Raising the Consciousness of World Citizenship
(with its implications for race unity)
"THE BIGGEST EDUCATIONAL TASK OF ALL"
 
Reischauer's Call: Raising the Consciousness of World Citizenship
“THE BIGGEST EDUCATIONAL TASK OF ALL"
Excerpts from a paper presented at
Harvard University's Sixth Annual International Forum
by Gregory D. Watson
Copyright 1987 ©
** ABRIDGED / ABSTRACT **

 Edwin Oldfather Reischauer, Harvard Professor (Emeritus), and former U.S. Ambassador to Japan, in a marvelous book titled Toward the 21st Century: Education for a Changing World, 1973, proclaims the following theme:

Professor Reischauer traces the development of the perilous "us & them" mentality and shows how One example of how "most people are.. not conscious" of our unity and of how we exclude other members of the human race from our own group comes from my own experience in my American History course in high school.  You will probably recall the classic portrait of Thomas Jefferson drafting the Declaration of Independence, all the while being fanned by a slave. We did not notice that the slave represented an incredible cultural dichotomy.  At the time equality and liberty were being espoused, the contradiction was hidden.  Every culture has its "cultural blinders," by which the people are taught to ignore or repress the unpleasant contradictions within their society.  We are taught to "soften the blow" with euphemisms, hide death and pain in sanitized hospitals away from our children and ourselves, etc.  In the slave dichotomy, we can see a clear illustration of the exclusion Reischauer describes take place.  The slave simply did not "qualify for membership" in the category of "man" . . .  As Dr. Reischauer concludes his book, he puts the concept of world citizenship into the strongest possible terms: [NOTE:  The unabridged version of this paper is in review for publication and includes some suggested curricula for schools.]