"New Forms of Love Have Been Invented"

The title of today's post comes from a famous 1994 book called "An Intimate History of Humanity," by the renowned English philosopher and sociologist Theodore Zeldin. The new forms of love he was referring to have to do with attitudes toward the education of children--about which I'll talk more.

I was reminded of Zeldin's book during a recent two-week trip I made to Europe.

A colleague from work and I had been invited, over a year ago, to bring our teacher training program to a group of educators from Istanbul and Athens, and after much planning, the trip was finally upon us. 

We spent three days with 10 teachers, engaged in an intense, abridged version of our program, introducing them to the methodology we employ in working with students on Shakespeare texts. 

It was an amazing, inspiring and eye-opening experience. 

LEFT: SOCRATES TEACHING, IN A DETAIL FROM A PAINTING BY RAPHAEL. (CLICK TO ENLARGE)

The thing that resonated so deeply for me was the realization that not just America, but the entire world, is, to a large extent, in the midst of an education crisis, and that teachers everywhere are angry, alarmed, and feeling beaten down in their quest to help ignite and inspire young minds. 

For some reason, I had always (either naively or prejudicially) made the assumption that it was America, and mostly America, that was betraying its youth by turning its back on the ideals and essence of true education.

Instead, I felt we have become increasingly engaged in imposing a system that measures educational success by the meaningless results of short-term memory testing. 

We have watched in horror as so many of our schools have grimly evolved into “examination factories.”

I borrow that apt term from Theodore Zeldin, who wrote a book called “An Intimate History of Humanity,” which I highly recommend. 

It’s a very different kind of history book and one that I constantly return to for insights and perspective. In a chapter entitled, “how new forms of love have been invented” he speaks of the world’s first children’s revolution, which occurred in France in 1990.

It was a revolt against government imposition on the school system and educational process. For decades, teachers had been trying, in vain, to create reforms. But when, under the leadership of a frail, 16-year-old girl, 100,000 children took to the streets, they were able to effect massive change. 

I’ll let you explore more about that on your own, if you are so inclined (get the book; it’s great!) but I need to hearken back to Greece. 

I was immediately reminded of that story when I was talking to our group of teachers abroad, for we were sharing our mutual horror at what our education systems have become — institutions enslaved by bureaucracy, funding requirements, testing, absurd Kafka-esque rules, government interference (does “No Child Left Behind” ring a bell?) and the stress on meaningless, quick-acquisition knowledge that will soon be forgotten because it’s being acquired only to get through a test.

We have forsaken the true nature of and reason for education. 

It was so ironic that there we all were, a few miles from the birthplace of democracy, from the very stones where the great ancients---Socrates, Plato and Aristotle and many other of our greatest teachers and thinkers had held court (or class!)---and we were bemoaning the state of “modern education.”    

A new revolt is needed and it needs to come from those who know best what education could be and should be — TEACHERS.  If they take to the streets, I’ll be right there with them, and hopefully so too will our youth, who, let’s face it, we have failed miserably, particularly in the last decade. 

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