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 PrintableVersion Education: do you suppose we could be wrong?After about two decades in teaching, I have seen quite a bit and lived through (just about!) many changes. 'What goes around, comes around', as they say. Everything is up for grabs and previous ideas come back into fashion. The one concept in the field of education which does not seem to change is the idea that mankind is basically alright. We have made a few mistakes, admittedly, but underneath it all we are good. What comes naturallyThere is no question that this is not the case. There are many wonderful ideas and concepts discussed and put forward in research, but they all revolve around this central precept. The ideas and issues discussed are cogent and have a direct and helpful bearing on my own work, but we don't seem able to face the painful fact that we do not measure up. I deal with large groups of children every day, as do all teachers, and the facts are inescapable. Children are not good. They naturally do wrong. A Soviet researcher, Krutetskii, indicates that mental trait and abilities are not inborn, but always the result of development. This means that we are not born good or bad, but affected one way or another by our experiences in life. This is backed up by almost everyone I have read, in some form or other. The key is 'self-realisation' (Smith, 1997), which must be achieved through independent activity. It is asserted that if we simply find a way for learners to be aware of the powers of the mind, then everything will be OK. If I keep bad experiences away from the children, then they will be good automatically. 'The job of teaching is to bring about self-awareness through whatever means are available in the environment' (Gattengo, 1974). If I teach children about honourable and valuable things then they will grow up upright and worthy citizens. This all presupposes that we are basically good, and therefore unable to fail if the right environment is found. Personal failure is then not the fault of the individual at all, but of the society. This, however, is faulty thinking. Why? Because it is individuals who themselves make up the society. We are the organism, not society. I have learned from and been supported by many of the ideas that I have read; there are plenty that ring true in my 21 years of experience with people, but this one convention of why people do not always do right has not been explored. Despoiled somehowMan is a wonderful creature and is surely 'fearfully and wonderfully made' (David, psalm 139) or 'the mind is a power to be developed' (Calkin, 1910). But man has become despoiled somehow. Children do not need any encouragement to do wrong, and it is the one thing they do not need to be taught. We are amazing creations, made 'in the image of God', and yet we are in such a mess, both in our lives as individuals and as communities of people. How can we be good when so much is wrong? No other viewThe only research I read focuses completely on our upstanding qualities as human beings, and there is no other point of view permitted. I cannot believe that it does not exist. Why is it not represented? Is there is a cover-up going on? I know that there are and have been many great thinkers with a different point of view, and I have read their writings. Why are they not included? Have we become so fragile that we cannot sustain vigorous academic debate? It seems like we are running away from something. Looking at the world around me and the kinds of things that are going on, I believe we are at the end of our civilised society as we know it. All great kingdoms have failed, and is it now the turn of the Western world? Our great thinkers and researchers have pulled it down with their own hands, until now there is no more firm ground on which to stand. Many can see this in all walks of life, not just education. However, this is not my main concern. My main concern is for the wellbeing of the people I teach and live with. I cannot imbibe them with the same diet of false presuppositions that I have been fed. We need to understand that we are not right, and to realise that we need to come to terms with it. Societies are not saved through political and economic reform, but by individual people having new lives, and therefore able to combat the wrong attitudes and acts in their own lives. War insideThere are laws that cannot be changed, and I find this one at work in my life. The good I should do and want to do, I don't do, and the wrong I shouldn't do and don't want to do, that I do (Romans 7). Why is that? Why is it that so often I give in to myself and find myself doing terrible things? There is a war inside my being, a war against myself, and I have found that by myself I cannot win. I have heard him called 'The Hound of Heaven' (Francis Thompson, 1859). This is a wonderful name. He pursues me to conquer and control for my benefit. I can run all I like, but he is always there, I cannot shake him. For every one of my arguments he has an answer. For every tactical move he has a countermeasure. I need to submit. Only when our culture finally realises that we need to surrender our puny rebellions will we enter the realms of a blessed country. Every individual must do it for themselves, this is the only way ahead. Everything else is downhill into darkness. Montaigne said: 'When most people speak about themselves they are not speaking about something they actually know'. There is a proliferation of books about self-help and every computation of psychological order and disorder. People realise there is something wrong and are seeking ways to resolve the problem. Education used to hold some answers for some people but now it holds very few answers for anyone. People are becoming disillusioned with education and many reject it, or use it cynically to achieve their own ends. Teaching a single way of life that brings peace and contentment is not popular, even though people are screaming out for this. Still we hang on to the notion of 'political correctness', and the truth is layered over with all kinds of fallacy. Everything is right, but nothing is right. It can never be resolved by the human race. We have argued ourselves into a corner, and there is no way out. Shirley Sides,
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