Let Us Work Together

"If you have come to help me you are wasting your time. But if you have come because your liberation is bound up with mine, then let us work together."
--Aboriginal Activits Group, Queensland, 1970s

Great quote. Liberation isn't about working for people or working with people. It's about working within communities. Helping is superficial--helping happens every so often, here and there, when it is convenient.

Questions about Personal Success

It seems like personal achievement is the ultimate success and happiness. The idea that we can transform ourselves from point A (lesser) to point B (greater). The idea that the inner-city child who attends on of the worst schools can, in some cases, beat the odds.

Is that what it's about? Celebrating the "successes" of those who beat the odds? Celebrating the heroic qualities of extraordinary individuals who somehow make it past the systemic obstacles of everyday life? Certainly, this is good news. But what about the masses?

Furthermore...is the idea of success this: to transform from the oppressed to the oppressor? To replace discomfort and hardship with comfort and a never-look-back attitude?

What is success? What does it mean when you acheive it alone? Knowing that by some stroke of luck you "made it out." What about those who are left behind? And what does that mean for my own responsibility?

It bothers me when I hear some young person say, "I didn't go to college to just: work at McDonald's, be a janitor, be a waitress." Like there's actually some sort of level playing field out there. But you know what? For most of the college-educated, there were shortcuts--no need to be extraordinary, to be heroes. Yet, we still think we're entitled. I guess it's more safe.

Embracing Uncertainty

"Education is the path from cocky ignorance to miserable uncertainty." --Mark Twain

What happens when we take away our neat and tidy outcomes-based systems with which we declare success and failure, point our fingers, and create heroes or villains? It all becomes a lot more complicated. When we reevaluate our philosophical roots in what it means to be, to live, to learn? Education gets personal. Words like humanity, love, transformation, and meaning try to weave their way into a world bogged down by positivist blinders and "neutral" agendas.

We need to challenge our policymakers, administrations, teachers, students, and selves to embrace the uncertainty that comes with real meaning-making education. An education of discomfort, critical thinking, challenges, and even upheaval. But one that is accompanied by awakenings and images of a future that challenges the status quo and social norms.

How do we create not only an education system, but also a society that embraces the spectrum of opportunities for individuals and communities--that no longer subtly oppresses the marginalized? I'm not sure. But I know that the answer is not to pretend we know how. We must ask questions. We must start from scratch, if that's what needs to happen. We must embrace the uncertainty of the human aspect of education--the emotions, transformations, and experiences that make learning real. The part of learning that relies not just on strict standards and curricula, but also problem-posing, relationships, frustrations, and injustice.