The Compassionate Achiever
at the MxCC Commencement
This is not only the first blog post in quite awhile but it’s also my first blog post featuring a video. I was asked to provide the commencement address at the fifty-first graduation ceremony of Middlesex Community College in Middletown, Connecticut this past May and the only requirement was that I focus the talk on The Compassionate Achiever. Here is the talk (less than 10 minutes):
Every society has certain books that help define—in broad terms—their cultural identity. Some include holy books such as “The Koran” and/or epic stories such as “The Odyssey” and American society is no different. The United States has a holy book (“The Bible”), a secular book (“On the Origin of Species”), and a founding document (“The Constitution”) that altogether help define American culture. One problem (other than the fact that some will inevitably disagree with my book/document choices) is that we misread important sections of each work in ways that demean others thereby weakening ourselves.
The Good Book—The standard way of reading the biblical story of Adam and Eve, and the way I was taught in Sunday school, has been that Eve was subservient to Adam because she was made from one of his ribs (the “Second Story of Creation” in Genesis 2:21-23). This gets translated into a large segment of American society believing that men are ‘first and foremost’ relative to women not only in the eyes of God but also in the daily lives that we lead. This erroneous translation has had negative practical effects (i.e., women get paid only 80 cents for every dollar earned by men) and horrific consequences: one study calculated that the number of women killed by a male partner between 2001 and 2012 was “nearly double” the number of American soldiers lost during the same time period in both Afghanistan and Iraq. It’s a misreading of “The Good Book” because it emphasizes the “Second Story” over the “First Story of Creation” where it shows that Adam and Eve were created simultaneously on equal ground (Genesis 1:26-28). “The Bible,” like many holy books, is filled with contradictory stories but shouldn’t we emphasize the stories that promote respect and compassion for one another instead of those that appear to highlight the judging and subservience of others?
The Survival Guide—In the late 19th Century there was, as Randall Fuller spotlights in the title of his new manuscript, a “Book that Changed America.” It was Charles Darwin’s “On the Origin of Species.” By the early 20th Century, according to Fuller, “Darwinian theory had become an indisputable aspect of American cultural life…it provided an ordering principle for a society that seemed to grow more complex each year.” We translate Darwin’s hypothesis into American society by emphasizing self-interest over all else and by following euphemisms such as “if you want to be number one, you have to look out for number one.” The irony is that Darwin did not only NOT coin the term “survival of the fittest” but he argued against the idea in research he later conducted to try and prove his thoughts in “Origin.” Darwin would later write in “The Descent of Man” that “it hardly seems probable that the number of men gifted with such virtues as bravery and sympathy…could be increased through natural selection, that is, by survival of the fittest…I perhaps attributed too much to the action of natural selection or the survival of the fittest.” He actually wrote in support of a “survival of the kindest” theory: “Those communities which included the greatest number of the most sympathetic members would flourish best and rear the greatest number of offspring.” Shouldn’t we read what Darwin actually discovered in his research and not simply what he hypothesized about? We have misread Darwin’s initial hypothesis as an answer for how to “order society” that he, himself, did not agree with when he concluded his research. A consequence of such misreading is that we are building a society on the misguided notion that you can be either successful OR someone who helps others…and American children are learning this all too well. A 2014 Harvard Graduate School of Education study of 10,000 middle- and high-school students found that “almost 80 percent” said that their parents and teachers taught them that their personal “high achievement or happiness” were more important than “caring for others.” Do we really want to construct and live in a society of self-absorbed achievers?
The Founding Document—President Trump has consistently made the argument that children born in the United States to undocumented immigrant parents are not American citizens. There is a ‘slight’ problem with the President’s reading of “The Constitution” and that would be the 14th Amendment, which says: “All persons born or naturalized in the United States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States and of the state wherein they reside.” One consequence of interpreting or ignoring the 14th Amendment is that it betrays who we are as a country: a country of immigrants and a beacon of compassion and hope for the “tired, poor, and huddled masses yearning to breathe free.” The Prime Minister of Ireland, Mr. Enda Kenny, said it best this past Saint Patrick’s day with President Trump at his side: “Saint Patrick was an immigrant, patron saint of Ireland and for many people around the globe he’s also a symbol of, indeed the patron of, immigrants…Ireland came to America because…we believed in the shelter of America, in the compassion of America, in the opportunity of America.” To misread the words of the 14th Amendment so that it divides naturally born Americans not only weakens our country but also demeans its legacy and the people who built it.
