In order to teach self-actualization, we need to teach our
kids what's wrong with our society. Of course, we will first teach them to
respect the achievements of our community, state, and nation. And we will take
every opportunity to make certain they understand the sacrifices Americans have
made in the past to protect the freedoms they enjoy today.
But our world and nation are still imperfect, and, much as
the founding fathers did prior to the Revolutionary War, we must examine our
situation and judge what it might take to move ourselves beyond our current
state of bondage on Maslow's "basic" plane. It took a war to move us
beyond British rule, another war to get us past enslavement of
African-Americans, still others to surmount the imperial threats of World War I
and World War II.
But it doesn't always take a war. Sometimes, disciplined
changes of policies and laws can ease racial tensions, stop abuse by
monopolies, grant rights to those who deserve them, and end suffering. No
political party has ever sought to make life better for all people. Political
parties are designed to cater to the demands of its constituents. The great
solutions, whether they came down to war or policy changes, were made with
compromise and in spite of politics, at least for a brief moment.
If we want our "basic" society to ascend to higher
levels, we must ask our students to ascend beyond political thinking. I'm not
talking about rejecting the past; I'm talking about accepting the past for what
it is, respecting the good that has come of it, and seeking ways to improve
ourselves. It takes self-actualization to see what others don't, and it takes
courage to challenge one's community, state, and nation to do better.
Certainly, politics must be acknowledged, but it's easier to hide in a
political party than to speak the truth, so politics must be studied,
identified for exactly the thing it is, and then set aside in order to rise
above it.
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