You and I — Can We Create a Better World?

Are we asking ourselves this question? We should be, regardless of our individual ages.

Photo by Dan DeAlmeida on Unsplash

I know this isn’t the world I thought I’d be living in when I first became politically aware at age 17, arguing for the admittance of Red China to the United Nations and fending off the label of “communist.” Thirteen years later I visited the Peoples’ Republic of China months before President Carter normalized relations with them and had unforgettable experiences with the Chinese people.

40 Years Ago I Walked Into Red China

I became very discouraged with the advent of Ronald Reagan, and my view of our potential world kept “slip sliding away,” small step by small step. Until November 2016….

I had often wondered how people in war-torn countries coped with such a sudden change of events. The last years have shown us we’re not coping well at all, even though on a day-to-day basis literal bombs aren’t raining down on us.

We face a lack of progress in this country, a lack of any visionary ideas for our collective futures, dissatisfaction with the status quo and no idea how to change it, disappointment in our lives, disillusionment with our institutions, anger and despair at just about everyone, and impotence in our ability to make meaningful change.

Disillusionment, anger, despair — and no way out…or so it seems. What’s missing from us for the last several decades is an educational system that allows us to create, reform, and re-envision our future. We cannot go blindly into this future without systemic change in how we educate.

We are not a farming nation, dependent on a weather calendar.

We are not a manufacturing nation, dependent on a workforce of skilled individuals.

We are not an educated nation that values its teachers and pays them for their daily efforts in creating thinking adults.

We are not an equitable nation, with millions fighting to stay alive medically, emotionally, financially, educationally, with liberty and justice for all.

We are now a service nation, dependent on jobs that barely allow us to earn enough to live at a subsistence level. We are now a have — have-not nation, divided along economics, class, race, gender, and religion.

What do we do?

First, identify the people who will develop this systemic change — those with “skin in the game,” as Nassim Taleb writes.

We need teachers of all levels, with practical experience (not just coursework), retired or not.

No more teaching to ridiculous tests. Flip our classrooms so teachers facilitate while listening to the concerns of the students. Climate change? Develop a set of essential questions and turn the students loose to research, question, plan, and present ideas.

I’d venture that a good percentage of teachers who are underpaid and want to leave the classroom because of the restrictions, abuse, and policies that prevent them from working with students would stay in the classroom if they thought they could take over and actually teach critical thinking. I would go back in my seventh decade if I thought I could change how we teach and learn.

We need students as soon as they can voice their opinions and justify their thinking — one of the most “left out” groups to help solve these problems.

Diane Feinstein from California should be ashamed of telling the students who came to speak with her that they were too young to understand the problems in creating/passing the Green New Deal. She did what most adults do to teenagers — UNDERESTIMATE them and their ideas. Would it have been so hard to listen to these potential voters?

Look at the teenagers from Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School and the change they wrought in the face of indescribable tragedy.

Look at lone Greta Thunberg skipping school on Fridays to protest climate change and then think of her scolding world leaders at the United Nations.

Our young people have so much to offer, and their voices are never heard — if they are, they are ignored or chastised or bullied.

We need parents who have seen good and bad classrooms, have truly listened to what their children say about school experiences, and have an openness to what children need.

Let’s look at providing the resources our young people want and need — even if some might find it regressive, ill-formed, unsuitable for young minds. The few can no longer keep the many from learning what they need — censorship must become a loud, vibrant, ongoing discussion. If you’re worried about a book that might make your children sad about our history - DON’T BURN IT - discuss it with your children. You can help make the next generation of activists.

Notice I have not included education professors or school administrators who have never set foot in a classroom and have no idea how to evaluate successful learning, lawyers, politicians, consultants — unless they have “skin in the game” — they must have walked the talk, not just theorized about it.

Teachers, students, and parents — the most powerful triumvirate we can develop — if we talk, listen, plan, question, change the daily routines, question more, and make incremental daily changes in everything around us.

Right now, neither mainstream political party can come together to determine a plan to fix threats of inequality, falling life expectancy, growing rates of suicide, interminable wars, and a crumbling democracy.

We tear apart ideas — and people — with whom we don’t agree. Listening is no longer a viable skill. We are too concerned and busy trying to save our Constitution, prevent a nuclear war, feed our families, and get our young people energized.

Those of us with boots on the ground are too busy scratching out an existence. Schools are falling apart; take a look at photos from the Arizona, Los Angeles, and West Virginia actions — see the roaches in the classrooms, the broken lab equipment, and the filthy bathrooms. Avoiding nuclear war or fixing the bathrooms? Both are admirable goals and not an “either/or” situation.

Where do we start? We start by listening to where our children would like to go. Our concerns are no doubt much the same, but for the younger generations, they are much more urgent. They will tell us what we need to do. Just because some young people won’t buy-in and will knock off because they can and leave the work to the rest of us doesn’t mean we can’t start. If we and our students don’t do the work for change, then who will?

Listen to all the parties involved — REALLY LISTEN. No labels, no name-calling. LISTEN and question. Ask ourselves the hard questions:

Are we a moral nation?

Are we responsible for our neighbor?

What is morality?

How should a community operate?

When is it necessary to share and/or combine resources?

What does living a kind and moral life mean?

Are there ways to develop moral living?

What role does the rule of law play?

Who makes the laws?

Isn’t it amazing to think of the possibilities?

ADDENDUM: after completing the draft of this last night, I woke up with a burning thought of my own. This is so WHITE. My white privilege was showing through most of the ideas and questions. Yes, I as a mature white woman am asking these questions…because I think they are critical for our survival.

But in a classroom of young people, I need to be sure my students are diverse. I learned from actual experience what that looks like: in 2010 I returned to Vermont from Tucson for a retirement party for a friend. I walked into the high school I taught at and gasped — literally. The school was a sea of white. No people of color at all, but that is the general demographic of rural Vermont. As I walked out I realized how fortunate I was to be at the largest high school in urban Tucson with its multitude of ethnic groups. My teaching was better because of it. I was better at understanding.

So where does that leave me now? Where does that leave us as a nation? Let’s try some more inclusive questions:

How do various ethnic groups create neighborhoods?

What can we learn from the various neighborhoods around us? What puzzles us? What scares us? What sounds like a great idea?

Does the issue of morality differ within and between ethnic groups?

What does the immigrant experience bring to our neighborhoods?

What historically has been the experience of immigrant groups, not just to the United States but to other countries?

What has led us to be frightened of immigrants — or anyone “different from us?

How do we define “different from us”?

Does it come with built-in stereotypes?

NOW isn’t it amazing to think of the possibilities?

An earlier version of this story appeared in The Start-Up, a Medium.com publication. (2019)