It is so good to have the
Australian teacher, Yasodai Selvakumaran, recognised among the top ten in the
world as a teacher in this Global World Teacher Prize. Her focus on the
humanities is vital in a nation where the 2015 Australian National Curriculum review
reinforced a divide between STEM and HASS. I hope that, at Rooty Hill High School
NSW, with its inclusive multi-cultural philosophy, no such divide is allowed to
permeate the attitudes of staff and students.
The human consequences of such an intellectual separation – and deliberate disconnection – have unhappily been made clear if the mention, on the ABC Radio National’s Saturday Extra story of March 23rd 2019, about the Boeing 737 Max 8 is true. Did Boeing engineers feel they knew everything about this plane? Did they feel those who flew this plane were only pilots? Did they feel they were lesser beings when pilots have the lives of so many in their care? Could that possibly be true? If there is evidence that such a contemptuous attitude towards pilots existed/exists at Boeing, what then? Could such an attitude have had a role in the tragic results in these two plane crashes? Listen to the interview.
Yasodai has a role in professional development and it looks like it is going to grow. I hope her insistence on the significance of the humanities means that there is a STEAM approach in her school. Sciences, Technology, Engineering, THE ARTS including the humanities, and Mathematics. That unnecessary 2015 curriculum review, required by the Federal Minister for Education, Christopher Pyne, ensured these cultures – Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander, Indian, Chinese [put together as Asian] – were left on the Humanities, Arts, Social Sciences [HASS] side of the ‘cultural divide’. So, officially, these cultures’ contributions to science, technology, engineering and maths [STEM] have no place in the divisive way Australia’s curriculum content is now set up. The result, in effect, has been the sidelining, even in universities, of the humanities just when teachers in Australia had begun to make the interdisciplinary STEAM engagements across what has been called the ‘two cultures’ divide. I congratulate her. The recognition of Yasodai as one of the top 10 teachers in the world should send a message to all Australian educators who want to perpetuate the STEM/HASS divide that denigrates humanity.
How wonderful to see these intersections happening. Dr Sam Illingworth of Manchester Metropolitan University has written a poem, “It’s Snowing Underwater”, about research undertaken at the University of Sydney by the EarthByte Group in the School of Geosciences and he has sent it to them. Professor Dietmar Muller has sent it to me, knowing I value all STEAM connections. Are Schools of Education helping potential teachers to make these connections? I hope teachers are connecting with the sciences. I hope teachers of English are recognising the value of connecting with writing about the sciences in prose, poetry and in plays. And I hope the science teachers connect with the humanities. We need to get rid of the ‘two cultures’ divide.
.We need to understand the processes going on in the sea, on land and in the atmosphere in this very uncertain 21st century, That understanding must reach the voters in each democracy. Otherwise, we’ll continue the destructive path we are treading now. In Australia the separation of STEM from HASS has denied us a curriculum encouraging the capacity to learn through a poet’s response to research. Dr Sam Illingworth, is Senior Lecturer in Science Communication, Manchester Metropolitan University. Go to the Poetry of Science blog.
In this instance, the poem connects with research by the EarthByte team at the University of Sydney that is identifying how marine flakes – called ‘marine snow’ – are cooling the planet and how much they save the planet from warming even more. Professor Muller is the Director, ARC Basin Genesis, EarthByte Group.
In the Adelaide Town Hall, Professor Elizabeth Blackburn, Australia’s first woman, Nobel Prize winner said: “Make sure your mentors have human qualities that support you.” She went on: “There are many smart people in science but check that you work with those who have humanity.” September 14th 2013. She insists we have been training more people not educating them. We must refuse to accept the individualism that denies the need for humanity.
Remember Margaret Thatcher? Didn’t she say, There’s no such thing as society.”? No such thing as humankind? No such thing as community? No such thing as the public good? Now we know the danger of that. And the devastation of the Australian equivalent is “I’m all right, Jack.” Isn’t it responsible in large part for our refusal to face global warming?
That kind of individualism is being shown to stunt the mind. It is connected with what Hugh Stretton called “The Cult of Selfishness”. In Australia Fair, published by UNSW Press, 2005, reprinted 2006, Hugh Stretton made clear how both major parties have undermined community. Still, we know now the brain is flexible and can go on learning. That means it can un-learn attitudes and approaches doing us damage in evolutionary terms.
Australia’s
public broadcaster, ABC Radio National, on Life Matters, presented this
information. Note the connections between the sciences and humanities.
When most people think of compassion, they think it’s
something only to be practised by the heroes and martyrs among us, or they
think it’s something reserved for special occasions.
But Paul Gilbert,
a world-renowned expert on the topic, says compassion is actually one of only
three essential emotional drivers built into our evolution.
Not only that, but new Australian research by Dr James Kirby, who directs the
Compassionate Mind Research Group at the University of Queensland, shows that
practising compassion has been scientifically proven to make us happier.
It not only makes us happier. It
must make us more thoughtful about the impact of our actions.
Martin Rees says we need ‘enough feel for science. Go back to “Thank you Martin Rees”
When we recognise the centrality of felt connections and the destructive future impact of selfish actions, we need to work/vote to oppose the greedy, self-centred, who use their positions to increase their power and wealth at our expense. This focus on ‘self’ is the enemy of community. It is central to the individualism of those powerful multi-national companies as well as individuals who, for example, wilfully cheat their national taxation offices. This shows contempt for the reason democracies need revenue to care about children, people, fairness, natural resources, environment, health, education, social justice, shared commitment, considering future generations.
At the level of
university research, this is a wake-up call. The compassionate mind. At
last in research we are connecting quality in thought and feeling. How long
will it take? How much damage is likely to be done in the meantime by the
power-hungry driven by their insistence on ‘self’? They may not care they are
stunting their brains. Evolution is relatively slow.
Sciences and Humanities 