A Justice Site
Mirror Sites:
CSUDH - Habermas - UWP
California State University, Dominguez Hills
University of Wisconsin, Parkside
Soka University Japan - Transcend Art and Peace
Created: March 28, 2002
Latest Update: March 28, 2002
jeannecurran@habermas.org
takata@uwp.edu
Advocacy and Learning; Praxis and Theory
Entry by jeanne
Copyright: Jeanne Curran and Susan R. Takata and Individaul Authors, March 2002.
"Fair use" encouraged.This essay is based onRevolution as Seduction, Pedagogy as Therapy, and the Subject is Always "Me" By The Red Collective. "An Orthodox Marxist Critique of the University of Florida's Marxist Reading Group Conference: "Almost Always Deceived: Revolutionary Praxis & Reinventions of Need." Backup. Link added March 28, 2002.
This article berates a Marxist conference at the University of Florida for not taking a stand. One of the principal speakers was Peter McLaren, whose book on Freire and Che we use. I find it hard to imagine Peter McLaren not taking a stand. And so I wanted you to look at this article and compare the critique to some of our discussions of McLaren's work.
In particular, I am frequently dismayed at the radical Left's insistence upon taking a stand of exclusion. It's an objection I sometimes make to McLaren's reasoning, too. Particularly in the matter of teaching, a "stand" is not necessarily appropriate. For example, Freire insists that when the teacher insists that he/she "knows" what it is best for the student to learn, he/she ceases to be a teacher, for he/she has ceased to listen in good faith to the learner.
The learning process is in particular one in which the student should be free to gather ideas and experiment in putting them together differently, in ways that serve the agenda of the student, not the teacher. To this end, I quote Andrew Hund, from one of his PSN posts: "I should note, no where have I identified as a Marxist -- I do adopt the ideas of Marxist (and SI [Symbolic Interaction?], SF [Structural Functionalism], Fem [Feminism], and PM [Post Modernism]) thought when appropriate or useful. In short, I am not wed to any particular perspective, but do spend time attempting to interconnect Conflict and SF via PM."
This confusion between learning and taking a stand is fundamental. If you are convinced that you must stand up and be counted, before you are well acquainted with the issues, you may, in the eagerness to demonstrate you concern for social justice stand up for erroneous reasons. Learning never ceases. For everything on which we "know" a great deal, there are many things we do not know that well. And for everything that we are sure we "know" existential reality goes on changing things day by day. Our solution to this is to keep our minds open, refusing to close them upon what Freire called "circles of certainty."
Standing up to be counted is important. It is essential to social justice. But each of us much choose the times we take an active role, and we must forgive ourselves for the times when we do not know enough to choose. The choices are never between "good" and "evil." For there is an entire continuum between good on one end and evil on the opposite end. We worry so that we may not be courageous enough when we are needed. But we forget that to be "absolutely" certain is to close ourselves off to a world that is happening from moment to moment.
No, you don't need to be "absolutely" certain to take a stand.You just have to be sure you're not locking yourself and others into a circle of certaintly from which none of us can emerge to find peace.
For me, education offers the openness that Andrew Hund speaks of, an openness to theories, arguments, fantasies, and dreams. Taking a stand will come, and you will know it when you encounter it. To learn is to equip yourself with the skills and understanding you will need when the time does come to take that stand.