After a half century of teaching in American public schools and much experience to the contrary, I still believe that good teachers are the most powerful individuals in their community and by extension on the planet. In each of the areas that we have studied in this course, poverty, disease, climate change, gender inequality, ultimately the root of a solution to the problem is education. For American students that means the hard facts of the state of human rights throughout the planet and an awareness of the complex connections that bind the well-being of women in repressive cultures to the well-being of every American have to become deeply integrated into the framework of our curriculum.
Here, I need to pause to make a qualification. A missionary teaching in his or her students in Uganda that the Christian Bible instructs us that all homosexuals must be executed is not part of the solution. A racist white tea-party member teaching in a minority inner-city school in Ohio who sees the girls in his class as “drains on society” is not part of the solution. They are part of the problem, but they must be taken into account because of the force against social good that they exert.
My generation of American educators were activists. In the early 70’s, we constructed a national revision in the teaching of social studies, history, and literature that emphasized global awareness and a rethinking of America’s historical role in world affairs. Discussion of America’s support of apartheid in South Africa, and support for South American and Middle Eastern dictators became part of the standard curriculum. Model UN’s sprouted up across the country - for the first time, tens of thousands of high school students did some deep research into global poverty, hunger, human rights, and gender inequality. Well and good, until conservative forces in the 80’s began to push the country back to “That’s their problem, not America’s problem” complacency.
Rapid globalization of production and the events of 9/11 woke us up. It has become clear now that girls and women like Malala and the human rights of all women are connected to the peace and well-being of all Americans.Violent, repressive cultures commit violent globally disruptive acts. Repression slows the growth of the world’s economy to which we are now so completely entangled.(1.)
Martha Nussbaum reminds us that, “The real wealth of a nation is its people. And the purpose of development is to create an enabling environment for people to enjoy long, healthy, and creative lives. This simple but powerful truth is too often forgotten in the pursuit of material and financial wealth.” (2.)
I do not want to leave the impression that all is well for girls and women in my country. It is not. The lives of minority women and girls in a America are often as harsh and brutal as in many in underdeveloped countries. Millions of minority girls attend schools which fail to prepare them for a future of well-being. Schools where they are daily subjected to violence and sexual abuse. More than a quarter of the girls in my school district are in foster homes. Many in their fourth or fifth placement before they are 18. Those who do succeed are those who fortunate to meet some of our most effective teachers. Teachers who know how to nurture intelligence and grit.
My proposals are simple:
- Train, hire, and pay good teachers. To not hire the best is to fail.
- Teach a curriculum framed by global awareness. Ignorance is not acceptable.
2. Martha Nussbaum on the capabilities approach http://www.thenation.com/article/159928/what-makes-life-good#
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