An answer searching for a question
“Copernicus, Galileo, and Kepler did not solve an old problem, they asked a new question, and in doing so they changed the whole basis on which the old questions had been framed.”
― Ken Robinson
While this quote sounds like the start of a three-mathematicians-walk-into-a-bar joke, it inspired me to think again about how we approach important events addressing critical social issues.
There are two of these in February:
Black History Month
Pink Shirt Day
We are a school community with a common, all-consuming mission - to make good people.
We believe that it is necessary to be mindful of issues such as racial equality and anti-bullying throughout the year - not just during prescribed periods. At the same time, we recognize the importance of bringing a bright light to bear on these issues to ensure that students of all ages understand the context in which we bring these matters to life.
In other words, we want to help redefine and change the approach we all take while addressing important and sometimes sensitive issues. We see it as our responsibility to challenge an old-world way of thinking and think about how we view issues from alternative perspectives.
And, how do we achieve real and lasting change when we realize that the issues are constant?
There are many pathfinders in this journey and one of them is someone for whom I always had great admiration.
“I am passionate about everything in my life - first and foremost, passionate about ideas. And that's a dangerous person to be in this society, not just because I'm a woman, but because it's such a fundamentally anti-intellectual, anti-critical thinking society.” - bell hooks
Just prior to Christmas I read that bell hooks (like e e cummings, she didn’t capitalize her name) had passed away.
If you’re unfamiliar with her, she was an author, educator and feminist “whose wide-ranging writings on gender and race helped push feminism beyond it’s white, middle-class worldview to include the voices of Black and working-class women. Her work, across some 30 books, encompassed literary criticism, children’s fiction, self-help, memoir and poetry, and it tackled not just subjects like education, capitalism and American history but also love and friendship.”*
Ms. hooks was a person who changed the basis on which questions were framed. She approached the issue of living as a Black woman in society from a perspective that the issues she addressed had relevance to everyone. She believed that if her situation could provide a way forward for Black women it was likely to have a positive impact on all women regardless of race.
At Walden we always try to provide a broad outlook on how we look at the issues we all face from a communal perspective. Put as simply as possible we instil in our students the understanding that for one of us to move forward does not suggest that someone else must be held back. It’s confirming the belief that aspects of history are hard to understand within the context of today’s world and that there are issues that require us to heal.
It’s an understanding reminiscent of the Swahili saying “Wachemshe haohao kwangu utapoao” - “Let those who are with me be healed.”
So while our teachers will introduce special areas of study to address Black history month, and while we’ll carry on with our support of Pink Shirt day to erase incidents of bullying, we won’t limit these activities to one month or indeed, one day, of the year.
As bell hooks wrote, “Rarely, if ever, are any of us healed in isolation. Healing is an act of communion.”
That is how we think of the answer searching for a question.
*Clay Risen, New York Times, December 15, 2021