A Fundamental Force at the Edge of the Formation of Society

• In Event: Hope and Joy in Curriculum Studies: Engaging With Daisaku Ikeda's Thought

Abstract

Offering a robust enhancement of human potential for some, while systematically suffocating it for others, is the educational tension of the United States of America. At the core of U.S. practice, custom, and law since its formation and genesis have been clear divisions about who should and should not receive an education. Such conflicting educational goals and outcomes are long steeped in deep desires to rig the game through divergent forms of education for the young to justify divergent life paths. Such an approach, this panelist argues, stifles everyone—individuals and society. Kosei offers an alternative for the present and future. The Japanese term expresses such a spirit of fairness, equality, impartiality, and justice. Kōsei is not preexisting, a priori. Thus Ikeda’s (2010) advocacy for kōsei is attentiveness to it cultivation and a handing down through history. Ikeda’s approach thus offers a way to rethink and redo education with a form of value creation this nation systematically resists at nearly every turn of history and history-in-the-making. This paper considers education as a fundamental force at the edge of the formation of society.

Author

• Francyne Huckaby, Texas Christian University