World events this week, which brought to the fore (once again) unresolved themes of racism and injustice, have reinforced for me the responsibility of teaching students how to think in abstract terms, which underpin physical events.
The key word for me always is ‘think’, which naturally evolves into the conversation of, ‘How does this make you feel?’
Stimulating thinking and feeling are the greatest teaching tools we own, with which to develop in our students, a burning need to make their world a better place, starting with ‘the Power of (each) One’.
Exploring deeper understanding is traditionally a secondary level exercise. I believe that we must start with the very young, when their minds are open, most receptive and malleable. At primary level, children possess an unbiased view of fair-play and the truth that makes sense.
What can we use, within our curriculum, to achieve the objective of altering perspectives, born of instilled prejudices of class, creed, race, sexuality, gender and other ignoble facets of discrimination?
Always, I return to two subjects which I believe should be mandatory, in their purest form, from age four to age 16: History and Literature. Make these subjects ‘real’ early in primary level, and we have the power to change the world in a generation.
The precept that ‘young children will not yet understand’ is vastly incorrect. They understand all too well. They absorb facts, they crave clarity, they seek logic. We overlook their receptivity to our detriment.
Teach a six-year-old about the genocide of the Amerindian peoples in the Caribbean, which began in 1492, and discuss how 1.5 million native landowners, could be reduced to 115, 000 slaves in just 15 years – and why.
Link the facts of History to the feelings of Literature. Read to them the poem, “There was an Indian who had known no change.” Explain to them the end, “And stared, and saw, and did not understand, Columbus’ doom-burdened caravels slant to the shore, and all their seaman land.”
Take the raw truth of History and tell the story of Olaudah Equiano, written in 1789; an autobiography frequently studied by scholars but not in Caribbean schools. We must stop hiding History, and the Literature that validates it, until our children are ‘old enough to understand’.
Why is The Diary of a Slave Girl not on our curriculum at primary level? Why is the 20-year pursuit for human justice undertaken by the Abolitionists not taught as early as possible? There is too little meaningful thinking achieved between primary and secondary level. In what we teach and how we teach it.
We must use History if we are to instil enough indignation, that can be discussed in real-world terms, inspiring students to reflect and commit to improving the world they have inherited.
The very young should listen to Martin Luther King’s (MLK), I Have a Dream speech at five years old, not 15. They should be given the opportunity, and the guidance, to dissect it, when what they ‘think’ and ‘feel’ can be harnessed as powerful tools to transform them into change-makers.
Speeches abound: from Wilberforce in the 18th century to Mandela in the 20th. Do we continue to hide from the very young, the historical facts and the stories from Literature, so that we are all still fighting injustice, born over centuries of human atrocities, in the 22nd century?
All the controversy about rewriting History is because we have not taught enough History in its raw, despicable form, early enough. I don’t want the statue of Nelson moved from where it is. Why? Because there is a story there; a constant reminder of what is still wrong in the world. Every seven-year-old should have a field trip into Bridgetown and they should look up at the man for whom the excuse, ‘he was a product of his generation’, is a justification to own human beings. Let them ask, ‘WHY’ and tell them the truth, ‘Money, Greed and Power’.
Then let’s discuss this in today’s terms with them, in all of its ravaging glory.
When I tell my students that my office is called, ‘Thomasin’, they ask me why. I tell them of my great, great grandmother, born a slave, and that I choose to honour her name every day. They are shocked. How can a white woman have a slave ancestor? Well, many of us do. Few acknowledge the Cohobblopot of our own history and why black lives must always matter to us, regardless of the colour we wear.
The tragedy truly is that I am one of the few who are fortunate to know my history. That heart-wrenching knowledge does not escape me. There is quite a story there, filled with atrocity, abuse, discrimination and lost lives which I explain, usually with tears, which makes my students most uncomfortable.
But uncomfortable is where light shines through and change happens. History and Literature teach it constantly; just not early enough.
As MLK said, “Education is the most powerful weapon which you can use to change the world.” It is time we started to use these subjects TO change the world.
Julia Hanschell can be contacted at smartstudying@gmail.com.
