One thing we students and educators share is a love of learning. The more we learn about learning, the more we have come to realize that learning is not about passively absorbing facts ? it is about engaging with ourselves, our communities and the world around us in order to broaden our understanding of ourselves and others. Learning is something we all do, regardless of whether we are students or teachers, old or young, or where we are from. We all learn as part of life, but students and educators are perhaps more aware of all the learning that goes on and feel passionate about it as a fundamental part of the human experience.
Today we live in a world that challenges us to learn more than ever before. We have access to more information than we could ever process. But what is it we really need to know? Many argue that the learning of the future is not about concrete knowledge per se, but rather the ability to think critically and problem solve. Knowledge becomes old and out of date faster than we can learn it. We need to be able to think on our feet, so the story goes. This is true, perhaps, for scientific and technical knowledge, but what about knowledge about ourselves and others? Does it have the same short half-life?
If we listen to the headlines, we are just fine. “They” are the problem. After all, we love peace, democracy, family, community. But “they” raise their children to hate, glorify death and reward cold-blooded murder. The “they” of these headlines are Muslims. Beyond the politically correct rhetoric of “Islam is a religion of peace” and “This war is not against Islam, it’s against terror” is the ongoing message that the greatest enemy to humanity since Communism is Islam. And even though some Muslims are okay, the message is loud and clear whom we are to fear.
As a Western woman who has spent a significant part of my life among people of this faith, I cannot help but become both sad and angry as I witness the overt discrimination against Muslims both at home and abroad. People overseas who are angry at America are quick to distinguish between Americans and American policy. We are not as careful in pointing out exactly what the problem is. Our leadership has gone so far as to declare a global cultural divide between good and evil, us and them, Muslims and non-Muslims (all the while qualifying that some are okay, but … ).
Is there some grain of truth to all this hype about Islam, or is something else going on that the headlines don’t tell us? I speak as an educator when I say that we need to read beyond the headlines. In the context with which I am most familiar, namely Palestine, the headlines tell me that Palestinians are terrorists, extremists, Muslim fundamentalists who celebrate the death of Israelis and Americans and cannot be trusted. They are genetically prone to violence, reject peace and simply must be crushed into submission with American-made Apache helicopters, Caterpillar bulldozers and F16 rifles.
My knowledge beyond the headlines tells me that Palestinians are a people displaced and dispossessed by Zionist aspirations for a Jewish homeland in Palestine that created the state of Israel in 1948 on Palestinian lands, in Palestinian cities and towns, in Palestinian homes, right before Palestinian eyes. Palestinians are mourning the loss of most of Palestine to this day and stand threatened to yet smaller percentages of their homeland in the name of Israeli security. The same United Nations that Bush asks us to trust in to disarm Iraq has let the Palestinians down for more than 50 years. Security Council resolutions that began with the partition of Palestine in 1947 have called for just resolution of the conflict over and over again, and yet all the United Nations has done for Palestinians is supply them with tents, then cinder block structures with tin roofs and flour, margarine, and rice instead of their lands, their homes and their dignity.
My knowledge also tells me that Palestinians are a generous and proud people that believe deeply in the value of education. As one Ministry of Higher Education official pointed out to me on my last trip to Palestine, in 1948, “the only thing they didn’t lose was their minds, so they tried to invest their minds in education.” Israelis, too, know the power of education, and so have repeatedly blocked Palestinians from going to school and to the university.
I have visited Palestine repeatedly for nearly two decades, lived among Palestinians in towns and villages, and deeply admire their commitment to family, faith, and community. Respect and honor are central values in Palestinian society. Children have great reverence for their elders and ancestors, even though as Palestinians they carry with them the burden of a life that begs for normality, but they do it with pride. Their conviction for truth and justice run very deep, because they have witnessed their proud fathers and grandfathers shed tears at the loss of their land and way of life.
Essentially what we miss from the headlines is the story of people’s lives. The headlines lead us to downplay the humanity of the “other” so that we can sleep at night with clear conscience while real people scream out in pain and mourn over the loss of life. Our headlines tell us they deserve it because they are evil. We cannot deal rationally with people who do all the horrible things the headlines tell us they do. But as educators we should know better that conflict and violence cannot be judged independent of their historical context. As students and educators we should know that as complicated as conflict may seem, there are root causes to violence that we must understand and acknowledge if we are to move beyond them.
What hurts me more than anything as an American is the rhetoric we export around the world about freedom and democracy, peace and justice; it is so convincing to so many people. The world believes us when we say freedom is a good thing, democracy is a good thing, peace is a good thing, justice is a good thing. But our actions speak much louder than our words. We support regimes that lock people up for demanding their rights. The double standard of which we are guilty has infuriated people the world over, and not just the Muslim world, but throughout Europe, Asia, Africa and right here at home. This anger has allowed some to capitalize on it by recruiting people to actively engage in fighting back because words seem to have no meaning anymore.
The headlines make it so simple for us to know or think we know. We have to have the courage to look beyond the headlines and learn more about the story behind them. That courage may build bridges that take us to places we were afraid to visit, it may allow us to engage in conversations with people we were afraid to talk to, it may enable us to think about things in new ways we couldn’t see before, and most of all, it may make us better students and educators because we are practicing the teaching and learning we represent.
As long as we try to stand there as solid as the headlines, our story will not be one of substance. It will be both predictable and questionable. So I challenge all of you to look beyond the headlines and learn for yourself what is behind them and encourage others to do the same. We will be better teachers and learners for it, and our communities here and abroad will benefit from our courage.
Christa Bruhn is a dissertator in the department of Educational Administration at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.
