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Education and Democracy

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Education and Democracy
Jiaxin Yin
31 May 2012
Education and Democracy
This paper discusses how the United States and China achieve democracy through education by analyzing what kind of education benefits a democratic society. Problem-posing education, which emphasizes communication and consciousness, seems can benefit a democratic society but cannot profit the oppressors; Paulo Freire believes that banking education prevails for it can benefit the oppressors and a democratic society in terms of equity. No Children Left Behind raised by Mike Rose illustrates how the U.S achieves equity through standardized testing under banking education, which in China is Nine-Year Compulsory Education. Because both the U.S and China are in age of inequality, the equity in education under banking education is of great importance for achieving a democratic society. Therefore, it is the banking education that can benefit a democratic society. (129) Wendy Brown, UC Berkeley professor of political science, points out “without quality public education, there is no future for democracy” (Davidson 2010); also Huang Mengfu, vice-chairman of the Standing Committee of the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference, during his speech at Harvard University says“A democratic society has been a consistent goal pursued by the Chinese people in modern times” (Huang 2008). As you can see, even tough the United States and China have two different types of government, both are paying more attention to developing an authentic democracy, which largely depends upon education. So as educator Mike Rose asks “what kind of education benefits a democratic society” (Rose 44)? Because of the global economic recession, more and more undergraduates prefer to continue their schooling in order to get a master’s degree or even higher, which to a certain extent equals greater probability to get their ideal jobs, rather than graduate from university with bachelor degree and go through plenty of difficulties to get only



References: American Political Science Association, 2004, ‘American Democracy in an Age of Rising Inequality’, pp. 1, accessed 2 June 2012, from www.apsanet.org <http://www.apsanet.org/imgtest/taskforcereport.pdf> Davidson, Cathy. ‘Without Public Education, Democracy Fails’, America, Government & Politics, reblog, 7 March 2010, accessed 2 June 2012, <http://hastac.org/blogs/cathy-davidson/without-public-education-democracy-fails> Freire, Paulo. “The ‘Banking’ Concept of Education.” (Re) Reading the Elephant, Furthering the Conversations about Education, Literacy, and Schooling. Ed. Donna. Qualley. Boston: Bedford/ St. Martin’s 2002. 63-73. Print. Huang, Mengfu. ‘Democratic society is a consistent goal’, China Daily, 19 December 2008, accessed 2 June 2012, <http://www.chinadaily.com.cn/opinion/2008-12/19/content_7321596.htm> Rose, Mike. “No Child Left Behind and the Spirit of Democratic Education.” Why School, Reclaiming Education for All of Us. The New Press. 2009. 43-52. Print. Smith, M. K. (1997, 2002) 'Paulo Freire and informal education ', the encyclopaedia of informal education, accessed 6 May 2012, <http://www.infed.org/thinkers/et-freir.htm.> Zhang, Tiedao & Zhao, Minxia 2006. ‘Universalizing Nine-Year Compulsory Education for Poverty Reduction in Rural China’, Education, No. 3. Vols. 52, ISSN: 00208566, accessed 2 June 2012 from Springer. <http://www.jstor.org/stable/29737080?seq=3>

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