The problem with the "unconquered" soul ideal

Recently the school where I teach has launched an initiative to put emphasis on developing “grit” in students. (Yes, I know this is about 10 years behind the curve, but bear with me here. There’s a reason Mark Twain wanted to be here at the end of the world). As part of this initiative, and to tie faith development to the push, an alumnus and board member began writing and producing as videos with the help of some staff, a number of sermons built around the idea that what we want students to become is an “unconquerable soul,” a phrase taken from William Henley’s 19th century poem “Invictus”. The “unconquerable soul” is in many ways an admirable image -- a spirit unbowed in the face of tremendous odds -- the sort of heroic stoicism that many of us fantasize about possessing. It’s the imagined state of so many of our heroes and martyrs, especially in the Catholic tradition of lurid ends faced by those who would not renounce their religion in the face of evil forces requiring capitulation. It’s even part of that imagined “sanctified by suffering” perspective applied to the victims of the Holocaust, regardless of their other foibles or humanities. Who doesn’t want to imagine themselves on that solitary pinnacle of self-possession against the most daunting odds? Hell, it’s even, arguably, the trope we pursue when we battle in a video game (my recent experiences with Super Smash Brothers come to mind). And I suppose there’s nothing much wrong with it as something to teach children to aspire to. We want our kids to be unbowed, to come out on top, to conquer the world….oh. There it is. To conquer the world, the flip side of being unconquerable ourselves. In a world that insists so stridently on the dialectic in thinking, in the bifurcation of gender identities and the polarization of positions in all things from sports to politics, it ought to be understood that to be unconquerable is to conquer. Now, you might say that all that’s being conquered in this scenario is fear and self-doubt, and you may be right. But there is another perspective that I think this whole approach neglects, either purposefully or accidentally, that has potential for real harm. In the “unconquerable soul” scenario, the focus is wholly on the individual -- bravely battling against a world full of dirty adversaries, whether they be unfavorable financial circumstances, unfair work or housing situations, personal cruelty or unjust treatment. It’s a lone wolf relying on their inner resources (we should read faith here) to overcome personal challenges and come out on top. While this makes for great movie plots, it really doesn’t reflect the reality of living in a society composed of other beings presumably engaged in their own heroic battles. We run the risk of selling the message that if it’s possible to be one of these “unconquered souls” then anyone who is “conquered” is somehow a lesser human, perhaps deserving of any fate that befalls them. Is that really what the example of Jesus calls us to? It’s a comfortable position for sure, because we can always pity those who are less than, we can always be magnanimous toward them out of our abundant kindness, but we are not going to be inconvenienced by any need to identify with them, to address the injustices that they have battled “unsuccessfully” or to make, indeed, any kind of change to the status quo of the world around us. It’s the ultimate feel-good playbook if it’s presented as “the true path” to seeking students. It can be used to justify feelings of superiority -- even in the aggregate ("my ancestors persevered and look at me today"). It can be used to justify authoritarianism (only unconquerable souls are worthy of leadership or respect) and it does not encourage any examination of systemic flaws, inadequacies or injustices. It looks at the long arc of history and says, “Well, everybody had to overcome something, so I guess you just have to put up with second class citizen status or a greater chance of being impacted by public health concerns, or whatever.” It’s a simple solution in an unutterably complex world. Yes, hold on. I can hear the defenses of “grit” gearing up already. Of course we want kids to see that they must not, of necessity, be ruled or defined solely by their challenges. Of course we want them to persevere in the face of difficulties in all aspects of life. But if we value empathy as a trait of Christ to emulate, we need to develop that by acknowledging, exploring and questioning where those challenges and circumstances that they and their fellow students must “battle” stem from in the first place. Are they mysterious and inevitable? Or can they be identified, challenged and changed for the better? Certainly this “grit” mindset and the idea of “unconquered souls” don’t have to preclude that exploration and acknowledgement of the origin of difficulties, but without explicit effort to show how we can be “unconquered” together, in solidarity with those not in our faith-group, our economic status, our ethnic heritage, our gender identity, our political positions, this ideal becomes just window dressing for apathy around the problems of the world. It’s a virtuous screen for the selfish short sightedness that comes from years of denying that systems might have embedded in their makeup rules, laws, even mores which render those systems inequitable and racist, sexist, and homophobic.