When we disrespect others because we misread the books that we believe define who we think we are as a people, we are at least ten to twelve chapters deep into our own “Paradise Lost.” If we misread and do not take the time to carefully reflect upon the great books and documents that we use to “order society,” our policy choices will seemingly appear to be always stuck between Scylla and Charybdis. America has successfully navigated its way through history, as Mr. Kenny reminded us, by following its own beacon of hope and compassion. It’s time that we not only follow that beacon again but also use its light to reread the blueprints of how and why our ship was built.
NOTE: This article originally appeared in Thrive Global.
Compassion, Neuroscience and Society: A Radio Interview in 4 SegmentsThe host of WS Radio’s The Enrichment Hour, Mike Schwager, interviewed me on January 28, 2016 for a show called “Weaving Compassion and Neuroscience into the Fabric of Society to Make a Better Future.” We talked about a wide range of topics and issues including education, neuroscience, self-improvement, counter-intelligence, Charles Darwin and my work with the Jesse Lewis Choose Love Movement on social-emotional learning. The interview is split into four 15-minute segments. Click here to listen to the interview.
Note: Scroll down when on this page to find the 4 segments of the complete interview.
Will the real Atticus Finch
please stand up? He stood up on July 11, 1960 when Harper Lee published To Kill a Mockingbird and he has not sat back down since, even with the publication this month of Go Set a Watchman. Many book reviewers of Go Set a Watchman have echoed the thought that “This is a story of the toppling of idols; its major theme is disillusion” because Jean Louise’s Atticus is the darkness to the light of Scout’s Atticus. However, because Go Set a Watchman was the first draft of Mockingbird, the Atticus of Watchman came before the Atticus of Mockingbird. This is important because the context of the two novels is what makes me fill with hope and keeps my idol on a pedestal even as he becomes more human; the context reminds me of the saying that darkness is not the opposite of light but simply the absence of light. The callous bigotry (the dark) of Jean Louise’s Atticus was simply missing the compassionate understanding (the light) that flowed from Harper Lee’s pen into Scout’s Atticus. Atticus represents, in raw form, how compassion can evolve.
While compassion is certainly about kindness, it is also about anger and callousness. Compassion is not the absence of anger, callousness, indifference or even hate but a way of thinking and acting that overcomes them all. Just as courage does not occur in the absence of fear or conformity but in the moment of overcoming each of them, compassion’s strength arises in conquering ruthlessness and indifference. Compassion is the courage to be kind. With the release of Go Set a Watchman we now can see the depths through which Atticus’ ‘courage to be kind’ had to evolve from. If Atticus can transform from a racist hypocrite to a compassionate hero, we all can become better people; we all can write a narrative for our own lives that is filled with compassion and kindness. No longer is Atticus “a god” or heroic figure out of reach for us mere human beings to model, but he is one of us with all his imperfections. He is still the same hero that many of us have idolized for decades but now his character is more of a human hero … a hero that we all can choose to be.
There aren’t two Atticus Finches, there is the one and only Atticus. There are many first drafts in life and Harper Lee’s Atticus represents how we shouldn’t let them define who we become but we must acknowledge that they do make us who we are. Our strengths and weaknesses as individuals help to define the character of our communities. We choose to be divided or united.
How do we make the world a better place if we don’t acknowledge our weaknesses and foibles just as much as we celebrate our strengths? Atticus is based on Harper Lee’s father, Amasa Coleman Lee, a man who “was a Deep South Southerner” and segregationist until middle-age. Mr. Lee evolved into an advocate for integration in the last half of his life so much so that his words of “Equal rights for all, special privileges for none” became one of Atticus and Scout’s most famous quotes in Mockingbird. Atticus is the literary parallel of Amasa. Just as the first draft of Atticus in Watchman does not define who he becomes in Mockingbird, Amasa’s first part of life did not define who he became in his daughter’s eyes (I and my fellow Atticus idol worshippers are grateful for that). Watchman is simply the first draft of Mockingbird and not the toppling of Atticus.
