact that the middle classes were also the

warrior class.

Unfortunately democracy fell out of popularity for almost 2000 years after the

Ancient Greeks. It was reintroduced during the Renaissance in Europe through the

spread of mass literacy. Mass literacy, similar to democracy, is a trend that is fairly new

in the spectrum of the human experience. Reading and writing use to be a special skill

that only a small minority in any community had. Literacy was limited in this way

because of the limited number of schools, and the work and effort needed to write an

entire book by hand. Mass literacy started to take hold in Europe after the invention of

the printing press, which was invented in 1440 in Germany. With the invention of the

printing press, the work needed to make large quantities of books was exponentially

decreased. For the first time in history the middle class, and even the poor could afford to

own books. Literacy began to spread like wildfire. Soon the lower classes could read the

Bible and some even read the classics. This created a culture that questioned the status

quo, and many started to dispute the divine mandate of the ruling class in Europe.
McDermott 3

The first reemergence of self-government on a large scale was the United States,

which at the time was called the Thirteen Colonies. Our forefathers rebelled from

England in 1775. At this point in history the printing press had been around for a few

hundred years and the majority of white males knew how to read (Gallagher). From the

Boston Massacre to Thomas Paine’s Common Sense, the patriots used the fact that the

majority of recruitable colonists, white males, knew how to read to spread anti-British

propaganda. This led to the colonists and patriots “to stand, to persevere, to have

fortitude, and to fight” (Gallagher). All these brave men fought for the freedom of our

country, which we are still enjoying today. It is quite probable that if propaganda had not

existed to persuade the colonists to fight, we would still be ruled by England and a

monarchy to this day.

Many academics today agree that literacy and education was the path that led to

democracy. There are some, however, that site Socialism and Communism as proof that

literacy does not always lead to democracy. It is a known fact that university educated

men like Stalin and Lenin implemented this freedom crushing system of government and

that many other educated Russians went along with it for decades. They misused mass

literacy by brainwashing the people through propaganda.

While the USSR did became one of the most powerful countries in the world with

an educated, yet controlled populous, this was a small fluke in history that was relatively

quickly corrected by the want of the people to be self-governed. In the majority of

Communist ruled satellites, even though they had been fed procommunist propaganda for

years, in the first free election the people called for an end to the Communist Party’s

control of the government (Darden). This proves that even in a country where the people
McDermott 4

have been brainwashed for generations, if they are literate and educated they will vote to

be free and self-governed.

While literacy affects the creation of democracies, it also helps to strengthen them

and helps to get people involved in them. From the start of democracy in the United

States our leaders understood this fact. Thomas Jefferson implemented a public

education program that put white males through three years of free education (Cherland

256). At this time in history this program was revolutionary and helped to keep our

newly formed democracy alive. Over time public schooling became more and more

integrated into our society, until today where we have all children, not just white males,

going to school for at least 12 years. Unfortunately, academically, our country has been

falling behind other countries in recent years.

As Camila Alire states in her article “Advocacy: Part II”, we are falling behind in

our basic literary skills or BLS. Other countries, in Asia especially, are catching up to our

falling standards and even passing them. Alire states “A literate nation is the foundation

of our democracy.” The problem is the line of proficiency is constantly moving as our

society develops. The literacy levels that were acceptable 100 years ago are not

acceptable now. New technologies, such as the internet, have created a boom of available

information to the average American, and this has changed what we expect from an

average citizen. Most people expect that the average citizen be relatively up to date on

current events and the politics of the day, which requires a level of literacy proficiency

that has not been required in the past. As our education system fails in teaching and

educating our citizenry the basic literary skills they need to be able to process all this

information our democracy becomes weaker and weaker. In the last 25 years the United
McDermott 5

States has fallen from the first to the fourteenth in higher education rankings (Hill).

While there are many different suggestions about how to fix the problem, the one thing

that almost everyone agrees on is that something needs to be done.

Margret Hill proposes refocusing schools to teach our children about our

government, history, and current events in her article “Strong Schools for a Strong

Democracy”. The fact is students can be excellent readers and be able to tackle very

challenging books, but if they are not understanding the context of what they are reading,

usually much of the meaning is lost. Our democracy has lasted for a record breaking 230

years, and if we want to continue to exist as a democracy we must make sure our children

can comprehend the events going on around them and have a certain amount of civic

pride for the country they call home. As Hill explains, “schools have not implemented

the types of practices that foster civic participation.” This needs to be changed, and

promoting civic understanding and pride would be a very good start.

