This is excellent - and deeply concerning. We need to save our schools from this malady. We should teach kids resilience, agency, and optimism- not victimhood, pessimism, and narcissistic self pity.
Your ceremonial invoicing of your high school civics students reminds me of our senior graduation from Whitman where the principal referred to our K-12 experience as a lavish buffet of educational consumption. She then encouraged our transitioning from consumers to producers as a down payment on these largely societal debts. The words of the late Dolores Eklund echo a life of service that I hear in this lesson plan.
So do I. It reminds me of how my American history professor in college ended the intro class with a comparison of U.S. history to a rose-- it is beautiful AND it has thorns. I've repeated that with my own U.S. history students.
An exceptionally fluent piece and one much needed to counteract the relentless negativism - the catastrophizing - that is so prevalent in K-college education in the United States. There are definitely serious problems that we need to address, but we live in a free, prosperous country that billions of people would move to in a heartbeat if they could. Many of our native-born citizens would benefit from having the typical immigrant's appreciation for America.
You would think that a country whose neighbors have wanted to destroy it for many decades - and who are martyr-level fanatical in that belief - would be among the most pessimistic places on Earth. You would think that such pessimism would result in very low fertility rates, far below replacement level. You would think that the young people in that country - the Generation Z folks - would not see much redeeming value in staying in that country and having children of their own.
But it turns out that Gen Z in that country has higher purposes than obsessing over the first world problems that cause so much angst in the U.S. and western Europe. In the greatest national crisis in 50+ years, those young people - overcoming doubts about them among many of their elders - rose to the occasion and willingly defended their country to the death against a mortal threat, against enemies who intended to murder as many of their fellow citizens as they could. Those young people are collectively on track to have above replacement level fertility rates. I refer, of course, to the Gen Z of Israel, who have been described by at least one writer like this: "intensely patriotic."
Terrific thought-provoking analysis. I learned history as a story, one where a hero/heroin encountered adversity, a "monster" and worked to overcome it. This is our human story, one based in the effort to return us to the basic principles of truth, goodness and beauty. We struggle for a better world because we know it is possible. Thanks Robert!
I teach World History and in an attempt to combat the bleakness, I spend a lot of time also teaching about resistance to demonstrate that there is a better world worth fighting for and people have been fighting for that world always. So when we cover imperialism/slavery/war, we’re also talking about resistance movements, revolts, and people who fought back.
I think what this post is alluding to is a Very Big Question: fate vs free will?
If the story of the U.S. is all negative, we disempower our students and cause them to lose hope. If we want students to have agency and feel like citizenship and its rights and responsibilities matter we can't just focus on the doom and gloom.
One of the things I have done with students on the first day of school is to unpack the first 15 words of the U.S. Constitution, "We, the People, in order to form a more perfect union." Why was the word, "more" included?
And then, on the last day, reminding them of that. The work is unfinished. In between, we have to show them that nothing in history is inevitable-- that there have always been stories about people who changed the narrative and changed the world and stood out from the crowd to make things better.
I am a professor and administrator at a university, and our new general education program is built on the structure of the hero’s journey, equipping our students to face challenges with strength and hope in order to flourish and help their neighbors do so. Now I’m wondering if some of the push back we get is rooted in this belief that you’re describing - why would a student want to serve a world they believe is against them or there’s no hope for making better? This piece is really thought provoking.
Thank you for sharing the way you connected to your own students and got them to think about their place in the system. Public education, for all its problems, is such a radically positive gift to our democracy-- I love how you made the invisible visible for the kids.
I write about educator burnout over on my substack, and I wonder if its related. If we had fewer systems that push people to burnout, I wonder if teachers would be more optimistic in their views of the material they're teaching.
Let’s all include Tolkien in the curriculum. There is real suffering, real despair, real hopelessness, real and threatening evil, but just enough hope to take another step. There are also occasions to dig into history and race and politics and ethics and literary craft. Tolkien is having a decontextualized moment here and there; it’s time to let the full events of Middle Earth influence our young generations.
I know my comment here is a little weirdly specific. It is an example that goes a little way towards answering, “Yes, but how shall we teach hope?” And examples are powerful for teachers (even public school teachers) whose job it is to help shape students’ outlooks on life.
Yes, aside from the fear-mongering of inevitably political messaging from a lot of teachers on climate change it is also just wrong-headed to make it the focus of science lessons. People love learning for learning's sake not because it has to be practically relevant in the current world. It can be useful context and contribute to motivation but we want children to love maths and science and learning itself. The future phd can engage with actual solutions to the climate crisis armed with advanced knowledge, but that journey starts with incremental structured learning that doesn't allow for too much dilly dallying with listening to someone spout the latest groupthink.
This is excellent - and deeply concerning. We need to save our schools from this malady. We should teach kids resilience, agency, and optimism- not victimhood, pessimism, and narcissistic self pity.