Atticus has been standing for our moral conscience for 55 years and now is certainly not the time for him to sit down or topple over. We need him to walk … to walk beyond Maycomb and into the Springfields, the Charlestons and the Baltimores of our country.
Pope Francis and Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia (his nickname is Nino) both made headlines this month for their perspectives on science: one used science to support his argument and the other disregarded science to espouse his religious beliefs (HINT: justice appears to be blind to science). While the Pope’s scientifically supported and informed encyclical on climate change made a bigger media splash than Nino’s graduation speech that included a discussion about the start-date of humanity (which disregarded all scientific evidence), the juxtaposition of both comments in the media gave me hope that we (American society) have started to turn the proverbial corner towards a constructive rather than polarizing dialogue about science and religion.
The Pope used science to explain why and how we are where we are in terms of humanity’s effect on Earth. Pope Francis states on pages 18–20 of his encyclical Laudato Si’ (Praise Be):
“A very solid scientific consensus indicates that we are presently witnessing a disturbing warming of the climatic system. In recent decades this warming has been accompanied by a constant rise in the sea level
and, it would appear, by an increase of extreme weather events…It is true that there are other factors (such as volcanic activity, variations in the earth’s orbit and axis, the solar cycle), yet a number of scientific studies indicate that most global warming in recent decades is due to the great concentration of greenhouse gases (carbon dioxide, methane, nitrogen oxides and others) released mainly as a result of human activity…Climate change is a global problem with grave implications: environmental, social, economic, political and for the distribution of goods. It represents one of the principal challenges facing humanity in our day.”
Pope Francis, similar to the Dalai Lama, sees science and religion as complementary to each other; a complement that can inform society.
The Nino sees religious ideology and doctrine as overriding scientific evidence. In contrast to the Pope, Nino excluded science in his graduation remarks to make a religious argument for when and where we, human beings, came from. In his speech, according to The Washington Post, at an all-girls Catholic high school in Maryland, Scalia said:
“Class of 2015, you should not leave Stone Ridge High School thinking that you face challenges that are at all, in any important sense, unprecedented,” he said. “Humanity has been around for at least some 5,000 years or so, and I doubt that the basic challenges as confronted are any worse now, or alas even much different, from what they ever were.”
Nino’s start-date for humanity of 5,000 years is very close to what creationists believe was the beginning of all life on Earth. Creationism, which isn’t a part of Catholicism, denies all scientific evidence from evolutionary biology, archaeology, chemistry, physics, etc. … to make the claim that Senator Ted Cruz and some other important leaders do that the world is only 6,000 years old. The first sprig of the human family tree sprouted, according to evolutionary biology, approximately 6–7 million years ago with homo sapiens evolving about 200,000 years ago. I was under the impression that justices were in the habit of weighing all evidence when making decisions.
The Pope uses science to explain the world as it is and Nino excludes science to explain the world as he sees it. While Pope Francis and Justice Scalia share the same religion (Catholicism), they significantly diverge in opinion when it comes to the role of science in public discourse. Both men are Catholics with a capital C; okay maybe one is a ‘bit’ of a bigger C since, after all, he is the leader of the Holy See. Both are leaders; while one is the head of the Catholic Church, the other is a Supreme Court Justice. Both men may have started their religious lives on one Catholic path of understanding, but that path has significantly diverged in the forest of science.
The Pope’s respect for science will be useful for handling and possibly overcoming the effects of both El Niño and the Nino. The Pope’s ideas about how to ‘take-on’ climate issues such as El Niño have the byproduct of ‘taking-on’ Nino’s ideas about diminishing science’s informative role in society. A person does not have to choose between a religious life and scientific thinking. Society becomes stronger when we combine science with the humanities and weaker when we exclude one for the other.
Dr.Kukk with Scarlett Lewis, Senator Blumenthal, Senator Murphy, Congresswoman Esty and others at the announcement of the Jesse Lewis Empowering Educators Act.
