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Some of these last posts got me thinking about a workshop I ran recently.
Brains and bodies working at the same time.On Tuesday January 12th, I gave a presentation at Sharon Academy, in Sharon VT,this on Social Justice for Rural Communities. I talked about the cultural assumption that people who test poorly in our schools are more suited for manual/ag/forestry work, and how that plays into the way we value food.
I also talked about how the education system is lacking in opportunity for adolescents to experience physical and spatial challenges as part of their “career choice preparation”. Lively discussion.
My presentation also challenged the assumption that farming and logging are not inherently intellectually challenging, and that people who choose these PROFESSIONS are less intellectually capable than those who have attained certification for higher education.
If we could find a way to validate hands-on life experience, and physical enterprise, then we would find equity and justice in our rural careers, arrive at more legitimate wages, and more vital rural communities.
This was part of MLK Celebration Day at the school. Workshops were supposed to bring to light everyday assumptions that affect the way we interact with people.
I find it interesting how easily people can accept the presence of inequity in racial, religious, and gender issues, which are certainly important, but it is evidently difficult to see the social classification that is the result of our modern educational system.
This is because it is an ancient assumption. Even the Greeks considered that people who work with their hands, animals, and soil, are bestial, spiritless, and unfit for civic participation. Some philosophers even refer to this as “Social Predestination”.
I hope that I started some thinking.
These are the questions I asked to facilitate the discussion:
What is your name and what is your dream for your working future?
What do we mean by Social Justice?
What do we mean by “Rural Community”?
What kind of careers, are typical in rural communities?
Is it easy to make a living as a farmer or logger?
Are these professions desirable in today’s job market?
Do you know of any assumptions, or stereotypes associated with these professions?
Do you think these professions require college education?
Do you know of any social stigmas associated with the choice to work with your hands, in dirt, doing hard physical labor?
Do you think those stigmas have anything to do with how hard it is to male a living wage farming or logging?
Do you think that rural lifestyles are less intellectually stimulating?
Is there any critical thought involved in farming, or logging, or other manual labor?
Do you know people who don’t have high school or college degrees? How are they judged by their community? What do they do for work?
What do you think about our educational process that sets us up for the assumption that manual labor is a career choice for the less intelligent?
How does this prepare people who have a tendency toward physical work?
Do you think people who are enervated by physical enterprise, somehow accept that they deserve less pay than people who are highly educated professionals? Do they deserve less pay?
How does a school test adequately judge a person’s intelligence, if they are not stimulated by theoretical learning, but instead they are mentally motivated by physical and spatial challenges?
