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Progressive Education: Revisited in 2000

Dr. (Ms.) Michael S. Whitt

    In 2007 twenty-two year old Amanda Rosaleigh Blake began the last semester of her second year teaching high school social studies. She had taught a year and a half in Marion County, Silver Springs’ home. She was excited to begin her first year at one of two high schools in Pompano Beach. This system was more amenable to her progressive views than reactionary Marion. The large urban high school which Amanda was assigned kept the old name, Pompano Beach High School. This school with the other, Florida Atlantic, had five thousand students. The school(s) had been operating on double sessions for nearly five decades. The seniors start school at 7:20. The sophomores and juniors come an hour later. The schedule was intended to give the seniors an advantage in getting after school jobs. This arrangement was common for urban high schools during these decades.
    Amanda’s supervisor came to see her before school began. She was in the social studies wing’s lounge. The teachers were on a break from the many meetings that occurred.
    Dr. Jim Deever stuck his head in the door and said, “I’m looking for Amanda Blake.”
    “Right here,” she replied.
    “Can we talk in a private place about some important curriculum issues? I’m the social studies supervisor, and I have some ideas I need to run by you, Ms. Blake.”
    “Sure, Mr. Supervisor, let’s go to my classroom.”
    When they arrived at the room, Deever stuck out his hand and said, “I’m Dr. Jim Deever, Ms. Blake, or may I call you Amanda?”
    “Amanda is fine, Dr. Deever.”
    “Please call me Jim,” he said. “Forgive the ‘doctor’ in my intro. It has become habitual in some situations and I wasn’t thinking.”
    “Okay, Jim,” Amanda smiled. Amanda sat at her desk, and Jim sat at a table.
    “Amanda, I’m here to ask you if you’d be willing to create and teach a senior level social studies course. We’ve been calling it American institutions to avoid the criticisms of the ‘problems of American democracy’ course. These courses were attacked as lacking academic content and being solely issue oriented. In most counties this interdisciplinary, citizenship oriented course has been eliminated and replaced with single courses like government, sociology, and economics.” Amanda thought, can this really be happening? I know where he’s going and I can’t believe it. She tuned back in to Jim’s comments, “Before I go further, how do you feel about this trend?”
    “I loath it,” Amanda responded without hesitation.
    “Thankfully.” He thought I believe I have a genuine, full fledged progressive here.
    “This trend has been uneven since the 60’s. In a few places the problems of democracy class is still part of the seniors’ curriculum, but the trend toward single discipline courses has for a time temporarily won. I oppose it for an important reason. Without an integrated, interdisciplinary approach, complex issues can’t be viewed in as inclusive manner as possible. I’m referring to issues such as positive developments toward civil rights like those achieved by the ACLU, the civil rights’ and the women’s movements, current threats to civil liberties posed by huge gaps in economic privilege, historical developments like McCarthyism, and like those now occurring in parts of the GOP. Such issues require an integration of subjects like anthropology, sociology, political science, social psychology, and constitutional law. At times literary, artistic, philosophical, and other humanities studies can be helpful.”
    “We agree on the need to use interdisciplinary perspectives to focus on such issues and problems resulting from the transformations which have been occurring in the fabric of our culture since the Civil War. There are many of them. The ones you mentioned immediately suggest others like abortion rights and other specific feminist issues.
    “When this period began 90% of our population lived on self sufficient family farms or in villages that served the farming population. A century later we’d become the most powerful industrial nation on the earth.”
    “And these rapid changes have helped create the problems we’ve been discussing and which we agree should provide important parts of the class’s content.”
    “The single disciplinary trend is part of a reactionary move to focus on knowledge as good in itself. The status quo isn’t criticized, and the few who control our economy and through that nearly everything else, get to continue to mask over their greed. That is tragic as curbing greed is necessary if democracy is ever to have a chance of thriving.
    “Right and we have only a partial democracy now. We’re still in the process of evolving in that department. The greedy don’t want that evolution to take place.”
    “I’d be overjoyed to create and teach this class.”
    Before Amanda knew what was happening, Jim was hugging her saying, “That’s wonderful. You’ve no idea how long I’ve waited for a capable teacher to do this.”
    “It’s hard to express how delightful it is to be able to create in such radically open ways. I admire the work of the progressives in the early twentieth century, especially at Teachers College. I was especially impressed with the incorporation of student into the educative process and the integration and linking of materials from several areas to focus on contemporary issues and problems. I learned about the journal that accompanied the development of progressivism at Columbia when I first began my master’s degree early in 2006. The Social Frontier/Frontiers of Democracy existed from 1934-1943. When the U.S. entered World War II, it was used as an excuse to shut down the courageous journal. The latter was threatening to fascist oriented reactionaries. When I heard about it I ordered the set of eight hard bound volumes, which includes all of the journals issues. They provide progressives with a sense of history regarding current issues. In the early twentieth century, William Randolph Hearst had a fascist structure or two and even visited Hitler. He attacked the Teachers College Professors. These developments were all documented by the journal. Then when the McCarthy holocaust came after the war, which there was no education journal to document them. Later, the John Birch Society and other fascist oriented groups emerged up to the appearance of the contemporary Republicans.”
    Jim replied, “I’ve long intended to order these journals. I’m going to do so before this week is over. You had an excellent education at Florida. I examined your transcripts, and found you made A’s in both semesters of American Institutions and graduated magna cum laude. The thorough and rigorous education fits extremely well with teaching the new class. Several of your courses were in contemporary U.S. history. You are well qualified in anthropology and political science especially national, state, and local U S governments. I thought this is too good to be true. She must have an ant’s personality and weigh three hundred pounds. Yet you have a great personality and you are good looking. How did I get so lucky?”
