Dr. Nancy Cantor, chancellor of Rutgers University in Newark, New Jersey spoke as part of panel discussion at a meeting of the American Council on Education's 97th Annual Meeting in Washington, D.C. The panel discussion was moderated by Krista Tippett and was also rebroadcasted on the “On Being” program on NPR on October 11, 2015. The other member of the panel was Dr. Christopher Howard who is the first African-American president of a historically white all male school in the South — Hampden–Sydney College of Virginia.
One of the issues as “named” by Dr. Cantor was existential identity crisis referring both to we as individuals, to academic institutions, and the inter-relationship of schools and the larger community. Dr. Howard has similarly challenged Hampden-Sydney College of Virginia whose history includes the school slogan, “Forming good men and good citizens since 1776.” This slogan needs to be put into the context of a school, which began on a plantation, which is all male and historically all white. It is also important to be aware of the fact that Dr. Howard is an African-American whose ancestry includes being five generations removed from a slave (his great, great grandfather) “from a chattel.”
Both of these individuals bring a passion for asking difficult questions to the institutions which they lead at a time when the viability of being able to afford college is in question for a significant segment of college- age individuals in the United States.
What does it mean to say that an individual or institution is having an existential identity crisis? Mrs. Tippett kidded Dr. Cantor about being a Sarah Lawrence woman. She was, of course, referring to the very academic sound of the framing of the question. Actually it is, in my mind, a very concise, accurate way to describe a stage of life or, more accurately, various stages of life. The phase is probably most often used to refer to the process whereby adolescents explore what it is that makes them who they are. More technically, this process is referred to as one of questioning identity cohesion as opposed to questioning role confusion (terms borrowed from Wikipedia). Essentially, existential identity crisis refers to a process which I think for many of us is ongoing throughout our life. Certainly this has been and is true for me. The question for me asks what it is that forms the essence of my being – what defines me as me. This is the same question which in 1974 I addressed to the mountain stream near Juneau, Alaska. As I have previously written, I would sit for hours talking with the stream about that which constituted its essence. I knew that it was not the water, which constantly changed; not the bed, which constantly changed; not the banks, which constantly changed; not the debris, which constantly changed; not the fish which constantly changed; and not the other life forms in the water and on the bed, which constantly changed. Its essence was none of these things and, yet, there was something which I and others comfortably call the stream. What was or is its essence? I have continued to ask the same question of myself. Certainly my essence is not my religion. It is not my maleness. It is not my age, my height and weight. It is not even my DNA or my heritage. My formal education surely does not tell one who I am.
One might ask the same question of education. In fact, I addressed that very question to two young Egyptian, high school boys who are living in this country while their father serves as Inman of the local Mosque. What is the purpose or essence of education? Is it learning facts, formulas, memorizing The Elements of Style by William Strunk, Jr. and E.B. White, memorizing the chemical table of elements, learning how to design a building, or even how to do service in the community? (Dr. Cantor asks, “What if we really thought that being “of a community”, was not just happenstance located in the community, but was a moral construct about collective responsibility?”) I would then suggest that we posit the possibility that the purpose of education is to instill the moral construct of questioning what it might mean to take collective responsibility for each other. This, in my mind, would mean that we would approach the teaching of all subjects with the question of how we might use an area of study to explore ways we can assume collective responsibility for each other. The measure of success would be the creativity of our questions and the extent to which we could commit to using that tool (chemistry, music, art, engineering, English, anthropology, language, health care) in finding ways to take care of each other as equal. As Dr. Cantor would say, to learn to function as a collective. Dr. Howard’s goal is very similar. It is interesting that under Dr. Howard’s leadership, the percentage of non-white students has dramatically increased at Hampden-Sydney College of Virginia. This means he is enlarging the concept of community which, of course, forces us to look at the questions differently.
I was telling the high school students that one of the more valuable graduate school classes I had was a small seminar on the concept of justice led by Dr. Walter Kaufman, the famous philosopher and poet. For an entire semester we 13 or so people gathered to explore the concept of justice. We, of course, did not come to any conclusions, but we did come out of that experience knowing that it was imperative that we continue to acknowledge to and with each other that we did not have the definite definition of justice. That was huge. As soon as we think that we know something we quit asking questions.
Some might call this ability to admit that we do not know and even that often we do not know that we do not know, humility. Others might call it acceptance. Some might term it freedom. Some might suggest that freedom releases us to have fun being creative; to experiment with designing communities whose worth is not about how much we have or even how many degrees we collectively have, but the willingness to find joy in taking care of each other and in exploring new and fun relationships with the interplay of all the parts and forces in the universe. Freedom would not make us less passionate or make us passive. It would leaves us with endless energy leading to more curiosity and a desire to draw closer to our neighbors.
There have been times in this country and throughout the world in which individuals have come together to form intentional communities, usually based on sharing resources and taking care of each other in all ways. Some have continued to flourish. Others have long since ceased to exist. In the mid-1970s, I traveled to and stayed at a number of these communities in the United States. These included The Bruderhof in Pennsylvania and Twin Oaks in Virginia, both of which continue to be still operating with the same basic sense of communal sharing of responsibilities and gifts. None of these communities have come up with “the model” which would work in every setting and for every person. Variations of the model such as now the urban Kibbutzin in Israel continue the experiment. Some of the intentional communities require one to share a particular religious or cultural framework while others only require that one share the commitment to sharing resources and responsibilities.
The people who explore such options are committed to education – to expanding the mind and the “soul” of the individuals and the body politic.
What is education? What is the purpose of education? As soon as we have honestly asked the question we have opened ourselves to new possibilities of expanding an every widening circle of neighborhood. Perhaps?
Written October 11, 2015
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