November 6, 2023
In his 1992 Preface to Man’s Search for Meaning, Viktor Frankl laments the success of his book: “if hundreds of thousands of people reach out for a book whose very title promises to deal with the question of a meaning to life, it must be a question that burns under their fingernails”—in other words, people’s interest with and investment in a search for meaning is an “expression of the misery of our time.” Since Frankl’s death in 1997, the book has sold about 6 million more copies, which suggests that the question has yet to be extinguished. Now in 2023, we enjoy more comfort and wealth overall, at least materialistically, than any population in human history, and still, we are struggling to find meaning in our lives; discovering meaning, then, lies elsewhere, beyond material.
Our soul—that indescribable yearning within us—echoes John’s sentiments in Huxley’s Brave New World: “But I don’t want comfort. I want God, I want poetry, I want real danger, I want freedom, I want goodness. I want sin.” Our soul doesn’t crave social media feeds, that second piece of pecan pie, the next episode on Netflix, or limitless buffets. Our soul requires more than material comfort. It requires adventure, risk, mission, and a clear vision.
Mission and vision draw our eyes from our screens and platters to the horizon. Proverbs 29:18 says, “Where there is no vision, the people perish” (KJV). For our times, I might exchange the “perish” for “languish,” though the meanings are closely connected. There is a feeling of death in languishing, a feeling that you don’t matter, nor do your actions. When we languish—suffering from a lack of vitality—our souls thirst, and I believe that is where many teachers in America, in both the public and private sector, find themselves right now. This is a thirst that is not quenched by higher salaries, unfortunately, though I wish it were that simple. To be clear, paying teachers more is absolutely a good and necessary thing, a statement that our culture values education, that we recognize our teachers squeeze 12 months of work into 9, that financial stress impedes effective teaching, but higher salaries are not enough to resolve teacher shortages. Material solutions are a piece of the puzzle, but there are other pieces as valid: professional autonomy and respect; freedom from parental abuse; collegial cultures; and, for the purpose of this article, a shared mission and vision.
I fear we have become a transactional culture. We believe that a simple transaction (increase salaries = fewer teachers leaving the profession) can fix a complex problem. While we may be able to find the right salary number, we can never pay teachers enough to be transformative. … There is no equation for that type of transformation.
But to be transformative, the soul must be inspired.
The poet David Whyte expands on this point: “A soul-based workplace asks things of me that I didn’t even know I had. It’s constantly telling me that I belong to something large in the world.” And when you belong to something greater than yourself, you find meaning, at least, I believe that’s the formula. That’s what will keep teachers transforming students’ lives, the feeling that they belong to something important, bigger than themselves. But teachers must be clear about their school’s mission and vision; they must know what that larger purpose is: Why does this school exist? Which means we must ask, Why do people exist? To do what, exactly? To behave how? The answer surely isn’t to work or to consume or to compete. Those are partly the answer, but I believe we want graduates to desire discomfort and God and poetry and real danger, freedom, and goodness—recognizing that sin comes despite our best efforts—but for the sake of “something large in the world.” That’s what the best teachers do, they offer students the ability to participate meaningfully in the world. If they fail at that, then they will simply increase the copies sold of Frankl’s masterpiece.
When I moved back to Sumter last year, I was reminded that there exists a solid educational ecosystem, of public, private, and charter schools, plus higher education, but that ecosystem can be made healthier. Each school has a unique mission and vision that are strengthened not by isolation and zero-sum thinking but by partnerships and close collaboration with other area schools. Proverbs claims, too, that “iron sharpens iron,” as one school sharpens another, and we have the potential to be an example, a light, to the rest of the country—imagine how productive partnerships between all local schools can inspire a teacher workforce, who feel the draw of their own schools, as well as the tug of “something large in the world” that’s never existed before, never even been attempted for all I know. Imagine all-county professional development days, where we study together the most recent research in the science of learning. Picture a cross-school think-tank focused on a responsible approach to generative artificial intelligence. Drive by a cross-pollinated group of students working on a year-long community service project together. Listen to every teacher and school leader speaking optimistically about the state of education in Sumter. The potential of a strong partnership between the public, private, and charter schools is limitless.
That’s the vision, one I know is shared by Dr. William Wright, Superintendent of Sumter School District, and Dr. Trevor Ivery, Chief of Staff at Liberty STEAM Charter School, and the three of us are now working together to make this vision a reality. All of us working together, for all of Sumter’s kids. To me, that’s an inspiring vision, one educators would want to be a part of. There are challenges, but there are always challenges. Education is not a panacea for all of society’s ills: poverty, violence, inequality, discrimination, racial strife, history, etc. We will continue to need the support of the entire community, and we will need to exercise compassion and understanding as we pave the way forward. But schools will face incredible obstacles during the next decade, and it is through working together that we will ensure the positive development of all of Sumter’s children. If we continue to believe we are somehow separate, as if that were even possible, then that is the way we will languish—or “whimper” in the words of T.S. Eliot into the future.
This article was originally published on 10/31/2023 in The Item, Sumter, SC.
You may also be interested in reading more articles written by Brent Kaneft for Intrepid Ed News.
