I said at the conclusion of my last post that I would share my answer in this one.
Unfortunately, that may not be exactly true. You see, my answer is more a sort of haze of experience and reflection that pulls me from one place towards another. In a sense, my answer continues to be made up of a bunch of questions born from the dissolution of previous answers.
That may seem just way over the top obtuse. I’m sorry. But, my answer will hopefully involve others asking similar questions as we sift through prior assumptions to seek what’s behind. Oh, it may not be of a Wizard of Oz magnitude. We’ll have to see.
I grew up a kind of early social justice warrior before that term became commonplace as both lauded and decried. As a SJW, I looked out for the poor and oppressed and tried to promote liberty, opportunity and justice for all, marching, working in the barrios and ghettos, campaigning for this or that cause. So, teaching and learning in schools was a place to represent the associated ideals and to inculcate their values. Only when I experienced a school falling apart at the seams that had worked hard at this, did I begin to question if I was really missing something.
In the years that followed, as I was asked to help build and open a brand new large high school as principal and to structure its curriculum and culture top to bottom, I began to experiment with a shift in my approach to school leadership. We started that school with two simple core values. While simple on the surface, they were deep in potential and meant to be integrated everywhere. By focusing on just two and agreeing they were core, no mistake could be made as to what we were about and what was important. We wanted solid ground. Not sand. They were (and remain after I departed): Challenging everyone to do great things and to be nurturing of one another. We would both expect the best and care the most. That’s it. The goal was to infuse all meetings, conversations, endeavors and programs with these as the fuel. Despite our many lapses and our inability to always live by our two core values, we did OK. Well, more than OK. It’s not surprising the school flourished.
Do really good stuff. Be kind, compassionate and loving. Figure it out. Stay focused. Everything proceeds from those two things.
I left that school a different person than when I began. And, now, some five years later, my thinking has continued to evolve. What had begun in the crises of that one year of 2000-2001, and morphed into experiment about culture and core objectives in subsequent years, is continuing to percolate as I ask, “what’s the point?”
Because, you see, I want to know what’s behind the curtain of Oz.
We all suffer from a kind of Oz syndrome (I just thought that up as I’m typing and am not sure if it’s silly or relevant!). We think something is real and profound until we search and work and suffer and find out we were mistaken. What was promised just didn’t deliver.
What is the truth that lies obscured? What is it that makes a human fully human and why is that something you can take to the bank?
Because if we can’t answer that question, what business do we have saying we know how to “grow” young people into adults?
Yes, what business do we have?
Here’s what I believe.
Humans are meant to be unique individuals, each endowed with very specific gifts. We are all not the same in that we have different gifts but that we are completely equal in our value. Our gifts are manifested as skills, and when expressed, seem natural and without effort. We are not accidents nor mere physical/chemical/biological groups of particles that happen to coalesce in random moments. We have meaning.
Does that sound religious? Oh well. You are welcome to the alternative.
We are meant for purpose and that purpose is profoundly good. It is not bad. While this is of course debatable, it is also non-negotiable. A fundamental truth. Contrary to the belief of some that we are born good and learn bad, we are born into nature which is cold and unforgiving, ultimately heartless. While remarkably beautiful and majestic, it is a violent place that rewards the strong and cunning and defeats the weak and vulnerable. This is the state of nature. Humans are the same flesh and blood as beasts yet we have something different. We have a conscience and the will to be different. We are given the ability to think and make judgments, to develop principles and the morality that those principles demand.
To construct a society that ignores this truth is to deny this truth and set out on a different path. That path ultimately leads to a place of value neutrality, no matter how you try to deny it. We can construct platforms of rules based upon principles that, in the end, are subject to the question upon which they ultimately rest. Oz.
What does this mean for schools and learning? Well, it means we need to be honest.
Had I to do it over again, I would do it differently.
I would be honest to teach that material wealth does not lead to happiness, nor is happiness an ideal that should be at all recognized as a reasonable objective in life. It is fragile and ephemeral and, honestly, a pretty unsatisfying deal. In its place, I would ask students to explore the idea of contentment, even when faced with major struggles. And, I would ask them to consider the idea of joy and the conditions under which joy appears.
I would teach that the most important thing we could do each day is look at the person next to us is seek to know what they hope for and what they worry about. To see if there is any way that we can bring a little bit of joy or light into their life. That is the most important thing we could do each day and every day for the rest of our lives. Period.
I would require every student to serve an internship in a place where people suffer, whether from extreme poverty, neglect, illness, harsh disability, or any other condition where life has dealt a bad hand. I would ask them to learn what these people fear and what they hope for, what hurts them and what they enjoy. I would require these students to reflect on their experience and write extensively on what they believe the meaning of human life is.
