A rose by any other name is still a rose and this holds true whether ‘One’ is in the newsroom, the boardroom or the classroom. Consensus building has many names; art of consultation, bipartisanship, conflict resolution and total quality management. Building total quality management in a classroom has now become a ‘best practice’ for teaching. The ladder of schooling has many rungs, but one rung in particular is voiced by the expert on building consensus.

“A fourth rung would be involved in a much more complicated set of maneuvers. Here, the kind of material assembled in investigations on the third rung would be treated as voices in a dialogue. One would try to decide how many positions One thinks are important enough to be represented by voices, and the One would do all in One’s power to let each voice state its position as ably as possible”¹ (pg. 283)

We might theorize the One as the voice of anti-authority, a facilitator. One guides the students as they practice (praxis) dialoging in a cooperative group towards a unified position (diaprax). Kenneth Burke is describing what is more familiar to us as ‘teamwork’ in building a resolution. Cooperative grouping sets the primordial stage for diaprax, especially useful in a Social Science classes. One is also a master teacher, short on knowledge, but long on methodology. One has mastered critical and systems thinking and One’s goal is to facilitate conflict resolution of issues and evaluate the student’s performance.

“The aim of methodology is to help us understand, in the broadest possible terms, not the products of scientific inquiry, but the process”² (Kaplan, 1967)

Burke’s fourth rung of schooling, is the ‘democratic’ rung. When a student presents their position, it reveals how they think, usually reflecting the norms and values of their upbringing. Schooling today trains students how to construct knowledge, thus the school is emphasizing the process of thinking rather than the product of their investigation. Today, One’s job is to propose the questions for investigation, usually centered on sustainable issues; economic, social and environmental.

“Whoever controls the agenda for deciding the questions that will be asked, controls the answers as well”. (D. Gotcher, Institute for Authority Research.org)

One can obtain his/her training from various workshops and professional resources retrieved from the web. The Annenberg Learner has a historical presence in school reform since the early 80’s. Workshop 7 offers One perspectives; consensus building, lesson goals, structured controversy, group-learning strategies, assessing individuals and modeling democratic principles. The outcome would gear students to reach consensus, that “middle ground between those [two] extreme positions”. This One teacher shared that students would look to her, if she interposed during the lesson, for approval of a right answer. The best description of the consensus outcome is given on this site.
http://www.learner.org/workshops/civics/workshop7/teacherperspec/gettingstarted.html

The Annenberg Project was funded by the Walter Annenberg and his Foundation, which supported Goals 2000. The Annenberg/CPB Project in Chicago schools was inspired by the British Open University. Our current President and William (Bill) Ayers attended and contributed to “breaking the mold” board meetings for years; an experienced couple for inspiring professional teaching moments in consensus building. http://www.learner.org/about/history.html

The complexity and sporadic nature of Burke’s essay is dependent on his consultant, Kenneth Benne, who interposes often enough to lead the reader as to who is in charge. But no matter, Benne-Burke, Burke-Benne, it’s their mantra that matters. The ‘linguistic approach’ proposed four rungs on the ladder of schooling, which are so far removed from classical education as to be heretical. His approach seeks to transform one set of generally accepted language values for another. Certain words evoke attitudes, feelings, a response property, soul, justice, rights, etc. Language acquisition in reading or writing for democratic minds has presently arrived in content and informational texts.

Common Core approved materials for young students in Utah has stirred justified public outrage, as Zaner Bloser’s Voices in Literature& Writing resources teach young students to compose persuasive letters using ’emotive words’. (see Youtube Indoctrination in the Common Core ELA texts) or http://www.utahnsagainstcommoncore.com/ A picture is worth more than a thousand voices.

Kenneth Benne is the ‘god’ of group theory. He co-authored Human Relations and Curriculum Change formulating T-group therapy designed to support members in re-educating themselves toward improved skills in human relations? We think not. Re-education for the future masses is more to the point. And why not provide a copy to every teacher so One can learn to facilitate from the horse’s mouth.

“Democratic method attempts to achieve an intelligent and un-coerced consensus. As we made clear at the beginning of the chapter, the ideal method of social control is democratic co-operation.” ³ (pg. 304)

Dozens of American groups are voicing their concerns regarding the intrusion of federally mandated initiatives that tear local control of education from districts, teachers and parents. Please add your voice to break the mold of global re-education.

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1 Linguistic Approach to Problems of Education, by K. Burke & K. Benne; Chapter VIII, Modern Philosophies in Education for the National Society of the Study of Education, Part I, 1955.

2 Justifying Knowledge, Justifying Methodology, Taking Action: Epistemologies, Methodologies & Methods in Qualitative Research; M. Little, S. M. Carter, Univ. of Sydney; in Qualitative Health Research; Vol 17, Number 10, Dec. 2007; Sage Publications

3 Human Relations in Curriculum Change, by K. Benne & B. Muntyan; Dryden Press, New York, 1951