The following speech was given by me on April 13, 2015 at the announcement ceremony of Senator Blumenthal (D-CT) officially introducing a bill into the United States Senate called the Jesse Lewis Empowering Educators Act, which mandates social and emotional learning (SEL) in all schools throughout the country. Jesse was the 6 year-old boy who saved 9 of his fellow classmates during the Sandy Hook shooting; his inner strength was beyond his years in terms of social and emotional learning. Scarlett, his mom, asked me to speak at the announcement ceremony. I am one of the original members of the Jesse Lewis Choose Love Foundation’s Board of Directors, created a SEL curriculum called the Connected Five Cs™ and I am the founding Director of the Center for Compassion, Creativity & Innovation. I started working specifically with Scarlett on SEL issues soon after Jesse’s heroics and before there was a Jesse Lewis Choose Love Foundation. Scarlett and I vowed to each other that we wouldn’t stop our efforts until students have had SEL be a part of their education from pre-Kindergarten through college; in essence, it was our vow to Jesse. The announcement press conference for the Jesse Lewis Empowering Educators Act represents only one step but imagine if the Act is the start of all of us stepping in unison…our children and society would become as strong as Jesse’s inner strength during that fateful day.
Speech for The Jesse Lewis Empowering Educators Act
13 April 2015
What if there was an idea that produced, at a minimum, a $7–11 return on every $1 spent and had been scientifically proven to help raise academic scores, improve dropout and school suspension rates, reduce the incidences of school violence as well as strengthen community cohesion, would you support the idea? Senator Blumenthal’s bill is about turning such an idea into reality and we are asking for your support and help in turning his bill into law. The Jesse Lewis Empowering Educators Act is not only named in remembrance of a boy with amazing inner strength but it also seeks to promote an idea that will strengthen our entire country: it is called social and emotional learning, also known as SEL.
Senator Blumenthal’s bill directly addresses a fundamental problem in education that has gone unaddressed for decades: a child’s education and a child’s development are out of sync. The Jesse Lewis Empowering Educators Act synchronizes educating with learning. It’s about time. We know, based on scientifically peer-reviewed research (specifically in the field of neuroscience), that SEL is the foundation upon which many aspects of cognitive development rest.
There have been serious consequences of not synchronizing educating with learning and our children have been the ones to feel the effects. For example, according to Northwestern University, there has been a 66% increase in ADHD diagnoses since 2000. In addition, there has been a 21% increase in reported bullying since we began statistically tracking bullying via the National Center for Education Statistics (since 2003). From the pharmaceutical counters of ADHD diagnoses to the psychological sessions of the bullying epidemic, our children have borne the brunt of the misalignment between educating and learning. However, please do not think that the effects and consequences end with our children; we as members of society bear the costs of an education system without a consistent and strong SEL component. The costs come in the form of increased incarceration, substance abuse and hospitalization rates just to name a few.
Children who have experienced strong SEL programs in their education have increased emotional, intellectual and even physical resiliency compared to children who haven’t had such an experience. These are not spurious correlations; we know what happens in the brain in terms of the peptide hormones and neurotransmitters that are released when children are experiencing a healthy SEL environment and when they are not.
This bill seeks to build resiliency within children so that they not only become strong and stable individuals but contributing and compassionate members of our communities. Shouldn’t we all want that? I believe we do but if you read a 2014 study by Harvard’s Graduate School of Education, that is not what is happening. “Almost 80 percent of [middle and high school] students ranked [their own] achievement or happiness over caring for others.” The study goes on to state that “Any healthy civil society…depends on adults who are committed to their communities and who, at pivotal times, will put the common good before their own. We don’t seem to be preparing large numbers of youth to create this society.” The Jesse Lewis Empowering Educators Act is about preparing large numbers of youth for becoming—literally and figuratively—the pillars of our society.
The bill’s synchronization will help a new generation of Americans strengthen our country far into the future. Thank you Senator Blumenthal for this bill. Thank you Scarlett, Jesse’s Mom, for your unwavering devotion to improve education for all children. And thank you Jesse for inspiring all that is happening today.
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