In times
as troubled as those of the 2020’s, how, if at all, is it possible for
those responsible for teaching the new generations – for educators — to look
forward with realistic optimism?
As the term
“Kindergarten” suggests, young children (and older learners
too) are like things growing in a garden:
They are beings – entities — that develop and grow, and
can flourish, can thrive, if they’re
provided with suitable conditions.
But they
can also fail to flourish, fail to
thrive. Friends have remarked to me about the mess of
an untended herb garden, and I have repeatedly witnessed – first-hand
— vineyards that once were flourishing, but that are now abandoned –
post-and-wire trellises largely intact, but vines dead, aisles obstructed, and
all of it overgrown with an array of humanly unused, unwanted, large and small
“volunteer” flora – a vineyard “re-wilding.”
The realistic optimism that
those who teach – who educate — can
have is significantly like the optimism of
a well-informed, adequately-resourced, skilled gardener
or vineyardist.
Educators
can have that realistic optimism despite the
monumental differences between – on the one hand: humans (with
their complex “nature” and interrelations) — and on the other
hand: flowers or herbs growing in
a garden, or grapevines in a vineyard.
A vineyardist needs
to be realistic: She needs
to actually use reliable information that
bears – directly or indirectly — on her objectives . . . such things as the vineyard’s
climate and microclimate, its soil type, the length of its growing season,
perhaps how conveniently located it is to receive
needed goods and services, and for supplying its tasty grapes (or delicious
juice or satisfying, healthful table wine) to the “end users,” etc.
Whether starting
from scratch or not, vineyardists should – but sometimes don’t –
make realistic, well-informed choices –
choices guided by beliefs that are at least approximately true –
that “fit the facts”. . . that closely “correspond to reality.” Many such
beliefs become traditional, but must – to yield
hoped-for results – be realistic.
A persistently
wet soil would be a bad choice
of soil for growing Riesling, or Everest, and many other grape varieties – even
when grafted on pest-resistant rootstocks. And planting a cool-climate grape
variety in a warm-climate zone would be another bad – and
given global warming, probably a disastrous — choice by a vineyardist.
Of course, those
who teach are dealing with people,
not grapevines!
And Unlike
grapevines, people are guided by their own choices,
beliefs, and desires – which are shaped partly by their heredity, and
also by what they are taught, and by what they incidentally “pick up,” and by
what they find out – or somehow come to believe — on their own.
And Unlike
grapevines, people normally become aware of options – that
can have consequences of varying known or unknown harm and benefit to themselves,
to their loved ones, and others.
And no
one is born knowing more than the rudiments of the consequences
of human actions. Still, we can’t help but make
choices among options . . . selecting, then deciding to stay on
our current path, or to change to another.
Further, Unlike
grapevines, individuals frequently form couples and families. And we and our
contemporaries culturally inherit from preceding
generations a world of other groups and organizations,
including (to point out a few types): businesses, labor unions, non-profits,
nations, religious, and international organizations. Each of them comes
with its history and traditions, its current aims, and so on . . .
.
So the ongoing vineyard
of humankind is far more complicated than
any actual vineyard of grapevines!
And today’s human
vineyard is marred by such things as irrational beliefs, unnecessary prejudice-based dislikes and hatreds, by explosive
anger, blatant lying, baseless, false
accusations that divide, and groundless,
ignorant “conspiracy theories” about suspected but non-existent
enemies supposedly conspiring against some of us.
Today’s human
vineyard is crippled by addictions, by alienating selfishness, by
avoidable starvation, and by serious corporate greed yet
to be overcome.
Our human
vineyard is suffering from destructive climate change with its shockingly
rapid, widespread, lethal droughts, wildfires, and floods, and
the harms that come in their wake.
And there’s
lurking terrorism – and in this long and diverse list of
contemporary ills and evils, did I mention war and its contemporary
high-tech threats?
(Older folks
like me may wonder what lyricist Sheldon Harnick would write in our time
for his sardonic “The Merry Minuet,” popularized by the Kingston Trio about 1960,
which reflected ills marking the undoing of European colonial imperialism in
Africa, and the arrival of nuclear weapons.)
Although
it shows considerable promise in some quarters, today’s deeply troubled “vineyard of humankind” urgently cries
out for change.
Taken one
by one . . . from (1)
the abuse of women by some men, (2) the abuse of workers by more than a few employers,
(3) abuse by some corporations of their nearby neighbors, of taxpayers, of the
natural environment, and some of their customers, (4) the lethal abuse of some
stereotypically targeted minority fellow human beings (Jews,
Muslims, Palestinians, Blacks, etc., etc.) by a variety of abusers, (5)
the criminal warring abuse of Ukrainian citizens by Putin’s military, and so on
. . . and on: . . . those troubles have arisen in
large measure because of voluntary human actions .
. . because of choices people have been making . . . sometimes quite knowingly,
and often unknowingly. Often those choices have,
in effect, been tolerated, and accepted, not mindfully
and collaboratively opposed.
We can treat these and other troubles as wake-up
calls – as motivation for people to choose to rally, organize and strive
to make the needed changes.
