“…knowledge carries with it the responsibility to see that it is well used in the world.” – David Orr
My philosophy of education draws upon David Orr’s work. He places great emphasis on the principles that bind together knowledge and responsibility; this philosophy puts the education of students in context. Students should not see themselves as completely separate entities from their environment; this is a sentiment I believe should hold true at both the local and global level. Increasingly, I have found students going through the motions of school life but never truly engaging in purposeful education; this includes my own peers as well as myself. As David Orr (1990) once said, great knowledge carries with it the obligation to be used in the world responsibly. As the classroom is really where most students begin to engage in more complex relationships with others and how they comprehend the world, I believe it is essential to cultivate a classroom environment wherein students come to understand that knowledge gained, in of itself, serves no purpose; it is the use of knowledge that determines its worth, and the value of knowledge is something society decides on.
To better understand the needs of society, students need to understand their own self and sense of responsibility to others. The classroom is the first place they must truly acknowledge differences and learn to work collaboratively. As stated by Schonert-Reichl and Hymel (2007), “the very nature of school-based learning is relational”. The school environment is the quasi-natural setting for students to start engaging in more complex interactions with one another and really begin to face tasks that put their moral principles and inter-relational skills to the test. Some of the essential life skills identified as being important to parents and educators are to have caring and supportive interpersonal relationships, and to demonstrate empathy and care for others (Schonert-Reichl and Hymel, 2007). The purpose of creating good citizens has never truly left education, and in a time when interdependency is more necessary than ever, citizenship cannot be brushed aside.
The importance of citizenship and sense of national identity seems an obvious element of public schooling, but the nature of an increasingly interdependent world makes teaching in a multicultural society such as Canada a daunting task. However, choosing to teach from a single perspective is an undesirable alternative, which carries the dangers of teaching ignorance. An unfortunate example of educated ignorance is the horrifying treatment of Aboriginal peoples in Canadian residential schools, an issue that has only been acknowledged by the Canadian government in recent years. In order to avoid such tragedies in the future, it is necessary to educate young minds on more than a single way of thinking. Education should not be superficial. Rather than merely celebrating diversity, there should be greater emphasis on the importance of critiquing differences between cultures; to better understand the complex racial and cultural identities of students and their connected communities, as suggested by Harper (1997). This education, ideally, will improve the human capacity for tolerance, acceptance, innovation and imagination in counteracting many of the environmental issues and societal injustices that plague the world we live in.
I do not wish to teach students to think as I do – rather the role of a teacher is to provide a scaffold for independent thought and inquiry of a world that can be very difficult to understand. My own folly is that I, like every human being, am bound by my own culture; and with my culture, I have my own biases and lenses through which I view the world. How can I teach the “right” way of thinking, without teaching the dominant way of thinking? What can I do to help my students become intelligent, ethical and compassionate global citizens? How can engaging in the local community help my students and myself to think beyond our borders to our international neighbours? I do not believe there is a single right answer and right response to any of these questions, but there can be many effective answers and responses as long as we educate our students to be open-minded to change, differences, and compromise in a world that is implicitly full of change, differences and compromise.
References:
Harper, H. (1997). Difference and diversity in Ontario schooling. Canadian Journal of Education, 22 (2), 192-206.
Orr, D. (1991). “What is education for?” Context. URL: http://www.context.org/iclib/ic27/orr/
Schonert-Reichl, K. A., & Hymel. S. (2007). Educating the heart as well as the mind: Why social and emotional learning is critical for students’ school and life success. Education Canada, 47, 20-25.