    “I ask myself the same question. This is a wonderful place to teach. I can already tell you’re a great supervisor. In addition to social science classes, the year long humanities class was helpful in teaching all social studies classes I’ve been assigned so far. The humanities introduced me to philosophy, a method which was new to me. We read Orwell’s 1984, Miller’s All My Sons, Machiavelli’s, The Prince, among others. This course and one in American literature were the most rigorous courses I’ve ever taken. The books assigned in the lit. course were all related to present issues. We read Grapes of Wrath which dealt with the Depression and the problem of the Dust Bowl refugees. More generally, this classic is relevant to the present problems of huge gaps between the haves and the have nots.
    Ernest Hemingway’s The Sun also Rises covers the alienated generation after World War I who went to write in Europe. More broadly, it sheds light upon the alienated attitudes of the ‘baby boomers,’ which were coming of age in large numbers a few decades ago. Three novels and some short stories by William Faulkner provide insight into the problems of racism which still exist to an alarming extent in the U.S.”
    “Be thinking about how you want to organize things, what to include and what to omit. Scan the materials your department has. I’ll do the same at the county office. Later, we can go over the materials.”
    “There is another dimension of the class I believe you’ll find congenial.”
    “What is it? This all sounds good.”
    “I believe students learn best when democratic structures and processes characterize the classroom. Most competent teachers know how to create these conditions. If we’ve prepared students to be committed citizens of a democratic society, public school classrooms should reflect that democracy. Of course moving from authoritarian to democratic relationships don’t involve permissiveness; that would amount to little or no structure. It means creating a structure which balances rights and responsibilities. A way of doing this is by incorporating the dynamics of pupil relationships and interests into the classroom interactions. If the relationships which exist are healthy and supportive of the members’ growth, one is ready to ‘rock and roll.’ If these conditions are lacking, the teacher can steer things in the right direction.”
    Jim smiled, “That’s the most convincing defense of democratic classrooms I’ve ever heard. The passion and deep reflection you’ve put into these matters convinces me you’ll succeed in achieving these classrooms. It’s a shame few teachers deal with this issue anymore.”
    Jim and Amanda continued to have discussions when school started. She introduced the classes as taking the approach of progressive education, which incorporates student’s interests into classroom activities and integrates subject matter from various areas to focus upon important issues. She began substantively with the problems of the haves and the have nots. In all four classes heavy doses of skepticism were expressed that things could be this extreme in the U.S. Amanda got comments like ‘That can’t be, Ms. Blake.’ ‘No way is that possible in the U.S.’ ‘Uh-Uh, I don’t believe that.’ Amanda was glad she had done research on the numbers. When she quoted them some of the brightest students began to believe she spoke the truth. In Amanda’s third period class, Kenneth Jacobs and Katherine Taylor were the first to grasp the reality of these gaps. This class is used for examples because while all of them were lively and interesting, this one was more so.
    Kenneth commented, “I’ve heard my parents speak about this problem, often in the past few years. My folks are quite progressive. They maybe non-violent socialists, not the Russian variety, but the kind they have in the democratic European countries”
    Katherine said, “I had the same experience with my parents. They are democratic European type socialists. They are most concerned with people who don’t have enough money to live on, and they put their money where their mouths are.”
    “Ditto for my parents.”
    Amanda said, “There are commonalities between my views and your parents’. Since I was a sophomore in high school I’ve been either a non-violent, democratic socialist or an intensely progressive social reformist. A social studies teacher from Iowa influenced me. My paternal family background also predisposed me in this way. My teacher was a Viet Nam draftee, who was anti-war. When Russ Teisinger came home, he got employment at a meat packing plant in Waterloo, while he studied, earned an economics degree and a teaching certificate. Upon graduation he moved to Florida, my home state.
    His job gave him union membership experience which he shared with us. When I went to college I was well educated with respect to unions, the Viet Nam War, and democratic socialism contrasted with Marxist socialism. This knowledge was helpful in the American Institutions class I had at Florida. His teaching combined with my father’s heritage helped form my democratic socialist and progressivism principles. These positions were close together and both involved an emphasis on social reform. The type of socialism is totally compatible with our democratic constitutional political system. My great grandparents were born into abolitionists’ families before the Civil War. When they grew up they took these beliefs with them. Their children and grandchildren became committed progressives and a few became democratic socialists. My Great Uncle Ernest, my granddad’s older brother, was one of the latter. I was a democratic socialist for a while. Then I settled back into being an intense progressive democrat. The progressive Era officially spanned the years between 1890 and the early 1940’s. It reaches back earlier to the abolitionists, the Underground Railroad, and public school supporters and forward to the civil rights and renewed feminist movements during the 1950’s through the 1970’s. We now seem to be in the initial phases of a renewed progressive movement, which includes democratic socialism in some minor ways. Bernie Sanders election sometime ago to the Senate is evidence of this as are his aspirations for President. However, there are some dangerous signs of fascism on the horizon. For instance, this fellow named Trumps is a bit loco and also has strong authoritarian tendencies.
    “Ms. Blake, I feel a little stupid, but what is an abolitionist and a socialist?” asked Phyllis Simon, the creative daughter of a Rabbi and a professor. “I have a vague idea about the latter, but I’m sure my perspective is somewhat limited.”
