Over the last two weeks, I’ve been having a new kind of dream, or one that’s new for me; one that clearly changes its plot over a night but not its trajectory or theme.
The first course, Questions, was just that. It was built around what the students and I chose as the deepest questions in our lives. It always started with different versions of the same question: How do we face death? It always ended with what is an ethical life. In between, it could be about love, meaning, reality and truth. Or do we have free will, and what is mind?
The history class began by asking who are we? What, if anything, can we say is characteristic of us humans? And what are the biggest problems you are concerned about in the world today? We spent the first and second day analyzing which of these problems are most basic and underlie the others. Then, the rest of the year, answering: from the ancient beginnings of humanity, what do you think are the roots of these problems? The final exam would be following a strand through pre-history and history of how that problem changed and developed.
But in the dream, I questioned whether I knew enough to teach the history, or either course. Not only because so much of what we know about human history and pre-history has changed over the years, or been clarified. But because we, human society, has changed so much since I retired in 2012. The students are now in a far different place and are suffering so much. We’ve been facing the threats of DJT and covid and more clearly recognize the threat posed by the climate emergency.
We’ve gone through so many assaults on public education since President Reagan; but lately even more so, on what books can be allowed in a school library, and what courses can be taught. Whether the most accurate information on who we are as a species and who we are as a nation could be shared with students.
One question that was often asked by students then was: what are the roots of racism, sexism, antisemitism, etc.? That question is now outlawed in some states. Maybe the asking of all real, sincere questions will be outlawed next.
There’s been so much trauma over the last 6 or 7 years. Could the philosophy course even ask about death when we’ve seen so much violence and death? Or would it be even more important? In history class, would the teaching of the roots of hate be allowed? And what new questions would students have? One of the most frequently asked questions back then was How has our relationship to the environment changed over the years? And would the question today be, can we survive?
The more recent dream was even more dramatic. It started with my wife and I living in the suburbs of New York City, in the house where I grew up. A van with a loudspeaker on top, like those that were once used in political campaigns, was going through the streets telling people to pack their bags. “You have to leave for a few weeks, and now.”
We had to decide quickly where we would go. I was on my computer when I first heard the commands to leave and suddenly it wouldn’t shut off. I had to unplug and leave it. We decided to go to the home of a friend from college who lived 3 plus hours away. I got the impression it was a health issue precipitating the need to move. Police and health officials were going house to house rushing us out.
At first, I planned to take just one small suitcase for a two week stay, but then was unsure. Just my pills for a longer trip would take up so much room. Should I plan for being away for the whole fall season? Or into the winter? Later, I realized shadowy connections here, to wars, as in Ukraine. And to the holocaust, when Jews being sent to concentration camps were told to just pack a bag or two, but not where they were going. In the dream, at least we were allowed to choose where we would go.
The dream then evolved. We were sent to a refugee center, in a huge, warehouse style building. I met some other teachers, a few former students, and a black actor whose face I knew from movies and tv. We were trying to organize a school for children, including teenagers. It would be a school where accurate history could be taught. Where freedom could be developed.
So, the theory that dreams are meaningless, random nerve firings makes no sense to me. Both of my dreams felt so real. Even after waking up, I felt my involvement in the dream world continuing. Both shared so much, synthesized so much, and maybe revealed so much.
One thing they revealed was the creative functioning of mind. They revealed the hope and possibility in my life amidst the turmoil and threat. They revealed my own drive for learning how to face that reality. And, to borrow from a famous history course, they revealed the roots of what we face today in what happened yesterday⎼ in history, and ourselves.
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This Post is republished on Medium.
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Photo credit: iStock
