Kevin Mattson Quotations

I think there is a lot more confusion and a lack of understanding about what Vision Ohio portends, than there is clarity.

I think there is a big question about the legitimacy issue on campus.

There are going to be fewer resources to work with more students who have more needs.

There's a big difference (between the two approaches). They're talking about faculty representatives. We're talking about faculty-wide, anonymous voting, which I think is a much better assessment tool.

I just can't imagine that it's only a coincidence. I think they feel that it's kind of getting out of their control, and they're trying to tighten it back up.

At the 1894 ALA conference it was fairly well agreed that the primary goal of the public library must be to teach good citizenship. Libraries recognized that such "Americanization" could be achieved through literacy. Thus, teaching immigrants to read was not just a benefit in and of itself; literacy would also serve the interests of democracy.

From these activists we can learn a crucial lesson: without citizens creating the institutions necessary for facilitating the growth of public deliberation, democracy will be a meaningless term. Without political leaders articulating this idea and acting upon it, public life and citizenship will continue to stagnate.

A democratic public forms when citizens gather together to deliberate and make public judgments about local and national issues that affect their lives. By associating together for public discussion, citizens learn the skills necessary for the health of a democratic public; listening persuading, arguing, compromising, and seeking common ground. When these skills are nurtured within the institutions of a democratic public, citizens educate themselves in order to make informed political decisions.

Contemporary political theorists continue this type of thinking about democracy by arguing that the development of "public judgment" among regular citizens should be made the central concern of modern politics. Public judgment, in the words of Benjamin Barber, is a function of commonality that can be exercised only by citizens interacting with one another in the context of mutual deliberation and decision.

All we can do is open up a conversation.