“AM I MY BROTHER’S KEEPER?” EDUCATION AND THE WOUNDS OF CIVILIZATION.

This paper argues that the collective suffering of humankind, especially man-made suffering inflicted on the human species and on the natural world in general, must find a place for serious consideration ineducational discourse. Specific and dramatic instances of suffering such as wars or famine find mention in history but the contemplation of man-made misery as a large-scale, banal, and universal phenomenon is avoided in the curriculum.The conventional arrangement of subjects along disciplinary lines contributes in producing this silence. The obvious danger of such avoidance is the possibility of naturalizing suffering and seeing it, as Hegel did, as the unavoidable accompaniment of history. What is eroded in the process is accountability, which the critical discourses within education ought torecognize, for nothing serves more to corrode education from within thanits lack of participation in social accountability. Besides, it is also the stance of this paper that an emancipatory moment does not occur until we walk through collective suffering to the other side.