I would teach that our job as young adults is to be extremely wary of pride as a distractor from what is most valuable. Instead, let us, as young adults, see ourselves as the least of those around us. Let us open our hearts to empathy and compassion in exchange for minds bent upon conquest. I would teach that.
I would teach that we are all captives to lies. To the lies that a treadmill of productivity and creativity and wealth generation, while leading to comfort or better health, you name it, are not what is important. While certainly, yes, we want to feed and clothe and assist people in pulling out of pain and destitute circumstances, the primary goal is to free them from the lie that they exist without hope and that hope lies in consumption. No, hope lies in the realization that we are free to love and be loved.
I would teach that careers and financial independence are but chimeras, things hoped for but illusive. They are means, not ends.
I would teach the concept of community, not as something government imposed or a utopian concept, but as an organic thing that springs up naturally, because we are hard-wired for relationships. I would ask students to define the values of a good community and to do some very specific things to strengthen the community of their choice.
I would require every student in their last year to develop a vision for their life. They would have been working towards this for years. It will be founded on fundamental principles and incorporate a set of values. They would articulate the knowledge and experience that support this vision. Additionally, they would consider the pathway ahead and the means they would employ in order to achieve that vision. And, I would require that all of their teachers would share their own vision as we model the importance of being grounded and this is not just an academic exercise.
I would teach every day that we should be slow to judge and quick to love. Period.
What is the point? That’s the point.
For, to choose any other path is to ignore the fundamental reality that that’s what we’re meant for. That’s what it means to be fully human. Loving, Kind, Patient, Compassionate. Focused on what’s really important.
Oh, and, strong and resourceful and courageous. For that’s what it takes to live this kind of life in a world that teaches something very different. Just ask Martin Luther King. Just ask Dietrich Bonhoeffer. Just ask Jesus. These people are celebrated. Do we really ask what made them tick?
So, we can build and run schools that teach creativity, productivity, citizenship, critical thinking, teamwork and the whole litany. We can and should teach a vast array of important skills, both basic and advanced. But, beneath and beyond it all, do we teach that which is so much more important? How to live humbly, patiently, kindly, compassionately? Do we teach that happiness is but mist and can dissolve at the blink of an eye? Do we teach that equality means we are all of the same value, although we demonstrate vastly different native skills and inclinations? Do we teach that freedom can only happen when we let loose of the fiction that material gain will truly make a difference in our lives?
Do we teach that the measure of a person is the relationships they nurture, the lives they are part of, both in joy and sorrow? That an appropriate epitaph is not one that says,”he who dies with the most toys, wins.”
Yes, maybe we should teach that the core of being human is to fight hard to gain the most advantage over everyone else. Dominance is the highest virtue. Climb the ladder at all costs.
Or, maybe we should teach that we humans are perfectible, not flawed, and the way to achieve perfectibility is to slice away at the imperfections, especially in others.
Or, maybe we should teach that there is no absolute value in the work we do. That it’s all in the cause of something greater down the road, even if it’s unseen. Yes, let’s not consider the consequences of our work because that takes too much work in itself. “I am important and my work is important, therefore it does not make a difference what it leads to.” Zyklon B. Look it up.
I see it differently.
I regret that I did not realize many of these things earlier. I’m convinced I’d have been a better father, husband, friend, teacher and principal.
On the other hand, I rest in the knowledge that I was born with a caring heart and a discerning mind. I also rest in the knowledge that my life is a journey, just as it is for everyone, and I need to keep my eyes focused on the most important things. I may stumble and fall short. I may examine my behavior and find it lacking and others may have good cause to look at me critically. But, I’m grateful for a voice that calls me to deep and helps me to shed the things that distract me from what really matters.
What’s the point? I think I’ve done what I can to make my case. Amen.
bradlichtman 
Very interesting exercise, Brad, with the 3-part “What’s the Point” Series.
With a life and career dedicated to shools and education, this is huge. Great insights.
I read this as it came out, but felt tht it would be slighted with less than a thoughtful, reasoned reply. I have been busier, and unable to really devote myself to writing a reply
You suggested, in Part 1, that while there are relatively few actual teachers, everyone considers himself to be an expert in that field. While I have not been a student in a classroom since I took a few evening classes at OCC, (hoping, unsuccessfully, to meet some Orange County beach-babes), I watch closely, and believe myself to be more plugged into, and a more interested observer, of education, than 95% of adults.
I was a product of Public Education from K-B.A., and my wife is a product of Private, primarily Catholic, Education, K-M.A. She also worked, as a teacher at a private Catholic K-8 School, without a teaching credential, for several years.
