Reforming Education, Reconnecting Communities

This Dream was shared by Wes Schantz, a 22 year old from Gaithersburg, Maryland who is currently living and teaching in Uruguay.

I have many things I want to do in my life. Studs Terkel is one of my heroes. What he did was so inspiring to me – talking to people and compiling their stories. My dream is to travel and see all kinds of places and get to know the people.

I’ve noticed that, more and more, people are disconnected from their community, or maybe it’s more accurate to say that their community is not so much the people in their neighborhood as the friends on their myspace, facebook or whatever.

I don’t think we really know our neighbors anymore, we stop talking to people different from us, and our lives become impoverished – our inner life and our relationships, even if materially we have a lot.

The stories I want to seek out would have to do with the connections between people that still exist. After compiling these stories, I would like to start a movement towards restoring community and the neighborhood, as a living place, full of diversity among its members. In this process, I hope that the individual members will enjoy a richer inner life.

Another dream of mine is to work as a teacher. I think learning (languages and literature, especially) is the best way to concentrate on rebuilding empathy, the food that nourishes human connections, kindness, and serving one another in the community.

As a teacher, I want to promote self-reflection and self-motivation that will lead to students spontaneously reading, writing, and learning beyond the classroom.

My dream is to be a teacher, for a little while, but eventually open my own school, where this basis of learning will be to develop more human relationships. This will be articulated and be the founding principle for everything we do.

Wes with his students in Uruguay

I have thought and written a good bit about these dreams; i’m starting to post it for lack of anything better to do with it — http://newschoolnotes.blogspot.com/ — and i really believe that this is the only real reform of education that will ever make a difference.

Now, the goal of education seems to be raising test scores a little or send more kids to college, and I’m not sure that is the true key to progress. I believe the fundamental perspective has to change and my dream is to be a part of that movement .

Like any dream worth chasing, there will be tons of challenges to overcome – it will cost a ton of money, opening the school, but charter schools are all over the place, so it is doable. Opening the school is a ways down the line. For the rest, telling stories and teaching, it’s the most natural thing in the world and I am starting today.