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Or, we can heed Maxine Greene’s admonition to foster in each other a social imagination – the
imagination to envision a more just society, a creative public spirit, and a
collective sense of urgency to make democracy work for everyone. For Greene, an esteemed professor at Teachers
College and a tireless advocate for educating through the creative arts, a
social imagination was not idle musing or wishing what might have been. An informed social imagination leads to
action for justice.
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I invited readers to imagine along with me what it would mean if we had a Secretary of Education for America’s children: a cabinet member who
understands the gravity of being the voice of the children –all our children –
at the highest levels of government, and who acts accordingly. Now we need to imagine what a Secretary of
Education would do in her first months in office if she understood, cared
about, and used her power to advocate for the public’s schools.
Again, cue up John Lennon’s “Imagine” or maybe “What a WonderfulWorld.” And let’s imagine together…..
Imagine a Secretary
of Education who understands that an investment in America’s infrastructure
absolutely must include making sure that every public school, in every
neighborhood, is built as an engaging learning environment and an asset to its
community. That secretary would call in the Secretary of Labor to remind him
that building good schools, and renovating older ones, is a great for job
creation – for the workers immediately employed and for economies that that powerful
learning will generate in the schools they build. Our imagined Secretary would enlist the
Secretary of Health and Human Services and colleagues NIH and the CDC and EPA
for their expertise in assuring the building materials are built with
children’s health in mind, safety from toxic chemicals, with clean air and
water a given. She’d of course call on
the expertise of the Department of Energy and the professional organizations of
school architects for specs on energy efficiency and renewable systems
throughout, to model for the children a reverence for nature’s resources as
well as to reduce expenses.
Imagine a Secretary
of Education who tells the Congress and the President and infrastructure
designers to get ready to build, but not
until she has consulted with teachers and parents about what they want their
school buildings to be. Lively learning
centers, yes. Abundantly equipped, yes
– even in the poorest neighborhoods, the most remote rural counties. And inviting to all – a place where
teachers want to teach, children are excited to spend their days, parents and
neighbors know they are welcome to visit and volunteer. Well acquainted with the amenities in
private schools, the Secretary will already know that teachers need offices and
conference rooms for study and lesson prep and collaborating across
disciplines; teachers won’t have to ask for those basics. But teachers will
want to weigh in on things this particular Secretary of Education may not think
of – a community clinic with mental health services as well as basic family
medicine, spaces for parents to meet, a community liaison who knows well the
families’ languages, needs, assets and network of referral services throughout
the community.
Imagine a Secretary
of Education who understands that learning involves all the senses. She
might take a literal walk in the park to confer with the National Park Service,
the US Forest Service, the Secretary of the Interior as well as the leaders of
Nature Conservancy and various urban park systems to ask how they could work
together to make sure every American child has places to play outside. She
would have read Last Child in the Woods on the plane in from Michigan and arrived fired up to get
America’s kids outdoors, exploring, discovering, skinning their knees and – the
radical part – getting to play!
I’m beginning to like this imagined Secretary of Education. Though I doubt she’ll materialize on her own.
It will take a village – a very large and energized village and its teachers –
to “raise” her. In a future post, we’ll
imagine what she might learn from America’s teachers – if she did decide to become
the Secretary of Education for all of America’s children and all of the
public’s schools.
Add your
imaginings to mind in the Comments section here:
2 comments:
Imagining as the (maybe essential) first step toward action and change: I like it. And the relevance for job creation. Yes. AND, let's keep in mind that the emphasis need not be entirely on STEM disciplines. As emerging technologies increase productivity, we look forward to the prospect of, if not the literal "end of work", at least a dramatic reduction in work hours, and so an opportunity to recover the kind of life Marshall Sahlins, in his "The Original Affluent Society", described as typical of traditional peoples--that is, a life in which people spend relatively little time at "work," and a good deal of time telling stories, singing and dancing around the communal fire. That may be the most salient aspect of the "paleolithic prescription," at least as important as diet and exercise to living a good, fully human life.
This clearly points toward the importance of serious emphasis in education on experiences and disciples that provide the foundation for the fullest kinds of human achievement, characterized by qualities such as curiosity, insight, generosity and what might be called the spirit of poverty. Here, I believe it's fair to suggest that when one of our political leaders pointed out recently that the last thing we need is more students majoring in anthropology and French poetry, he or she got it exactly wrong. There is good reason to believe that opportunities for human fulfillment not fully realized by most since the Stone Age are rapidly becoming accessible to millions and maybe billions of people.*
Our systems of education have a crucial role to play in realizing this possibility.
The future of civilization, and indeed our planet will depend on it.
*For some thoughts on a relevant example, check out a reflection on the development of the practice of ecological restoration not just as applied science, but as a performing art on our website, Environmental Prospect ((http://environmentalprospect.org/2016/09/restoration-captured-by-ecology-and-the-consequences/ )
Bill Jordan III
The New Academy for Nature and Culture
Creating schools that center around the community is essential. In turn, the community is more invested in the schools. Schools that are a part of the community, that provide to the community, not just in future brain power, but also in health, economics, recreation, etc., seems to me to be one of the most important things one of these imagined schools could be. Even more important might be to make sure these schools are flexible as demographics shift and the community around the schools changes. This has become the norm, especially in Houston. These changes, these adaptations, need to be community-based, and they cannot be prescribed generally from on high. With that said, we cannot lose the Department of Education, as De Vos and others would like to happen. Inequality is already rampant in our education system, and vouchers or school choice, as prescribed by De Vos, is not the answer. If anything, these vouchers will help to create further stratification in terms of inequality, while also aiming for competition and falling into a further diluted pool of mediocre (or failing) schools. This is vague, I know. Imagining something better, something that actually places agency in those that work in education, those that understand communities, is a good first step. I don't think we have it this time around, though. Your calls for action have been noted, though, and I hope they continue.
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