Camila Alire proposes a different, but equally viable idea. Alire argues,

“Libraries play a vital role in making our nation literate.” More libraries need to be

created and existing ones need to be maintained, she asserts. Alire also states that good

literacy rates help maintain democratic ideals such as freedom of speech, expression, and

press. While this is a good point the best part about this plan is that it covers all age

groups. Only children and teenagers participate in school, however, anyone is welcome

to the library to check out books, thus widen their understanding of the world and

educating themselves. I think that this is also a good idea, and that a combined effort

including changing the teaching policies in schools and putting a bigger emphasis on

libraries would be an excellent first step to getting our country back on track
McDermott 6

educationally and democratically.

If policy makers do implement these changes they need to put into consideration

where they will start implementing these changes. Both Hill and Alire made very clear

that education is not racially even in our country. Alire stated that while 15 percent of

Americans are below the basic literacy skills, 44 percent of Latinos fall below the line

and 24 percent of African Americans fall below the level. For many Latinos this could be

a language barrier, but this is still unacceptable considering the official language of the

United States is English. All of our country’s government work and business is done in

English. This means change needs to be concentrated on areas with large minority

populations, especially in large cities, which are known to have large populations of

minorities.

Upholding democracy in our own country through literacy is very important, but

as an enlightened state it is also important to promote democracy and literacy abroad.

One area that we have tried, to limited success, to introduce democracy is Africa. Many

countries in Africa at least claim that they are ruled by a democracy, but unfortunately the

educated few take advantage of the mostly illiterate and uneducated masses in these

countries.

One country that has been struggling for decades with this problem is Uganda.

The Ugandan government’s official language is English, but the majority of the people in

Uganda still speak their tribal languages with English as a second language, and can only

read and write English at an elementary level (Manyak 11-12). This creates a divide

among the well educated politicians and the undereducated poor. While there is enough

educated Ugandans to govern the central government, the local government is usually in
McDermott 7

the hands of a hardly literate local who does not understand how government works

(Manyak 11). Because they do not understand how government works and usually can

barely read they are very easy to manipulate. Since they do not fully understand the laws

under which they operate and quickly get fed up with the establishment they often fall

into corruption, skimming money from their district’s allowance, and in general breaking

the laws for their own gain (Manyak 11-13).

Without an educated population in Uganda there is no one to keep an eye on the

political elites, and not enough understanding for the average citizen to successfully

participate in government. Without basic education and minimal literacy rates a

democracy becomes corrupt and usually falls apart. It can be argued that the only thing

keeping most of these African democracies running is the billions of dollars of aid being

pumped into them from the United States and other countries. While this keeps the

democracies alive, something else needs to be done to make them well run democratic

machines that can stand on their own. This something is education. These countries need

to have the majority of their population educated and literate enough to make good

choices in leaders and to keep track of those leaders when they are elected. If enough

schools and other infrastructure created to educate people could be put into place over the

next few decades, we could soon have a democratic Africa that could stand on its own.

The pursuit of efficient and lasting democracy in the United States and around the

world should be one of the major policies of our country. The best way to promote

democracy is to promote literacy and education through the creation of schools and

libraries. Policymakers in our country need to accept this and do whatever they can to

promote the education of American citizens as well as citizens of other countries. A


McDermott 8

literate world is a democratic world, which is beneficial for everyone.


McDermott 9

Works Cited

Cherland, Meredith Rogers and Harper, Helen. Advocacy Research in Literacy

Education: Seeking Higher Ground. Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates,

Publishers, 2007. Print.

Alire, Camila. “Advocacy: Part II” American Libraries. November 2009. Web.

Hill, Margret. “Strong Schools for a Strong Democracy” Leadership 38. November-

December 2008. Web.

Darden, Keith and Grzymala-Busse, Anna. “The Great Divide: Literacy, Nationalism, and

the Communist Collapse” World Politics. 2006. Web.

Manyak, Terrell G. “Decentralization and Conflict in Uganda: Governance Adrift”

African Studies Quarterly. October 2010. Web.

Gallagher, Edward J. “Thomas Paine’s CRISIS 1 and the Comfort of Time” The

Explicator. 2010. Web.

Hollister, C Warren and Rogers, Guy Maclean. Roots of the Western Tradition: A Short

History of the Ancient World. Boston, MA: McGraw-Hill Companies Inc., 2008.

Print.

S-ar putea să vă placă și