Our vineyard
of humankind cries out for well-qualified “vineyardists” – teachers . . .
educators . . . who are slow to anger, whose desires and beliefs and
whose attitudes (including an inclination to continue
to learn), and whose skills suit them
to cooperate with likeminded people who will help guide
the individuals, the groups, and organizations of our present troubled world
into a much less troubled world.
As we succeed,
“the life of the world may move forward” to use Winston Churchill’s words “into
broad, sunlit uplands,” or more literally: a world of widespread human
flourishing and fulfillment.
Apathetic or fainthearted, teachers —
selfish, prejudiced, short-tempered or bullying teachers —
poorly-informed, misinformed, illogical, and fuzzy-thinking teachers — won’t be
doing the kind of teaching that’s needed in our troubled “vineyard” of
humankind.
For the sake
of a peaceful world of widespread human flourishing and fulfillment, I’ve been
proposing that — in the course of their professional work — those who educate
should themselves embody and, as educators
give a prominent place to, and insightful
demonstration of, and instruction in, and practice
in using the pair of Ancient Imperatives, for testing individual choices as
well as group and organizational choices.
Daring Proposal is certainly not a call for
indoctrination. It’s a call for genuine teaching that
respects our natural desire to learn and to know and
to avoid being misled. Fulfilling those human desires
calls for respecting relevant argument (that
is, lines of reasoning and evidence, not
quarrels)!
This Daring
Proposal calls for teachers who are prepared to respectfully –
not angrily or condescendingly — refute (that
is: disprove — make a solid case against)
– rather than unmindfully dismiss, or impulsively,
willfully, or stubbornly just deny – attractive,
potentially influential false beliefs, or ill-advised
goals and aims, or faulty tests for truth.
That will
include addressing the faulty reasons some still repeat
for rejecting or dismissing that pair of Ancient Imperatives to love our neighbors
as we love ourselves, and treat others the way we’d want to be treated.
Apparently
accepting George Bernard Shaw’s dismissive comment (“people have
different tastes” p. 386 of Bregman’s 2019 Humankind, A Hopeful
History), even brilliant contemporary Dutch historian, Rutger Bregman,
did not see how the ancient Golden Rule, when mindfully applied,
yields trustworthy conclusions about how we should treat one
another. Nor did he notice that it applies
credibly to matters of differing individual tastes, as
well as to individual – and organizational — matters of life and death.
(For details, see above, especially chapters 1, 5, 7 and 8.)
That shortcoming
(certainly not unique to Bregman) should not obscure
the importance of Bregman’s own remarkably tenacious curiosity in
uncovering and bringing to our attention very good reasons for overcoming –
decisive evidence for growing beyond — the widespread cynical,
overly dark, pessimistic “modern” view of our human nature and our future.
Who will
forget his superbly documented account – chapter 18 of his 2019 Humankind,
A Hopeful History — of literally entrenched individual
human warriors during World War I, under orders to fight and to destroy the
enemy – violating those orders by – one after another — climbing out
of their opposed trenches on Christmas Eve, 1914, exchanging gifts, and
singing Christmas carols — with their enemies? These
facts are no pipedream.
And who can
fail to admire Bregman’s devoted tracking down of the
evidence – summed up in his May
2020 article in The Guardian: “The Real Lord of the Flies – what
happened when six boys really were shipwrecked for 15 months.” What
actually happened when six boys were shipwrecked
on an island, and on their own, was in very marked contrast to
Golding’s cynical, dark, pessimistic fiction.
The marooned
boys actually exhibited both what I’ve been
calling self-love and care – love
— for one another: The actions of each boy regularly measured
up well to the test of treating those on the
receiving end of one’s actions as we’d want to be treated
— as we’d want our loved ones treated.
In the Epilogue (which
defies a short summary) Bregman presents his own “rules for living” bolstered
by his significant historical studies. Many readers will find his ten
suggested rules at least attractive. The rules he
suggests clearly reflect his “more optimistic” view of our human nature.
Readers of Daring
Proposal will concur with his rule that, for example, (rather than
being inattentive or unhelpful – let alone cruel –) we should tend to be kind.
And
since, as Bregman points out, kindness tends
to be catching, educators who embody and teach those Ancient
Imperatives will have another reason for being realistically
optimistic: “Vineyardist” educators who follow such imperatives in today’s
troubled vineyard of humankind will be disseminating the productive,
fruitful, ways of love.
Again: the
pair of Ancient Imperatives is — From Leviticus:
“Do not seek revenge or bear a grudge against anyone
among your people, but love your neighbor as yourself.” Leviticus 19:18.
And, from
Jesus of Nazareth’s “Sermon on the Mount:” Matthew 7:12:
“Do to others whatever you want them to do to you.
This is the essence of all that is taught in The Law and The Prophets.”
Summing up: That pair of
Ancient Imperatives calls upon us to love – that is, to act so as to
benefit, and not to harm — our fellow human
beings . . . including opponents
and enemies! . . . as we love – that
is, seek to benefit, and not to
harm — ourselves.
Grampa Grape