In this time of social isolation it has become abundantly clear that education, like so many sectors of society, is playing a reactionary game to the changes happening around us. It is perhaps the more immediate threat which Covid-19 poses that has shone such a light on how most of modern society functions in this way, that is to say society has continued to adapt to environmental changes rather than our anthropocentric attitude that we adapt environments to suit the lives we desire. However, this statement is not altogether true either, for as the photographic works of Edward Burtynsky show, we irrevocably change how our planet reacts to how we take and synthesize the solar energy stored in the resources we take from it. So what is the realization here in relation to education?
It is important to consider the reality we face rather than to imagine the reality we want and it is this conflict in our vision as educators that sets the vicious cycle of self-destruction in motion. Many educators are going down this road right now in reaction to the restrictions that the Covid-19 pandemic has placed on everyone. One of the “angriest” teachers I’ve come across is Timothy King, a person whose “edublog” illustrates a reaction akin to oppositional behaviour. As much as we do not want to go to such a dark place in our collective psyche, not making this realization is only the first step to avoid repeating our past failures. Failure is the most important learning strategy for our students, but educators must frame the process of failure in a way that instigates positive self-change. This position must be adopted if there is any hope in shifting from a society that produces only to consume at any cost to one that produces only to end suffering and ensure survival for all people and the planet. This sounds like a hippy philosophy, a throwback to love and peace. it should not be consider just a philosophy, rather it must carry a practice that becomes habit, second-nature, or as elemental as breathing. It must move beyond praxis and into our lives as a defining feature of what it is to be a human in our world. The pandemics that have thrust humanity into action are messengers of this.
Educators cannot lead change without having changed on a fundamental level themselves. As Gandhi said, “You must be the change you wish to see in the world.” Deep, lasting change occurs only if we take what happens to others, to the environment, and to the world personally. Education must change us permanently if it is to end suffering and improve our chances of survival. That means we do not look for solutions without first having genuine questions to ask. It should only be the greed of business that creates a problem in search of a solution, but even education falls prey to this line of “inquiry”.
If necessity is the mother of invention, then realizing what is truly needed is the first step to true invention. As technology evolves, educators unfortunately tend to adopt and innovate these technologies to suit their habits, their traditional ways of teaching. Coding is compared to music, posting a vlog replaces written responses, programming a calculator has become as routine what long-form division used to be, but the change teachers invoke in their students is as time-tested as Archimedes’ exclamation of “Eureka!” and has never changed. The best educators inspire students to change from within despite the methods or technologies that clothe the lesson.
So, what place does education take in the world of change? Perhaps change is a less direct function of education and an even lesser influence on the kind of change that improves our chances of survival and ends the suffering that comes with our selfish desires.
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