Editor’s note: This commentary is by Morgan W. Brown, who is a recently appointed member of the Vermont Council on Homelessness. The opinions expressed are solely his own and represent none other.
“There is no knowledge that is not power.” — Ralph Waldo Emerson
A belief of mine, held over the last 25 years or so, is that the teaching and learning of civics and the humanities is most essential, whether it be in middle and high school or higher educational systems. Several years ago I advocated for courses in the humanities be taught to those in Vermont who might have otherwise gone without the opportunities and benefits of these, for example, people living in poverty; people living homeless; persons incarcerated in jails, prisons or other institutions; people living in the throes of drug or alcohol addiction.
What I had been urging be established in this state was for programs along the lines of those offered by the Clemente Course in the Humanities (clementecourse.org) or other similar programs.
The Clemente Course in the Humanities was the brainchild of Earl Shorris, who died in 2012 at the age of 75. The headline of his obituary in the New York Times mentioned that he had fought poverty with knowledge.
His obituary read, in part, about how he was “a social critic and author whose interviews with prison inmates for a book inspired him to start a now nationally recognized educational program that introduces the poor and the unschooled to Plato, Kant and Tolstoy … ”
Although those previous advocacy efforts of mine a decade or so ago were not successful, it is still my hope that courses along these lines will eventually be offered, whether in classroom settings or online when and where feasible (or both), on a voluntary and free basis to those who could greatly benefit from them.
Given what is at stake, as well as the current focus these days about doing something more meaningful and lasting to help address drug addiction, crime, incarceration rates and poverty, as well as homelessness and the like, it would appear to be high time to finally consider offering courses in the humanities to all of those whose quality of life could well be improved.
The cost of not doing so is being borne out day after day, year after year. Programs and courses like these work and have been proven successful.
“Knowledge and human power are synonymous.” — Francis Bacon
One does not have to look very far for examples of these type of programs and how beneficial they are either. An example is the program offered to female prisoners in the state, by the name “writing inside VT” (writinginsidevt.com). According to its website, “[s]ince 2010, writing inside VT has forged trusting, pro-social relationships with more than 200 of Vermont’s incarcerated women.”
Does it take much more than simply providing courses in the humanities and the like in order to break the cycles of poverty, homelessness, drug or alcohol addiction, crime and so on? Yes, indeed, it does.
However, one of the longstanding missing components of all of our collective efforts thus far to address these and related matters in a meaningful fashion has been the lack of certain educational opportunities, among the most important of those is the learning of the humanities.
“Every addition to true knowledge is an addition to human power.” — Horace Mann
If the state were to help invest in providing greatly expanded access to programs along these lines to those willing to partake of opportunities for higher learning, including by networking and working with educational institutions across Vermont, those participating would not only be gaining knowledge, but also the potential this could afford in terms of greater personal, social, economic and civic power as well.
“Knowledge is power. Rather, knowledge is happiness, because to have knowledge — broad, deep knowledge — is to know true ends from false, and lofty things from low. To know the thoughts and deeds that have marked man’s progress is to feel the great heartthrobs of humanity through the centuries; and if one does not feel in these pulsations a heavenward striving, one must indeed be deaf to the harmonies of life.” — Helen Keller
Whatever the financial investment and other resources that might be needed to help provide such programs and classes would be well worth it. Society at large would benefit. If we as a society hope to sow and impart knowledge as well as aiding in the growing of wisdom, and then collectively reap the results, we have to be willing to do what is required to plant the seeds and fertilize the process in a fashion that benefits as many as possible.
If we do not, then the underlying causes as well as the ongoing cycles of poverty, addiction, crime, homelessness and hopelessness will never be effectively dealt with and eventually broken, no matter how much funding and other assistance programs are made available.
“To use books rightly, is to go to them for help; to appeal to them when our own knowledge and power fail; to be led by them into wider sight and purer conception than our own, and to receive from them the united sentence of the judges and councils of all time, against our solitary and unstable opinions.” — John Ruskin
It has been my observation over the years that when there are others who believe in the future of those most in need and have faith in them, including that their hopes can be realized and their dreams achieved, such persons are in a much better position to be able to begin to do so.
