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Saturday, April 20, 2024

Why Grow Up: The Impact of Travel and Education on Adulthood

Why Grow Up was written by Susan Neiman and published in September of 2014. Neiman, born in 1955, is an American moral philosopher, now living in Berlin, who has published several books. 

Some of the Key Philosophers in Why Grow Up are Immanuel Kant, Hannah Arendt, and Jean-Jacques Rousseau. 


Immanuel Kant (1724-1804) was a German moral philosopher whose work was incredibly prevalent during the Enlightenment period. Kant coined the term "categorical imperative" - a universal ethical principle.


Jean-Jacques Rousseau (1712-1778) was a Swiss moral and political philosopher whose work focused on human freedom.

Hannah Arendt (1906-1975) was a German political philosopher whose work focused on totalitarian phenomena and coined the term the "banality" of evil. 

In Why Grow Up, Neiman argued that growing up is not enticing in our "infantile" age. In the section 'Becoming Adult,' she mentions three things that have a large impact on adulthood: education, travel, and work. 

Throughout the text, she also defines adulthood. She believes adulthood requires the ability to think for oneself, recognize the gap between what is and what ought to be, decide which compromises are acceptable, and sift through the choices your parents made for you. She also described it as a task that never stops - an ongoing process.

Scientists have sought to answer the same question, all coming up with different answers but often pointing to the brain to define key stages in development. 

REJECTING YOUR PARENT'S CHOICES

Neiman states that as you grow up, you will begin the process of sifting through the choices your parents made for you. These choices can range from topics as serious as religion and discipline to those as trivial as music and television. Neiman believes that if you do not reject any of your parent’s decisions, saying “That’s just what I’d have chosen had I been able to choose myself,” then you are not grown up. She argues that because your parents made those decisions around two decades ago - that times have changed and not all of their choices are compatible with the way the world is now.

THE PRISON OF EDUCATION

Neiman believes the state of the education system today is not in alignment with what it should be. She compares modern schools to prisons, citing Thomas Jefferson and Hannah Arendt’s visions of what schools should be like and demanding, like Kant, “swift revolution.” 

“The chief political function of society is to educate its young.”- Thomas Jefferson

“And education, too, is where we decide whether we love our children enough to... prepare them in advance for the task of renewing the common world.”- Hannah Arendt

LANGUAGE AND MUSIC 

As Neiman points out, the best time to be exposed to and learn language and music is early childhood. Research supports this. Children are like sponges - capable of learning multiple languages in toddlerhood.

 The benefits do not stop at just knowing the languages, bilingualism is associated with “increased attentional control, working memory, metalinguistic awareness, and abstract and symbolic representation skills” (Review of Educational Research). However, instead of taking advantage of this, schools often do not introduce second languages until middle or high school. 

A study at MIT found that the best time to learn a language is before the age of 10, after which the ability begins to deteriorate, leaving middle and high schoolers at a disadvantage. Schools also typically don’t offer band or choir as electives until middle school. Experts recommend beginning an instrument between 4 and 7.


WHAT CAN WE DO?

The issue ultimately comes down to funding. Kant believed private investment was the best way to secure funding. It is evident that public schools are underfunded. Teachers have to dip into their own bank accounts to buy supplies not just for classroom use but for their students. Classrooms cannot be run effectively if ratios are too high, the students do not show respect for the teachers, or if there are not enough teachers due to low salary offers. 

Schools like MIT and NYU have recently announced they will reinstate their standardized testing requirements for admission. They found that students who did not report their scores had lower GPAs than students who did. Students who did poorly on the SAT or ACT likely did not have the resources to prepare for the tests, meaning they also likely did not have the tools to prepare for college.

KANT'S PRINCIPLES OF PEDAGOGY

(1) From earliest childhood the child must be allowed to be free in all matters (except those where it might injure itself, as, for example, when it grabs an open knife)

(2) The child must be shown that it can only reach its goals by letting others also reach theirs

(3) One must prove to it that restraint is put on it in order that it may be led to the use of its own freedom, that is is cultivated so that it may one day be free, that is, so that it need not depend on the care of others

ADVICE FOR HOW TO IMPROVE YOUR EDUCATION

(1) Avoid places where you are the smartest person in the room

(2) You cannot know in advance who has knowledge or wisdom you might need

(3) There’s a reason the classics are still around

(4) Refusing to abandon the past does not mean living in it

(5) The internet is a source of addiction - spend some time without it

A WORLDLY EDUCATION


Education does not and should not stop in the classroom. Travel is an important part of learning about the world around you. It exposes you to different cultures, leading to more tolerance of different beliefs. It also encourages you to step outside of your comfort zone, with new cuisines and cultural norms. 

Travel introduces you to new languages, religions, traditions, and customs. It exposes you to history and art. Kant believed that geography should be taught starting at a young age, and travel to other countries should be the norm.

THE IMPACT OF GLOBALIZATION

As Neiman powerfully states on page 151, “globalization gives us the illusion of knowing other cultures far better than we do. Nor is cultural ignorance confined to the less educated.”

People often only see glimpses of other countries through media and believe that small piece defines the entire country. People will dismiss the vibrant history and culture of places like Turkey because all they see on the news is war and confict.

Even the rich, who traditionally have a better quality of education, are not immune to this. Companies will take advantage of their ignorance and plan “volun- tourism” trips, which cost thousands of dollars.

THE DISAPPOINTMENT OF STUDYING ABROAD

Rousseau was also clear in his belief that travel is a crucial part of growing up. He did state, though, that if done the wrong way, travel can be detrimental rather than beneficial.

Neiman builds off of this argument he made in Emile by discussing university study abroad programs. They are often advertised saying students will get to experience the culture but are not designed to support that. Students get the advantage of adding the experience to their resume but do not get the full advantage of living abroad.

WHAT MAKES A GOOD TRAVELER

As Neiman states on page 162, “every good traveler is a nascent anthropologist, seeking to understand what is similar and what is distinct in peoples and cultures.” The correct way to do this is to spend time immersed within the culture. 

Work or study abroad trips do not allow for this because the traveler is preoccupied with something else and still immersed within your home culture. Neiman suggests that rather than traveling with your company, you quit your job and work for a local company in a place that requires you to learn a new language. 

She states that “working lets you learn what tourists cannot know.” She says that while this is not easy for everyone, it is certainly possible. The only prices are the plane ticket and “the decision to reject the voices that tell you such journeys are impossible.”

IN CONCLUSION...

Make the world your oyster. Set out to learn as much as you can from the people and places around you and far beyond. 

1 comment:

  1. the "banality" of man-- Arendt actually wrote of the banality of EVIL, as personified in some men (and women). Whether all humans possess this quality, potentially, is itself an interesting question to address.

    Neiman believes that if you do not reject any of your parent’s decisions, saying “That’s just what I’d have chosen had I been able to choose myself,” then you are not grown up."-- To be clear, she thinks a grown-up CAN endorse some, maybe even most, of her parents' choices. Just not all.

    "Education does not and should not stop in the classroom." Totally agree. As John Dewey said, education is not mere preparation for life; education is life itself.

    See if you can't turn those bibliographic references at the end into embedded links.

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