Talking about riots

But avoiding racism

For the past week there has been a clash between the police and a minority of the citizens in Husby, Sweden. This is not uncommon in the world as a whole. In Sweden though, these kinds of events are rather uncommon. As a result, it has ignited an intense debate in the press and in social media.

The leading political parties in Sweden are currently debating segregation as a result of continued economic decline and a dysfunctional immigration policy. In social media however, the main discussion has taken on a different form. Racist opinions that promote the use of police violence against the citizens of Husby, lockdowns and in the worst cases, military intervention, have spawned to countless numbers on Facebook, Twitter etc.

While this is not something unique to Sweden, my own perspective as a Swedish citizen made me realize something obvious: This discussion will be held in schools as well. Not by the school itself, but unofficially by every student in every corridor. It was the same during the Gothenburg Riots in 2001, with intense, but often misinformed, debates on the causes of the riot.

What about the classroom?

One place where the discussion will be moderate, at most, will be in the classroom itself. The Husby riots have probably been mentioned countless times, which was the case with the Riots of 2001. Like 2001, however, the subjected will only be mentioned briefly, and it will certainly not be debated in the classroom.

Why?

Every man, woman and child in Sweden have a right to have an opinion, and to speak their mind. As long as it doesn’t insult others, this right has very few limits. It is the result of the intense struggles of the 18th, 19th and 20th century that has given us all this almost mind-blowing right to say what we think is the right thing. The troubling thing about it is that very few people (at least here in Sweden) seem to understand what this right means.

It means to talk and to listen. One speaks, others listen. When one person has spoken, the other one may begin to speak. The other will then listen.

It doesn’t mean that what you say is correct. There is a significant difference between “to speak” and “to be heard”, the latter being no right at all.

It is a fact that is mentioned, to some degree in law school, and almost never in the prior levels of education in Sweden. Instead, the focus lies on root learning with a focus on abstract questions. We learn of the parliament, its structure and composition and who sits where. While these are important things to learn, it’s somewhat mind-boggling that these things cannot step aside for half a day so that present day conditions can be discussed between students and the teacher.

The present case

The “true” causes of the current riots are somewhat unclear, and there are intense debates. The most popular reason is a very racist one, and it has spread like a disease across the country. This is something that affects both adults and children alike. To discuss why you cannot simply blame a group of people for something as serious as a violent riot requires inquiry and discussion. You cannot simply say to a student that they have “the wrong opinion” and ask them not to say it. That contradicts their right to say it.

Students can have a misinformed understanding of the world, but no-one can deny them the right to have that opinion. Instead; that idea must be changed through debate. This debate cannot be held at home, simply because the parents often are the reason the children have a misinformed opinion in the first place. The classroom is the obvious are where this debate should be held. Unbiased, somewhat formal, focusing on the facts.

This is just about the only area in Sweden as of now where the debate is hardly held at all.

The consequences

While parents have grown into their own beliefs and got accustomed to them, their children are still in the learning face. To listen to and understand other peoples’ opnions is not something that is given naturally to a child, it has to be learned through practice. This means that the debate in itself is a learning method. If many debates are held, eventually the children will get used to the fact that people have different opinions about things.

This is uncommon in Sweden, and as a result, their are strange (very strange) “debates” where no-one listens and everyone have an opinion that they deem to be the right one, and they will not allow themselves to be convinced of anything else. This is probably one of the single most dangerous and ultimately disastrous facts about not only Swedish education, but education as a whole.

Last words

It comes as almost a natural conclusion, practice makes perfect. Still, no real debates are held in classrooms to help perfect the art of discussion. The very same art that fosters the ability to talk, to listen and to understand others. It allows humans to combine their knowledge, and together figure out a good way to approach a present day problem, like a riot.

Right now though, schools here in Sweden have other problems. A math test is the upcoming thing (probably, it always is), and discussing these things is simply something there is absolutely no time for.

There should be time. Plenty of it.