Fitting In

It seems to be one high-stakes drama after another. Extreme dissension defines the day in that we pretend that our black-and-white ethics and standards would apply and appeal to all.

Reason has become a sapling amongst a forest of political agendas. Without the strength of reason, that tree that marks the center of the forest, the populace is lost.

From that tree of reason, People run free. Trees of the ideological species have grown such a canopy, however, that People are losing their footing on the dimly lit ground.

People want to feel empowered again.

In schools, students want to feel equally empowered – empowered with choice, opportunity for growth, cohesion, caring, belonging, and control.

People can no longer, particularly today, feel like they are being operated on. People must know that they are the operators.

America is now the macrocosm of schools.

The political culture has become a non-democratic, negative culture.

A negative culture robs us of our reason, rationality, long-term interests, and sense of well-being. We People have lived in communities, learning to get along, establishing rules for behavior, and meeting the expectations of these rules in order to survive and thrive. People inherently have the capability of creating positive culture because of the quest for survival, a quest which has lasted for millions of years. Fitting in with a group and promoting its success is a basic human drive. If it’s ones perception he belongs to a group, he will promote the well-being of that group. If, however, one feels outside of the group, that he doesn’t belong, can’t contribute, and is without influence, that person will not only mistrust those around him but will work toward their destruction. More so, that person will work to create an opposing culture, recruiting peers who also sense that they do not belong.

Welcome to America.

Welcome to our schools.

Schools must become a microcosm of America. Schools may empower students, offer them opportunities for control and influence, and breed positive culture. Schools connect members to one another, constructing community and belongingness. Schools are a springboard into our democracy. Schools are trees of reason, the center of the forest, and not a sampling but a redwood.

Watch closely our schools.

Listen to what’s happening.

Know that our democracy will return as students springboard into recreating our culture.

From the Mouths of Teens

By the Election of 1860, America was polarized well beyond the sectionalism that had long existed.

Lincoln was a moderate; he was a figure that could potentially serve as a funnel through which two solutions could be poured. The resulting concoction America can only imagine. “For the polarized sides, ideas must be funneled down into ideas on which both sides will agree.” Our leaders must serve as “filters” of extreme ideas, promoting instead ideas of moderating reason.

Before his inauguration in March, South Carolina and six other states had already seceded because “change that appears to favor one side of a polarized nation cannot exist. Although Lincoln believed that slavery was an immoral system based on greed, he did not plan to abolish slavery.” Lincoln did not believe that blacks and whites should share equal footing.

Despite this, “a peaceful bond cannot exist between two sides of a nation when there isn’t a satisfying equilibrium achieved.” Sides were drawn, alternate teams were formed and citizens of one nation began to show an allegiance to their team rather than their nation. When an alternate allegiance and “a stubbornness is initiated, you might as well be preaching to a deaf crowd.”

“A disagreement of two people separated by an ocean will only end if a reasonable man will come to build a bridge. At a time when civil war was about to break, the people had taken sides and lost their willingness to reason and to compromise.”

We value democracy but do we understand democratic leadership? A democracy must be characterized by democratic leadership which values “change that meets somewhere in the middle.”

The moral of the story is that one must “be reasonable in unreasonable situations.”