The Human Restoration Project
It often takes a crisis of a certain magnitude to invoke the reckoning required to make necessary shifts in large scale institutions like education. The world pandemic of COVID-19 has forced all of us to see everything from the fragility of our lives/livelihoods to the fragility of social infrastructure — especially as it all pertains to inequities in our society.
Which are now glaring.
Newtons’ Third Law of Motion — for every action there is an equal and opposite reaction — often holds figuratively true in the world outside physics. Our reaction to this crisis has to be proportional in magnitude when in comes to evaluating our systems. Our systems of inequity. Our systems of performance. Our systems of dehumanization. The system that I am talking about is education.
Last year, I got formally involved with a grassroots movement called The Human Restoration Project.(@HumResPro on Twitter). We are a non-profit organization that has complex and deep-seated objectives that are born from simple human wants and needs. Here is the first thing everyone sees on the website.
The first sentence, strangely obvious, is equally strangely not obvious to some in education. The pandemic has now accelerated discussions as to what constitutes education, and what beliefs that need to be nurtured, as opposed to what skills need to be mastered. My own kids have packets of worksheets and time-filling assignments to do for school. I have instructed them not to do them. My kids are navigating this empty space with play — self-directed and self-chosen. Both my kids are attracted to games — online and offline. Their emotional and mental health is my first concern. Carrying out benign school tasks through technology is not an option. Using technology to become more curious, to engage in the world, to play, to have fun, etc. is how they are using it.
As President of the Board of Directors of The Human Restoration Project, my role is more simple than the title. It is giving guidance, when required, on macro decisions. But, from a more personal perspective, I have a lot of stake in the impact that our organization can have on creating new vectors for education that are aligned to its core belief of changing large systems — not tweaking smaller strategies.
Here are the systems that we feel need changing(more explicit detail is on the website).
In my world of math education, all of these systems have to change to restore humanity to it. That is why I am honored to work with this group to bring discussions for change. There is a Resource link on the site to help support those who are interested in gaining more information about us and progressive education.
A timely article came in a few days ago which underscores how our global health crisis is asking to NOT go back to NORMAL in terms of education.
Yes. The current pandemic, hopefully, is a once-in-a-lifetime crisis. As such, we only have this opportunity for massive reflection also just this one time. What will we reimagine? Whatever it is, it must be filtered through the simplicity and beauty of being human, and the connections we can make with our world, with each other, and ourselves. We can only attempt. While that sounds understated and somewhat modest, the answer of our own humanity lies in this…attempt.
So, let’s attempt to restore humanity to education. Please join us and help in any way that you can. The revolution is afoot, even though, currently, literally, we are not…
Take care. Be well. Be safe. Let’s be human.
