Social Change/Radicalism
One indispensable tenet of the Friends World model of education is its commitment to social change and environmentally-conscious action. The program, while it strives to keep its curriculum flexible to the needs of each individual, holds in the forefront of its mission the goal of preparing its students for "a life of committed action in the interest of the world community." Regardless of what we study, it's important to be able to make connections between the knowledge we gain in our areas of interest and how that knowledge can contribute to making concrete changes in the world. Ask yourself, "How is what I learned or did useful in terms of making a difference in the world?"
Some of this is a consequence of our history. The Religious society of Friends (Quakers) have always shared a commitment to putting ethical theory into everyday action. It was this commitment that led the New York Yearly Meeting to found the Friends World Institute in 1965. Our educational paradigm is based on such radical thinkers as Morris Mitchell, John Dewey, and Paulo Freire, among others. At a time when most of the educationally progressive colleges of the 1960's have disappeared or lost their direction, Friends World remains an arena committed to conscientious concern and action.
There are two levels to this commitment. First, the content of the curriculum takes as its point of reference the underlying or root causes that perpetuate and sustain "the most urgent human problems" that face us (as outlined in our Statement of Purpose). In addition, many aspects of the process of FW education focus on locating, creating, and learning about the innumerable shades of human possibility that reside in all of us-- empowering possibilities that can only materialize when the student understands her own potential for putting learning into practice: for making a difference. Our agenda to cultivate a sense of active social responsibility in each student can only be realized when practice is integrated into the learning process, because learning is useless if it can't be transformed somehow into action.
Friends World refuses to take for granted the inequality, depth of human suffering, and numerous injustices spread throughout the world. In fact, one of the purposes of immersion into other cultures and the integration of the academic with the practical is for students to gain a more intimate understanding of the realities lived by the majority of the people in the world, and to discover a richer perspective on other people's day-to-day realities so that each student can make a more informed decision about how she wishes to make change. The acquisition of cross-cultural and practical experience is intended to draw the student closer to the grave problems that so many face in the world, in the hope that she will be empowered and courageous enough to be aware of them and to act responsibly.
Because education is a method of maintaining or reshaping society, all educational institutions are inherently political, although they often attempt to disguise their biases with the illusion of political neutrality or the supposed impartiality of the "quest for knowledge." Friends World differs from most other schools in that it tries to maintain a dialectical relationship with both the subjectivity of knowledge and with the process of learning. In this way, education is made empowering instead of oppressive.
Friends World makes no attempt to mask its own biases nor does it claim to possess all the "answers"; that is why we mold the curriculum around the individual needs and interests of the student. Our Learning Community is a broad one, including a vast array of political and personal viewpoints. No one is forced into any one way of thinking, but there is certainly an acknowledged agenda that is in the background of what we do. This agenda is woven together with the many other purposes, both institutional and individual, of a Friends World education (not to mention the rest of our lives).
Workshop Discussion Sparks
- The role of social and environmental action and responsibility in a Friends World Education.
- The fine line that must be tread between having an institutional agenda and forcing a way of thinking on people
- The most urgent human problems in your project area
Inspired and Creative
- There are thousands of things that you can do to make the world better than it is, either within the context of Friends world, in your local neighborhood, or on a global scale. Find out about them, and help others become similarly inspired.
Rigorous Training
- Make a list of your favorite urgent human problems, and work out some contribution you can make to their solution.
AAAAAGGGHHHH!
- If someone is shoving this stuff down your throat: ignore them or tell them to go away. Radical dogma is at least as limiting and destructive as any other kind of dogma.
- If you have been thinking about the urgent human problems to the extent that you are depressed, remember that people are making a difference all the time. Many alumni of Friends World choose lifestyles that put into practice the values outlined above; get your Student Executive to put you in contact with some of them. Remember that forcing dogma on yourself is no more useful than someone else forcing it on you.
See Also
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