Last week, I watched Waiting for Superman. Some of the ideas mentioned in this movie reminded me of my own school experience:
I remember sitting with a high school guidance counselor close to the end of the eighth grade discussing what path I was going to take. I could either take the college/university route in high school or a career route. She basically looked at my grades and asked me what I wanted to do when I grew up. I told her I wanted to be a dancer (by this point, I had been dancing for eight years and absolutely loved it). She glanced up at me, then down to the folder holding my grades, then back up at me, then asked something along the lines of, "Are you sure you don't want to be a doctor or a lawyer?" Even being young, I was highly offended that this lady who didn't know anything about me would assume that, just because I had really good grades, I would want to be a doctor or lawyer. I was even more offended that she treated dancing as a repulsive career choice.
During that session, we decided that I would take the college/university route. There were no options for kids like me in the career route. The choices ran along the lines of carpenter, mechanic, etc. When I came to UNC Asheville, I found it so strange that so many people seemed so much more prepared than I did. I found it strange that the school system made a huge deal out of the few of us going to college. I used to jokingly tell my friends that it seemed like our schools didn't expect anyone to go to a community college, much less a university. Now, it makes sense. If our school systems still use the same system as it did in the 50's, how do we expect to supply an ample work force in future generations? The approach it seems this country has taken seems to be standardized testing.
Notice the kids' faces. Does anyone else remember the stress level of the school on the week of standardized testing? Does anyone else remember not learning the skills that were applicable to solve all sorts of problems because it wouldn't be on the test? Or having homework marked off on because we didn't do it the way the teacher told us to, even though our own reasoning skills got us the right answer consistently?
Its not wonder those of us growing up today don't know how to take care of things in the real world. Some of us may have learned problem-solving skills in school, but many of the children coming through school today aren't learning those necessary skills. I know the standardized tests mean well, but they've done as much, if not more, harm than good. I know a young girl who can read, but she can't "comprehend" the material . . . which, in my eyes, boils down to the point that she can read, but she can't answer standardized test questions correctly. She may "comprehend" just fine if the pressure for reading for comprehension is taken away and she could just read for fun.
These children, as well as their parents and teachers, may spend days or weeks worrying about the standardized tests instead of actually teaching and learning. Part of learning requires for whoever is learning to feel safe. This often involves the condition of the schools as well as a relationship with the teacher (which can only happen when there is a decent ratio of students to teachers - a ratio that does not exist in many public schools).
The unsafe and impersonal environment goes against Martha Nussbaum's central capabilities.
She has ten very specific central capabilities that she believes all people should have:
Life
Being able to live to the end of a human life of normal length; not dying prematurely,
or before one's life is so reduced as to be not worth living.
Bodily health
Being able to have good health, including reproductive health; to be adequately
nourished; to have adequate shelter.
Bodily integrity
Being able to move freely from place to place; to be secure against violent assault,
including sexual assault and domestic violence; having
opportunities for sexual satisfaction and for choice in matters of reproduction.
Senses, imagination, and thought
Being able to use the senses, to imagine, think, and reason - and to do these
things in a "truly human" way, a way informed and cultivated by an
adequate education, including, but by no means limited to, literacy and basic
mathematical and scientific training. Being able to use imagination and thought
in connection with experiencing and producing works and events of one's own choice,
religious, literary, musical, and so forth. Being able to use one's mind in ways
protected by guarantees of freedom of expression with respect to both political
and artistic speech, and freedom of religious exercise. Being able to have
pleasurable experiences and to avoid nonbeneficial pain.
Emotions
Being able to have attachments to things and people outside ourselves; to
love those who love and care for us, to grieve at their absence; in general,
to love, to grieve, to experience longing, gratitude, and justified anger. Not having
one's emotional development blighted by fear and anxiety.
Practical reason
Being able to form a conception of the good and to engage in critical
reflection about the planning of one's life.
Affiliation
(A) Being able to live with and towards others, to recognize and show concern for
other human beings, to engage in various forms of social interaction; to
be able to imagine the situation of another.
(B) Having the social bases of self-respect and nonhumiliation; being able
to be treated as a dignified being whose worth is equal to that of others. This
entails provisions of nondiscrimination on the basis of race, sex, sexual
orientation, ethnicity, caste, religion, and national origin.
Other species
Being able to live with concern for and in relation to animals, plants, and the
world of nature.
Play
Being able to laugh, to play, to enjoy recreational activities.
Control over one's environment
(A) Political. Being able to participate effectively in political choices that
govern one's life; having the right of political participation, protections
of free speech and association.
(B) Material. Being able to hold property (both land and movable goods), and
having property rights on an equal basis with others; having the right to seek
employment on an equal basis with others; having the freedom from unwarrented
search and seizure. In work, being able to work as a human being, exercising
practical reason and entering into meaningful relationships of mutual
recognition with other workers.
In my time with the I Have a Dream foundation, I've found that many of these children seem to have many of these capabilities. They have the option to live a life of normal human length. The only reason that may be threatened is because of the neighborhood in which they live. Here is a story of a four-year-old boy who was killed by his mother's boyfriend in the Pisgah View Apartments. Since the families of these children are often in poverty, they have access to government health care, which means they have the capability to be healthy. Imagination is another big one they may have access to. However, I have no way of actually knowing to what extent they have the capability of imagination, since much of this occurs at home. These children are very capable of emotion; however, depending on the child, they may be fearful because of where they live.
The only two of Nussbaum's central capabilites that I feel these children do not have access to (and if they do, its most likely very limited access) are bodily integrity and control over one's environment. I feel that their bodily integrity could very much be in danger due to the community environment, where drugs and domestic violence are a norm to the point that police patrol through the apartment complex every 30 minutes. It may be argued that the children are too young to have control over their environment politically (I at least don't remember learning about politics until late high school, and still have trouble understanding them) and too young to own their own property. But I would argue back that their parents are old enough, yet because they live in poverty, this is not an accessible capability.
If the adults could have control over the environment, the children, I believe, would be much safer all around.
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