This is what I would do if I were teaching a class, the first thing I would begin with. I would say, ‘You are hurt and I am hurt. Both of us are hurt’. I would point out what hurt does, how it kills people, how it destroys people; how out of that there is violence, how out of that I want to hurt people. I would spend ten minutes talking about that, every day, in different ways, until both of us see it. Then as an educator I will use the right word, and the student will use the right word. There will be no gesture, no irritation; we are both involved in it. But we don’t do that. The moment we come into class we pick up a book, and it goes off. If I was an educator, whether with older or younger people, I would establish this relationship. That is my duty, that is my job, that is my function, not just to transmit information. from Dialogue 11 with Allan W. Anderson in San Diego, California, 25 February 1974 Read more |