    Amanda smiled saying, “You aren’t stupid and you probably aren’t the only one who needs those questions answered. How about it class?” Some students nodded their heads or raised their hands. “You should have learned about abolitionism, and to some extent socialism, in your American history classes. Shame on your teachers! An abolitionist as I’m using it, is a person who opposed slavery before and during the Civil War. It was an unpopular position even in the north. Many northerners joined the war only to preserve the union. They weren’t opposed to slavery and were often racists. One had to have much courage to be an abolitionist, especially if, like my great grandparents, they worked in the Underground Railroad. This wasn’t literally a railroad. It was a network of persons devoted to helping runaway slaves escape to a safe place in the U.S. or Canada. It included houses, churches, and other places the slaves could get hot meals, one or a few good nights sleep, and food and drink for the road. The murder of these brave souls was not unheard of.
    Progressivism is a broader term than either abolitionism or socialism. To illustrate, abolitionism is a progressive movement, but so are, e. g., woman’s rights, school desegregation, and gay rights. A socialist society is a progressive one, but a society can be progressive without being socialist. A strong civil rights movement can occur in a democratic society politically speaking which has a predominately capitalistic economy.
    With respect to the meaning of socialism, many people mistakenly think that it is a political system. It is not, but actually involves various and related ways of organizing the economy. In a democratic socialist society, the only kind congruent with our democratic political system, one finds a mixed economy in which the areas which are vital to all of the people most all of the time are included in the public domain; those are areas like education, medicine, food, energy, and mental health. Those areas which are vital to fewer than all the people all of the time are handled by capitalist organizations. Those are concerned with our wants; e.g., finer clothing, medium priced to expensive cars, jewelry, building construction businesses, and literary publications.
    Socialist ideas require the people to make certain that none of these private businesses become so large that others are excluded from the field. Small businesses are the rule. Also, safe guards are erected so the greedy cannot amass so much wealth that some families have too little to live on. That is, it includes some protection of the needy against the greedy. If you’ll recall Katherine and Ken’s comments hint at these features of democratic, non-violent socialism. This organization allows the society to avoid the huge gaps in income and the high rate of unemployment we often suffer and enables the people to breakdown the economic oligarchies which prevent small businesses from succeeding.
    Denise Ortega, a Peruvian native, raised her hand. “Ms. Blake, Kathy, and Ken, I’m glad you confided those ideas to us. When I first heard about abolitionism, progressivism, socialism, and feminism, the people who introduced me to them presented them as undesirable. I’m beginning to see if some of our best students and their parents and some of our best teachers are favorable to these positions, they aren’t necessarily undesirable. My mind is opened.”
    “Thanks for the great compliment. It’s is wonderful that your mind has opened to new ideas. A teacher can’t have any greater confirmation. We might get some criticism for giving even democratic socialism thumbs up, the only variation we could approve, but it wouldn’t come from within our school system. We have one of the most progressive central administrations in the nation.”
    Amanda began the discussion the next day with a law relating to Marxian Socialism she considered undesirable, “I can’t follow the law requiring senior social studies teachers to spend six weeks extolling the virtues of U.S. capitalism and condemning the evils of Russian Communism. It would be unprofessional to follow such a biased, and to a large extent distorted, view. Rarely are any human phenomena that clear cut. Tragically, our system has come to be mostly characterized by corporate oligarchy. Except in the small business areas the U.S. has little true capitalism. Competition and the laws of supply and demand are two elements essential to capitalism, but have no place in oligarchies.
    Russian Communism has plenty about which to be critical and I certainly would not recommend it as a democratic system, but it isn’t an unqualified evil. At the economic end it does take care of its citizens to some extent at the level of needs. Like our economic system it’s a mixed bag. However, it has not yet nearly achieved a fully socialized society. They have a bureaucratic dictatorship modified by some socialized aspects. To democratize, the authoritarian state would have to wither away and take a democratic form in which the proletariat or workers gain control of a democratic state and economy. Our public schools are socialized. However, they’re often governed by authoritarian bureaucracies. Even the public universities which used to have a strong tradition of academic freedom often have been taken over by heavy handed administrators at the high levels.”
    Laura Brown, a dark haired beauty from an intellectual family, told the class, “My aunt is a professor at UCLA. We’ve been hearing about this trend from her for some time. The situation is a real shame. Academic freedom as a university tradition goes back to the Middle Ages.”
    Carolyn Johnson, an agile Afro-American cheerleader and athlete agreed, “Yes, persons with a love for the university are hurting. My uncle teaches at Michigan State, and my cousin at Arizona State.” Amanda paused to see if there were other comments. She was hoping more dialogue would occur among the students, so that the structures and processes in the classrooms would become more democratic.
    Amanda responded, “You all are correct about our universities. I plan to teach in them. I fell in love with the university when I went to college. Hearing about this puts me in some serious pain. I feel a little guilty about my plans to leave secondary education after three years. I will have paid off my scholarship. My heart is set on teaching in history or teacher education. Some older teachers are trying to shame me into staying, but I can’t. I tell them I’m leaning toward going into teacher education and that placates them. If any of you are going to Florida, we may meet up there second semester of next year.”
