In the Aftermath: The Ivory Tower and the City School as Sources of Insight

In a partially personal account, written in March 2002, the author asks what education can teach the larger society about appropriate responses to the events of September 11, 2001. She describes the ways in which she and other members of the general public were educated by scholars concerned with the Arab and Muslim worlds from colleges and universities across the country. Although these scholars' work might have seemed esoteric in August 2001, it became a rich societal resource the next month. The generation of a wide of knowledge whose use may not be immediately evident is an important mission of universities. Such knowledge from the Ivory Tower often proves itself profoundly useful in unexpected ways, as it did on this occasion. The author argues that members of the white middle class whose sense of safety was dramatically violated by sudden violence intruding into daily life may have something to learn from people who live and work in U.S. central cities where sudden violence has long been a fact of daily life. She argues in particular that the best of staffs that work in schools in central cities have much to teach the rest of our society about the kinds of relationships that can defuse, rather than feed, resentments and alienation that breed violence. The author proposes that while the university offers invaluable cognitive knowledge, the staffs of these schools can offer equally important psychological and emotional understanding and knowledge. (Author)