The examined life
Nearly 2,425 years ago, the Greek philosopher Socrates told prosecutors at his trial, “The unexamined life is not worth living.” One charge against him, related to the examined life, was that he had corrupted the youth of Athens by teaching them to question the status quo.
He was found guilty and punished by forced suicide (voluntarily drinking poison).
Clearly, over the centuries his teaching has affected primarily those who felt oppressed by the status quo, including, on our continent, the founding fathers who led the American Revolution in the
18th century; workers and suffragettes in the
19th and 20th centuries who, respectively, led the unionization movement and won women’s right to vote; and civil rights advocates in the
20th century who overturned segregation and many other discriminatory laws.
The list of groups victimized by the status quo consists of many more categories, but K-12 students constitute an invisible oppressed group. That’s true because K-12 education generally fails to teach thinking skills related to the examined life.
Although over the past 50 years there have been innovations in teaching and in curriculum, the focus generally has not been to improve students’ thinking skills; instead, the educational-industrial complex has focused primarily on improving test scores related to basic skills.
Of course, basic skills are important, but equally important are life skills related to decision-making. Unfortunately, except perhaps in several niche areas, there are few, if any, student leaders or school administrators advocating for curriculum that supports thinking about life.
Criticizing school systems for failure to focus on survival skills is not new. Published in 1964, Paul Goodman’s “Compulsory Miseducation” treatise criticized the educational status quo and said the primary purpose of education in the United States was to “provide apprentice training for corporations, government, and the teaching profession itself, and to train the young to adjust to authority.” Goodman was an activist and education critic. Shades of Socrates!
Nearly 60 years later, the overhaul of the Arkansas educational system (recently signed into law as Act 237) doesn’t mention adding curriculum that teaches students how to critically examine different aspects of life. Wouldn’t it be helpful if such skills were included?
For example, students could be taught to evaluate politicians and political campaigns, news media content, social relationships, economic trends, advertising claims, the implications of technological change, the status quo and even the way they live their own lives.
Yes, it’s a lot to ask, but introducing students to the examined life might improve an entire society over time. If, on the other hand, the powers that be think the examined life is a threat, please pass them the poison!