"We are now at a point where we
must educate our children
in what no one knew yesterday,
and prepare our schools
for what no one knows yet."
-Margaret Mead (1901-1978, American Cultural Anthropologist)
Global awareness is imperative. This awareness is my personal testimony, my life story, and the emphasis I put on this focus each and every day is paramount in my own life, but also important to the young educators I teach. It is clear to me as a school teacher in the United States, but also a school teacher who has trekked to developing countries, to difficult places with poor facilities which lacked running water or electricity, to places that were dangerous, often walking alone or with a translator down red dirt roads to go visit homes of students, to offer hope and change in HIV/AIDS infected areas or areas where witchcraft and religion or ancient ways of doing things was stifling children’s opportunities to learn or girls abilities to read and write, where I had to ride a bus up the dangerous dirt road on the side of an Ecuadorian cliff over and over again to get to the school at 12,000 feet in the Andes Mountains twice a day, where I myself got parasites over and over again, where I stood in a neighborhood that required girls to cover themselves and not be educated….that education is the BEST tool we have to make this world a better place for all of us.
You see, I believe radicalism, terrorism, and poverty have always existed since the dawn of time. Humans do the most terrible things to each other in the name of religion, ethnic cleansing, and power. Slavery has existed going as far back as recorded human narrative. It’s about power. One people group exerting their strength over another. But, as Nelson Mandala said, “Education is the most powerful weapon which you can use to change the world.” I know this. This makes so much sense. Education is what changes our homes, schools, communities, countries, and cultures for the better. This world is housing more people than ever before in its history and somehow we have all got to find a way to live in peace together. With over 320 million people living in the United States and the world’s population soaring to 7.2 billion in 2015, that is a lot of people who need to find some common ground, literally and figuratively. The atrocities being committed against people right now are deplorable and children most definitely deserve a much better, safer, healthier life. However, as a seasoned teacher who won’t even ride a roller coaster because it scares me, but one who will navigate paths in dangerous places around the world armed with books and education, I know that that education isn’t going to happen without teachers. Education might be the vehicle; teachers are the drivers. And, so, in my 53rd year of life, I find myself preparing to go to refugee camps within the next year or so to do some of my preliminary doctoral research on how art can change lives in these camps. I won’t ride the roller coaster at the State Fair this year, but I’ll pack up and go to a refugee camp. If we want to have a better world, we need teachers to go and do; not sit and type. And, then we need teachers to bring back these stories to their classrooms and create more teachers, more “doers,” and more “goers.” Then, as Mandala put it, the weapon of education will far exceed the weapon of steel and lead and plutonium. Margaret Mead (1901-1978, American Cultural Anthropologist) said, “Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world; indeed, it's the only thing that ever has.” Perhaps some art educators need to pack their bags and become world changers.
-Trina Harlow, Kansas State University College of Education, Art Education, Oct. 18, 2015
