Whatever the Problem, Education Is the Solution

Years ago, I taught a writing class at a community college. One of the assignments was a problem-and-solution paper.

As the paper’s name indicated, students would select a concern in their personal lives, community or the world, and then explain steps that could be taken to solve or at least alleviate it.

The assignment was unfair. Many of these problems, in one form or another, have bedeviled society for millennia. Asking students to identify one and solve it in 500 to 750 words was unrealistic, even if they drilled down and dealt with only one specific aspect of a larger issue.

Students used to laugh at me because, as I wandered among peer-review groups and listened to participants read their papers aloud (reading aloud being the single best piece of writing advice I have ever received, and one that I try to impart to my own classes), I would always offer the same solution: education.

Homelessness? Education, for both the people living on the streets, to train them for in-demand work, to help them find resources to get them off the streets; and for the greater community, to help them realize the complex, underlying causes of homelessness, to develop empathy.

Obesity? Education, to help people recognize the relationship among diet, exercise and weight, and to help them recognize hidden biases they may have toward people based on size.

Climate change? Education.

War? Education.

Problems in education? Education.

Of course, there are solutions beyond education. Many of these problems need money thrown and a spotlight shone, so to speak, but both of those actions start with awareness, which is nothing but education with a “woke” name.

In some cases, I said, the only reasonable course of action was to point readers toward one or more possible solutions, with the caveat that getting the majority of people to move in one direction on anything is always harder than one thinks.

Fast-forward to 2020 and here we are, societally, struggling with another generations-old problem, racism, specifically as it has revealed itself through policing in the wake of George Floyd’s murder.

Over the past few weeks, we’ve heard a lot about “defunding the police,” a course of action that, as other commentators have pointed out, seems designed as a rallying cry for conservatives who want to indicate how out of touch progressives are with the “real world.”

I argue the issue is one of semantics, which in no way lessens the danger of saddling a viable solution with a loaded title. “Defunding” doesn’t mean — or doesn’t have to mean — actually abolishing the concept of police. Instead, it can and should mean shifting priorities and funding to deal with more of the health and welfare of underserved communities.

Of course, we still need police departments and people who are willing to protect our communities. But do police officers need access to full “battle rattle,” a level of armor and weaponry formerly reserved for the military, when some of our medical providers are battling COVID garbed in trash bags and recycled face masks? That money could be better spent addressing gaps in the American way of life — systemic racism, for example — and building a system of scaffolding to lift people out of poverty, substance abuse, and other challenges to upward mobility.

But before we do all that, we have to recognize there is a problem. And the best way to do that is — surprise! — education.

I’m continuing my own education on the issue of racism with a book that comes highly recommended from several fronts — “Biased: Uncovering the Hidden Prejudice That Shapes What We See, Think, and Do,” by Jennifer Eberhardt, a Stanford psychologist.

I can’t recommend the book myself as I haven’t yet read it. It’s on backorder,a good sign that others are also looking to increase their knowledge and understanding.

Of course, Eberhardt’s book is hardly the only one on the topic of hidden biases. I’m open to other suggestions, too, and I hope readers will share them.

If you search for The Next Big Idea Club online, that organization is offering a free e-study of “Biased.” I’ll be participating in that, as well.

This process of education takes time, and we are well past any reasonable deadline when systemic racism should have been dealt with. But we can’t let that stop us from taking the steps needed to make the world a better place for everybody, late though we are.

Defund the police? No. Reimagine and rebuild policing? Yes.

What that will look like is a problem worth solving.


chris.schillig@yahoo.com


@cschillig on Twitter