"So Jones, according to you, society should be all about Love.
(laughter in the classroom) No, this is important. In fact, looking at
some of your gruff mugs, my dear students, I'd say some of you could
use a good dose of Love. All right, Jones, how
is this spread of Love accomplished? In schools, you say? So what is
taught in the classes? No, not generally taught. Spell it out. Your
job is to figure out exactly how you teach Love. Since it's the most
important thing to you, you need to find out
how you impart it. You can't just say leave it to the experts. That
would be like me saying what I want the most for the world is to turn
into a Utopia, and we'll do that through universal education centers,
where people in charge who know how to accomplish
this goal practice their skills. I do nothing. I just watch Utopia
happen. ----No, you need to become a teacher of what you think is most
important. What do you teach in order to impart Love? How do you do
it? You program it into people? Is that what
you're advocating? What about the students who don't want to be
programmed? Is something wrong with them? Is freedom important?...Start
talking, Jones, I'm listening..."
In 1960, I graduated from college with a BA in philosophy. One of the
most glaring deficiencies was a lack of exploration of ethical values.
The famed dormitory "bull sessions" among students rarely, if ever, took
place. In the classroom, there was never a wide-ranging discussion of
students' own values.
Creating a civilization in which ethics take center stage is, at best, a
difficult proposition. If education doesn't include a probing search
for answers on this subject; if instead, it's assumed that every person
has his own relative point of view, then of
course you end up with mobocracy and quite heavy propaganda.
Ultimately, elites take charge of the propaganda.
A version of the Socratic Method should infiltrate college
classrooms to the core. What are your most important beliefs? How
would you implement these beliefs in society, if you could? What would
that look like? What would be the implications of a
society governed by your beliefs? Spell them out. What would
constitute the unforeseen results? How would you deal with these
results?
These and other questions draw out the students. They begin to
reflect. They learn how to think about their own ethical values. They
encounter other sets of values. They respond to these differing
pictures of reality. They come up against the question
of individual freedom and what it means in practice. They compare what
they believe with other basic beliefs---for example, the American
Constitution's. Or Plato's Republic. Or Marx's Communist Manifesto.
Or the student's who sits two chairs away.
A real teacher knows how to initiate and preside over such discussions.
These classes become interesting, exciting, vital, energizing.
In a modern "democracy," where this sort of education never occurs at a
deep level, propaganda eventually becomes all inclusive, and one side
seeks to shut down the other---which is what we are seeing now.
The process of education itself is devalued because it isn't impacting
the student at his center. It's superficial to the extreme, and it
rarely brings about vital personal change. Instead, at best, the
student is viewed as a robot who needs to ingest information.
I'm not downplaying the role of information; I'm saying it needs to be
supplemented by an ongoing process of reflection on, consideration of,
and extensive dialogue about, personal values.
Schools that feature true values-education need to be created from
scratch. Obviously, this is no easy job. It might be the hardest job
in a society that has already sunk into half-light indifference on
multiple fronts. However, I can tell you from experience
that there are many families who want what I'm suggesting for their
children; they just don't know where to go. They don't want their
children to take on a set of values by belonging to some group who will,
supposedly, protect them and give them legitimacy.
They want their children to be able to stand on their own two legs and
live according to their best ideas.
This is what a so-called "liberal education" is really all about.
"All right, Smith, you keep referring to Justice as a core value.
You've read at least part of Plato's Republic. You know he believed
that Justice, as well as many other core concepts, already existed on a
higher level of reality. What do you think of that?
Give us 800 written words on the subject. I don't want vague
generalities. And give us your own experience. What is Justice to
you? How did you decide what it is? Did you discover it? Did you
invent it? Do we all need to have the same notion of Justice?
If so, what would society then look like? How would it function? Who
would run things? Would a few people be born with a higher
understanding of Justice? We'll have a full discussion of your ideas.
But we need to know what those ideas are, specifically...Maybe
it's time to remind you that I want at least some of you, when you
graduate, to go out into the world with the solid ambition of bringing
your best values into wider existence, for real, in this thing called
Life. We're not only doing academics here. We're
doing preparation. I refuse to allow the preparation to be flimsy and
separate from you. It has to reflect deep parts of you. You're not
going to forget what you did here the minute you walk out the classroom
door for the last time..."
In society, there are those who consider ethics a sport, a game to be
taken lightly. There are those who have no ethical values at all,
beyond their personal ambitions. There are those who buy the values of
their elders, without thought, and thereby close
the book on the whole subject. Worst of all, there are individuals who
have a massive commitment to impose their values on everyone else, but
have never truly reflected on the negative implications of a
civilization which accepts their version of life. They
seek power, and they take it, no matter the consequences.
One of the great roles of education---and philosophy in particular---is
to bring true personal engagement into the field of ethics. This would
be accomplished despite widespread resistance and apathy, and despite a
feeling that nothing can be changed.
Resistance is always present. It is no reason to abandon the work.
|
No comments:
Post a Comment