Your ceremonial invoicing of your high school civics students reminds me of our senior graduation from Whitman where the principal referred to our K-12 experience as a lavish buffet of educational consumption. She then encouraged our transitioning from consumers to producers as a down payment on these largely societal debts. The words of the late Dolores Eklund echo a life of service that I hear in this lesson plan.
It will shock you none whatsoever to learn I have no memory of this whatsoever. But I'm glad you do!
Thanks to Frank Bruni for linking this piece in his column today. Really well done, Robert!
I adore this.
So do I. It reminds me of how my American history professor in college ended the intro class with a comparison of U.S. history to a rose-- it is beautiful AND it has thorns. I've repeated that with my own U.S. history students.
This is a great piece, and I probably will have more to say about it, but for starters, I'm thinking about it in combination with this piece: https://solinthewild.substack.com/p/when-am-i-ever-going-to-use-this
An exceptionally fluent piece and one much needed to counteract the relentless negativism - the catastrophizing - that is so prevalent in K-college education in the United States. There are definitely serious problems that we need to address, but we live in a free, prosperous country that billions of people would move to in a heartbeat if they could. Many of our native-born citizens would benefit from having the typical immigrant's appreciation for America.
You would think that a country whose neighbors have wanted to destroy it for many decades - and who are martyr-level fanatical in that belief - would be among the most pessimistic places on Earth. You would think that such pessimism would result in very low fertility rates, far below replacement level. You would think that the young people in that country - the Generation Z folks - would not see much redeeming value in staying in that country and having children of their own.
But it turns out that Gen Z in that country has higher purposes than obsessing over the first world problems that cause so much angst in the U.S. and western Europe. In the greatest national crisis in 50+ years, those young people - overcoming doubts about them among many of their elders - rose to the occasion and willingly defended their country to the death against a mortal threat, against enemies who intended to murder as many of their fellow citizens as they could. Those young people are collectively on track to have above replacement level fertility rates. I refer, of course, to the Gen Z of Israel, who have been described by at least one writer like this: "intensely patriotic."
Terrific thought-provoking analysis. I learned history as a story, one where a hero/heroin encountered adversity, a "monster" and worked to overcome it. This is our human story, one based in the effort to return us to the basic principles of truth, goodness and beauty. We struggle for a better world because we know it is possible. Thanks Robert!
This is vital for our kids, our communities and our country. Thank you.
I love everything about this!
I teach World History and in an attempt to combat the bleakness, I spend a lot of time also teaching about resistance to demonstrate that there is a better world worth fighting for and people have been fighting for that world always. So when we cover imperialism/slavery/war, we’re also talking about resistance movements, revolts, and people who fought back.
I think what this post is alluding to is a Very Big Question: fate vs free will?
If the story of the U.S. is all negative, we disempower our students and cause them to lose hope. If we want students to have agency and feel like citizenship and its rights and responsibilities matter we can't just focus on the doom and gloom.
One of the things I have done with students on the first day of school is to unpack the first 15 words of the U.S. Constitution, "We, the People, in order to form a more perfect union." Why was the word, "more" included?
And then, on the last day, reminding them of that. The work is unfinished. In between, we have to show them that nothing in history is inevitable-- that there have always been stories about people who changed the narrative and changed the world and stood out from the crowd to make things better.
I am a professor and administrator at a university, and our new general education program is built on the structure of the hero’s journey, equipping our students to face challenges with strength and hope in order to flourish and help their neighbors do so. Now I’m wondering if some of the push back we get is rooted in this belief that you’re describing - why would a student want to serve a world they believe is against them or there’s no hope for making better? This piece is really thought provoking.
Thank you for sharing the way you connected to your own students and got them to think about their place in the system. Public education, for all its problems, is such a radically positive gift to our democracy-- I love how you made the invisible visible for the kids.
I write about educator burnout over on my substack, and I wonder if its related. If we had fewer systems that push people to burnout, I wonder if teachers would be more optimistic in their views of the material they're teaching.
In my local school, English now has an emphasis on "intergenerational trauma". it illustrates well the kind of world view they are teaching.
Let’s all include Tolkien in the curriculum. There is real suffering, real despair, real hopelessness, real and threatening evil, but just enough hope to take another step. There are also occasions to dig into history and race and politics and ethics and literary craft. Tolkien is having a decontextualized moment here and there; it’s time to let the full events of Middle Earth influence our young generations.
I know my comment here is a little weirdly specific. It is an example that goes a little way towards answering, “Yes, but how shall we teach hope?” And examples are powerful for teachers (even public school teachers) whose job it is to help shape students’ outlooks on life.
Yes, aside from the fear-mongering of inevitably political messaging from a lot of teachers on climate change it is also just wrong-headed to make it the focus of science lessons. People love learning for learning's sake not because it has to be practically relevant in the current world. It can be useful context and contribute to motivation but we want children to love maths and science and learning itself. The future phd can engage with actual solutions to the climate crisis armed with advanced knowledge, but that journey starts with incremental structured learning that doesn't allow for too much dilly dallying with listening to someone spout the latest groupthink.