``This I Believe``
Transcript
I believe the two greatest experiences that life holds are; first, people, people you love, second, work, work you believe in. I’ve had a wonderful life that has combined these two experiences and worked for children and their schools as mother, teacher, and writer. I went through long, groping years before I found my work niche. My father, like most of his generation, believed children were born bad and achieved grace by feeling themselves unworthy. Also, he believed that women belonged only in the home, which meant that their education was unimportant, and work outside the home unseemly. In the 76 years I have lived, social sciences have practically been born; study of human beings brought rapid changes and attitudes toward children and women that have exaggerated the struggle between the generations. With me, this struggle brought prolonged conflict between loyalty to my family and to my own developing credo. To find myself, I had to break with family beliefs, though not with my family. I went to college and became the first Dean of Women at the University of California. But I carried a heavy load of guilt with me. Not until I married did I come out from the shadow of guilt into the sunshine of self-confidence. It was my husband who believed in me, in my work, who freed me to develop what powers I had [“promote the development of personal powers,” p.2, PE article]. With four children in our home and work with children in schools, my life became unified; a joyous, strenuous shared adventure. I believe human beings have undeveloped powers to think, to enjoy, to create, to care for the other fellow. [“other fellow” used in brochure and Two Lives.] I believe that development of these powers is society’s best chance for its own improvement and that for such development, education is society’s chief tool. [“Education is democracy’s chief tool” in brochure and Two Lives.] Therefore I believe that our schools, in addition to teaching the 3 R’s, should help each boy and each girl according to his individual capacity; to think, enjoy, create, and care. The vision of such schools made me resign from the University to come to New York to work with children, to teach and write for children and their teachers has been exciting. So has the 38 years of work at what is now the Bank Street College of Education. With a group of teachers and research workers, we’re trying to find out what children are like and how schools can be made places for them to grow in. [“study of the growth of children within the classroom,” p. 4, PE article] This work has been both the source and the expression of my credo. It is based on faith that human beings can improve the society they have created. [Conclusion of credo in brochure and Two Lives.] Without some such faith, life is negative and cannot be lived its best. With such faith, present difficulties are converted into a challenge. I have a big window looking out on a stretch of woods and hills. Some of my visitors see the view; some see the fly specks on the window. So is it in life. Some people center their attention on social fly specks, on debunking, on antic crusades. I believe that we need to see beyond our human failures and feel the lift at the broad view of human progress and human potentialities. [Word is repeated in brochure and Two Lives.] We all need to have faith in the worth of the world. [“…more intelligent observers and users of the world…, p. 2, PE article] We are working on human problems that my parents’ generation didn’t even recognize as problems. Working in fumbling ways as happens in new situations. But we are learning. Perhaps the most fundamental clause in my personal and educational credo is; while we are learners, there is hope. [“…we are ready to leave the future of education to them,” p. 1, PE article]