There are multiple aspects to your 3-part essay, Brad. I almost feel that it would take too many hours, or more than I have, to respond to each of them, so I may bite them off one at a time. And I don’t know whether it is fair, Brad, in seeing you as an insider, to blame you, or even aspociate much of what I believe (admittedly as an outsider) is happening. If these are cheap shots, Brad, then forgive me.
In your part 3, and the part of part 2 in which you had the horrible months at Grossmont with the shootings, suicides, 911, etc., you had to take drastic action. You could not pretend that everything was fine. I doubt that there was any manual suggesting that you have all the students link arms around the whole campus, but brilliant. I have no doubt that these were terrible times, and your prescription, and the simplicity, were doubtless genius.
But at the same time, you suggest that the empirical evidence, based on what you saw in those terrible months and year, form what is basically a Christian recipe for education. Please bear with me.
I remember when Al Gore was running for President, in one of the debates, that he was asked one of those open-ended, last question of the night type querstions like “What do you wish you had done more of?” His answer was something to the effect that he and Mrs. Gore had almost lost a son, about a 4 year old, as I recall. He said that in the aftermath, when the child’s mortality had been assured, that he had been praying in Thanksgiving with his wife, and that together, they came to the realization that they should, out of gratitude to God, work harder to save the environment.
I remember thinking, as I watched the debate, that he already believed that, that that was really his one issue of passion, and that we were somehow to believe that God had told him that He had been spared Al’s son’s life, but not to blow it by not being grateful, by not protecting God’s earth.
I absolutely agree that each child matters, that the dignity of every child is important, that every day is a blessing, that everyone needs to know his neighbor’s ambitions and fears, that we need to recognize suffering, I also believe that children should be taught that wealth should not be an ambition, that we are a community, that we should have a vision for life, etc. I am also equally and absolutely convinced that these values should be taught.
If anyone else is reading this, they will without question ask how I could suggest that your reasoning is convoluted, But your argument basically suggests that since these ideas and precepts worked in a terrible time, they have proven validity.
I will try to provide a sort of parallel analogy.
It is not politically correct to suggest that Capitalism, or Democracy, are better forms of government or a better way to arrange a society, and it is rarely done. But you can take rankings of the GNP, or the level of medical care, or the number of patents and scientific advancement, or the fairness and impartiality of the courts, or the quality of the press, average age at death, or any other measure, There are anomalies, like Dubai and Qatar, where a few hundred thousand people live in a small country that sits on a giant pool of oil right below the surface, and their GNP per capita is above the industrialized (Capitalist, Democratic) world. But our modern world is characterized by unbelievable medical procedures, by incredible communication, by more overweight people than in the history of the world, and most all of these advances are from the Democratic, Capiralist part of the world.
We have nephews who are going to a very highly regarded Jesuit High School. They are Freshmen, and they are taking Middle Eastern History, 1500’s and 1600’s. Their father is a very educated man, and he pointed out that while Mddle Eastern History of that time was characterized by advances in irrigation and astronomy, in Europe, William Shakespeare was at work, Mendel was doing his work in Genetics, Copernicus was alive, (doing whatever it is that he did). (And I am aware that , during this time, the Chinese were doing these far beyond what they are given credit for in the west, with dynastic royalty – the Gavin Menzies books). But apparently someone decided that Middle Easstern History should be taught
In trying to tie this all together, though, we can say that some of the world lives better than some of the rest, but that we cannot conclude that Capitalism is better. We can show that country after country which is Capitalist has better education, more technological and medical breakthroughs, higher per capita wealth, etc., etc. but we cannot deduce or conclude that either Capitalism or Democracy is responsible. It is almost hard not to come to that conclusion.
And, Brad, I would also suggest that living a Christian Life, whatever that means, is a better way. Christianity teaches us that we are a community, and that every member of that community is precious and worthwhile. Christianity tells us that we are responsible for our own actions, and the well being of those around us. Christianity certainly gives us a path. I would go so far as to suggest that Christianity, Democracy, and Capitalism, are a better way.
So Brad, forgive me if this is condescending. Your series is very thought provoking. And the terrible times that you went through were certainly confirmation that caring is important, that everyone is important, that we must love and support each other, etc. But it would also be much more surprising if you had found that being selfish worked (you could have advocated that everyone needed to be strong alone, rather than to rely on someone who might shoot them), or that or that caring was way overrated, etc.
The fact is, you have always lived that, and that when the hard times hit your schools, and your kids, you went back to your bedrock, You probably intuited that this was what would resonate, and then were confirmed. and validated when it worked so well.
