Thinking about the tension between success of the individual and success of the community and what that "success" means led me to also consider "success" at the expense of who? Meaning, how often does striving for individual success, money, fame, material goods mean also contributing to a system that limits others' opportunities.
As I was preparing to play Andrew Carnegie for our role playing exercise, I grappled with some of the inconsistencies in Carnegie's values. He funded the public library system and believed that individuals could "pull themselves up by their own bootstraps" as he had done. However, he also funded vocational education for Blacks through the Tuskegee project because he wanted workers to fuel the industrial economy. In order for him to get rich, there needed to be people willing to work in factories. Pursuing his individual success did not only effect him - it effected all the people at institutions he funded and the system at large.
I know there are ways to pursue both individual success and social justice. One does not preclude the other. Especially if one defines individual success and achieving the "American Dream" as related to not taking away others' opportunities/agency in the process. I don't think there is a way to live in total isolation. I'm reminded of Maxine Greene's reference to "existential" thought in her lecture, though and the concepts of individual intentionality, authenticity and responsibility. Don't know exactly how this relates...
I feel pretty strongly that education does need to include a focus on social justice, but it is more of an emotional repsonse at this point.
1 comment:
Hey Mary -- you should check out a little graphic novel by Matt Fraction called Five Fists of Science in which Carnegie is a Satan worshiper. It's actually not a very good story but still -- Andrew Carnegie as a Satan worshiper for pretty much no reason.
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