Pulled Up Short: Challenges for Education

Abstract

I looked at my Daniel when he was four years old, and I said to myself, How will I teach this mind what it is to have a soul? How will I teach this mind to understand pain? How will I teach it to want to take on another person’s suffering? That pain should be a focus for education is not a new idea. Maxine Greene writes: “Children and young persons inhabit a world of fearful moral uncertainty, a world in which it appears that almost nothing can be done to reduce suffering, contain massacres, and protect human rights.” Educators therefore must teach individuals “to strain toward conceptions of a better order of things...what ought to be.” Realizing Greene’s vision, teachers can provide students opportunities to develop the skills, judgments, and dispositions necessary to alleviate suffering caused by social, political, and economic injustice. On this view, pain is a legitimate educational concern because it represents the kind of experience individuals can and should learn to prevent and overcome.