What role does morality play in this new approach to education? How about activism?
Like (I’m guessing) a lot of you, I was delighted and charmed with Rutger Bregman’s new book Moral Ambition: Stop Wasting Your Talent and Start Making a Difference. If you haven’t read it — well, if you’re interested in how to actually help mend the world, I think you should!
The author is a historian by trade; he brings together stories and interviews and theories to show how not to waste your life by getting sucked up in either:
the priorities of society, or
the methods of feckless, online activism.
I’ve read it twice; I suspect I’ll be buying copies for college students I know.
Imaginary Interlocutor: Yeah yeah, it’s a great book. Why talk about it here?
It was prompted by one mom, who when signing up for our forthcoming workshop series on what Egan education can look like in homeschooling, wrote:
Would have loved a week on current events/politics/activism.1
This made me realize: yeah, we need to address “the activism question”. What are the moral goals of this type of education? Does it lean conservative, progressive, or in some other direction? And what is the role of “helping mend the world” in the curriculum we’re setting up?
To get the best danged understanding of this, I decided to talk about it with Alessandro Gelmi.
I feel like I mention Alessandro a lot in this newsletter, but I’m not sure I’ve ever fully introduced him before… and I need to go to brunch with my wife, so I won’t do it now. Suffice to say, he’s becoming one of the world’s leading experts on Kieran Egan’s approach to education, is a dear friend, and is my partner in helping build our part in the educational revolution.
In it, we explore the concept of “moral ambition” and its connection to what we’re doing.
should a new kind of school embrace moral ambition?
should it avoid it?
how can it help make the whole curriculum better?
how could it go terribly, terribly wrong?
If you watch the whole thing and have questions, toss ‘em into the comments; Alessandro & I will be happy to answer frankly.
To L.C., who wrote this — thank you!
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