    That afternoon Amanda went home to find her soul-mate there. Michael Demian Randolph, a man with whom she had recently began to live, was tall, dark, and handsome. Amanda was a tall dark headed beauty. The two made a striking couple. They shared a passionate erotic relationship. She met him the summer after she began work on her masters’ degree. After spending two summers together, weekends, and holidays they moved in together. Michael, who graduated a year before Amanda, had been teaching health and biology and coaching track and field at Daytona Beach. This year he got employment at Ft Lauderdale High.
    Michael lived in Gainesville from when he was eleven until he graduated college. His father, Gene Randolph, was a professor. Michael loved the campus and its proximity to cold springs. He frequented the latter and felt drawn to attending the University. He accepted the job at Daytona Beach until he and Amanda moved to Broward County. Michael planned to get his doctorate with Amanda.
    When they embraced each other, their desires pulled them toward an erotic encounter. After an apple and a glass of iced tea, they engaged in one.
    Michael giggled when they were lying together and said, “Amanda darlin’ you take all of the fatigue of the school day away with your exquisite erotic touch.”
    “Thanks much for the lovely compliment, beautiful man; it works both ways. Even with my great students, the day still tires me but I feel super now.”
    “Listen woman, I’m always happy to oblige.”
    That evening they ate the last collards and sweet potatoes from Amanda’s Marion County garden with cornbread and ribs. Afterwards they were sitting in the living room, discussing their day at school when the phone rang. This call from Jim made Amanda’s year and delighted her and Michael. It sent her to school the next day with a huge smile and a full heart.
    Amanda said, “Students we’ll get back to our previous discussions, but first I have some news I hope you’ll find as exciting as I do. My supervisor Jim Deever called me yesterday. He said he thought I should incorporate a sex education unit in my classes. Two major subjects we discussed were the pros and cons of premarital sex and information on STDs.” Amanda could feel excitement rippling among the students.
    “’Splendid’ I exclaimed when he told me the reasons for his call. You’re opening up a teachers’ Eden for me. I have all kinds of ideas on these topics.’”
    “‘Great!’ he said. ‘I’ll be up to see you tomorrow.’”
    When Amanda shared these parts of the conversation with the students, she could feel the excitement rising among them.
    “Is this for real Ms. Blake?” asked Ken.
    “Yes, today when school is out, he’s bringing the progressive director of audio-visual aids, Bernie Waks to PBHS. I met him earlier when he came here to tell me what was available in the AV area. He is a tall slightly chubby Jewish fellow with a heart of gold. He is always smiling or laughing. When we first met, he said, ‘Gosh Amanda, I was prepared for your astonishing creativity and your developed intellect, but no one prepared me for your knock out good looks.’ I was flattered and thanked him for the compliment.
    Jeff Scott, one of her best thinkers, said, “We all know, especially us males, the truth of that statement only we would say it more strongly. You’re one hot woman! Did you know that you are the pin up girl for FAU’s football team?”
    Amanda was at a loss for words momentarily, “I, I— well hell.” The students roared with laughter. “How did that happen?”
    “Do you remember a graduate student who approached you when you were on campus? He asked if he could photograph you. He asked you to wear a Levi outfit that has red, white, and blue figures. The jeans fit beautifully. You wore a blue turtle neck and an open vest that matches the jeans. He told you he loved to photograph beautiful women. When some of the football players saw the pictures, they begged him to make them copies and paid him well. Half of us boys in this school go to sleep fanticizing about you.”
    When Amanda had time to collect herself from the surprise, she joined in the laughter, “This is the first time I’ve blushed in a while. Thanks for the nice compliments. To continue with the guy who started this; Bernie is a reform oriented democrat, and we get along splendidly. He has two excellent films which will kick off our study of human sexuality. One is a non-judgmental film which poses questions regarding the pros and cons of premarital sex. In my view this film is dated. I know few seniors who would vote against having some sexual experience prior to marriage. We don’t have to spend a lot of time there. We can spend more of it on the possible consequences of premarital sexual relations among teens if that is what the class desires.” Eric Nagean de Lestang, a beautiful, progressive young man whose background is Cajun from Louisiana, raised his hand.
    “Ms. Blake, I thoroughly agree with Jeff on your hotness. As a matter of fact I think I’m in love with you.” The students giggled and Amanda smiled.
    “Eric, you remind me of my other lover, Eric Landreneau. Michael and he like each other so there are no bad feelings or tension when he occasionally visits. We all three sleep in the king sized bed together. I hope you all don’t see that as weird.”
    “We could never see you that way, Ms. Blake,” Gordon Ward, a star athlete, excellent student and an African American said. “Don’t you know you’re our heroine? I think I can speak for everyone except for maybe Guy.”
    Guy protested this characterization, “You’re my heroine too. If you do it, I know it’s pure.”
    “Thanks Guy. That’s a wonderful expression, and it tells me you are coming from a loving place. I’m not religious regarding organized religion, but I’m a spiritual person. Eric, we left you hanging.”
    “Right, your view is correct from my perspective. I’m an androgynous male who’s had erotic relations with two beautiful women and a beautiful man. Yet, I don’t think you should assume that everyone has resolved this question. What about it classmates?” Several students shook their heads in agreement.
    “Okay, I stand corrected. Thanks. Your developmental level is impressive. Maybe you could write about that when I assign papers on the important transformations in your lives when we do autobiographies.” Eric gestured a thumbs up and flashed a smile.
    He added, “A woman loving two men could never be weird to me. The opposite view is strange to me, due to the male’s limited sexuality when compared with the females; but as you know, beautiful women, that’s a discussion for another lesson.
