Reflections: Wisdom and Service

"One who has merely heard of fire has ajnana (ignorance). One who has seen fire has jnana (wisdom). But one who has actually built a fire and cooked on it has vijnana (practical spiritual insight)."

~ Ramakrishna

I've always felt pretty comfortable in academic settings. Schools and universities are places where ideas get discussed, deconstructed, and hopefully rebuilt. But the phrase "ivory tower" is used for a reason. There is a divide between theory and practice that most schools have trouble crossing. No wonder many students emerge with their diploma into the "real world" with little preparation, dumped unceremoniously out of the glittering tower into the muddy streets below.

Those who are able to survive the dethroning, who can dust themselves off like Adam and Eve and walk bravely into a world of fragility and confusion, these students will be initiated into a new and more powerful magic: the combined power of independent thought and creative action.

Building and then crossing the bridge between thought and action is a theme tackled in Hermann Hesse's book The Glass Bead Game. His words hammer home the realness of the world, as well as the need for thinking people to be a part of - not apart from - it. After all, "abstractions are fine, but I think people also have to breathe air and eat bread." At the same time, learning (wisdom) imbues action with meaning and spirit, so life becomes more than mere survival. It becomes service.

There is a saying that the longest journey is from head to heart, but I think a parallel journey leads from idea to actuality. The mind is a place of ideas and ideals. Yet both can become idols if they are not broken on the sharp edge of the heart. Because the heart of man is not a smooth, untroubled paradise. It is a jagged wilderness that is the only door to the "real world" we can ever know. For it is not the brain or the senses that grasps reality. It is the heart.

Once a person becomes aware of this interior doorway and takes the trouble to pry it open even a crack, it does not matter whether they remain perched in their ivory tower, or trawl the back-alleys of slums. Because Life will find them. And once Life enters through the heart's rusty door, a bridge appears. It may take a lifetime to cross it, but the wilderness will no longer be completely pathless.

You will find that all the thought and work and theory crafted in school will have formed a very narrow, very treacherous bit of trampled ground. It's not much, I know. Believe me, I've stared at my own meagre beginnings of a path and wondered if all the years of learning and thinking was worth it. Not to mention spending! Over $100,000 and all I get is a few muddy footprints in the forest?

But the farther I've gone, past my first wobbly steps into a terrain where the only guideposts are Trust and Faith and a bit of Chutzpah, I've found a strange truth. It takes years of education to beat down a few feet of bracken, but Life has a wonderful way of clearing whole empires for us - IF we only learn to read the signs we've secretly been scratching to ourselves during all those years of study.

Because no one - no teacher, mentor, parent, or friend - can give you a better start than the one you've given yourself, despite (and because of) any failures, mistakes, or misdirections. This is the only difference between people who've heard of fire, people who've seen it, and people who've learned to make it for themselves. The latter are those who see in their own beginnings the bridge between thought and action. They have broken themselves on the raw edges of their heart, and found that these ruins are really runes - an ancient language of wisdom and service that the world is waiting to hear.

Policy & Practice: Segregation and Difference in Education

Between 2008 and 2011, an in-depth research project called EDUMIGROM studied segregation and its negative effects on minority students' prospects in Europe. Ten European countries were involved in the study, led by a team of researchers at Hungary's Central European University.

I am interested to read the project's policy recommendations on educational inclusion, though a cursory scan shows a lot of common sense advice in the face of increasing budgetary constraints and growing conservative/nationalist sentiments. In this atmosphere, it is more common to hear about the "failure of state multiculturalism" and the troubled EU than it is to hear about the social and economic benefits of greater interconnection.

I think an important point the study makes is that, despite the comfort both majority and minority communities often find in segregation, it only leads to poorer educational outcomes and decreased opportunities for both minority and majority students.

While majority communities can ignore this reality since their own children are "doing alright", in the long-run, this proves untrue. By having limited contact with members of other ethnic and religious groups, all students suffer. They suffer because are not being challenged to expand their conception of identity and belonging. They suffer because they don't hear stories of new places, and learn to communicate across cultural divides. And society suffers because this narrow vision perpetuates stereotypes and racism in successive generations.

I understand parents' concerns that academic quality not be diluted due to students with limited language skills who need remedial support, etc. But when parents make the decision to remove their children from schools that have witnessed an influx of minority students, they are also limiting every child's education, including their own.

I know this is a controversial thing to say, especially if there is real decline in a school's academic performance. But I believe that unless more people take the stance that escape from "otherness" is not an option, segregation will only crystallize structures of prejudice and injustice.

We are living in an era of engagement, not escape. We are being confronted with institutional decline and the systemic failure of governments, business and international organizations. Until our children learn how to live with difference, they will not be able to build the new structures and institutions needed to address injustice, insecurity, and ignorance.

An intern at my office recently wrote a blog article about the system of segregated education that continues to hinder Roma students from full access to social advancement. She flags an important stumbling block in processes of inclusion. It is all too easy to try to "mainstream" minority students without take care to preserve their culture and linguistic heritage.

I feel this loss of heritage in my own life. Two generations ago, my grandparents spoke at least two, if not three languages. My grandfather, for example, spoke German, Hungarian and English. But children at that time in American history were encouraged to speak only English in schools - to become "American", full-stop. So my parents speak only English, as do I. Now, I am back in the "old country" (Hungary), and I am surrounded by a language that is completely alien to me, although my roots are here. I feel a sense of loss, and wonder if it is possible for a universal language to exist without extinguishing linguistic diversity.

Interestingly, another research project called LINEE (Languages in a European Network of Excellence) has explored the role of "multilingualism" in education and society. Their findings? They recommend that teachers to be trained to recognize the benefits of multiple languages in their classrooms.

Of course, it is relatively easy for academics and researchers to pronounce how schools and teachers should approach diversity. But in practice, the lack of support and resources, combined with the complex needs of students, can be overwhelming.

And yet, despite these serious challenges, I know it can work. I have taught in London schools which boast some of the most diverse classrooms in the world. Teachers and school leadership make a huge difference, perhaps even more than gobs of money. Structured activities, encouragement and discipline, supplemental learning, and one-on-one mentorship are essential. But so too are learning experiences that all students can participate in.

Which is why, when addressing segregation, we cannot ignore the place of poetry, creativity and the arts. You can read here about a poetry workshop I gave to primary school students from Iraq, Lebanon, Ghana and Portugal (among many other nationalities). Everyone contributed - whether it was a word, gesture, or drawing.

When I asked the class how many were from England and another country, almost every student raised their hands. One boy proudly said, "I am from three countries. Jamaica, and England, and the United States." The next generations are going to be increasingly comfortable with multiple, overlapping and fluid identities, and less intent on planting their flag on a single plot of earth.

But as much as kids are capable of accepting difference, the educational structures in place are making it hard for them to have a positive view of it. When I was in primary school, there was a half-hearted attempt to mainstream mentally disabled kids. Yet, we only saw them at lunch and recess, where their unconventional behaviour often left them open to ridicule and outright cruelty.

This kind of "token" diversity is not enough. Tough conversations needs to be had, and students given a chance to engage in frank conversations. Teachers and parents also need to take a strong stance on bullying and other forms of social rejection. Instead of leaving kids to their own devices, adults need to really talk with them, especially when a child is labelled "different". Why is difference still seen as a sign of weakness, even among our youngest children?

Until this self-defensive instinct to attack the outsider is examined in open conversations, segregation cannot be addressed. Because the real segregation is not in schools or structures. The real segregation is in the human mind.