Fun with GIS 305: Freedom to Teach
Four prominent professional educator associations and a national coalition recently issued a stentorian call against politicizing schools. The National Council for the Social Studies (NCSS), National Council of Teachers of Mathematics (NCTM), National Council of Teachers of English (NCTE), National Science Teaching Association (NSTA), and the National Coalition Against Censorship (NCAC), all based in USA, joined hands in issuing "Freedom to Teach" (https://ncac.org/news/freedom-to-teach).
Pondering the approach of Earth Day 2022, I thought back to the first event, Earth Day 1970. I was in 11th grade; my family was all ardent nature enthusiasts. Earth Day was one of the first times I grasped at an intestinal level how different were the knowledge bases, assumptions, and views of others, including people I knew. In retrospect, Earth Day began the shift from my then-fervent expectation of being a biologist to becoming a geography teacher.
Reading the news from Ukraine recently, I lingered over the map. Some people see patterns and relationships only when shown them on a map; some see these automatically in the complex fabrics of real life space and time, and use maps to illuminate and clarify the patterns and relationships for others. I wondered what teachers in Russia were teaching their students. What did their maps look like? What did they hear? Then again, how much might I, as a school teacher in USA today, be able to explore with students the complex issues of today, researching actions and conditions in an ethical, caring, but unflinching manner to discover and expose objective truths. What happens if a map uses fabricated data, or a story excludes key facts, or some perspectives are completely ignored?
A bell rang in my head, from a classmate of my brother two years older. The story this fellow shared on his yearbook page hit me hard back then. Pondering the difference between heaven and hell, Rabbi Baal Shem Tov sought divine help, and was shown a room with a long table piled high with food, and men with utensils strapped to the lengths of their arms such that each could pick up the food, but could not move it to his mouth. And so they starved in the midst of plenty. This is hell, the rabbi understood. He was then shown a second banquet room, again with food piled high, and men with utensils similarly configured, but they were all happy and well fed. Looking closer, the rabbi realized that this was indeed heaven, for the men had survived by learning to feed each other.
The challenges facing our society, nation, species, and planet are numerous, interwoven, dynamic, titanic, tireless, and without mercy. We have made some important strides on some challenges that faced the world back in 1970, but have lost ground in other ways. In our collective efforts to build a better world, we make progress only through honest understanding. We cannot afford to cripple some of our most knowledgeable, skilled, and dedicated helpers by handcuffing one of their most powerful tools -- objective truth. Politicizing schools makes an already difficult job even harder. Our only route to survival is through seeking and acting on truth.
(With special thanks to Chuck, class of 1969)