The optimism of education: a bit of love in a world of bullies

In January's report, the World Economic Forum describes the state of the world today as an era of "polycrisis": climate disruption, viral pandemic, war against Ukraine, banking crisis, authoritarian threat to democracy, inflation, you name it! The world is sometimes brutal and, in the famous words of Jacques Chirac,  « les emmerdes, ça vole toujours en escadrille » (literally : "problems always come in series"). As our DNA, developed over thousands of years, aims at the continuity of life, we pay a disproportionate attention to bad news by survival reflex. We are genetic paranoids.

Educators are unabashedly optimistic about all of this: the agenda for our school sessions is about student empowerment, resilience, equality-diversity-inclusion, positive discipline, and continually challenging our practices. So, is school a utopian bubble, against the harsh reality of the world students will be entering?

We need to be nuanced and keep a course. The French philosopher André Compte Sponville gave us an unforgettable talk at Collège Champittet in 2022: we must know, act and love.

First of all, we must know the world, nature, the laws of the universe, the thinking of the ancients. We must also know ourselves, because we are full of surprises and revelations for ourselves. Knowledge helps to apprehend things with more distance and objectivity. Our emotions themselves become the subject of observation. Knowledge is transmitted, either by classical ex-cathedra courses or by coaching students who are able to progress by themselves. The teacher modulates his/her approach, reads the cognitive functions of the student and adapts his/her approach: this is called differentiation, by level groups, or personalization, by individual, which allows each one to use all his/her capacities.

Knowledge and progress bring deep joy, open perspectives instead of restricting them, and define a more balanced relationship with the world.

Knowledge is giving meaning to things, to life. Knowledge is allowing one's personal accomplishment. The school legitimizes itself by transmitting knowledge, but above all by transmitting the pleasure of learning and the existential happiness it brings. I learn therefore I am. Knowledge gives meaning.

Comte Sponville also suggests that we act. When in doubt, do not remain idle, but act. Sometimes to shoot without aiming, when there is a fog. Act to transform things. To obtain an impact, then either to continue or to correct. Acting to use one's abilities, to get in touch with the universe. Acting as the opposite of the debasement generated by social networks, electronic games and all the continuous entertainment, available everywhere at all times, whose excessive use atrophies our capacities. There is a place for entertainment, as there is for boredom: let the brain rest and let other areas of the cortex work.

But these moments of entertainment must be limited. Action provokes waves, returns, sometimes oppositions: life, in short. Acting is densifying the course of life and making time longer: who has not felt a month spent in boredom, very slow at the time, become insignificant in the memories, while 3 days of intense activity mark the memory and charge it with meaning.

At school, action must be prepared. It is necessary to give the students confidence in their abilities. We must give them a chance to experience project management and experimentation. Our students always receive attentive listening and support (in time, in advice, sometimes in budget) for their projects. 

All that remains is love. Passionate love, but also affection, respect, kindness and empathy. Listening sincerely is loving. Preserving nature is loving it, and also loving future generations. Love in the broadest sense as a solution to the polycrisis. Of course, love does not always mean giving pleasure: love is of a different order than dopamine. In education, loving sometimes means causing displeasure in the child, putting him or her in order in his or her interest.

Loving means postponing the reward so as not to make the student addicted to the little bursts of pleasure, in order to experience deeper joys at the end. Loving means learning together, from each other: there is no better teacher than the student who has understood before the others. Sometimes a student even teaches the teacher something and gives him/her the ultimate satisfaction of having passed on everything he/she could.

Loving is neither stupid nor complicated. It is something to be decided and experienced. There is no weakness in affection and benevolence: rather the courage of those who know and act. One can love and respond to a slap without necessarily turning the other cheek, if the priests of my childhood will forgive me this thought: revenge is by far not always the best response, but resistance is sometimes the only choice when faced with the aggressor.

To paraphrase the former French president: to know, to act and to love also fly in flight.