    “Indeed,” Amanda replied. “The other film is on Syphilis, Gonorrhea, Herpes, and other sexually transmitted diseases. I don’t know how much you know about these things. If you have been instructed, we could skip this one and go to the consequences of getting these diseases.
    Carolyn said, “Ms. Blake, it’s shameful, but most of us have received no instruction on these matters. In fact, when you mentioned STDs, I didn’t know what that meant until you tied them to Syphilis, Gonorrhea. and Herpes. We need this film.” Heads were nodding in affirmation.
    “I know how to proceed. Keep me informed as the process goes forward.”
    Katherine said, “Ms. Blake thanks so much for this. Tell your supervisor, Dr. Deever, and the wonderful AV man, Dr. Bernie, thanks also.” This brought joyous giggles from the students. Amanda was awed by the intensity and honesty of the students’ responses.
    “The possibilities for harmful emotional experiences and psychological and spiritual growth are explored in the film on premarital sex. The film expresses important messages: There are no right or wrong answers or any exact way of determining one’s maturity level; no final ways of determining whether or not a relationship will bring growth, stagnation, or disaster. Like anything of importance, decisions regarding sex are uncertain and somewhat risky.”
    Before they left the study of socio-economic-political positions, they discussed the emergence of fascist structures in contemporary society and history. The GOP was brought up in this connection. There were evidences of fascist personalities in some of the party members. Several members made comments indicating they didn’t like some of the Party members who seemed to be fascist in their views. There was a rumble of agreement.
    “I understand how you feel as you do. These fascist structures first appeared with intensity in the Salem Witch trials. One of the worst fascist personalities in recent history was the late Wisconsin Republican Congressman, Joe McCarthy. McCarthy finally became so repulsive to his peers in the House, that body censured him, an act which expressed rare, strong condemnation. At the same time, the press exposed some sleazy aspects of his personal and political life. He was a closet alcoholic who misrepresented his contribution to WWII. He was at a safe desk far away from any combat, but had pictures taken which led his constituents to believe that he had been a fighter pilot.”
    Roger Dean asked, “What is the time frame for McCarthy and his antics? My feeling is that they started after World War II ended in the early 60’s.”
    “That’s right. Thanks for asking, Roger. I forgot that information. Soon after the war ended, McCarthy got himself appointed chair of the Congressional Committee on Un-American Activities. The knowledge needed to grasp the McCarthy Era include an integration of anthropological and logical knowledge of propaganda; a grasp of communication theory; social, mass, and depth psychology; political science, sociology, 20^the century U.S. history, and constitutional law. He did all he could to convince the American public there was a communist under every bed and another in each closet. His committee’s civil liberties violations were extreme. The playwright Arthur Miller spent nearly a year in jail for refusing to rat on some friends. Soon after that he wrote a play that was ostensibly about the Salem Witch Trials, but involved subtle comparisons with McCarthy’s atrocities. How much instruction did you receive on McCarthy, about the Witch burnings, and other examples of civil liberties violations in your American history and other social studies classes.
    Carol Hollingsworth responded, “We received some instruction, but not nearly enough from what you’re saying about their historical significance.” Other students agreed so Amanda continued to provide information regarding McCarthy and other instances of fascism in American life and history. After the classes finished examining fascist structures, they dealt with the liberal position including some distorted notions in that socio-economic-political position.
    Amanda began by speaking generally of the positive aspects liberals, “They respect the constitution and the laws passed by the people’s representatives. They are in progressive positions with respect to abortion rights, equal pay for equal work regarding genders, for gay rights, and others. They are for radical changes provided they are carried out nonviolently. They are weak with respect to carrying these things out due to some distortions of the liberal position. These have been labeled by a senior scholar in the educational foundations field as ‘liberal optimistic’ fallacies: 1. the wills to freedom and responsibility are inborn and develop naturally as persons become adults. 2. Discernment of civic duty brought about by rational arguments is sufficient to persuade persons to act responsibly. 3. Democratic social structures and their civil liberties are assured by the natural order. 4. Personal identity problems are a part of adolescent development and disappear as persons become adults. 5. The formation of democratic community and authentic human relations isn’t a serious problem within the current social order. These glib and naively optimistic assumptions need to be questioned. They are over simplified explanations of human development and have a too limited view of the human mind. None of these developmental capacities automatically unfold. A more sensible view of human nature for liberals is that, it’s active but requires extensive socialization to give it direction toward the wills to freedom, responsibility, and adequate democratic citizenship and community.”
    Carl Fann, a student with Native American ancestry, commented, “The fascist trend ought to be opposed by all who believe in democracy. Also, it seems obvious that the liberal-optimistic view is oversimplified. If everyone automatically developed the will to freedom and responsibility, we wouldn’t have the terrible behaviors in these areas. People would be more responsible about their civic duties”
    “One can’t argue with that, Carl. It is amazing how many people cling to the position. The socialist views came into prominence in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. The two major varieties of socialism, Marxism and democratic socialism have commonalities and differences. The socialist position in all of its forms recognizes the field of mind of which we are characterized and which is much larger than the ego. The liberals do not fully accept the field theory. The field of our minds is partially conscious, but it is also off-conscious and requires work to bring it into fuller consciousness. The latter is never complete and that is good because it shows that the off-conscious area of our minds is more or less indefinite and is the source of our infinite creativity. The radical creativity of human beings demonstrates the priority of forming over form and the constancy of change in the human world. This is our view of the human psyche in human and physical sciences. It is an exciting view to those of us who are artists and intellectuals. Don’t be upset if you do not fully grasp this idea all at once. Understanding is a process taking time. It is among the key ideas around which we’ll build our class experiences all year.”
