Memorial Day: Honoring Teachers

This may not be the most popular entry, but I think these issues worth considering.

This weekend is Memorial Day, a time to honor veterans who have died serving our country.  My father is a WW II veteran, as are many friends and relatives, and I do recognize and honor their service, their sacrifice, their heroism.  In no way do I diminish them.

But, I also wonder if this holiday's exclusive focus on veterans does not lead to a mind-set that sees fighting war as the highest, most noble contribution one can make to society, the gold standard of patriotism.  Because, and please hear me out, I do not agree with that.

In my ethical world, war is an abomination.  It is not just "a last resort"; to me, it is a failure of humanity itself.  Life is so fragile, so precious, so fleeting, to spend so much energy, time and resources preparing and then fighting a war--in which the main objective is to kill other human beings and completely decimate their society--it's just unfathomable. 

I literally have no words to describe how dismal a failure war really is for the human family.

As a teacher I have spent my life trying to build capacities in young people:  to help them discover themselves, express themselves, grow, build, learn and become better human beings.  That is, after all, the goal of education.  This, to me, is the highest calling, along with the ministry, because it attempts to improve the material and spiritual conditions on the planet--a planet in which intense and prolonged suffering is all too familiar, even normal, for virtually everyone.

To me teaching and working to educate others is serving your country, not by taking away or destroying, but by building up and adding real value to our common project.  I see teachers as builders, creators, facilitators, mentors, as the very fabric that makes human civilization possible. 

To go to your grave knowing that you have served other people in a positive sense, trying to make human life better--that is something I can take my last breath believing in.

I can't say the same about knowing that I may have participated in making war.  That is my personal view, and I do not expect others to embrace or agree with it.  I just could not get comfortable with my conscience knowing that my life has been spent in that way.

As a society, we get to make choices:  what to emphasize, what to value, what to hold up as a model of ethical achievement.  Who are our heroes?  Who gets written about and referenced in speeches?  Who is elected and given the highest authority in society? 

In short, who do we teach our children to look up to?

I know Americans don't see this, but we have become a very militaristic society.  Our defense budget is more than all of the other countries in the world combined.  We have 128 military bases around the world, 2 million people under arms, and we are currently fighting two different wars in the Middle East, while seriously considering invading Iran.

Moreover, many wars that America has fought in the past, the Mexican-American War, Spanish-American War, World War I, Korea, Vietnam--were not wars of "last resort" at all, but rather, wars brought on by a failure of leadership, greed and a kind of rash, ungrounded patriotism that sent millions to their death. 

We have fought many wars and battles, killing millions of people, not because we "had to" but because the accumulated conditions and circumstances demanded it.

I do not honor the mind-set that creates a foundation off of which war is a natural outgrowth.  It is wrong, and when I see it, I feel the need to reveal it for the unskillful thinking it is.  We can do better.  We can emphasize "service" to others that does not involve killing or wanton destruction of other cultures. 

And frankly, while not many teachers actually die on the job, they do spend their lives in service to their country.  Many do work under conditions that most Americans would never be willing to subject themselves.  Teachers don't make a ton of money.  Many of them go above and beyond the call of duty.  Most of them operate under a kind of idealism about the future, democracy and progress that has sustained and will sustain our country over generations.

In short, teachers serve this country every day.  It is not just abstract.  They are in the trenches, looking into children's eyes, showing them how to do things right and well.  They give their lives, over the course of long careers, believing in everything that is good and right about our country.  They sacrifice of themselves so that the world may be a better place.

My father, the World War II veteran, was a life-long educator.  And, when I think of his life and what he taught me, I will remember his values and beliefs about education much more than what he told me about war.  "War," he always said, "is just a terrible thing." 

Education and learning, on the other hand, he always believed in, and indeed spent his entire life pursuing, as the one great goal of being alive.

I think it is worth remembering those that have died in America's wars.  But, it is also worth remembering that the real goal of being alive is not to die or to kill. 

The real goal is to grow, to learn, to be fulfilled--and that the best way to get there is through learning and collaboration with others--in short to be part of an educative process.

A big part of my sorrow this Memorial Day will be for all those who have died in America's wars knowing that, if we would honor teachers even just half as much as our soldiers, many fewer people would die in the years ahead.