Education and quality of life for a fairer society

Author: Dr. Zehorit Dadon-Golan, Hemdat College of Education and Bar Ilan University, Israel.

As an education economist whose research focuses on education inequality, the phrase 'Quality of life for a fairer society' led me to a deeper reflection and understanding that education is key to tackling many of the illnesses in our society.

A society that wants to promote economic growth, health, fairness, equality, and social justice must invest in education over the life course.

Unfortunately, hate and extremism are a plague on our quality of life. For example, in the U.S., the Anti-Defamation League (ADL) report ^[1] that antisemitic incidents in the U.S. have risen by 388%, with 356 incidents of anti-LGBTQ+ over the period June 2022 to April 2023 ^[2]. The Council on American-Islamic Relations also highlight that Islamophobic incidents have increased by 216% ^[3].

I started to wonder, “What we are doing wrong in our education?” How can it be if we are educating our children that every child matters, regardless of their race, color, or sexual preference that we are not able to recognise that there is no hierarchy to humanity. What should I do? What can we do?

Then, I remembered Janusz Korczak's words that "To repair the world is to repair Education" and realised, it is not what we should do with our education but how we should do it.

Hate, segregation, and discrimination are not the answer. We need to educate people to love one another, seek peace for all, and respect every human being. This will change the world and lead us to a better and fairer society where no one is left behind and a good quality of life is available for everyone.
 

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References

[1] Anti-Defamation League. (2023). Antisemitic Incidents Following Oct. 7 Hamas Massacre
[2] Anti-Defamation League. (2023). Year in Review: Anti-LGBTQ+ Hate & Extremism Incidents, 2022 – 2023
[3] The Council on American-Islamic Relations. (2023). CAIR Received 1,283 Complaints Over Past Month