"Does it impel some action?"

I am fortunate to work with some very talented people. One of them is C.R. Williams, the principal of Lincoln School. Besides being one of the best "data hounds", he knows more about art history than anyone I've met. What I like best about C.R. is his writing. He has a narrative style that engages the audience and tells a story to make a strong point without seeming preachy. Each month he publishes his school newsletter. This month's column in below. It is certainly worth a read.

Along with other members of the district faculty, I am taking a graduate course, “Teaching the Holocaust” offered for free by Kean University at JCHS.

While I’m gaining a better understanding of the chronology of the 1930’s and 40’s in Europe, what I’m really trying hard to wrap my mind around is “How?” How could a well educated population not stand up to bigots? How could the nation that produced the most famous philosophers of the early twentieth century not defend their neighbors, the people who they have known their entire lives, the very people who lived next door? How could a technologically advanced nation become an abomination?

One quote that has particularly seized my mind is from Hiam Ginott, the teacher, child psychiatrist and psychologist, who wrote in Teacher and Child: “I am a survivor of a concentration camp. My eyes saw what no man should witness. Gas chambers built by learned engineers. Children poisoned by educated physicians…So I am suspicious of education. My request is: help your students become human. Your efforts must never produce learned monsters…Reading, writing and arithmetic are important only if they serve to make our children more humane.”

I hope we teach reading so that our children can do more than read a technical manual. I hope that our aim is to have them scrutinize fiction and non-fiction seeking the truths that a works contains. I hope that reading becomes a way to expand the world and to fully embrace the people in it. It seems pointless to me to teach mathematics only to count populations or track money. I want every child to grow into a citizen who can understand statistics enough to analyze what numbers indicate; to understand that social policy decisions made from numbers have moral implications.

Social studies and science are disciplines to frame the world. Our children need to approach them with both knowledge and a critical framework. We who teach need to encourage our students to ask questions. They need to discuss implication, point-of-view and frame-of-reference. One wonderful teacher of mine at Penn State used to ask me, “So what?” What she was implying was: So now you know all of this. What does it mean? Does it impel some action?

Knowledge is neutral. This year I hope to help children to ask questions about what they know and what should be done with this knowledge. We probably all know the American philosopher, George Santayana’s words, but they bear repeating: “Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it.” There are some pasts too horrible to repeat and only education that encourages questioning will prevent that repetition.

Photo Credit: http://www.stanford.edu/~jrdx/PICS/drop_jet_cropped.jpg
Also posted on http://plethoratech.blogspot.com