Reading bits and pieces about the U.S. financial mess has been a "telling experience" for me. Living in Haiti gives one new perspectives on what I have, what I need, and what I expect. For example - the price of gas is not too meaningful when there is NO gas to be sold. Or - the security of my retirement savings when there is no food for sale. Each time I go to post this blog, I am greatful that the Internet is working today, that it's speed permits me to upload a picture (something that will tell my experience much better than my words), and that the electricity does not go off before my new blog post is uploaded.
Today, 10/6/08 is the first day of school for the school year in Haiti. I feel very fortunate knowing that my own children have already completed 6 weeks of school. And as a life-long school person, I know that the financial collapses in the U.S. will make a difference for all schools. I am deeply moved by this letter that I have copied below and urge you to read it, think about it, begin to make choices, "to live life richly - We need to measure prosperity differently. We need to measure progress differently."
Dear Colleagues:
Here is the situation.
First mine. Then yours.
I returned home from Chicago on Sunday evening. I had enough gas in my car to get me home. I still have 1/16th of a tank but there is no gas available. The stations around me are dry. With no idea of when a tanker will be by to replenish them. I drive an SUV. I bought it in 1999. Perhaps I should have known better. It guzzles gas. It has now over 125,000 miles on it. A lot of emission. It sits in the driveway and may for some time. I am contemplating a scooter.
My lawn needs to be watered. We have not had rain for 3 weeks or so. I can't recall precisely. None is in the forecast. When we bought our home, we had a sprinkler system installed. I have been prohibited by ordinance from using it for the last 18 months. Our reservoirs are depleted even more than our gas stations. And there is no end in sight to the drought that plagues Atlanta and much of the southeast. We have overbuilt and the water infrastructure is inadequate. We are considering rain barrels and other catchment solutions to help.
Earlier in the month, I turned 65. Once upon a time, I considered retirement a viable option, probably not at 65 but in the foreseeable future thereafter. That future is simply no longer foreseeable due to the economic turmoil and downturn of recent months which has seen my retirement portfolio decrease in value by 20% or more. I simply refuse to look any longer. What is the point?
Well, there is another point. I remain among the most privileged of human beings in the course of history and on the face of the earth. Ninety-five percent or more of all people on the globe would gladly swap their living conditions with me and know full well it was an upgrade. My wife and I live in a four bedroom home. It is not grand, although we love it, but it is more than ample for sure. We have filled it up because we could, not because we needed to.
I am inclined to believe that these and other recent conditions of life may not change appreciably either in the short or long term. They will doubtless ease – but in one way I hope not too much. I frankly can live with a lot less and should. I am continuously reminded of an assertion made by Jared Diamond not long ago that if every human being on earth were to consume at the rate of the average American, it would require six planet Earths to sustain our consumptive habits.
I do realize that for many the current hardships are very real and represent displacements of job and home that are not just discomforting but hazardous. In no way do I mean to trivialize those. Still, the majority of people with whom I work and live are in circumstances far less dire than most and are far less vulnerable to catastrophic displacement. The accommodations and adjustments we need to make may not be easy, but they surely do not rise to the catastrophic.
What has this to do with you?
Schools, too, are going to have to do with less - smaller enrollments and less robust budgets and endowments. Campus and capital improvements may need to be postponed or rethought. We need to address these realities on several fronts. We need to think creatively about how we construct an education that is less dependent on conventional ways of organizing curriculum, pedagogy and personnel. Some orthodox, independent school shibboleths about classroom and administrative size and composition might have to give way. There need to be creative forums for alternative thinking about the design and delivery of education. We are available to help in the design of sustainability forums.
Even more importantly and more urgently, we need to recalibrate what we understand as "enough" and we need to stop making the simple and ultimately problematic equation between growth and progress. More is not necessarily better. This is obviously not just true of and for our schools; the equation has become a cultural and economic norm. Sustainability is not just ecological; it is about a way of life that, like the environment, is in peril unless we activate significant reformulation and remedy. We need to measure prosperity differently. We need to measure progress differently.
This is going to require a paradigm shift in the architecture of our schools and in the architecture of our lives. It is an overdue shift. It is also a hopeful shift if we want to be responsible stewards of the future and of the earth. That claim and characterization, unlike many bank accounts these days, is not overdrawn. To live life abundantly, this generation of young people does not need to live like we have. To live life richly, this generation of young people does not have to consume like we have.
Sometimes, we seem rather to back into our future rather than walk into it. This seems to me one of those times. But I continue to hope that we might turn around and walk into the days and months ahead with the determination to use our resources and resourcefulness more wisely and responsibly than we have and to educate our children and our students to follow suit and perhaps, if we can get it right, to follow our example.
Peter
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