    Katherine said, “It sounds exciting to me! I can’t wait until it gets fleshed out.”
    “Me either,” Gordon interjected, “To be characterized as radically and infinitely creative is excellent.”
    “Gordon, I couldn’t agree more.”
    “I think it’s important that a scholar with the stature of Dr. Brown embraces the field theory,” Eric commented.
    Amanda replied. “Class, I’m thrilled with your enthusiasm about the ideas which are presented here. You’ve made me feel good about myself as a teacher. Thank you from the bottom of my heart.”
    Ken responded tearful eyed, “Ms. Blake we have that enthusiasm because our teacher shows it. Thank you, you’re a beautiful woman inside and out.”
    Amanda and several class mates broke down. Shortly, the tears became laughter.
    Amanda said, “It’s as one of my two favorite poets, William Blake, said, ‘Excess of joy weeps;’ This ‘Proverb’ is one among several. In all, he calls them ‘Proverbs from Hell.’ They are contained in a section of his complete works called: ‘The Marriage of Heaven and Hell.’ He adheres to the field theory and Brown uses Blake a good bit in Life Against Death.”
    “Who is your other favorite poet?” Denise asked.
    “The poet of U.S. Democracy, Walt Whitman, another field theorist.” Amanda was glad to find each class was favorable toward Whitman.
    “There are examples of partially socialist societies which remained in the realm of ideas. That is, they were never put into practice. One of the best known of the latter is Plato’s Republic written in five hundred B.C.” As Amanda gave out the portions of Plato’s Republic relevant to the class, she told the students they’d be amazed at the way he deals with the ruling class. “Plato’s Republic is too long to read in total, but I’ve run off those parts which are relevant to the existence of the ruling classes and the status of the other Athenian citizens.”
    “I feel privileged being asked to read one of the first classics of Western Civilization,” Paula Stephens said. Several other students agreed with her.
    “I’m happy you feel that way. We’ll have other classic readings which are an easy read for seniors. I’ll have to make copies of most materials. We only started creating this course during early planning when my supervisor asked me if I would be willing to create and teach it. He had looked for several years for someone who was willing and capable of doing it. I jumped at the chance. I have ten copies of the Republic. I’ll lend one to whoever is interested. Perhaps we can begin discussions on Monday on our class readings.”
    “I’m interested to read about his ideas on group marriage,” Ken said.
    Over the weekend Amanda and Michael focused upon Eros and exercise, i.e., ocean swimming. Later the couple read about the CTA. They wanted to become active in it. Teachers were still fighting for the professionalization of their ranks, although things had gotten better in this area during the last few decades. The literature acquainted them with a local strike sponsored by this organization in fall, l977, which was a huge success for the teachers. Thirty-five hundred went out. A judge settled the strike largely in the teachers’ favor. The board was ordered to give the teachers a five hundred dollar raise since they were unpardonably late with their contracts. These arrived after the teachers struck the second week of school. The board was ordered to bargain in good faith with the teachers while the court order was in effect.
    The following February, 1978 the Florida Education Association called a strike. The local strike worked against the Broward teachers in the statewide strike. It seemed as though the CTA President and his wife misled the teachers with respect to the interpretation of the court order. The president and his wife falsely maintained the court order applied to the teachers independently of the representation of the CTA. Only seventy-two teachers went out in the statewide strike. The strike was not a clear cut victory for either side. The Broward County 72 were fired and had to sue to get their jobs back. This took three years. They were undermined by their conservative colleagues who took over the FEA leadership. The 72 got their jobs back with all of the raises they would have gotten if they had been present the whole time; but for their treacherous colleagues, they might have received back pay for the time they struck and were fired.
    Michael and Amanda joined the professional organizations at all levels—local, state, and national. By this time the integration of the National Education Association and the American Federation of Teachers was nearly complete. The latter is a teachers’ union affiliated with the AFL/CIO. The couple became active in the local CTA serving as board members from their schools.
    On Monday everyone in the classes had finished the readings. Amanda began with some comments on Plato’s general philosophy. She told them some of Plato’s points in his Republic are still relevant. However, there are certain aspects of his view that science and philosophy no longer accept. The findings of the modern versions of both fields have established there are no such entities as ‘absolutes.’ The only constants are energy and change. Both of these are processes and can’t be entities, i.e., absolutes. The latter are substances with solidities. Plato was an idealist. He makes a distinction between an absolute and permanent quality of ideal beauty which he says exists within the reality in which we live. He separates these ideal and permanent absolutes from particular beautiful and impermanent things such as flowers, people, birds, paintings . . .
    He separates the spiritual aspects of our being from the physical ones. We no longer accept this separation of mind and body. Physicists in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries began to question the duality of mind and body when they discovered the observer (the mind) and the observed (the body) affected one another in transactions.” After this, Amanda invited the students to give their responses to the Republic’s readings.
    Diana began, “Fellow class members and our heroic teacher, Ms. Amanda Blake, I was astonished when I read Plato’s notion of the group marriages of the guardian class. They lived in a commune, in which all the men were husbands to all of the women, and all women were wives to all of the men. When they had kids they had no idea who fathered them. All of the men were considered their fathers. They did know who their mothers were, um, those are a bit hard to hide.” Giggles rose from her audience.
