Eleanor Roosevelt, William Stafford and

The Freedom to Learn

By E. Ben Crawford

Eleanor Roosevelt and United Nations Universal Declaration of Human Rights in Spanish. WikiCommons.

If the student is imposed upon by distractions, he will miss the vigorous involvement essential to the literary experience. Hence the teacher helps the student to establish a self capable of responding. The student’s curiosity, his – impulse no matter how small at first – to participate, and in particular his joining with others, in simply talking about his responses – these connections with his surroundings must be cultivated if he is to extend his life into the area of richness which reading and writing embody.

Friends To This Ground, A Statement of the Commission on Literature, National Council of Teachers of English, 1967, by William Stafford

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Following World War Two’s over sixty millions killed, which had followed the “War to End all Wars,” (WWI), with its over twenty millions killed, Eleanor Roosevelt, with her history of steadfast support of civil rights, was chosen to chair the United Nations committee that drew up the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, (hereafter referred to as “UDHR”). Ms. Roosevelt was firmly in charge of her committee, which established a guarantee of individual freedoms similar to those enjoyed by Americans under the Bill of Rights. She told one committee member who complained to her of the long hours, “if you want fewer hours, make shorter speeches.” The resulting 30 universal rights, claimed thereafter by every human being, were unanimously adopted by the UN members (see web link at the end of this report to access the UN’s UDHR). The members of the United Nations, who never before had done so (and never since), proceeded to give Ms. Roosevelt a standing ovation, one that lasted for seven minutes.

I wrote this article, which includes an imaginary conversation with Dr. William Stafford while in a writer’s workshop, June 29, to July 2, 2015 held at Lewis and Clark College, facilitated by Dr. Kim Stafford , attended by myself and five others. My interest in William Stafford grew initially from my viewing a public television special about him, which expanded my view of poetry. It was also proceeded by my twice viewing the Roosevelts series by Ken Burns, which expanded my appreciation of the work of Eleanor Roosevelt. My fellow students encouraged the imaginary conversation after I very hesitatingly brought it up as an option. All of the ideas and opinions expressed are my own, and hopefully do some justice to the Staffords and their ongoing encouragement of the freedom to learn.

Q: Dr. Stafford I wonder if I might have a few minutes of your time?

WS: Now is as good a time as any. Let’s go to my office.

Q: I didn’t expect you’d be able to do this quite so fast. Anyway, Dr. Stafford, what I’m doing came out of a writer’s workshop led by your son, Kim.

WS: Yes, he’s an original thinker, a mensch, a fine and compassionate human being. I’m so proud.

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Q: Just a little joke, but what, exactly is in the water at Lewis and Clark College and can I take some home? You have such an incredible history of fine poets…first I’d like to read you Article 27 of the UDHR, then my “operational definition” which addresses freedom to learn more explicitly, (including an inspiring consultation with Kim). After the readings, I’ll ask you to respond to some questions.

WS: Okay.

According to Article 27 of the UDHR

(1) Everyone has the right freely to participate in the cultural life of the community; to enjoy the arts and to share in scientific advancement and its benefits.

(2) Everyone has the right to the protection of the moral and material interests resulting from any scientific, literary or artistic production of which he is the author.

WS: You’ve implied the writing of this article could have been better, although you admire the precepts, your operational definition is likely therefore an attempt to make it more inspiring, yet practical.

Q: Absolutely. I also wanted to make clear that pacifism and goals for peace are part of the process. My Masters in History is about a peace pact. I grew up being maltreated and traumatized, so freedom to learn is like oxygen to me. At least my parents admired learning and good literature. Good literature and therapy have helped me hand in glove as it has for many of my patients and students. Poetry from the mind and heart is a synthesis of deep emotional reflections tied with intellectual insights. This automatically sets trauma on its head, because trauma tends to fragment the mind and body, or from the body. It follows that a lot of wars are started by people whose heads have become separated from their bodies. Literally, wars begin by people being out of their minds and bodies. Hitler won the Iron Cross in World War I in the midst of constant bombardments and gas attacks. He unfortunately became, after the war a “failed artist,” never learning to learn.

