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The
Moral & Spiritual Miseducation of America's
Youth
By Grace Lee Boggs A reader recently
sent me an article with this title
by Svi Shapiro who teaches at the
University of North Carolina at
Greensboro. I reprint it (slightly
edited for length) in the hope that
it will generate widespread
discussion and struggle.
“A colleague of mine,” Shapiro
writes, “often asked his students
two questions. What do you consider
some of the most serious issues
facing human beings today? To what
extent are students in schools being
prepared to address such concerns?
“Typical answers to the first
question included violence, the
materialistic culture, inequitable
distribution of wealth and
opportunity, sense of powerlessness
among ordinary people, emphasis on
celebrity, fame and exploitation of
sexuality in every part of our
society, and the environmental
crisis.
“The second question brought the
collective acknowledgement
that schools offer little to prepare
young people to make the critical
decisions that face us all in this
century.
“While liberals argue that schools
ought to be places that provide a
value-neutral space for young
people, conservatives have,
correctly I believe, recognized that
schools are places that transmit a
powerful agenda of values. These
views remain deeply imprinted in our
identities long after we have
forgotten how to solve quadratic
equations, the words of a poem or
the dates of a battle.
“What schools relentlessly teach is
a belief in the importance of
personal success, individual
achievement, the competitive race
for recognition, the inequitable
distribution of human worth, the
belief that only things that ‘can be
counted count’ and that education’s
true importance is as a vehicle to
sort and select winners and losers.
“What schools do is compare and
search for winners and losers.
Education becomes more rote and
increasingly shallow. What matters
is the well-rehearsed performance on
the test, not about the curiosity
awakened or the joy of discovery
released. A shallow and
instrumental conformism is
substituted for a willingness to
think imaginatively and
to question boldly and critically.
“The real crisis of education is the
withering of our children’s souls
inside our classrooms. Put aside
the divisive banner of religion for
a moment. It is surely a spiritual
crisis when education offers young
people little that might direct them
towards a meaningful or purposeful
life. Schools increasingly fail to
contribute to a moral vision of a
worthwhile existence beyond grubbing
for better grades and playing the
grade-point average game. It’s not
surprising that cheating and cutting
corners are so pervasive among our
most ‘successful’ students as they
learn to work the system to their
best advantage.
“ Do we need an alternative moral
and spiritual vision for the way we
educate our young? The prophetic
impulse that is found in our great
religious teachings might be a good
place to start. We need human beings
who learn to see all human beings
as made in the image of the divine;
human worth is intrinsic to us and
not something that depends
on our success in the marketplace or
in how much we can impress others.
“An authentic existence is found in
our service to others and in the
improvement of our world, not in
consumerism and materialism. A full
human life means both agency and
responsibility— the capacity to
think about and question needless
suffering, indignity and injustice,
and the commitment to make changes
where needed. And beyond the
debates on evolution and intelligent
design we surely can agree that
Creation—the earth and life in all
its forms—is a source of awe and
wonder. In acquiring this reverence
for creation we ensure the next
generation’s concern with a planet
that can sustain and nourish the
extraordinary chain of existence.
“Our challenge is to ask ourselves
what kind of vision we want schools
to offer our children. Of course in
our culturally divided society this
no easy task. Yet in spite of all
our apprehensions and suspicions
there is one thing that stands out;
we as a society are
increasingly aware of the
shallowness and shabbiness of our
dominant culture. There is growing
alarm at the degrading and callous
egotism that shapes our kids world
and whether we call it
spirituality, religion, morality or
wisdom—there is increasing
recognition that our children need
and deserve an education that
awakens them to a life of greater
purpose and meaning than the one
schools currently offer.”
Source:
Michigan Citizen, June 18-24,
2006 posted 16 June 2006
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update 25 July 2008 |
