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Let them eat cake.
I remember hearing this phrase in association with Marie-Antoinette. She didn’t say it, by the way — but it has become associated with her nonetheless. Basically, it is a simple, often thoughtless solution to a complex and real problem. People are starving for bread? Let them eat cake! The result of this disconnect is greater division and hatred. This has been weighing on me lately — this growing tide of disconnected and easy solutions to complex problems. I wonder if we have become a culture of quick fixes, platitudes, and lazy outrage. It is easy to apply disgust to current problems from the comfort of our living rooms and Twitter feed, but coming up with real solutions is harder. It takes looking at layers upon layers of good intentions, misapplied efforts, and swinging pendulums. And when there is a packaged, sweet fix sitting right in front of us, it is oh so easy to buy into it.
I am an educator, and for the last three years, I have been working to promote restorative practices to replace our disciplinary systems. It is a difficult process because discipline is tied to wider, commonly held beliefs about morality, punishment, and “what is fair.” Promoting ideas for discipline that are rooted in empathy, dignity, and community building is a hard sell because, at the moment when authority is challenged, those responses are counter-intuitive. Part of my job is to change the thinking and the culture of my…