And while I know that you are a true believer, I also know that neither you, nor I can just come out and say that Christianity is better. Especially in today’s world.
And I absolutely believe that the leadership you provided during those tumultuous and terrible times was
magnificent, and I have no doubt that part, or much, of those principles, came from your heartfelt beliefs.
I am just a little fuzzy on the chicken and the egg. Did the hard times lead you to your beliefs for education, or were they confirmation of what you already held?
I have a few more thoughts on contemporary education, but may look at those at a later point,
Many thanks, Brad
SF
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Thank you for your considered reply, Shack! Let’s get something out of the way. Nothing you said or insinuated in any way was condescending or a cheap shot … except perhaps in some way comparing me to Al Gore, of whom I am not a fan. (Apologies to his supporters in this audience!) ☺
I appreciate your willingness to engage me and to contribute to this discussion. Allow me to respond.
From my perspective, you raise two very good points and pose a reasonable question.
One is that the twin ideologies of democracy and capitalism have contributed to remarkable advances in many areas of life. They are two sides of the same coin: They posit that when we are truly free to make our own way, we will be creative and productive, resulting in a flourishing of self and society. And, yes, Christianity shares many of these principles as it extols the sanctity of each individual and sees us as reflecting the nature of God, as a creative and productive being.
So, yes, I agree with you that an economic system that promotes diverse markets and seeks to free us from unreasonable restraints is much better than its antithesis: Socialism. While the goal of Socialism is noble in a simplistic sense, it sadly results in tyranny that is truly harmful. And, history is filled with examples. Socialism rose out of the need to restrain the oppressive power of extreme wealth … new wealth controlled by the industrial super rich, monarchies and oligarchies, and the Church. This unbridled enthusiasm to amass wealth and power in the pursuit of massive capital gains left tremendous misery in its wake. Alas, the antidote proved worse than the disease. Just as greed created anti-capitalistic monopolies and perverted the core idea, so did the lust for power wielded through state authority pervert the noble idea of protecting regular people from abuse. Communism and National Socialism (Nazism) are the children of anti-Capitalist Socialism. Of course, there are examples, predominantly in Western Europe, of societies that try a soft sort of Socialism while also exhibiting capitalistic tendencies. People are free to debate and argue the benefits and limitations of the various models.
Which brings us back to Christianity, a “philosophy” that has been appropriated by both capitalists (freedom of the individual) and socialists (importance of equality and sharing of goods and services).
Of course, the Gospel (as revealed to us in the remarkable New Testament), offers us a third way. We are equally free and loved, both of which exist because of God. We are free to be creative and to use our wonderful and unique gifts. But the virtue of temperance, so clearly exemplified in the life of Jesus and in the teachings of his followers, leads us to pull back from the unbridled pursuit of self-interest. We are, instead, called to see others as ourselves and join with them as brothers and sisters. All of which you stated, Shack.
I’ll add a cautionary note before trying to answer your question. Democracy, Capitalism and Christianity all have limitations that should cause us concern. Democracy can be a liberating political system, although it bears the seeds of anarchy and terror. Man, after all, is not perfect and there is no such thing as complete political equality. Its latest manifestation as the ideology of Tolerance, is the perfect example. I have written about that before. Capitalism becomes just as perverted as Democracy, given man’s innate inclinations. And, unfortunately, so lives Christianity, as an ideology of its own. To the extent we try use its framework to bludgeon people or insinuate that God exists to fulfill our wishes and desires, we do not reflect the life and teachings of Jesus. After all, he came to destroy religion. So, yes, I agree with you that tempered capitalism and tempered democracy and an untempered Gospel are better than the alternative!
Now, so far as the chicken and the egg: Briefly, I had a couple of epiphanies in the context of these three pieces I wrote. The first was the realization that I had been too focused on the achievement side as a young principal. This is not to say I lacked compassion and a big heart as a teacher and principal. I’m humbled by students and teachers through the years who have testified to those qualities. But, I did not devote as much attention to embedding compassion and care into school culture as an educational leader as I should have. That first epiphany resulted from that terrible year. The second was when I surrendered to Jesus, after fighting the truth of his existence for many decades. In the months and years that have followed, my appreciation and understanding of the Gospel has deepened immeasurably. Through that lens, I can see the pattern of my life and God’s role in my life from the beginning. Little escapes such a laser beam focus. Including education. I am both the same person with many similar values I’ve had since childhood and through adulthood. But, I am wholly different. If it makes any sense, there is neither chicken nor egg.
I’ve probably made all of this as clear as mud! But, as Yoda would say, “a healthy discussion it is!” ☺
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