Prompted by Aubrie Orr, a teacher and former student, asking what we expect from education during the crisis. My response follows.
I say all the time that education is not about transferring knowledge so much as it is cultivating a habitus, a way of navigating and acting in the world. Education seeks to develop citizens who are open-minded in all the best senses–people who can encounter the strange without stigma, who can welcome others into their world without the expectation of assimilation, who can explore new ideas aware of, but not overwhelmed by, their prior experiences and attachments.
Today I’m working on transferring my courses online for the rest of the semester. I am frustrated because it is very hard for me to model that ethical approach to research, learning, and writing online. Online works great for folks transmitting (written) products, but not so well for appreciating process–or, what is important to me–the attitudes from which we (as teachers, scholars, citizens) approach process. That phenomenological dimension, which is so important, I fear is lost.
I think this is even a bigger issue for younger students. My wife teachers 3rd grade, and beyond the issues with technological access and family support, she is struggling to recognize how she can ethically do her job without being with her kids.
