I’ve long been an advocate of teaching philosophy in the classroom. In fact this may well become an entire series of blog posts / small essays about the idea. I think it isn’t just a fun class (that should be a universal graduation requirement), it’s a critical tool and idea that needs to be integrated into every class we teach, be it a hard content course or a fluid project based class. In the 21st century, this isn’t merely to enhance our critical thinking and knowledge of the past, it’s to help young people that human life has worth.

Think for a moment about the young people with whom you work. Think about the issues facing them: about climate change, global conflict, the current COVID-19 crisis, their increasing feeling of a lack of representation in politics and the world. Think about the fact that the average adolescent can learn about and view first hand evidence of the current genocide in Myanmar the exact same way they share funny memes with their friends. What is a young person supposed to do with this information? This constant assault of the worst humanity has to offer? The noise and chatter of panic and despair? Is it any surprise that adolescents are having a hard time taking a stake in their education when they feel like there isn’t any meaning or worth there and that there may not be any meaning or worth at all in the world?

I encounter this sentiment every day in the classroom and out. I encounter young people grappling with the most powerful of existential urges and forces, drinking deeply of the cup of nihilism, and responding with their desperate attempts at absurdism all without any of the language necessary to really understand and process these issue. On several occasions students have remarked something like, “This lesson is giving me an existential crisis,” and upon questioning have been completely unable to describe what an existential crisis is. This is not a problem here of introducing students to an idea and weighing the pros and cons, this is a real crisis happening right now, being fought in digital space and played out in reality by the most vulnerable and impressionable minds in our society.

So let’s just knock out the big questions real quick: Does life have inherent meaning? No, I don’t think so. Does that mean that life has no meaning? No, not in the slightest bit. Does this mean that the Meaning that we create and share with others is that much more important? Yes, absolutely. We cannot hope to hold our education system, in the classroom and at the policy level, to any sort of modern progressive standard before we address this very simple truth: Out students have no hope in the world and no means to articulate their despair. Their only tools are memes and pop-culture references (incidentally, and potentially to be discussed in a further post, these are their best tools for combating this crisis). Adolescents in the 21st century need Meaning first, they need to be reminded that they are the agents of creating their own Meaning, and they need to be empowered to pursue this to the fullest in every class in every subject.

Do not avert your eyes from the abyss, gaze deeply, our youngest do so every day. Remind them that they are not alone, and that no amount of the abyss gazing back can ever change that.