A story about justice in education
| “If we knew nothing about where we’ d end up, what sort of a society would it feel safe to enter?” –John Rawls |
Matters of injustice arise everyday in informal frameworks and mainly in relation to our own life. Day – to – day it can be hard to take unfairness seriously. I mean to really imagine how life would be If you weren’t you. We work hard and we have ambitions. That’s why we are in this privileged position. We deserve what we obtain. Is that so?
It is quite known, among teachers, that fair isn’t always equal. The system is not fair, when provides equal stuff to all children. It should be about equal access to the curriculum. It should be equally challenging. It’s not about getting the same thing, it’ s about getting everybody to the same thing. But how are we going to do that? Is that simple? Do we have answers that can solve the problem of injustice? Or do we ask, in the first place, the right questions?
Head-start programs may help the problem of injustice in education. These programs try to put everyone in the same start line. I’m sure that you have seen the picture with the five different animals that are going to participate in the same race. But, because are all different the outcome cannot be fair. So, even if we try to achieve school readiness for every kid, which that means that every kid is ready to involve and benefit from learning experiences, there are still going to be natural distribution of abilities and talents. This natural differences, together with the different socioeconomic backgrounds of the kids, are some essential factors that may lead someone to success or not.
I think that we all agree that every kid has the right to education. That means that children have the right to educate themselves and be part of the society. The question that emerge now is what a poor kid is going to do with that right? I mean if you don’t have the basics to survive, the right to education is not substantive. Due to the fact that you can not use this right like the others, eventually you end up collecting rights, such as property rights, that you don’t know what to do with. According to this view, human rights are in proportion to the income you have.
So, we have big differences of wealth and income as much as natural differences. What do we do eventually? John Rawls contribute to this controversial subject. He said that those who have been favored by nature, may benefit from their good fortune, only on terms that improve the situation of the people on the bottom. People in need, to wit, should be benefited from talents of other people. In other words, tax the wealthy ones so as to have everyone a good education system, health care and money.
Taxation may seem like a violation of your freedom or a devaluation of your hard work, but I choose to see taxation as a matter of justice. Every year, I track down, as a teacher, the kids that face financial difficulties. These difficulties cause accordingly other difficulties and this vicious circle goes on and on. I try to give them the appropriate knowledge and tools in order to participate in the educational procedure. Meanwhile, there are kids that are more than ready to be members of the classroom. They engage discussions, are curious and learn fast. If the gap is noticeable at early age, picture this gap at the beginning of adult life.
I think that some kids are going to fail anyway, no matter how hard they try. Sounds sad, but if everybody strives to the maximum, some of us still have to fail. From a utilitarian perspective, a just society is one that tries to increase the overall quality of life for its citizens. So, it’s how the system works. What do we do then? I think that we have to keep asking ourselves about justice. Not because we will come up with a solution. I think that we can contribute to a less unfair system though. We should leave romantic thoughts out of education, and admit what really happens. Kids fail. And effort is valued at school, but it’s not effort that makes you successful in real world. What is important in our society is contribution.
From my point of you, firstly, we should focus on motives. We should help children to understand and feel how nice is to be good at something. We work mainly with kids that already have internal motives and we give to the most difficult learners external ones. How can the kids with external motives compete with the kids with internal motives?
Secondly, we should bring in difficult subjects, as vital part of the education process. For example, do we make them realize that part of who they are is luck or misfortune? They have to deeply realize that life is hard and even harder for some of them. This awareness can be relieving to a few kids. Perhaps they will stop believing that they are incompatible with the educational procedure. Moreover, discussions about wealth distribution will help privileged children to be more empathetic and generous to others.
Well then, ask kids more questions, even the ones that have no answer, like this one: “If we knew nothing about where we’ d end up, what sort of a society would it feel safe to enter?”
Sources that inspired me: