by Reinhard Schulz
Terms such as education, sustainability and solidarity have a special appeal and hold great promise. But can this promise be kept? The pandemic is making it possible for the crises and problems hidden behind the old promises to come to light all the more glaringly.
In the case of the promise of education, this is the inequality crisis; in the case of sustainability, it is the climate crisis; and in the case of solidarity, it is the refugee crisis. The promise of free self-determination in education ("Others can educate us, everyone can only educate themselves", Peter Bieri) turns out to be an unknown in the "home office" with many variables of inequality, which can be of an innate (native or foreign), individual (desire to learn), social (background), familial (single parent to extended family), economic (parents' income), pedagogical (teachers' and parents' skills) or technical (hardware and internet access) nature. The technical variable has the makings of another great promise in the form of digitalisation, which is intended to sweeten our quarantine, and not just for schoolwork. Unlike the pandemic, however, it does not require us to wear masks and leaves us defenceless against the "infections" of surveillance capitalism (Zuboff 2018). In view of this mixed situation, the promise of education can very quickly turn out to be a promise for many or prevent participation in education from the outset, depending on the milieu and technology.
But anyone who is moaning about this should read the book Names and Numbers (2020) by Milan-based forensic scientist Christina Cattaneo, who wants to give the anonymous victims of Lampedusa back a little of their dignity by collecting their personal belongings. Sewn into a young drowned man's jacket, she found a small cloth bag containing some of his native soil and his school report. The three promises at the beginning obviously deserve much more joint attention.
Reinhard Schulz, Dr phil. habil., is Emeritus Professor of Philosophy at the University of Oldenburg and President of the International Association of Jaspers Societies.
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