Harry Boyte
BillMoyers.com
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Past articles by Harry:
Is This Election Inspiring a Democratic Awakening?
It would be wrong to ignore the psychological, social and political damage this poisonous election is causing. When the movement called Citizen Therapists Against Trumpism, an effort to awaken therapists to their public responsibilities, commissioned a study of 1,000 voting-age Americans, 43 percent reported emotional distress from Trump and his campaign. But 28 percent also feel distress from… → Read More
Adam Weinberg, President of Denison
The election is important but the country needs vision from leaders far beyond formal politics. Kettering Foundation’s College Presidents and the Civic P... → Read More
How Consumer Culture Is Killing Citizenship
We live in a society where market values spread without limit, in which we are branding and selling ourselves along with everything else, including public office. How do we stop it? → Read More
How Consumer Culture Is Killing Citizenship
Donald Trump’s candidacy gives rise to many descriptors — authoritarian, bigoted, divisive. It is also the culmination of long-developing dysfunctions of a culture where market values have spread beyond appropriate limits and radically eroded citizenship. Though many feel hopeless about changing this culture, resources are appearing for revitalizing citizenship and for building a movement for a… → Read More
College Presidents As Stewards Of Democracy
In a time of challenge, many are calling for college and university presidents to speak out on controversial issues. Scott Sherman, writing in The N... → Read More
“We the People” in the Era of Trump
It’s an old tradition in American democracy: debating how to define it. The elite has a strong penchant for tarring citizens who make noise as a “mob” or a “rabble” and Donald Trump brings out that tendency in full force. Continue reading → Read More
'Yes, We Can' Progressivism
Though it is little noted in discussions of this year’s election, Senator Bernie Sanders’s campaign has brought back the essential message of then-Senator Barack Obama’s “Yes We Can” campaign of 2008. The core of that message is the word “we,” in contrast with former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton’s frequent use of “I.” However this year’s election turns out, the idea that the people — not… → Read More
In a Season of Rage, Populist Lessons From the Movement
Coming back to the US after time in South Africa, anger in the election is like a blast furnace. I’m also struck by the ubiquitous use of populism as a framework of analysis. “Trump and Sanders: Different Candidates with a Populist Streak,” reported Chuck Todd on NBC News. Most reporters and commentators use “populism” to mean inflammatory rhetoric. Thus Jonathan Goldberg, writing in the… → Read More
From rage to responsibility
In this blog Harry Boyte asks how can a discussion of principles that should govern accountable, publicly supported schools include the idea that we are all responsible citizens and creators of education, not angry shoppers in search of the best product. → Read More
Democracy Schools: Lessons From Escuela Nueva
This blog, answering Meier's question about what list of elements should be necessary for public funding, with democracy in mind, argues that democracy educators in the United States have much to learn from the international "New School" movement, including the simple lesson that it is possible to make large-scale democratic change from the inside. → Read More
Democracy Schools
This blog, answering Meier's question about what list of elements should be necessary for public funding, with democracy in mind, argues that democracy educators in the US have much to learn from the international "New School" movement, including the simple lesson that it is possible to make large scale democratic change from the inside. → Read More
The Fight For America's Soul
Harry Boyte was only 19 when he joined Martin Luther King’s Southern Christian Leadership Conference – a youthful white North Carolinian working as a field secretary and lieutenant to Dr. King alongside equally young black volunteers who formed the front … Continue reading → Read More
Citizens as Co-Creators
This blog argues that any concept of democracy schools that has much impact will have to challenge the "consumer" identities which are now widespread, in education and in virtually every area of society. We need a concept of democracy schools which sees students, teachers, parents, and others as co-creators, who build learning communities through their productive public work (work with public… → Read More
Citizens as Co-Creators
This blog argues that any concept of democracy school that has much impact will have to challenge the "consumer" identities which are now widespread, in education and in virtually every area of society. We need a concept of democracy schools which sees students, teachers, parents and others as co-creators, who build learning communities through their productive public work (work with public… → Read More
Democracy Schools and the Tradition of "Making Democracy"
This blog argues that the "democracy schools" which Deborah Meier founded and helped to catalyze elsewhere hold many lessons for revitalizing the American tradition of democracy as something we make through public work. This tradition has never been more important to recall, as a resource for pushing back against widespread fear-mongering. → Read More
An Alternative to Growing Violence and Division
This blog responds to Deborah Meier's questions about creating a movement for democratic change in education. Boyte argues that "free spaces" where citizen-centered politics can be taught, learned, and practiced offer hope - through a citizen-led alternative to growing violence and fragmentation. → Read More
The purpose of education
In this continuing dialogue with Deborah Meier, Harry Boyte argues that democracy in education will continue to be marginal -- and structural ideas will have little purchase - unless we have a robust discussion about "what is democracy?" He points to the recent conversation between President Obama and the writer Marilynne Robinson, as well as the narrow view of education in the recent Republican… → Read More
The Purpose of Education and the Meaning of Democracy
In this continuing dialogue with Deborah Meier, Harry Boyte argues that democracy in education will continue to be marginal -- and structural ideas will have little purchase - unless we have a robust discussion about "what is democracy?" He points to the recent conversation between President Obama and the writer Marilynne Robinson, as well as the narrow view of education in the recent Republican… → Read More
Educational Change and Cultural Organizing
In this blog, Harry Boyte agrees with Deborah Meier that "choice" is not the same as democracy. He argues for a citizen politics of plurality, cooperation, equality, respect for people's potential, and recognition of a public realm, different than private life, and proposes that spreading such politics requires "cultural organizing." → Read More
How Cultural Organizing Can Promote Democracy in Schools
In this blog, Harry Boyte agrees with Deborah Meier that "choice" is not the same as democracy. He argues for a citizen politics of plurality, cooperation, equality, respect for people's potential, and recognition of a public realm, different than private life, and proposes that spreading such politics requires "cultural organizing." → Read More