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INVITED ADDRESS, THE WALTER COCKING LECTURE 2006
Proactively Serving Our Disenfranchised Youth:
The 2006 Walter D. Cocking Lecture
James M. Smith“If [education]... is to be genuinely progressive, it must emancipate itself from the influence
of... class, face squarely and courageously every social issue, come to grips with life in all
of its stark reality, establish an organic relation with the community, develop a realistic and
comprehensive theory of welfare, [and] fashion a compelling and challenging vision of human
destiny” (George Counts, 1932).
The quote above is now 75 years old; however, the applicability of these words never
could appear more powerful then when framed within the context of today’s America. In a
nation that is clearly one of the most wealthy and powerful in the history of all civilization,
the inability of said nation to deal with the human destiny of our most valuable resource, our
children, remains largely unrecognized. Certainly, some recognize the importance of social
justice and the myriad ramifications that occur and will continue to occur as a result of
dealing with individuals and groups in ways that are simply unjust and/or immoral; however,
individuals willing to behave like true public intellectuals (and, thus, loudly decry the actions
of the few who so often affect the many) seem to be diminishing by the day. Debates
concerning the importance of social justice as a fundamental element of teacher and
administrator preparation programs have been forcefully voiced—in too many cases the
loudest voices, though, have been those calling for the elimination of such programmatic
elements. Recent debates within the NCATE community clearly demonstrate that those on
the political right have absolutely no interest in entertaining discourse with respect to
organizational and personal responsibility to establish institutions to enhance personal and
social development. So heated did these debates become that by the year 2006, the
conservatives proclaimed victory when Arthur Wise announced that NCATE would eliminate
the words social justice from its guidelines all together (Wasley, 2006, p. A13). As a scholar
with interest in advantaging those who have, historically, been systematically disenfranchised,
how can the following thoughts be viewed as so distasteful:
Social justice is the virtue which guides us in creating those organized human
interactions we call institutions. In turn, social institutions, when justly organized,
provide us with access to what is good for the person, both individually and in our
association with others. Social justice also imposes on each of us a personal
responsibility to work with others to design and... perfect our institutions as tools
for personal and social development. (Center for Economic and Social Justice, 2006)Although the aforementioned may seem to bring forth the inflammatory only to be
inflammatory, nothing could be further from the truth. Leadership in public schools, by role
James M. Smith, Bowling Green State University