Respect for humanity... do many of us, honestly, think this way on a daily basis? Undoubtedly we see and read human interest stories about genocide, starvation, famine, war, death, and violence daily - but do we really (as a culture or a society) think beyond ourselves individually and collectively in a broad enough scope to imbue our classrooms with a legitimate and pervasive "respect for humanity"? I argue that our kindergarten teachers are best at this (who didn't sit quietly for "show and tell" or learn how to share or carry scissors properly?), but that it gets lost in the din of standardized testing and measurements, overly competitive athletics, and the race to "do good" for transcripts to enter college.
I understand that charitable and service-oriented clubs and drives for food, clothes, etc. are on the rise in US high schools, but are our children truly "getting the message" or are they doing it because everyone else is, or they get extra credit for bringing in 5 cans of food, etc. Are we, as a society, even capable of understanding what true humanism and humanity is all about? And are we able to teach this in our schools without sounding trite and hypocritical? And how do we as adult educators help guide the adults in our classrooms toward this when many are heavily indoctrinated with a "me" mentality.
To respond to some degree to this line of questioning, I found later in the speech that Ikeda quotes Victor Hugo: "All fruitful social impulses spring from knowledge, letters, the arts, and teaching. We must make whole men, whole men" (p. 126). And to achieve this "whole man" system of social and school education, we must always be attuned as educators to "recognizing each student as a unique individual" (p. 132) and that what the Japanese call ko-yarai (push from behind (support) rather than pull forward (force)) is the key to cultivating a truly humanist society. This way the youth stand on their own, out in front, with a wall of support behind them, rather than being drug from behind by the adults and leaders in their life. For an adult education perspective, I interpret Ko-yarai as demanding/insisting that the student have an unobstructed view of the immediate and distant future with guidance and backing and care from their support system (parents, spouses, children, educators, etc.), without that support system trying to be 'backseat drivers'!
Questions to ponder:
1) Have you had a ko-yarai educational experience? If so, please reflect on it here. If not, how might you incorporate this into your existing or potential classroom or your personal life?
2) What was the most impactful lesson you learned with regard to having respect for humanity? Did this happen in an education setting? Tell us about it!
My experiences in the Montessori classroom were very ko-yarai as educational experiences. My experiences were wonderful, I had teachers that were very supportive, developed in me a sense of pride as an individual, and my family was always there for me. But I also did not receive any letter grades until High School I think. We worked in a mastery fashion similar to the AET program. I remember having to take this stupid math test what felt like 100 times until I could get 100% on it. I got to choose science projects that were of interest to me, and studied Latin, arts, music, and theater. I don’t think that’s possible as the current education system exists, but we were a private school self funded as didn’t have to vie for public dollars and meet arbitrary measures to ensure sufficiency.
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