A New Lease on the American Experiment

Let’s just imagine a better future for a moment or two. What could it be like if we defeat fascism and start to repair the core issues that plague our society and keep people from realizing their full potential? Let’s make it ok to be an idealist, and a visionary, and let’s not settle for the austerity (thanks, JYS, for this characterization) that we’ve been told is a necessary part of life on this planet (unless you somehow manage to win the genetic lottery). What if we were to abolish that relic of slave days, the Electoral College, and allow the president to be elected by the popular vote? What if we were to strictly limit the amount of money that can be spent on electioneering and campaigning? What if we put a timeframe around campaigning that limited it to a month or so before an election, and ensured that all federal representative and presidential races included a policy-only debate before the vote? What if we were to limit terms to 2-3 per person, and require that presidential candidates pass at the very least a citizenship test? What if we were to abolish ICE and the DHS, and re-vamp our immigration laws, so that anyone with a sincere desire to become part of our country could come to the border and request admittance, then be admitted with a clearly laid out path to citizenship? What if “dreamers” were no longer a thing – just citizens? What if we were to re-imagine the concept of law enforcement? Add a couple of years to the training of officers, delineate their roles so that they would clearly be protecting and serving the community, not the few. Provide a more nuanced approach to needed services to deal with crises that community members face – like fear for others’ welfare, mental health crises, traffic law issues, lost or loose pets. What if we were to re-examine drug laws to decriminalize most drug offenses, and to provide health care intervention when warranted? What if we were to “un-privatize” prisons and re-focus them on the goal of rehabilitation to re-join the community after time served, making job training, and mental health treatment a big part of time “inside”? What if we were to examine the effects of permanent stigma after time served, and remove the barriers to resuming or becoming productive community members after incarceration? What if we were to focus education on best practices and brain science, and equitably fund preK-college so that our graduates have a firm grasp of civics, ethics, and sorting information from rubbish? What if we were to consciously teach about the true, white supremacist history of the country with a goal to becoming anti-racist for the future? What if our workers were paid a living wage, and housing was affordable and available to all, so that if you work a full time job, you do not have to choose whether you or your children will eat or you will pay the rent. What if our communities had lots of gardens and neighborhoods grew food in front yards that could be shared with all? What if we were to write industry regulations that kept the air clean, the water potable, and plant and animal diversity strong? What if we would pursue green energy solutions that would provide jobs and a sustainable energy future? What if we made healthcare part of the basic fabric of life in this country? What if old people (or any people) didn’t have to choose between their medication and food on their table? What if we consciously, every day, were asked by, and asked of, our legislators and community leaders: What are we doing today to advance the stated goals of our country: liberty and justice and equality for all? It’s NOT too much to ask. We have put people on the moon, off of this planet. We have developed incredibly ingenious and hideous ways to kill others. We have engineered genocides and systemic racism. These goals are NOT beyond our human imagination, nor our human capability to make them happen. They seem to be, for now, only beyond our collective will. We can change that. We must change that if we want this grand experiment to survive and thrive into the future

New year, new career

So the new school year is about to start, and with it my "next phase" career: back in the classroom after 13 years away. Away but not removed, as I've tried to make those years about collaboration and co-teaching and teaching my own lessons in other people's classrooms -- and as I write this, it occurs to me how teacher-centered that really is. So the challenge this year is to stay focused on student learning in my 4 classes and to manage to run a viable library program at the same time. My guiding lights for this adventure will be the surprisingly current (for my situation, at least)Teaching as a Subversive Activity by Postman and Weingartner, Mindset by Carol Dweck, Readicide by Kelly Gallagher, Do I Really Have to Teach Reading by Cris Tovani, and A Whole New Mind by Daniel Pink. As part of my daily practice in the reading seminar class, I will be blogging my reflections on the learning I'm doing about collaborating with students to guide their learning, collaborating with peers to enhance student learning, and balancing the needs of the library program and my classroom teaching. Comments encouraged!