    “Diana, I had a feeling you were smart and a hoot. That’s a compliment so speak more often. You know laughter is the best medicine.”
    “Thank you Ms. Blake, I will. The women were considered to be mothers of all the children. The guardians had all kinds of leadership and political powers, but no economic powers. They had only the bare necessities economically. They lived an austere existence, but had the political power to run the state. That was a neat way to solve the problem of gaps between the haves and the have nots. They took their meals together cooked by the state’s chefs. And when the women had babies they wouldn’t be burdened with their routine care. They would have wet nurses for those aspects of child care. The female leaders would be too busy guiding the affairs of state to change diapers and the like. That, I think, would be a major advantage to being a guardian.”
    Several of the girls agreed. Paula exclaimed, “Amen to that Sister.”
    Gordon said, “That’s a wonderful summary on the guardians, Diana. Metaphorically, Plato considered these guardians to be of ‘gold’. To him they were the most superior humans in the city-state. The gender roles were equal. Another was that by separating the political and economic power, Plato solved the problem of gaps in economic wealth corrupting the leaders and keeping the poor, but talented out of positions of political power. Even in early Athens gaps in wealth interfered with democracy. They collectively decided all political matters. The actual defense of the state would be carried out by another class of citizens, the soldiers, who were considered the ‘silver’ of the city-state. Am I on the right track, Ms. Blake?”
    “You both are. How was the democracy limited? What would Plato have the rest of the population do?”
    Katherine said, “Only citizens could participate in the assemblies which decided political matters, and these included only a minority of the inhabitants. There was a large slave population which consisted mainly of prisoners of wars with other city-states. They were freer than the U.S.’s slaves. They could earn their freedom in various ways and become citizens. He classifies everyone except the guardians and the defenders as brass. The carpenters, doctors, teachers, plumbers, and others with private occupations fall here. They have no political power, except for a vote if they were citizens, but they held all of the economic power.”
    The discussion continued for the next two days. Amanda was excited about the students’ responses to their first experience with philosophy. The only student who could accept Plato’s theory of absolutes was Guy. He revealed since he believed in God in a certain way, he had to accept that there were absolutes. He only realized that day modern science and philosophy rejected this theory of reality. He was troubled by this. That conflict was encouraging to Amanda. Conflict often precedes a reconstruction, broadening, and deepening of the student’s perspective.
    “It follows from your belief, Guy, in a transcendent God who is out of the realm of human experience that you do accept the theory of absolutes.” She asked the students on the second day of discussions to write a paper on their reading of Plato. They should include what they learned from their readings and if their beliefs were changed by them. She asked them to include their views of the mind/body dualism and of Plato’s theory of absolutes. She asked them how long they thought they would need to complete the paper. They agreed on a week.
    When the class met again, Jacquelyn Tucker asked, “Is it unusual that we’re reading philosophy before we are in college, Ms. Blake?”
    Amanda said, “Yes, Jacquelyn, I didn’t get to read philosophy until I was a college sophomore We had a course they have since eliminated called comprehensive humanities. It has been extremely useful to me. I believe it is a shame that happened. None of us had any experience with philosophy until that time. One thing I quickly learned about philosophy is it’s no harder to read than many other subjects and easier than some.”
    Amanda ended the general socialism study by having the students look at an important difference between Marxist socialism and the European democratic socialism and that accepted by most U.S thinkers. The disagreements between democratic socialism and Russian Communism still exist, even though the Russian variety moved toward democracy after Stalin’s death in the mid twentieth century, and escalated with the rule of Gorbachov. The democratic socialist maintain that the Russian variety is wrong when it’s supporters claim that the ends justify the means in reference to the need for the proletariat to violently overthrow the economic oligarchy and its government. The workers’ goals would be to gain control of their work places and to establish a government which would soon wither away. Although democratic socialists agree with Marx on the matter of workers controlling their work places, they know that the ends cannot justify the means. The two aspects of the historical process can’t be separated. If reformers use violent means to achieve political ends, the consequences will be blood shed and violent actions, which swell out of control. One cannot create a democratic socialistic society by using violent authoritarian means. Once realized, the ends become means for further action. If the ends are violent they remain so when they become means.
    The next class Amanda spoke of the arts’ role in progressive liberal and socialist societies, “They’d have a special place and be generously supported by public funds. Progressives realize they can provide a vision for reform of present conditions. The artists can use their visionary powers to create art which tacitly criticizes the myth that capitalism exists on a large scale in the U.S. By capitalism, I mean a system of businesses small enough to compete according to the laws of supply and demand. A few oligarchic corporations control most areas. The manner through which their control is exercised is sometimes artistically expressed by a metaphor called Moloch. The artist can use this metaphor to attack corporate greed. Have any of you heard of a mythical monster called Moloch?” Ken and Katherine raised their hands.
    “First Katherine and then Ken, what have you all heard about Moloch?”
    “It’s a mean, nasty monster who terrorizes humans by demanding huge sacrifices of human life. I yield to Ken at this point.”
    “When one looks at the huge costs in life, health, education, communication, politics, social life, and ecology of the corporate oligarchies, the metaphor seems well employed.”
    “Excellent responses. Moloch is used by Alan Ginsberg in his poem ‘Howl.’ Have any of you heard of Ginsberg?” A few students raised their hands. “If you haven’t heard of him, you would do well to read the poem and acquaint yourself with him. He’s powerful. Ginsberg’s work is an excellent example of art in the service of social criticism and visions of a better life. Ginsberg was a beatnik; they were the 1950’s precursors of the 60’s and 70’s hippies. I saw him on a TV show after which I read ‘Howl,’ It made quite an impression on me. One of the foundations leaders, Kenneth Benne, uses Moloch in an essay entitled ‘Education for Tragedy: An Essay in Disenchanted Hope for Modern Man.’
