Saturday, March 11, 2006
Diversity Battles: The Full Stakes
Hot on the heels of International Women's Day comes another tempest in a teapot at Simon's Rock, this time over the Diversity Teach-in called by a group of faculty and students.
Campus teach-ins usually take place because there is a sense of crisis or urgency over a particular issue, and there is no other way to properly address it. The last teach-in at Simon's Rock occurred in March, 2003, on the eve of the U.S. invasion of Iraq. At that time there was no question about the urgency of the event and the need to educate the community about what was happening.
This time, the problem is that a significant percentage of the campus community feels absolutely no sense of crisis over diversity-related issues. Even some of the women and minority students don't feel the need to do something as drastic as cancel all classes and force students into mandatory discussions of race, class and gender.
For the past couple of days there has been a heated discussion on the student blog, PB&J,
as to whether it makes any sense to compel students to attend the teach-in. Of course, from the point of view of the faculty and administration, if you didn't require attendance, you might as well call it a snow day--more than half the students would stay in bed.
But students do have a point when they ask whether it's possible to coerce people into having productive discussions about sensitive topics like white male privilege. Although I have supported the idea of the teach-in, and plan to offer a workshop on coalition-building among white women and women of color, the violence of students' resistance to the whole affair has made me think twice about its value.
Will the individual workshops be thought-provoking, stimulating and well-organized? I am sure they will be. Will they reach the hearts and minds of those students most sorely in need of reflection on white male privilege, elitism, sexism and racism? I am not convinced.
The students who resist the idea of the teach-in seem to fall into roughly two camps: students who have experienced discussions like these before and been disappointed in the results; and students who have never been personally affected by racism, sexism or elitism, and therefore feel complacently that there isn't any problem worth talking about.
I don't think that a single day of diversity-related workshops, however well-thought-out and well-intentioned, will be able to overcome these students' ingrained resistance.
What it may do, however, is foster a sense of community and coalition among those students, staff and faculty who are wholeheartedly supporting the event. And this could lead to a movement for more deep-seated, lasting change on the Simon's Rock campus.
As I've said before, I believe Simon's Rock, like every institution of higher education today, has an ethical responsibility to educate students to be engaged, well-informed citizens of the global community. Basic to this goal would be teaching students of every background how to sit around a table together and discuss their differences productively, seeking common ground, mutual respect and support for each other in all their positive endeavors--from math competitions to community service projects to organizing teach-ins.
Achieving an ambitious goal like this takes time. I'd like to see the idea of the diversity teach-in spread out over the first three semesters of students' college careers, with weekly meetings to discuss a whole host of issues related to building a solid, engaged student body respectful of each other and themselves. And yes, these would have to be required; in education sometimes you do have the power not only to lead the horse to water, but also to make her drink.
Education is not about reinforcing ideas already held, it's about opening young minds to new ideas, new perspectives, new ways of doing things. Respect, cooperation and collaboration must be the watchwords of the 21st century, and educators must take a central role in bringing these positive qualities out in our students.
In this first decade of the 21st century, it is essential to foster tolerance for differences in order to move our global community away from the dangerous brink of ever-escalating conflict. The unending battle between Eros and Thanatos that Freud identified in the sad, charged period between World Wars I and II has grown ever more perilous: the next World War could wipe out our species, and take most of the other life forms on the planet with us.
I believe that Eros can be triumphant, but it's going to take hard work, relentless passion and energy. The time to start is now.
Campus teach-ins usually take place because there is a sense of crisis or urgency over a particular issue, and there is no other way to properly address it. The last teach-in at Simon's Rock occurred in March, 2003, on the eve of the U.S. invasion of Iraq. At that time there was no question about the urgency of the event and the need to educate the community about what was happening.
This time, the problem is that a significant percentage of the campus community feels absolutely no sense of crisis over diversity-related issues. Even some of the women and minority students don't feel the need to do something as drastic as cancel all classes and force students into mandatory discussions of race, class and gender.
For the past couple of days there has been a heated discussion on the student blog, PB&J,
as to whether it makes any sense to compel students to attend the teach-in. Of course, from the point of view of the faculty and administration, if you didn't require attendance, you might as well call it a snow day--more than half the students would stay in bed.
But students do have a point when they ask whether it's possible to coerce people into having productive discussions about sensitive topics like white male privilege. Although I have supported the idea of the teach-in, and plan to offer a workshop on coalition-building among white women and women of color, the violence of students' resistance to the whole affair has made me think twice about its value.
Will the individual workshops be thought-provoking, stimulating and well-organized? I am sure they will be. Will they reach the hearts and minds of those students most sorely in need of reflection on white male privilege, elitism, sexism and racism? I am not convinced.
The students who resist the idea of the teach-in seem to fall into roughly two camps: students who have experienced discussions like these before and been disappointed in the results; and students who have never been personally affected by racism, sexism or elitism, and therefore feel complacently that there isn't any problem worth talking about.
I don't think that a single day of diversity-related workshops, however well-thought-out and well-intentioned, will be able to overcome these students' ingrained resistance.
What it may do, however, is foster a sense of community and coalition among those students, staff and faculty who are wholeheartedly supporting the event. And this could lead to a movement for more deep-seated, lasting change on the Simon's Rock campus.
As I've said before, I believe Simon's Rock, like every institution of higher education today, has an ethical responsibility to educate students to be engaged, well-informed citizens of the global community. Basic to this goal would be teaching students of every background how to sit around a table together and discuss their differences productively, seeking common ground, mutual respect and support for each other in all their positive endeavors--from math competitions to community service projects to organizing teach-ins.
Achieving an ambitious goal like this takes time. I'd like to see the idea of the diversity teach-in spread out over the first three semesters of students' college careers, with weekly meetings to discuss a whole host of issues related to building a solid, engaged student body respectful of each other and themselves. And yes, these would have to be required; in education sometimes you do have the power not only to lead the horse to water, but also to make her drink.
Education is not about reinforcing ideas already held, it's about opening young minds to new ideas, new perspectives, new ways of doing things. Respect, cooperation and collaboration must be the watchwords of the 21st century, and educators must take a central role in bringing these positive qualities out in our students.
In this first decade of the 21st century, it is essential to foster tolerance for differences in order to move our global community away from the dangerous brink of ever-escalating conflict. The unending battle between Eros and Thanatos that Freud identified in the sad, charged period between World Wars I and II has grown ever more perilous: the next World War could wipe out our species, and take most of the other life forms on the planet with us.
I believe that Eros can be triumphant, but it's going to take hard work, relentless passion and energy. The time to start is now.
