Week One

            There are many different views on meaning. I think that the search for meaning is an essential part of being human. In the film, Examined Life, Avital Ronell speaks to the difficulties faced in the search of meaning. She talks about the human drive to find meaning and how it places one in a situation to be easily manipulated by dogmatism and nationalism. What she proposes is a question: Does everything need to have a meaning or can we just let things be and come to grips with the spontaneity and randomness of life? She implies that no, not all things need to have meaning. I would say both yes and no. I believe that meaning is a driving force for humans. It makes life livable. It is unfortunate, but true, that organizations (both political and spiritual) manipulate this drive in order to control people. Yet why should exploitation of a human trait devaluate it? I think that the search for meaning is a beautiful and truly human drive that should be appreciated and accepted. While the search is beautiful, I do not believe that meaning is always discoverable. All of the great religions of the world ascribe to some sort of faith system when you really get down to it to explain meaning. Maybe it is the search that is important and not so much the outcome.

            Personally, I believe that life is about how one reacts in the situations one is placed in more so than successes or failures. I think failures are the best and only way to grow despite the popular opinion that failure is weakness. It takes quite a bit of courage to put oneself out there in a confident way, risking failure, and then to admit it when it happens. Like this week for me, I procrastinated over the weekend thinking I would have time to do this blog on Monday, and then I was slammed with other work then and all week so I am posting this a week late. I failed at turning my assignment in on time, but I made a point to schedule out my weeks and weekends better so that it won’t happen again for me. I guess the point I am trying to make is that life’s little lessons (failures) along the way about how to function and flourish within society, as well as connections (successes) with other people, are what I feel the meaning of life is.

            While reading “Shame of the Nation,” the apparent differences between mainly Black and Hispanic schools and White schools were shocking to me. I knew that there used to be a big problem with separate but not equal, but I thought that the busing and integrating of schools in the 70’s took care of that problem. I am sure that Kozol spoke accurately about his experience in the most segregated states in the nation, but I believe that the problem lays more places than just the school system. Where I grew up, the students in my school were mostly white, but that was just because that area of the state isn’t very diverse to begin with. I can’t speak for anyone else who comes from my hometown, but I was raised in a very open household that did not tolerate racism in any way. My mother was raised in Cleveland, Ohio and she saw the horrors of racism growing up. She taught me all my life that everyone is the same and that basing any judgment about someone on something they could not change was wrong. I was never allowed to describe anyone by his/her skin color. I feel that being raised in this way gives me the opportunity to notice what a person is doing or what clothes they are wearing first before their skin color ever registers as an identifying factor. Of course I can see difference in skin color; they just aren’t nearly as important to me.

            I agree with Kozol that, regardless of why, something needs to be done so that all children in America are provided with quality education that is equal to what any other child in America would receive, period. While he was mostly focused on equaling educational experiences for children districts apart, it made me wonder if something could be done to equalize the educational experiences between children cities or states apart. I’ve met so many people who come from a different part of this state or a different state that had so many more opportunities than I did, causing them to be so much more prepared for college. I always thought this was very unfair because it is such a competition to get into college without the added anxiety that even if I took advantage of every opportunity I was offered and excelled at it, somebody who went to school in a wealthier part of the country was a more attractive candidate. I think that “No Child Left Behind” may have been trying to fix this problem, but it is failing miserably. That is another thing that confuses me. I have heard nothing but poor reviews of this program, yet the government still insists on using it for funding as it is without revamping it so that it actually works.

            I watched the talk by Damali Ayo this past Thursday. One thing that struck me was that she recommended that colored people form close bonds with other colored people and that white people form bonds with white people so that they each have someone to talk to about racism. I will say I do not agree with this, but this sort of advice may be one reason why there is still so much segregation. If everyone sticks to their own and trusts that the others will stick with theirs, then how can everyone come together in equality to enjoy our similarities as humans? And since the colored and white areas of town are probably the same as they were before the civil rights movement, it is logical to think that it would take a lot more money to fix the formerly colored only schools than the white ones. Regardless, I believe that the solution is open communication and compassion for one another for no other reason than our common humanity. It is in everyone’s best interest for all of the children to be educated equally because they are the future.