Teaching for Transformation
Why we need a paradigm shift in our system of education
American society is not functioning well. Government has become a bully pulpit, pitting one side against another and failing to implement legislation that supports human welfare; our justice system is broken, imprisoning people for poverty and illness rather than the rampant corruption that exists among the wealthy stakeholders; our healthcare system prioritizes profit over the care of people and the level of poverty and the wealth gap is leaving people vulnerable to joining extremist organizations, leading to an increase in violent crime. It is a shocking truth to admit that the common denominator is schooling but if we don’t at least acknowledge this failure nothing will change and we will head further into self destruction. Anything short of a systemic paradigm shift is just a bandaid. Our current model of schooling takes away our power, our autonomy, our freedom and our creativity. It takes away our freedom to choose who to be friends with, keeping us in silos of same minded and aged people, often divided by race and class. We all fall into line because, as children, we have no choice. We follow rules, do as we are told and limit our idea building and thinking in order to survive school. We become disempowered in that institution, leading us to accept as normal the ordering of value of human life based on power, profession and wealth. In time, if nothing changes, the “othering” of certain groups will lead to such extreme discord that civil strife will surely be the result, in fact we are already seeing it.
The world in the 21st century is a very different place than it was 100 years ago. Today we are at a tipping point, in terms of our planet’s future. Climate change is the single biggest challenge facing humanity and our future existence depends on how we handle it in the present. We know what is causing it. The science is clear so why isn’t every person taking individual responsibility for their own consumption of carbon emitting products. Why aren’t we all refusing to buy plastic products, gas powered machines, control the number of private jets in the air, why aren’t we reducing our consumption of beef (methane is a major contributor to global warming); why aren’t we all refusing to buy products that have been shipped halfway around the world; why do we allow corporations to destroy carbon absorbing forests; why do we allow the use of synthetic fertilizers on our food products which contributes to nitrous oxide emissions? So many whys to obvious questions and yet we all accept as normal the ways that capitalism has led to the destruction of the planet and our own health.
If we were all schooled in caring for all of life and being good stewards of our planet we would not be standing on the precipice of destruction. If we were taught the science and the reality of the consequences of our own consumption maybe our behaviors would be different. If we were taught to collaborate as children maybe we would come together as communities to set goals for reducing our own carbon consumption. But the good news is, it’s never too late to start. So let’s make a commitment to start talking with our neighbors, friends and local governments to move towards living without adding to carbon emissions. The time is now! And we need to model this for our children and show them how to be responsible stewards of the world they will inherit.
I’d like to address another crisis facing the survival of humanity. Historically we have made grave mistakes but the bigger mistake is not to learn from them. To not teach all aspects of our history and not allow our children to critique its own government's mistakes is a huge disservice to our future. We need to let our children know that we are all vulnerable to making mistakes, and that it is okay to admit it and try to fix it, even very big ones, and then invite them to creatively explore alternative paths through conflicts and societal struggles.
In today’s world the United States has been empire building since the second world war. In the global family of nations we have yielded our power to one country which has paved the way to behaviors not allowed to less powerful countries. We have normalized spending prohibitively huge amounts of money on building a military industrial complex with weapons that are capable of destroying all of life. We denounce terrorism and yet we engage in acts of terror in other countries that kill, maim and cause extensive generational trauma, as if life in other places somehow has no meaning. And we believe that we are doing it to rid the world of terrorism not accepting that by using state sanctioned terrorism we are making way for more terrorist groups to emerge as people’s suffering and powerlessness leads them to extreme measures. We are in a cycle of perpetual war led by a small handful of men who really haven’t learned how to negotiate, compromise and allow for different viewpoints and ways of life. This is a societal failure and along with other global crises can only be addressed through education.
It’s time to start the conversation.