By Andrea S. Libresco
Jay Leno on “The Tonight Show” has a feature called “Jay-Walking” where he presents video clips of average citizens revealing their utter lack of information on a topic connected to current events. The people on the street are past or potential voters who are obviously not being adequately prepared to exercise the responsibilities of citizenship that include decision-making and deliberation based on adequate information.
Eighteen to 24-year-olds are the group most mocked by Leno and other adults. They vote less often than any other group in our society; only 32 percent participated in the important 2000 election. This year’s presidential race is one of the most important in American history, and University students have a chance to inform themselves more effectively on Oct. 13 about the issues and the candidates.
“Jay-Walking” raises questions about how we foster a civil society, how citizens reach a point where they are capable of deliberation and making informed judgments and how they reach a point where they care enough to see these as important values for citizens. These issues were highlighted at the Constitutional Convention.
Alexander Hamilton, despite all his genius and leadership skill, expressed his lack of confidence in the majority of citizens when he said “Your people, sir, is a great beast. They seldom judge or determine correctly.”
Thomas Jefferson responded with confidence in the people, an argument for why democracy demanded this confidence and a plan for making sure the confidence would be warranted: “If we think the people not enlightened enough to exercise power with a wholesome discretion, the remedy is not to take power from them but to improve their discretion through education…We must preach, my dear sir, a crusade against ignorance; for if a nation expects to be ignorant and free, it expects what never was and never will be.”
Over one hundred years later, John Dewey started with Jefferson’s premise, acknowledging, “The devotion of democracy to education is a familiar fact. The superficial explanation is that a government resting upon popular suffrage cannot be successful unless those who elect and who obey their governors are educated.”
But Dewey went to a deeper explanation as well: “A democracy is more than a form of government; it is primarily a mode of associated living, of conjoint communicated experience.”
Dewey’s conception of education as it functions in a democracy entailed more than merely having the public acquire new information in the course of their schooling; rather, Dewey stressed the effects of the points of contact individuals have in society.
It does seem as though there was a time when Dewey and Jefferson were alive and well and living on college campuses. If you’re like many college students, you have older family members and professors who tell you that the time you’re living in is nowhere near as exciting and active as the decades when they were your age, namely the 1960s and early 1970s. These were times, they say, when their entire campus was attending teach-ins, protesting and changing the world. As with other nostalgia, there is some truth and some mythology in the memories. While the world was most definitely changed, only about 10 percent of students on college campuses were actively involved in protest movements. But that 10 percent had a multiplier effect on the campuses and in the society at large as it changed the debate in the country, and ultimately, the policies as well.
When hearing those stories of earlier activist decades, it may seem as if those times of participation and involvement are relics of a past that is long gone; however, that activism can blossom again during your college days as student and faculty groups at the University are co-sponsoring a day of dialogue, debate and discussion on Oct. 13: “Hofstra Votes! Learning the Issues and Making a Difference.” Choose from more than 25 different sessions on topics including what U.S. policy should be in Iraq and other countries; what soldiers and nurses have to say about the war; whether the U.S. should institute a draft; how the economy is doing; how effective “No Child Left Behind” has been; the state of the debate on gay marriage; whether we are we more or less secure since 9/11; the relationship between civil liberties and national security, whether the media does its job effectively (for a disturbing answer to this question, attend the showing of Outfoxed on Oct. 11); and many others. The day culminates in a showing of the final presidential debate in the Cultural Center Theatre followed by student discussion.
Democracy is not a spectator sport; it’s a process of education – citizens discuss with one another and elected representatives what they think the government should do or not do on a host of difficult issues. This is an obligation of citizenship that is even more elemental than the act of voting, but it then produces informed decision-making at the ballot box. Join us Wednesday for the thoughtful part of democracy. You’ll be able to tell your children that you went to school in exciting times as well.