My Top 10 Reasons for Leaving Philadelphia: #8 – Loss of the common
Common sense
Common ground
Common wealth
What happens in education when you lose the common?
Common ground: Where the public has had traditional rights. Years
ago, it referred to land. To a common space – probably pastures – which was
open for everyone to use. It was born out of a recognition that there is a need
for public rights. For a community to exist, an investment in things for the
public good needs to be made. It was a place without contention – it was
understood to be in the best interest of everyone in society to have this
public investment. The common ground was so sacred that it was not open to contention and generally understood as the baseline for the common good. Where is the common ground in our city any more?
Common sense: Knowledge and experience which most people
already have, or which the person using the term believes that they do or
should have. I was wondering when the common sense that a democracy
needs strong public services – especially public education – in order to
function got lost? Now what I used to think was common sense is considered
radical. When there is no common sense – what sense is left? Maybe the sense of
selfishness? The sense of ignorance? Uncommon sense? Anti-common sense? I think
maybe that’s the term that, well, makes the most sense. You can’t even call it
nonsense because I think there is intentionality – it is someone’s sense to privatize the public and to disinvest in the
common.
Common wealth: emphasizes a "government based on the
common consent of the people". The word commonwealth in
this context refers to the common "wealth", or welfare, of the public. I remember having an epiphany when someone once explained the etymology of the word "commonwealth". She told me it meant literally common wealth - the wealth set aside for the common good.
It is kind of sickening to think that this is the word behind the "Commonwealth of Pennsylvania" where a heartless and morally bankrupt governor has overseen the complete, planned desolation of the largest school district in the state. The common good no longer includes public education. It's just one in a long list of losses to the common that have evolved over the past few decades.
Probably more disturbing is the lack of outcry. The lack of outrage at the destruction of something so basic to democracy. The fabricated culture of austerity that has justified an every shrinking amount of accountability for the haves to contribute in real and fair ways to the common good from which they benefited has led to the growth of an entitlement culture and a cynical denial of the social contract on which we have survived as a species.
Well, that was a kind of long sentence, but you get the idea. I wonder if the common is being honored in other areas of the world. I hope to experience some of it during my time abroad...I need that fix to witness that sense of mutual responsibility that still exists in communities globally....