My operational definition of the freedom to learn from Article 27:

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Education is the process of facilitated development of personal and social skills sets – to further the greatest good for the individual and society.

Culturally-sensitive educators empower individuals to learn in their own styles, learning – among other skills – how to disagree peacefully.

Educators welcome individual differences and diverse cultures.

Educators use non-punitive methods to advance freedom of thought and speech.

Educators develop skill sets in science, the arts, cultural sensitivities, and spiritual and religious beliefs that engender a sense of individual confidence and universal engagement.

WS: I would especially not disagree with the need to learn to peacefully disagree. This might first be taught to American politicians.

Q: Actually sir, workbooks on facilitative communications have been distributed to each member of Congress -- by one of the “Mindfulness” groups.

WS: But will they learn to read, write, reflect and speak as well as they can rage?

Q: Would you care to address anything in particular about the freedom to learn?

WS: As you know personally, a child can no more concentrate in school if distracted by family or social abuse than if that same child were starving. The arts are being abused as well, increasingly in education’s back seat compared to economic interests. This is most unfortunate for the life of the mind and how critical thinking, essential for democracy, is treated as an impediment to purchasing power. I’ll be Pavlov. You be the dog sort of thing. Critical thinking automatically challenges the abusive parent, and society, singularly power-driven people and such.

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Q: Do you feel hopeless considering how people’s attention is now lost in texting, news, movies, politics, rumors, crime and violence, lewd sex, substance abuse and addictive games? It seems like peace is the last thing on anyone’s mind.

WS: The world has been here before. Let’s look at the first stanza of W. B. Yeats “The Second Coming:”

Turning and turning in the widening gyre

The falcon cannot hear the falconer.

Things fall apart; the centre cannot hold;

Mere anarchy is loosed upon the world,

The blood-dimmed tide is loosed, and everywhere

The ceremony of innocence is drowned;

The best lack all conviction, while the worst

Are full of passionate intensity.

One of the things good literature provides is perspective. But it

takes an effort to read, reflect and absorb, as does another boon to

critical thinking, journaling. Our distractedness as a society is

indeed compromising traditional pathways for building and

sustaining the common good, not just recently, but throughout the

last few decades. Sometimes, a democratic society can seem

vulnerable to literally falling apart. This is especially true when the

main mission on earth seems that of laying in ammunition for the

next war, insisting on having things one’s own way, or the world be

damned.

There is an alternative to this doomsday scenario but it involves

extremely hard work. The individual first does the hard work of

getting to the realization, as Solzhenitsyn so beautifully shared in

his Gulag writings, “The line between good and evil runs through the

heart of every man.” Such realizations have motivated people to

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examine their own lives and pick up the thread of who they are, to

make time every day for themselves beyond addictive and

destructive attitudes, beliefs and habits. There exists no better way

to do this than through reflections attendant to art: reading,

writing, journaling, drawing, painting, sculpting, and such.

It was Plato who responded to a friend questioning him about

whether to get married or not with “By all means marry. If it’s a

good marriage you’ll be happy. If a bad one, you’ll become a

philosopher,” (and learn to think for yourself better). There is no

more important time in world history than right now to teach the joy

experienced in freely learning about oneself, getting with one’s own

narrative, and handling losses and misfortunes by turning them into

art, instead of through acting them out on others (including of

course, spouses and children). Critical thinking people, like the poet

Havel of the Czech Republic who became its first president after the

fall of the Soviet Union, seem to know the way better, because they

have become familiar with their own darkness and are therefore less

likely to lead themselves and others astray.

Q: Dr. Stafford, a final thank you. You, like all great teachers wrote or sat with learners with your mind open and your heart fully there, and invited others to do the same for themselves, toward finding their own truth, their own individual uniqueness, which is at the very core of freedom and great literature. Thank you and God Bless.

Universal Declaration of Human Rights 1948 at http://www.un.org/en/documents/udhr

Teachers are eligible to receive a kit for their students