Equality Is the State Responsibility

Schools in the U.S. don’t have a winter break; instead, they have a ten-day holiday break. It’s been a while since I last wrote a blog post—the last time was during the Thanksgiving holiday. Thankfully, I’ve finished the semester. I’ve grown very attached to my students over this time. Of the 26 students in the entire fourth-grade class, almost all require therapy. In the U.S., unless they have autism or a severe disability, children with disabilities attend regular schools alongside their peers. Larger schools have separate special education classes, but at a small school like this one, students receive instruction in the same classroom, while a special education teacher occasionally provides one-on-one instruction. These are children with various disabilities—ADHD, depression, intellectual disabilities, single-digit IQs, emotional instability, and trauma requiring therapy—children who need emotional healing more than academic instruction.

But even they have dreams. Their dreams are to go to college, get a good job, make a lot of money, and buy a nice house and a nice car. Even if they come from homes where their parents are addicted to drugs or alcohol and are incapable of providing for them, these are kids who still want to go home and who hope to one day earn enough money to buy their parents a car.

Dreams… They say dreams are something you dream and achieve on your own, but the reality of achieving them is far from easy. Their hearts may yearn to go to college, but their individual abilities just aren’t up to the task. Their intellectual abilities aren’t up to par, emotional instability prevents them from concentrating, and they face various other challenges. Furthermore, their parents can’t support them. The parents themselves face many problems and are unable to help with their studies. Their environment is a mess. Alcohol, drugs, fights, violence, guns, murder—they live in the most dangerous, rock-bottom conditions. What is the meaning of effort under these circumstances? While the practical impact of effort is minimal, its symbolic significance is enormous. The reason the symbolic significance of effort is so immense is that it rests on the assumption of individual responsibility.

The U.S. system of distribution is not based on “Equal Distribution” but on “Equal Opportunity.” In education, too, “Equal Opportunity” is the fundamental policy. The idea is that providing equal opportunities constitutes “Equality”—but is that really the case? In my view, it seems the government is simply trying to shift the blame onto the individual, suggesting that if someone fails to succeed despite being given an opportunity, it’s because they were lazy. Furthermore, they bestow immense symbolic significance on those who have succeeded through their own efforts. .

So, if the possibility of success depends solely on the individual, should I start believing in the theory of past lives? Should I accept that, due to karma from a past life, I was born into poverty in this life, suffer through it while lamenting my fate, and then pin my hopes on the next life…? No. This is truly absurd. This is the state’s responsibility. The state must not display such incompetence by shifting responsibility onto individuals. If it shifts responsibility onto individuals, there’s no reason for the state to exist—especially since we’re now in a global, borderless era. At the very least, the state must fulfill its basic obligations for its existence to be justified.

When it comes to education, the most competent nations are the Nordic countries, particularly Finland. The Nordic countries advocate socialism, and their common trait is that their fundamental national policy is “equal distribution.” Although individuals start from different points and follow different paths, the state’s core ideology ultimately centers on the pursuit of an equal society. If society—and, in another sense, the labor market—is equitable, then the education market will also become equitable. (This proposition is outlined in my dissertation and academic journals.)

Education is, in fact, a process in human life, not a final destination. The state must implement policies that pursue an equitable society and true equality without shifting responsibility onto individuals; it must not condone our lives of self-pity, where we mutter about “giving up on this life.”

12/19/2019 by Dr. Lan Joo