Free Can We Talk about Race?: And Other Conversations in an Era of School Resegregation by Beverly Tatum Page A

often we see students seeking success at any cost, reflected in the rising tide of plagiarism and other forms of academic dishonesty. We are confronted by the loss of civility in increasingly diverse communities. We witness the feelings of fragmentation and increased psychological distress reported by campus counseling centers around the country. 2 We see a loss of balance, too often a lack of integrity, and limited vision. And yet we need all of these—balance, integrity, vision; a clear sense of collective responsibility and ethical leadership—in order to prepare our students for wise stewardship of their world and active participation in a democracy.
    The technological advances of the twenty-first century will provide unanticipated opportunities for our students. They will have increasing access to ever larger quantities of information, but will they have the wisdom to use it for the common good? How do we cultivate the knowledge of self and others, the clarity of vision, the sense of perspective needed to make wise choices? Further, how do we do this in the context of ethnically and religiously diverse student communities, where we cannot assume shared cultural norms and values?
    These questions are especially important in the context of a changing world order. We need an educated citizenry prepared to join an increasingly interdependent world. The American psychologist and educator John Dewey told us long ago that education could prepare people for life in a democracy only if the educational experience were also democratic. Louis Menand, in “Reimagining Liberal Education,” drew from the wisdom of Dewey when he wrote, “You cannot teach people a virtue by requiring them to read books about it. You can only teach a virtue by calling upon people to exercise it. Virtue is not an innate property of character; it is an attribute of behavior.” 3 We must ask if our learning environments create opportunities for practicing the behaviors required in an effective democracy.
    And what is the relationship between wisdom and social justice? In my mind, you cannot have one without the other. There is no wisdom in inequity. Justice seeking requires the recognition of multiple perspectives and the opportunity for thoughtful reflection and dialogue. To quote the education leaders Lee Knefelkamp and Carol Geary Schneider,
    Justice depends on and emerges ultimately from the quality of our interactions with and sense of responsibility to other human beings. A society riven by deep divisions is hard pressed to provide meaningful justice to all its citizens. If civic relationships are characterized by segregation, strangeness, and an assumption that some of us come from cultures that are intrinsically inferior, how is it possible to respond appropriately to the moral and social circumstances of one another? 4
    Again, how do we create the opportunities for reflection, integration, and application of ideas that lead to greater self-knowledge and social understanding, that help students gain perspective and a greater recognition of the interdependence that necessarily exists within communities? What curricular and pedagogical strategies will lead us to the cultivation of wisdom? If wisdom is our goal, how can we be more intentional in our practice to facilitate its emergence? These are questions that should be at the heart of what we do as educators.
    Throughout this book I have tried to suggest ways in which we are at an important historical moment with regard to education and our nation’s legacy of dealing with race. It is a moment that contains both dangers and opportunities. We can allow the forces leading to greater segregation to drive us further apart as a nation; or we can use our leadership—as educators or as active citizens—to use and value higher education as a location where crucial connections can be forged. I started the book with a recounting of the drama of desegregation and now de facto resegregation that has