Human nature isn't truly natural - the need to develop rather than take social skills for granted in human beings - Column

Many among us meet the widespread fratricidal young-adult and teenage carnage in our urban communities with special denial and disbelief because it defies our long-held convictions concerning the origins of human nature. Most of us assume that human nature is something with which one is born. But closer inspection shows that, like speech, human nature is, at best, only a potentiality rather than a gennetic necessity. At an extreme level, there are clinical case studies of children virtually reduced to the level of animals when they have had only animals as caregivers and siblings during infancy.

Accordingly, education and nurturing are needed in society to ensure the humanizing experiences that introduce and illustrate, as well as cultivate and define, humane responses as distinct from less than human alternatives. Given the considerable deficits in certain family and community environments, public education is increasingly required to supplement rather than complement the home - to serve as the source of earliest learning directed toward individual and group responsibility and respect. The curriculum balance must accommodate more than the transmission of a sterile set of skills or the simple mastery of technology; it must go to creating a deeper personal and social awareness. It must become a structured means by which these new "social immigrants" acquire a sense of belonging and membership in society itself.

To do this, education must be adapted to transmit skills and task competencies within a framework of social competency. Among the tools for such a result are the insights of history, literature, poetry and art, as well as the latest knowledge in social studies and an awareness of the value of teamwork and ethnic diversity. Because this multi-faceted approach exceeds the knowledge base of any one teacher, the role of the curriculum is to stimulate and facilitate the student's individually tailored quest for personally relevant answers based on her or his universally significant questions. Such a curriculum will require a major overhaul of methods and content in the classroom of the 21st century.

It is passing strange, then, that at the very time when so much is being expected - and, indeed, required - of public education, there is such poor advocacy of its interests. In part, this may be the result of the transformation of public education from the schoolrooms we once knew. While we know there has been a dramatic change and while we are aware of the current shortcomings, we do not fully comprehend the causes of the crisis or the nature of the needed reforms.

The immediate need is for an alarmed public to make more of its support role in public education, whether or not we have children enrolled. Those of us who care about the future must take our school systems back as vital crucibles for culture; we must not leave them to the crusades of the fringe elements with ideological axes to grind. We all have a common stake in the means by which the community perpetuates its shared values and sensibilities.

At its core, the educational process has the burden of reinforcing our better angels in the relentless tug of war over the control of our social behavior. It cannot be assumed that they can win without our involvement and assistance. The human nature that we wish to promote cannot be left to natural elements and be expected to survive. Human nature just isn't that natural after all.

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