When Martin Luther King preached nonviolence, many of his listeners thought he meant ending just physical violence. But he also meant psychological violence. This part of the civil-rights lesson has not been fully learned in the postwar period. Despite the best efforts of many educators and social scientists, our system of education has never really absorbed the concept.
Consider the standards for college admissions. For the past half century, we have determined advancement by the grades of students in reading, writing, math and other subjects, and by their performance on standardized tests. Ignorance in any of these areas can hold them back. By contrast, social sensitivity-an awareness of the needs of others-is rarely seen as part of the curriculum. Throughout the system, these social values are generally viewed as subjective interference with more objective indications of being well educated. Ignorance of decency and respect has rarely caused anyone to be flunked or kept out of college.
The history I witnessed seemed to offer something more. Before the Brown vs. Board of Education decision of 1954, 17 states and the District of Columbia had laws on the books requiring racially segregated schools. Most other states segregated schools by custom. When the lawyers of the NAACP brought this form of psychological violence before the United States Supreme Court, they won a receptive hearing. The court decided unanimously that to separate children in school “Solely because of their race generates a feeling of inferiority as to their status in the community that may affect their hearts and minds in a way unlikely ever to be undone.” The court then quoted the Kansas federal court: “Segregation of white and colored children in public schools has a detrimental effect upon the colored children.”
And the decision went further. Significantly, the Appendix to the Appellants’ Brief, which was prepared by me and other social scientists and submitted to the court by the NAACP lawyers, contained a section on the impact of racism and segregation on children of the majority group. The brief stated that, “Those children who learn the prejudice of our society are also being taught to gain personal status in an unrealistic and nonadaptive way. The culture permits and at times encourages them to direct their feelings of hostility and aggression against whole groups of people perceived as weaker than themselves. Confusion, conflict, moral cynicism and disrespect for authority may arise.” That statement described a specific form of psychological violence.
Unfortunately, in the years since then we have not significantly modified the structure, function or substance of American education. Beyond the failures to desegregate, we have not yet developed a technique by which reading, writing, mathematics and the arts are seen as skills for fostering cooperation and for identifying with others. We have not yet made education a process whereby students are taught to respect the inalienable dignity of other human beings.
How can today’s teachers learn from their predecessors’ failings and work toward completing the unfinished business of one of history’s great social movements? In order for education to be an instrument of nonviolence:
Children must be helped to understand the genuine meaning of democracy from the earliest grades.
Children must be helped to understand that one cannot keep others down without staying down with them.
Children must be helped to understand social values, not just by word, but by their conduct, such as responding positively to the needs of their classmates.
Children must be helped to understand the importance of empathy and respect. Those who are capable of meeting high academic standards can assist others who are not so fortunate. Students often learn basic academic skills more readily from their peers. Social sensitivity can be internalized as a genuine component of being educated. This is nonviolence in its truest sense.
By encouraging and rewarding empathetic behavior in all of our children-both minority and majority youth-we will be protecting them from ignorance and cruelty. We will be helping them to understand the commonality of being human. We will be educating them.
