Tuesday, March 29, 2011

Student Insights on Democracy

"So what does this author think about democracy?" I ask my class.

"He really likes it," students respond.

"What makes you think that?"

"He is in favor of people being ruled by a small minority, access to which is extremely limited. That's democracy," they respond completely seriously.

When I explained the etymology of the word "democracy" ("power of the people"), they were genuinely surprised.

Out of the mouths of babes, indeed. . .

Sent via BlackBerry by AT&T

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

This remembers me of that strip where Mafalda finds out what Democracy means and just can't hold her self back.

You're students aren't maybe that off the track. Western 'Democracies' are ruled by a small minority of capitalist oligarchs, who run the democracy show but merly because is cheaper and easier that way IMHO, of course.

Clarissa said...

I know! The students are completely right. It's kind of shocking to the old-fashioned teacher like me that they have now accepted this definition of democracy as completely normal.