I want to know why today 50 plus years after Brown v Board decision we as a people- with all our various identities, ways of living and being, and all the ways of our work- still don’t live out the separate is not equal reality that was slapped in our face that day. I’d love to know why we didn’t do it before then. So yeah, let’s go back to that. Where did it all start? Why do we categorize, label, isolate, and create tricky multi variable formulas that require us to segregate- whether it is physically, emotionally, psychologically, linguistically- people to fit into categories with labels. Labels and categories that then inevitably amount to hierarchies of power and full community membership and social capital.
Why? Why do we still do it? It’s 2011. It’s not even 2010 anymore and we still live out this reality day after day.
Call it ableism. Call it racism. Call it sexism. We have so many isms yet still teachers, and leaders, and policy makers, professionals, consultants, parents, and children… continue to perpetuate this boxing and othering. Why? Why? Why? Why? Why?
Why can’t we get past it? There has got to be another way to organize social spaces.
Maybe if we can get at the why we can get the how, because I’m a firm believer that if you can get the why you can work toward the how, but if you don’t have the why the how becomes difficult and it doesn’t have transformative power.
That’s what I want to study. I don’t how to do that? I have no idea how to do that. I don’t even know where to begin to go to look, or who to talk to even begin to think about how to do that. But I want to know why people, humans, children, adults, little boys, little girls, big boys, big girls, people in general still feel, live and experience segregation, hateful or naïve, separation and barriers preventing them, or making it more difficult for them to be able to, live the life they deem valuable to live. Why do we keep doing that? Why is it ok? Why do people think it’s ok?
Why do many people think it’s totally and completely okay that if you live in some places you’re just screwed. Too bad for you if you don’t have enough money and don’t live in a community without the necessary infrastructure for the development of you as a community member: transportation, jobs, quality education, or even healthy air…. That’s just to bad “they can move”, many say. Why is it that this thinking and the behaviors and policies that follow are acceptable?
I also want to study what the field of education's (and many other fields for that matter) obsession with the norm is. I blame it on Darwin. I blame it on the Vienna circle. I blame it on a lot of people and really can’t argue why. I’m sure I have to take some ownership. Of course I do. We all have to take ownership of it. Why are we obsessed with the bell curve, the norm and putting everyone into it? And then if you deviate from the norm you need an intervention, a label, or a special service. Why? It just doesn’t make any, any, sense to me. We are variable. We are all different. We aren’t supposed to be the same. I don’t understand. Where did that come from? Does it make it easier (make what easier?). Is it just human nature that we automatically organize because that’s the way the human brain works, or have we as people of a certain society been socialized into thinking that way? Would the social-relational model of understanding people and difference help push society to rethink the role of “norming”?
Is it like this everywhere? Are there other places and cultures that it’s not like this (categorizing, labeling and servicing all who don’t fit the societal definition of normal behavior)? Is it capitalism? Is it democracy? I would think in theory socialism does it too- perhaps even more so. I don’t know enough and I need to know more. I want to know how to know more. I want to study how I need to know more about what I need to know. It’s overwhelming. It’s sad. It causes pause and is even somewhat paralyzing. So what now?
I don’t think I actually answered the question of what I want to study specifically, but I certainly unearthed where the questions that propel me forward lie. Now I need to think long and hard about my “so what now”? and probably need a critical friend or two to help me along this process.
Amy,
ReplyDeleteThis is Jared. I spent a bunch of time working on a post and then realized I can not post on the site. I think I need to create a blog ID or something. Anyway, while I work on that here is my post. Feel free to put it up. I really enjoy reading the blog.
So first a disclaimer. I am a terrible speller and a linear thinker so this is hard for me to rap my brain around and may be more of a rant than a comment and will no doubt have many spelling errors. It may be of no help and may make no sense but I am diving in anyway.
I truly enjoyed the above post because unfortunately it makes me uncomfortable, but why. Well, I realize that it is true and I can not say that I have made a concerted effort to change those things that you mention.
The norm is comfortable. Comfortable for those who are in it. And we all enjoy comfort. There in lies the box. Do we box people so they can be in or out of the norm, our norm. I think that this is learned at an early age both socially and educationally. Children do not want to stick out or be vastly different from those around them. That is not fun and is uncomfortable. Who would they play and hang out with. So are kids then forced to conform to the norm so they fit in a box or if they are a little different segregate so they can create a box that is comfortable for them that they can pull others into. So maybe that is not the case, but first grade has been enlightening. Also, it seems like the bell curve is created from very early on. Your child should talk by age x, walk by age x, be able to build blocks by age x, be out of diapers by age x, and by god if they do not know there abc's will not move onto first grade no matter how good at other things they are. But what "milestones" really matter. Who defines what a milestone is.
So what about adults or our country as a whole. Again, these are just my thoughts and by no means meant to be judgemental because I suffer from many of the thought processes that I am talking about. Power and money drive this country, right or wrong. The boxes we create do lead to hierarchies of power. But is that not what "we" want. WIth power brings change and change is easier if you have more people that want "that change". (There is momentum at that point that is hard to stop and if you do not fit in you are going to be rolled over by that momentum. Wow I am rambling and probably not making any sense but oh well. You could try and change that momentum but that would be challenging and would force us to step outside of what we are used to and would make those people in our "circle" potentially look at us funny. We are scared of being different or challenged. I know I am at times. ) Every election talks about the United States needing change. We can sugar coat it however we want but it is politics and politics needs "boxes" in order to function right. Then we get back into a loop. Change allows those in power to further their beliefs. But too much change is bad right. If we were allowed to all be different and hold different beliefs would that not lead to anarchy. Rhetorical I know but the norm does bring some structure.
How do you maintain some structure but allow for more flexibility and less of the norm. And do you have to have norm to have structure?
Jared, your last comment is what keeps me moving forward. There has got to be be a way to have some structure (bc without it we'd all get lost in relativism) without basing that structure on a "norm". Now how to do this is beyond anyone- at least that I've met. But that doesn't mean there isn't a way. LIfe is complex, human kind is variable (at last to be best I can tell), and norms shift. They are culturally and socially bound- they are temporal. There was a time, believe it or not, that we didn't need to know our ABC's to get to 1st grade. What did we need then and what will our great grand children need? Is it the evolution of the human species or is it our journey to self-destruction?
ReplyDeleteBTW- I've always said that we should all allow ourselves to become uncomfortable at least once a day! It's the only way to grow.
ReplyDelete