The world seems obsessed with the idea of making progress, but with little regard for what real progress is. Mindful of the great advances that have been made in every aspect of our lives, especially with regard to medicine, and technology, I nonetheless deeply regret that we are at a point at which “progress” is measured in terms of science, technology, engineering and math (STEM), with too little attention on that which makes us human: our creativity, our capacity to love and to believe in a power greater than ourselves.
In a Jan. 2 article, New York Times article, David Brooks addressed the importance of love and marriage for an increasingly loveless America, noting that “Love is a motivational state. It could be love for a person, a place, a craft, an idea or the divine, but something outside the self has touched something deep inside …” I agree with Mr. Brooks’ assertion that love is a catalyst for wanting to “learn everything you can about the things you love.” Thus, I am highly suspicious about the excessive emphasis on STEM in our schools, and the waning interest in that which most intimately touches our souls: the liberal arts, history, music and social sciences.
In 1991 William Julius Wilson wrote in a New York Times review of a book by Christopher Lasch (“The True and Only Heaven: Progress and Its Critics”) that according to Lasch “… the idea of progress rests on several untenable propositions: that material expectations can be constantly revised, that luxuries can be ceaselessly redefined as necessities, that new groups can be continually incorporated into the culture of consumption and that a global market embracing impoverished populations around the world can be ultimately created.” But Lasch noted that “the earth’s finite resources will not support an indefinite expansion of industrial civilization.”
Lasch’s critics rejected his idea that the world needed a return to “a lower middle-class culture (in which) [a] community’s continuity is valued more highly than individual social advancement.” I, however, agree with Lasch in this matter, even though I admit that I struggle to this day to understand his sometimes-opaque writing style.
In another book, I am still grappling with what Carl Benedikt Frey discussed in “How Progress Ends,” but I suspect his idea of “progress” is the removal of all the barriers that impede the production of more and more stuff, barriers such as environmental concerns and certain building and zoning codes. What causes me concern is that Benedikt’s ideas have found greater purchase in our collective minds than Lasch’s: more of us believe that more is better than moderation, even if that means irreparable harm to our fragile planet, and to our even more fragile species. We shrink the concept of progress by measuring it in mostly economic terms: and that makes our concept of progress venial and misguided.
Over the years, I have written several articles in which I asserted that the overuse of technology in our schools is not the fault of pedagogical factors, but is because STEM has been imposed by federal and state departments of education that have themselves been convinced by profit-seeking corporations with deep-pocketed lobbying and campaign contributors who are willing to sacrifice the joy of learning on the altar of greed. And we have let that happen. Some of us bought into the need to emphasize STEM, and embraced the idea that standardized testing was a valid measure of one’s educational progress; that AP classes would better position our uniquely qualified child for future success; and that the purpose of education was to enable my kid to be more successful than your kid.
But guess what: it didn’t work. More and more children are feeling lonely and depressed. Education has been commodified; turned into another task at which a child must excel in order to avoid abject poverty as an adult. I believe that too many of our kids who are great at STEM, are deprived of the richness of the liberal arts which celebrate their creativity, their sense of empathy, and their ability to navigate in a complex world, and to ignite in them the joy of a lifelong love of learning about all aspects of life.
I am inspired by the work of noted political philosopher Michael J. Sandel (“The Tyranny of Merit: What’s Become of the Common Good?”) in concluding that true progress is providing an environment in which each person is respected and loved, free to think and to be creative, and freed from the constraints of market-fueled, bloodless educational processes which places our children in constant competition with each other. I believe what most distinguishes humans from other forms of animal life is creativity; especially a creativity that seeks to nourish our sense of humanity and our love for each other.
I believe that the metric by which we should measure progress is the degree to which our political, scientific and economic decisions promote a sense of well-being among all the world’s people. David Brooks put it this way: “…[O]ne of the most important questions you can ask someone is ‘What are you loving right now? (for) love is the most powerful energy source known to humans.”
Jim Palermo lives in Southampton.