Leaping into collegiality

Heeding Karl Fisch's urging to follow Seth Goodin's advice to "write poorly. In public" here I am. Tomorrow marks a big day in our professional growth as a school, and I'm eager to see how we will respond to the challenge. The difficult leap we are trying to take is one that we've been contemplating in one way or another for the last seven years. You see, we've had a one to one laptop program for that long, and while many things have changed about the way we go about education, it's been a source of puzzlement to me why, despite this marvelous tool, academic life really hasn't changed much from when I went to high school thirty years ago.
Fresh from library school I was a true believer in the concept of teacher collaboration, and saw myself as a willing collaborator with the teachers in my building. Perhaps it was my blind enthusiasm, or my naive assumption that what I was doing with people was collaborating, but I really thought it happened. Then I moved to a new school, thinking I would continue in this mode. Maybe it was age, maybe it was those pesky laptops, maybe it was a borderline personality disorder, but that role ended, except for a few notable instances. And it puzzled me, this situation, until, after some discussions with a colleague I went looking for some literature and came across "Getting to No: Building True Collegiality in Schools" by Robert Evans in the Winter 2012 issue of Independent Schools Then the light came on. What we had, as a school culture, was congeniality, not collegiality! It explains so much about why we have struggled so to address a whole spectrum of important things, from transformative use of technology, to curriculum mapping, to authentic assessment, to Common Core, to library and information skills, to professional evaluation.
So, tomorrow, we're discussing the article. All of us. Together. Specifically. And we're really going to try to effect change in our school, and to build a real learning community. I am guardedly optimistic. But perhaps that's part of the problem. One cannot be guardedly anything if any progress is to be made. We just have to leap.

My daughter just returned from her college orientation, and the information she brought is interestingly similar to my last post (many moons ago). They require a freshman seminar course, built around a common theme/interest (students choose from the available seminars, rather than building their own), that helps students get used to college learning, build their academic "muscle" as it were, and introduces them to research and resources offered by the college. Hmmm. Maybe it WAS a worthwhile idea after all!

Would this work as a freshman year frame

We've begun the senior project, and we're finding out so many things about what kids need to prepare them to be successful. Our freshman course needs work...could this sort of thing form a springboard to get those skills started??

A seminar course for the purpose of developing academic “muscle,” information literacy proficiency and digital citizenship

Personal identity as learners/scholars
Articulate a statement of purpose for the classroom and for individual
Select an area of personal interest over which the rest of the course will be laid.
Process is first area of focus. Read several articles and excerpts and discuss how processes work.
Work through the digital toolbox
• Library catalogs, tagging and electronic books – read at least one full length book on selected topic. Use available methods to tag, annotate, take notes, mark passages. Introduce and reinforce content reading strategies. Introduce and apply citation of books. Begin to keep an annotated bibliography in MLA format. Use appropriate digital tools to assist this process.

• Reflective writing will be part of each section. Select appropriate tools for this purpose – could use Word, OneNote, a blog, a class wiki, etc.

• Online databases will be explored next. Searching, annotating, using features of the databases will be explored. Again, reflection, new information, connections, etc. should be noted and written about. Close reading for bias, missing information and spin should be part of this section as well.

• Other online sources will also be addressed. Advanced searching in Google, critical use of Wikipedia, building a link library and personal web portal will be addressed. Diigo will be used, along with Delicious to create an annotated collection of links related to the topic being explored. Reflections will move to a blog at this point, so that sharing and effective commenting will be able to be addressed.

• Digital tools for sharing acquired knowledge will form the next focus of the seminar. Decisions will have to be made about how to share what’s been learned, and how to answer questions that have been raised by the reading and listening the students have done thus far on their area of interest. Tools for digital storytelling and other online methods of sharing knowledge will be explored. The ethical use of information, images, music and the creation and sharing of those things with the larger world will be discussed and acted upon.

The seminar culminates in a public exhibition of the work that has been done over the course of the semester. (A thoughtful point is made by Dean Shareski about the stages of sharing academic work) Attendees will be encouraged not only to listen to and watch presentations, but to ask questions and engage students In dialogue and debate about their work.
A final reflection about the experience will be the last component of the class. It will include a revised statement of purpose for the individual as learner/scholar.

Here's something to chew on

If the last few months of increasing political/cultural polarization have concerned you, this should really give you pause: http://diigo.com/0iv8w

There is now NO EXCUSE -- read, NONE -- for anyone who is an educator to ignore, overlook or minimize the necessity for kids to build a positive, proactive and principled social media presence. Even less of an excuse for educators themselves to neglect this.