What a curiously interconnected world this is! Melissa Heckler read Paul Thomas’s post about his terrible Father’s Day and his reflections on our “gladiator culture.” She is in Namibia. She was moved by it and sent me the speech she gave at Bank Street College in New York City when she received an alumni award.

She said:

Good Evening. Thank you to the Alumni Board for this award.

I am honored. Today, when education is treated as a business and children as products, Bank Street still educates children to be citizens of a democracy, not a business.

Two courses essentially prepared me for my life’s work with the Ju/’hoansi of Namibia, Africa. Observation and Recording, with the inimitable Dorothy Cohen, taught me to observe and meticulously record a child’s behaviors. In contrast to a shallow “skill checklist”, O & R’s valuable and – yes – time consuming work, helps us know and support a child/student through multiple observations of their play-exploration and social interactions.

The second course in storytelling with Diana Wolkstein, I took TWICE! When a dear friend sent folklore from the /Xam of Southern Africa, I was smitten. Fierce Diana, as mentor and friend, supported and guided my exploration of these stories.

Both courses provided critical knowledge and insight for developing Nyae Nyae Village Schools. 1990 found me in the Kalahari to study with master Ju/’hoan storytellers and, at the request of elders, to start schools in remote villages that would prepare children for the new Namibian curriculum. In 1991, my two young children, Annabelle and Paul, joined me in developing a second school.

Believe me: Ju/’hoansi wrote the book on progressive-constructivist education. As elder, !Xoma N!a’an, said:
“Da’abi ge a g/a’a n!ang ko e g/a’asi ko ta e !kasi.”

He said what the culture lives by:
“Our Children are the First Things in our Eyes and Hearts.”

Ju/’hoansi have occupied the Kalahari for at least 35,000 years and possess the oldest human DNA. Their traditional educational practices are the oldest field-tested curricula we have. Ju/’hoan decision-making processes epitomize direct, participatory democracy: one person/one vote enhanced by discussions that lead to consensus. These practices are the basis of Ju/’hoan education. For Ju/’hoansi, Child autonomy is paramount. For democracy to thrive, children require independence to make decisions and experience possible outcomes. Ju/hoansi do NOT have a word for “mistake,” so children are free to experience outcomes, negative and positive! Through millennia this egalitarian culture has demonstrated that the storytelling/problem-solving mind is the foundation of Democracy.

Ju/’hoansi taught me:

• Democracy supports. All. Families. Fundamental to Ju/’hoan democracy is a cultural concept of “Enough”. This is in stark contrast to free market capitalism, riven with competition that fractures society into hierarchies, ensuring someone is left out.

• Greed devours Democracy. Look around and you’ll see we lack a measurement for what is enough, and therefore lack a measurement for what is excessive.
Ju/’hoansi taught me:

• Play is not A tool; it is THE TOOLBOX of problem solving.

• Raising children to celebrate how “Different people just have different minds” endows communities with creativity, dexterity, unity and – yes — wisdom.

Next week I return for the 17th time to continue what began under one thorn tree. Six Village Elementary Schools now thrive. To prepare preschool children for village schools, my colleague and I will create three new village preschools adding to three begun last year.