Diversity and Acceptance: Being Less Wrong

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I decided on this mini project after a conversation with Paul about a particular author we (I can assume) found to be quite engaging, humanistic, and enlightening.  The author is Oliver Sacks who has written many wonderful books.  The discussion we had was on Mr. Sacks' ability to bring a rather clinical discussion to an audience in such a way that allows the audience to be engaged without feeling a condescension.  He was able to discuss very specific ideas concerning differentiated brains in a way that was empathetic, humane, and empowering for those with whom he shared the experiences with.  Based on the spirit and ideas of this institute, I was inspired by a quote from a conversation between Mr. Sacks and one of his subjects, Dr. P.:

“Well Mr. Sacks,” he said to me.  “You find me an interesting case, I perceive.  Can you tell me what you find wrong, make recommendations?”

“I can’t tell you what I find wrong,”  I replied, “but I’ll say what I find right.  You are a wonderful musician, and music is your life.  What I would prescribe, in a case such as yours, is a life which consists entirely of music…” (Sacks, 1998, p.18 ¶ 3-4).      

I believe this type of reconciliation between subject and teacher is profound in many ways.  The tender nature with which Mr. Sacks approached an individual who recognizes a difference, but perceives it as a problem, is the hallmark of someone who themselves is trying to get it less wrong.  This idea that disability is not really the issue, but something deeper than just being less able than others is profound.  It is less right to look at someone as being disabled and to prescribe a “fix” for the problem, rather than being less wrong and suggesting a reliance on their strengths and embracing the difference.  This is the truest sense of teaching and learning.  In essence, Sacks has established an understanding of how to truly reach an individual and to truly understand what diversity is.  In order to truly provide the appropriate resources for a person to be successful, one must truly identify the diversity within.

In this educational world of authoritative knowledge and standards, standardized testing, and buzz words such as differentiated instruction, formative assessment, and so forth, it is critical that the human service that we provide is directed at the humans we are providing it for.  Even with all the bureaucratic, institutionalized, seemingly rigid ideologies that have infiltrated education today, it is still possible to identify and reach those we work so closely with in a humanistic way to get it less wrong.  As Sacks did with Dr. P., it is crucial that we are able to find that common ground that we can reach to communicate with our students in order to establish a co-constructive communication that allows both to feel value as well as express value for one another. 

Another motivation for writing this was the time spent in this institute with a group of colleagues who represented not only such a large group of diverse teachers, but diverse learners as well.  What I feel I was able to ascertain from such engagements with them is the drive to be better, to get it less wrong, and to establish relationships with people aside from and in many cases separate from content alone.  Each expressed concern with the future of education, practices, students, relationships with them, and most of all, just being human.  The Brain, Science, and Inquiry-Based Education institute allowed us to discuss many topics from reality, to social stratification, even to wine tasting in a pressure and judgment free environment.  These topics were not viewed or discussed as topics for debate, but rather as topics for diversity and enlightenment. It was not the purpose of this learning environment to enforce finite and concrete understandings of these ideas, but to allow an individual to develop their own sense of understanding and to share it, free of discrimination, to better the whole group. That is the essence of education. 

 With that all being said, I have become particularly aware of some of my own thoughts and ideas concerning the practices and concepts I use in my classroom.  There are three areas of interest that I will be focusing on for this project based mostly on my own experiences and curiosity of them and their role on education.  I feel that these three, if not in practice but in theory, have major impact on the learning environment.  The areas of focus include deviance, disability, and communication.  I am not interested in them and independent topics, but also as interacting forces that must contend with each other in the regular course of a school day and in the contexts with which we define the. 

Deviance

Disability

Communication

Sacks, O. (1998). The Man who mistook his wife for a hat. New York, NY: Simon and Schuster, Inc.