At
the end of the book of Devarim, Moses delivers a lengthy farewell—a list of dos
and don’ts, blessings and curses. Fulfilling all these instructions seems
difficult, complicated, almost impossible. Yet Moses says: No, guys, you can do
this!
For
this commandment which I command you this day, it is not too hard for you,
neither is it far away. It is not in heaven, that you should say: 'Who shall go
up for us to heaven, and bring it to us, and make us hear it, that we may do
it?' Neither is it beyond the sea, that you should say: 'Who shall go over the
sea for us, and bring it to us, and make us hear it, that we may do it?' But
the matter is very close to you; it is in your mouth, and in your heart, to do
it.
The
images that Moses uses are straightforward ones of distance and closeness. But
unlike Moses, we have a tendency to mix our metaphors. For example:
“How
was your summer?”
“Complicated.”
No!
On the contrary, It was simple and straightforward; just not easy. It was
simple and awful; simply awful.
“How’s
it going?”
“Good
now, but it was hard.”
But
should “good” necessarily mean “easy”? After all, things can be hard and good,
or hard and bad.
In
education, we also mix metaphors—especially when it comes to things we find
difficult. But in this case, we have a good excuse. David Cohen (of Harvard
University and the University of Michigan) has stated that education is one of
the "impossible professions of human improvement," wherein
there is no consensus: neither with regard to ends, nor with regard to means.
In other words, the way forward is neither clear, nor simple, nor easy. It is
no wonder, then, that in talking of our difficulties in education we tend
to mix out metaphors, describing them alternately as complicated, not simple,
hard, and unclear.
Like
Moses, the founders of Mandel Foundation-Israel did not ignore the difficulties
and complexity of human improvement. But they chose to emphasize the possible,
using other metaphors. The first president of the Foundation, the late Prof.
Seymour Fox, summed up the MF-I' approach as the cultivation of "powerful
combinations of people and ideas.” I would likewise define MLI in this spirit
as “a place where ideas and people meet.”
To
improve education and “repair” the world is both complicated and difficult. But
it is not in the heavens:
.כִּי-קָרוֹב אֵלֶיךָ הַדָּבָר, מְאֹד: בְּפִיךָ
וּבִלְבָבְךָ, לַעֲשֹׂתוֹ
It
is very close to you; it is in your mouth and in your heart, to do it.
From Dr. Eli Gottlieb's remarks
at a reception for new Mandel Leadership Institute fellows, September 29, 2014