    We’ll examine his use of Moloch in terms of the aspects Ken mentioned in his response.” Amanda continued with Benne’s use of the Moloch metaphor remarking that, “He uses three sources to relate the various ways the protagonists of the stories connect to Moloch. These include Heller’s Catch 22, Kesey’s One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest, and Kafka’s The Castle.” Amanda mentioned Arthur Miller’s play, The Crucible as another example of art as social criticism. It was written in response to his persecution by McCarthy’s committee. Miller wrote this play after he spent the time in jail. It’s easy to read. We’ll all read it when we get into looking at the fascist trends in detail later. I believe you’ll like this short play.
    I’m thrilled the Field Theory excites many of you. I’ll do my best to make it clear and to, as Katherine aptly puts it, flesh it out. It isn’t an easy idea. I got it from several sources; the one that comes to my mind most clearly is Brown’s book Life Against Death. I discovered it after I received my undergraduate degree. I had to read it twice carefully before I grasped it. The liberal position could be improved by its adoption.”
    Amanda made the copies of The Crucible in the middle of second six weeks. When the students read it, they remarked they were shocked that people in the earlier days of our country could get so ‘torked out of shape,’ they would go around burning people as witches, disciples of Satan, and such.
    She said, “It combines paranoia, fear, and panic” and elaborated on this. After spending two periods talking about the play, they acted it out during the third.
    After the classes finished with The Crucible, Amanda gave them each a pamphlet which included ten landmark Supreme Court cases. The ten cases began with Brown vs. Topeka, the school desegregation case. Also included in these was Gideon vs. the State of Florida, one of several cases which extended the rights guaranteed citizens by the federal government to the state governments through the application of the Fourteenth Amendment’s due process clause. In the Gideon case the right to an attorney was extended to the state level. One of the most important of the decisions overturned all convictions based upon guilt by association.
    In the next activity the students divided into small groups of five or six people. Each group chose a social problem with which to deal. They chose their topics from a list they had made earlier of the most crucial problems in U.S. society. If there were disagreements the format was that of a debate. If there were none the format was one of discussion. The issues chosen included 1. Abortion rights; 2. The elimination of capital punishment; 3. Juvenile delinquency related to child rearing practices; 4. Open relationships: inside and outside marriage; 5. Use and misuse of computers in secondary education; 6. Feminism in contemporary society: issues and answers. Amanda sat among the students. Ken was on the abortion panel and just as Jim Deever walked in the door he was making an important point.
    He said, “What a person puts in or takes out of their body should be their decision alone.” Jim was trying to listen to Ken while locating Amanda. He finally spotted her and waved.
    After the period ended Amanda ran into her department chair. Catherine Miller motioned for Amanda to come across the hall. When she did the chair told her a great compliment the supervisor had paid her, ‘I wish I had the guts that Blake does.’
    Amanda giggled with delight. Courage was an important virtue to her.
    The panels were followed by studies of anthropological ideas and practices, covering concepts such as cultural relativity, ethnography, ethnocentrism, and culture and community. They looked at their own cultural backgrounds and did comparisons with each others and some Amanda presented. For the paper on this part of the course, Amanda found an account of a marine stationed near an island culture. He became threatened by the differences between this culture and his and acted in ethnocentric ways. The way in which these were manifested was when he got one of the island girls pregnant. He discovered some of the older people throwing dice. He found out it was for the baby he and the woman with whom he was involved were having. These island peoples had a custom that before a woman could marry she had to bear a child. The latter was raffled off to persons who couldn’t have children but wanted one. The meaning of the term, ethnocentrism, refers to instances when a person is in shock due the strangeness of the custom (s) with which they are confronted, and acts in ways defining the strange culture as negative.
    The anthropological studies ended simultaneously with the end of the second six weeks. Teacher and students decided this was the time to deal with the sexuality unit. This study went on for a six weeks. The sharing of these deeply personal views and experiences bonded the students.
    It set the tone for the second semester which included, among other things, more detailed study of socialism and progressivism through looking at famous U.S. socialists and progressives as Eugene V. Debs, a labor organizer and presidential candidate while he was a political prisoner; John Dewey, a famous philosopher and university professor; Woody Guthrie, a folks singer who wrote over one thousand songs in his short life, which was cut short by a rare disease; and Bernie Sanders the current socialist senator from Vermont. Other thoroughly progressive thinkers included were Walt Whitman, poet, Franklin Roosevelt and his New Deal, and Lynden Johnson and his Great Society. As examples of liberalism more studies of the liberal-optimistic fallacies were undertaken as they were still extant in our political life as were groups with fascist structures. The classes spent a few days looking into self reflection and applying this by writing their autobiographies. The classes continued to excite and inspire Amanda and the students. Amanda and her students’ creations were adopted as part of the regular curriculum.
    Amanda and Michael began their doctorates the next January. During their first two quarters their colleagues from PBHS sent Amanda several newspaper articles regarding attacks by right wingers on the institutions class. The educators defended the inclusion of the class in the regular curriculum defeating the fascists thoroughly. Amanda, Michael, Jim Deever, Bernie Waks, and many others were delighted.

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