Director’s Blog – Lisa Charlotte Davis
Much has been written about it, but as an educator, my mind turns to how we build a kinder society through our education system.
Before I share my wonderings, I want to send big love to all my Black friends & connections who are hurting in the face of the systemic racism absolutely evident in this case. It is heartbreaking for someone to be pushed beyond their limits in such a callous way. These are not the “British values” I want for my country.
As I read the coverage & gained insight into the provenance of the claims seized upon by a savage press, the two ingredients that feel missing are critical thinking & empathy.
So many news articles use the passive voice. “Claims were made…” It’s a useful way of obfuscating responsibility. It makes you focus on the person something is happening to. It’s a thing feminist campaigners have argued for years in regards to violence against women. Use the active voice. Identify who is doing the shitty stuff.
So it took some time for me to see that a fundamentally racist person was the person to make the plagiarism claims so many seized upon.
It feels really problematic that we allow ourselves to run away with “news” items based on the passive voice without interrogating who is saying what & why.
It’s not that we don’t have the ingredients for this critical thinking in our education system.
In English, children learn about writing to persuade in Primary & build up to question an author’s purpose in Secondary. What effect do they want to have on their audience? What do they want to convince us of? In History, they learn about critiquing sources. Are they reliable? Is propaganda at play?
I got to wondering what is missing.
Having spent time the last weeks immersed in proofreading our Sometimes it Hurts toolkit, I think there’s a couple of things.
1. Critical thinking & empathy need to go hand-in-hand. We need to teach our children to grow up thinking about the ways our behaviour impacts others, encouraging empathy for those who are hurting, encouraging them to notice how others are & to reach out and offer support.
2. When our education system is overly geared towards exams, whatever we are learning risks becoming geared towards that, so that, even if we are thinking about an author’s intention, the focus is on capturing this to prepare our exam technique rather than applying the thinking to our own lives.
If we view education through the lens of developing young people’s skills to be in the world, as well as skills to get on in the workplace, we need to create the conditions where they have time & space to reflect on social attitudes & behaviours. To become adults who are going to positively contribute to the fabric of society. Who are more ready to ask, what is the story here. What is the motivation behind it? What will the impact be? Is the intention kind or destructive? Is this really the bandwagon I want to jump on?
Image credit: Megan Watson.
