The new state : $b Group organization the solution of popular governmentFollett, Mary Parker
Science
The new state : $b Group organization the solution of popular government
Follett, Mary Parker
Democracy; Political participation; Social psychology; State, The
Moreover, we must remember when we say we all need more education, that
even if we could be “entirely” educated, so to speak, at any one minute,
the next minute life would have set new lessons for us. The world is
learning all the time about health, food values, care of children etc.
All that science discovers must be spread. Adult education means largely
the assimilation of new ideas; from this point of view no one can deny
its necessity.
I have said that the Centres prepare for citizenship through group
activities, through civic clubs and classes and through actual practice
in self-government. The Centres may be a real training in
self-government, a real opportunity for the development of those
qualities upon which genuine self-direction depends, by every club or
group being self-governed, and the whole Centre self-directed and
self-controlled by means of delegates elected from each club meeting
regularly in a Central Council. If we want a nation which shall be
really self-governed not just nominally self-governed, we must train up
our young people in the ways of self-direction.
Moreover, the development of responsibility and self-direction will be
the most effective means of raising standards. We are hearing a great
deal just now of regulated recreation, regulated dance halls etc. We
must give regulation a secondary place. There is something better than
this which ought to be the aim of all recreation leaders, that is, to
educate our young people to want higher standards by interpreting their
own experience to them and by getting them to think in terms of cause
and effect. You can force a moral code on people from above yet this
will change them very little, but by a system of self-governing clubs
with leaders who know how to lead, we can make real progress in
educating people to higher standards. This is true of athletic games as
well as of dances. We find, indeed, that it is true of all parts of our
Centre work. Through the stormy paths of club election of officers, I
have seen leaders often guide their young men to an understanding of
honest politics. It is usually easier, it is true, to do _for_ people,
it is easier to “regulate” their lives, but it is not the way to bring
the results we wish. We need education, not regulation.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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