My application to journalism school back in my early twenties began with “I am curious”. It’s still the case today, in that I draw my energy from asking questions and learning new things, whether “things” is substance, or process, or simply the ways of the world. And I like to think that learning flows both ways. What motivates me is taking insights and new perspectives in, and also sharing them out, infusing how I work with people, and how I parent, with a kind of multi-directional pedagogy.
That’s probably part of the reason why when we adopted a kitten who had been given the name Dewey, we decided to stick with the name rather than give him a new one. The philosopher John Dewey advocated for learning by doing (particularly cat-like). He also believed that the process of education is foundational for democracy.
By coincidence I listened to a podcast conversation between Cornel West and Sean Illing while cooking the Christmas turkey – in which Dewey (the philosopher) came up a lot.
West and Illing talk about the tradition of pragmatism, which is that of Dewey, Richard Rorty, and West himself, though of course each with their own takes and evolutions of it.
Pragmatist thinking resonates with me. It recognizes that yes, the world contains the bleakness of Hegel and Nietzsche, but also recognizes that hope is a motivational force for moving forwards from there; that unlike the enlightenment idea of an attainable and finite truth, there is no such thing, rather a continuous and constantly evolving engagement with experience; and crucially, that philosophical thought must be deeply grounded in and challenged by lived reality.
While my two touchstones for last year were beauty and blocks, this year I am going with pedagogy and pragmatism.
*********
More reading, listening:
The “Gray Area” conversation between Cornel West and Sean Illing.
And an excerpt from Paolo Freire’s “Pedagogy of the Oppressed”