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What Kind of Society Do I Want to Be Shaping?
April 13, 2023
Harmony emerges from integration. Chaos and rigidity arise when integration is blocked.
-Daniel J. Siegel and Tina Payne Bryson, The Whole-Brain Child
-Daniel J. Siegel and Tina Payne Bryson, The Whole-Brain Child
| In his book, A Can of Worms, Nick Terrones writes, Education, for me, is an institution for hope. Children never fail to offer their thinking in the most beautiful and honest of ways. If I carry a shred of hope for their future, then I must shoulder the responsibility to address their wonderments, insights, and understandings, as uncomfortable as they may make me. …When I think of the role of education in society, I see it like a double-edged sword. On one sharp edge, education has been used to maintain the status quo that serves the dominant interests of our country. It has demanded a homogeny of thought that disregards cultural ways of knowing and being. It has instilled a false sense of certainty in knowledge that is anchored in a particular viewpoint and that serves particular interests. It has also been tethered to limited ideas, including the notion that education is to get children school-ready rather than life-ready, which would leave them poised with the relational and emotional skills they need to navigate the complexities and uncertainties in life. On its other edge, the progressive approach to education that I follow is feared by those who seek to preserve the status quo. Educational institutions can spark social and cultural change. I believe that education shapes society, and a question that I hold for myself is, "What kind of society do I want to be shaping?" A Can of Worms is part of the Reimagining Our Work (ROW) book series. Learn more at exchangepress.com/row |
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Comments (4)
Displaying All 4 CommentsEugene, OR, United States
Francis, your comment keeps rolling around in my head. I wonder if we need to think in multiple ways: there's an urgency to the actions/pathway Ruth took, and perhaps it's the necessary foundation for addressing the status quo. As always, you make me think more and think better (I hope!). Keep it coming!
Eugene, OR, United States
Francis and Marsha, thank you for engaging this topic! I love diving deep into the intersection between early childhood and our broader social conditions, between our aspirational thinking and hard-felt realities. Francis, if we help people work within in the status quo, how do we make shifts in the injustices of it? Marsha, yes, the demands on individual teachers are unreal and so much professional freedom has been striped away. I think this is a topic to address more deeply, perhaps in the conversations within our ROW Initiative...
University of Phoenix/ Red Rocks Community College
Denver, Colorado, 80222, Colorado, United States
I disagree strongly with this dichotomy of the purposes of education. In fact, I think its extremely dangerous. Here is not the time or place to flesh this out, except to say that a third purpose - and to me maybe the main purpose- of education is, "how to provide access to those less fortunate in society so that they can prosper and succeed "within the status quo". I believe one of the reasons the Asian community in this society is so successful (more so than even Whites) is because they have followed this third path. My wife, who was raised in a single-parent home in segregated Kansas City, followed this third approach, and became successful as a mother, educator, and member of society.
SpanishFun for Everyone
West Palm Beach, FL, United States
Educators have never had it harder. The demands to complete what is required by the districts and the state, along with the restrictions set make it hard to be creative and responsive to a fast changing society. Children need guidance more than ever and if we really want to prepare our students to be bold, make decisions both for themselves and collaboratively, and be responsible human beings, than we should have the freedom to model that behavior.
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