Years ago, in the life of an earlier version of Ned, I was taking an East Asian Language and Culture class on pre-historic asia, covering mainly Japan and China. Besides being smitten with a Japanese/Math major who sat next to me, I was very impressed with the professor, who's name escapes me now. He taught the subject well, making it interesting where it might not have been, and while his love of the history we studied was obvious, he never directly made value calls on the material.
Except for one day. He even pointed out that he wasn't going to go into his personal beliefs, but he had been covering the various philosophical/spiritual schools of thought, and paused for a moment while discussing the rise of Zen Buddism. He grinned, holding up a copy of the Tao, and said something to the effect of: "I'm only going to say this once. If the world is ever going to work it's problems out and have some sort of global peace, it will be through this."
I'm paraphrasing. Even though the event struck my freshman mind like a thunderbolt, I can't remember exactly what he said. He didn't repeat it, and he never went on to proselytize. But it had its effect. Already interested in pop-Zen, I felt like my initial response to Buddism was reinforced. To borrow a term from GrassPig, it is the shite.
Tonight I dug around a little though the books to find my copy of the Tao (the Cleary translation, if I remember correctly), but could only find my collection of koans, "Zen Flesh, Zen Bones." I looked, because somewhere in there I remember reading the "correct" way for a leader to lead the people. That is, the leader should lead by example, not by coersion. Convince the people to lead a right life by leading a right life yourself.
Which is all a very long winded way of getting to my thoughts on Pat's recent dilemma. He mentions that he doesn't want to teach tolerance, while in the same post he's getting after students who act inappropriately, correcting their behavior. Jim comes across a similar, but unique, challenge, and acts similarly (I think). Just as if they were dealing with, say, adults at a bar, they want to avoid confrontation, correctly in my mind. Confrontation is sometimes necessary, but it rarely is the most effective way to communicate ideas.
So, Pat, I think maybe I'm just surprised by your jargon when you say you don't teach tolerance. Of course you do. You treat human beings as worthy of respect regardless of race, sexual orientation or whatever. No, it's not in the curriculum; it's more pervasive than what's on today's lesson plan.
Of course, Ben rightly reiterates what I think several people were saying, that is, that some things are properly taught in school, and other things, even though we wish everyone agreed on them, are not the public school teacher's place to teach. Even if we can beat up the little ones.
Now I take on the aspect of the white-haired, dusty robed cave dweller, waving a bony hand at the fire and gripping my gnarled staff, muttering, "enough! I am weary of this, talk leads in circles. Bring me my ale!"
email Ned at
ned@tanque.org
