Tags
Barack Obama, education, Gun control, President, Sandy Hook Elementary, Senseless Violence, United States
Dear Mr. President,
In light of the recent tragedy at Sandy Hook Elementary, we are all wrestling with what is the proper response to yet another scene of tragedy, violence and loss of innocence. As the father of a first grader and a three year old, my heart sticks when I drop my kids off at school now for fear that this morning might be the last morning I had breakfast with them, that last night might be the last night I read to them a bedtime story.
In your powerful and beautiful cry to find a way, any way, to change the moral climate of America so that we do more by the most vulnerable among us and thereby offer a better future to everyone, you stated that we as a nation were not doing all we could do, and you pledged that each one of us must find a step that might lead us forward. Since you called on educators to engage in this conversation, I offer my thoughts, however small they may be.
As both a theologian and a philosopher of moral education, it has long been my argument that we must re-imagine what we mean by being well-educated if we want a more virtuous union. I know education alone is not the complete answer, but it does seem to me that if we get education right, so many other things come along with it.
What seems to be all-too-familiar in the discussions of the individuals who commit these heinous acts of senseless violence is how alone they appeared both to themselves and to others. In a moral climate of rabid individualism that encourages personal accumulation and selfish consumption, I posit that what schooling must do is reassess what we believe is right and good for our future generations. If these individuals had felt a sense of belonging, connection and responsibility for their fellow man, perhaps they would have chosen different paths.
I am convinced that education has derailed along the lines of what we most need for our society. In an age of high-stakes testing and standardized curriculum, there is little space for assessing wisdom, moral courage, and active kindness. Every human has been given both the blessing and the weight of free will, the power to choose that which is good, wise, sound and virtuous or that which is destructive, damaging, unhealthy and ruinous, and it lies within the power of education in all its guises (the schoolhouse, the family, the church, politics, media, etc.) to offer students the capacity to choose wisely.
The one small step I would offer in this larger conversation is this: help us, Mr. President, rethink what is possible through the power of education. Give us the strength and the courage to help students think beyond their own self glorification and gratification, to chose the more difficult work of pursuing civic virtue for the common good.
The great purpose of life is not to build cities dominated by skyscrapers but communities reflective of full human flourishing, not to create empires of wealth but families of love, not to inflame desires but to satisfy deep longings, not to waste time in small pursuits but to give our lives to transcendent causes, not to venerate cults of violence but to turn swords into plowshares, not to live with our nose to the grindstone but to sing and dance.
Again, I know that this does not touch the issues of mental health, gun control, the culture of violence we glorify in our media, school security or any number of the things that go into unraveling the hydra before us, nor do I think education is the cure-all for what ails us, but I do believe that education has the power to turn homo sapiens into fully robust, caring, ethical human beings capable of dreaming big dreams and writing better stories both for themselves and for the common good.
As an educator, theologian, philosopher, father and citizen, I offer whatever I can to help see your vision of a better America come true.
Thank you for your heartfelt words, moral conviction and strength of resolve.
May God bring comfort to the grieving, hope to the barren, and light to the dark places.
I watched the speech he gave on Sunday yesterday. He was clearly choked up.
Your post reminded me of the word “philosophy”. “Phileo” for “love” and “Sophia” for wisdom, a love of wisdom. I love that “phileo” was used to designate love, as opposed to the other three loves. It reminds me of family, a community of human beings willing to shoulder one another’s burdens. I certainly agree that these individuals that commit these seem isolated in some way. Of course, there are other factors, but that certainly seems like a continuity.
I also appreciate the fact that you conceded that proper education is not the entire solution to this terrible puzzle we seem to be stuck in. One of my professors pointed out that in his “Republic”, Plato seems to assume that proper education can create virtue in a person. Certainly such education can help understand and foster virtue, but it is still up to the individual to decide which part of their soul should rule and at what time. Still, I think, again, about the saying “Know Thyself”, and I wonder, what danger lies in not knowing oneself in what you said was an enivronment of “rabid individualism”?
To me, you have hit on the central chord of my post: “proper” education is what is needed and not just more testing of the wrong sort. Plato’s concept of “mis-education” is key to my belief that were we to offer students what they need to make wise decisions that led to more virtuous living and thinking about the common good, we might offer a deeper connection both to what it means to be human and what it means to live humanely. Rabid individualism is a focus on one’s own self glorification and gratification that leads to what Immanuel Kant called “radical evil.”
Thanks for adding to the discussion!
I want to share an amazing short film called “A Perfect Day” about a potential mass shooter on the morning of, and an unsuspecting stranger who opens the shooter’s eyes to the implications of what he’s about to do. Powerful stuff!
I completely agree with your sentiments…especially on REAL education. Yes, the President seemed not only choked up, but also a kind of burning anger. His voice sounded quite different to usual. I am hoping that something very positive will come out of all this grief and sadness…
I was thinking along these same lines but why not take it a step further. Why not all of us, today, starting right now, get out and just be kind to everyone we meet, including and especially those socially awkward, the ones who make us uncomfortable? Who is the person we run into, stranger or not, that just needs a kind word, a smile? Why do we withhold love? Makes no sense. Just get out of ourselves and be kind. Sometimes all it takes is a simple smile.
Great ideas! Being human should, at its base level, mean being humane.