In a democratic society, there is a tension between the specialist and the general public. Technical expertise is valuable and valued, yet the resource people with these professional skills should not become exclusive or elitist. Educators possess insights corresponding to their work, but many citizens who work in other fields are capable of analyzing these insights.
Sadly, some educators individually, and the education establishment as a whole, exude an aura of elitism: author Mortimer Smith reports that “one such” leader
among the educators, referring to arguments carried on by “the nonprofessional part of society” about “the character of the skills and the methods of teaching them,” says loftily that “in reality this is not the business of society at large, any more than the kinds of prescriptions doctors give to patients should be a matter of public discussion.” (In other words, the message of the educator to the parent concerned about what should be taught and how it should be taught, is this: Mind your own business.) This unfortunately is not simply a case of individual, eccentric arrogance; the American Association of School Administrators makes precisely the same point in their claim that school board members are no more competent to pass on curriculum matters “than the patient’s family can pass on the scientific details of the doctor’s treatment.”
Such behavior merely fuels suspicions among the public that the ordinary citizens are being managed or handled, and are not part of a truly democratic dialogue about education.
Smith introduces a comparison between education and medicine. Just as a healthcare practitioner explains a diagnosis and various treatment options to a patient, so an educator should explain various alternatives to students and parents. Just as patients should be given maximum information and empowered to make as many choices as possible, so also schools should inform and defer to the decision-making of students, parents, and the community at large.
