Writing in Science magazine in 1968, ecologist Garrett Hardin described what he called “the tragedy of the commons.” It develops this way:
Picture a pasture open to all. It is to be expected that each herdsman will try to keep as many cattle as possible on the commons. Such an arrangement may work reasonably satisfactorily for centuries because tribal wars, poaching, and disease keep the numbers of both man and beast well below the carrying capacity of the land. Finally, however, comes the day of reckoning, that is, the day when the long-desired goal of social stability becomes a reality. At this point, the inherent logic of the commons remorselessly generates tragedy.… Each man is locked into a system that compels him to increase his herd without limit — in a world that is limited. Ruin is the destination toward which all men rush, each pursuing his own best interest in a society that believes in the freedom of the commons. Freedom in a commons brings ruin to all.
In Collapse: How Societies Choose to Fail or Succeed, Jared Diamond writes convincingly of the end of several civilizations (Easter Island, the Mayans, etc.), exemplifying this very point of inhabitants driven to extermination by unstoppable resource depletion. It seems to me that the “tragedy of the commons” today in America takes many forms, including:
Tragedy 1: Gridlock in our state and federal legislatures over runaway deficits will eventually ruin the financial prospects of our children and grandchildren because too many legislators, driven by partisan politics, can’t agree to either raise taxes or cut spending. Meanwhile, in the richest country in the world, the infrastructure (highways, bridges, mass transit systems) is crumbling and more and more children go to bed hungry.
Tragedy 2: The hands of a racing doomsday clock on climate change are closing in on the point of no return because, in part, of our insatiable American appetite for using more energy and exploiting more resources per capita than any other nation. So far, voters and legislators have shown no appetite for restricting consumption or mandating less use of energy. Short-term gains are leading to long-term disaster.
Tragedy 3: An increasingly dysfunctional public education system is leading to higher drop-out rates and greater social divides, with no clear end in sight. The recent film, Waiting for Superman (echoing Samuel Beckett’s absurdist play, Waiting for Godot — Godot, being the unseen “character” in whom the others put their hopes, but who never shows up) — would have us believe that the problem of public education lies with teacher unions, their wish to protect jobs trumping the need to close schools that don’t serve children well, while undermining our ability to offer children real options for schools that do meet their needs. To a degree, this criticism is fair. But the problem of public education extends far beyond the debate between unionized public schools and non-unionized charter and private schools. It is, essentially, an inability on the part of the vast majority of the American public — and the people we vote into office — to see the education of all children as a core responsibility of a democratic society. What is missing is a deep commitment to future generations and any clear understanding of what such an investment would mean for the nation and the world.
Are we all boxed in by a host of tragedies of the commons, and condemned to a Malthusian future in which disaster is inevitable, given that there are no easy solutions — technical or otherwise?— to resolve our mutually destructive behaviors?
I hope not. In fact, I think not. And here’s why.
In many quarters, we see increasingly compelling evidence of leadership that will change the world for the better — that can reverse the bad habits of the past century or more. More specifically, in the independent school sector, we see quite amazing and increasing commitments to preserve the commons, not destroy it.
The theme for the 2011 NAIS Annual Conference, “Monumental Opportunities — Advancing Our Public Purpose,” points to the historic purpose of independent schools, to serve the democracy by demonstrating daily the public purpose of private education. And the evolution of this growing commitment is paralleled by the evolution of philanthropy itself.
In “Four Traditions of Philanthropy” — published in The Civically Engaged Reader (Great Books Foundation, 2006) — the authors Elizabeth Lynn and Susan Wisely outline the various means by which philanthropy (from the Greek words for “love” and “mankind”) has been manifest over time:
Tradition 1: Philanthropy as “Relief”
Philanthropy as “relief” operates on the principle of compassion, derived from religious teachings, driven by empathy, and charged with the purpose of alleviating human suffering. A perfect independent school example was the mobilization of many NAIS-member schools for Hurricane Katrina relief in 2005 and 2006. In reaction to the great diaspora of families away from New Orleans (following the storm, the city’s public schools remained closed for the year), independent schools throughout the country opened their doors to welcome the displaced students, in most cases without charging tuition. And many schools (and NAIS) joined Habitat for Humanity and other organizations to rebuild parts of New Orleans that were destroyed by the storm and subsequent floods. Schools have made similar efforts on behalf of people who have suffered in other disaster zones, such as in Haiti after the catastrophic 2010 earthquake.
Tradition 2: Philanthropy as “Improvement”
Philanthropy as “improvement” operates on the principle of human progress (derived from the philosophies of Ben Franklin and Andrew Carnegie), driven by ambition to create opportunity, and charged with the purpose of maximizing human potential. What sector has a better example than that of independent schools whose students and teachers are the “Supermen” many underserved inner-city children are waiting for? An increasing number of independent schools now offer programming in summer and after school and on weekends to tutor and train public school kids in the college-prep programs. There is even an umbrella organization now — the National Partnership for Educational Access (NPEA) — whose mission is improved access for underserved public school kids to high quality schools (independent, charter, magnet, and other high-performing schools). The quality education organizations within the NPEA — A Better Chance, AIM High, Breakthrough Collaborative, Early Steps, Horizons National, New Jersey SEEDS, just to name a few — are legendary for the life-changing commitment they make for the hundreds of children they assist each year.
Tradition 3: Philanthropy as “Social Reform”
Philanthropy as “social reform” operates on the principle of social justice (derived from the Civil Rights Movement of the 1950s and 1960s), driven by an activist agenda of correcting underlying and embedded inequities, and charged with the purpose of solving the inexorable social problems of poverty, racism, sexism, and the like. Here again, independent schools have been among the leaders in addressing the social ills that afflict the culture. In his 2001 book, Making the Most of College: Students Speak Their Minds, Harvard Professor Richard Light notes that the independent school students at Harvard are much more likely than public school students to have come from schools that are diverse and that value diversity, and that their experience is reflected in more positive cross-cultural relationships and attitudes. SAT scores and college admissions data reveal that African-American students, for example, are many times more likely to graduate from a four-year college or university if they had attended an independent school than if they had attended a public school. It’s fair to say that the school-based movement to support gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgender students and faculty originated in and spread in independent schools first, due to the pioneering work of Kevin Jennings, founder of GLSEN (the Gay, Lesbian, and Straight Education Network) first at Concord Academy, then at independent schools at large, then at the college level, and now globally.1
Tradition 4: Philanthropy as “Civic Engagement”
Philanthropy as civic engagement operates on the principle of participation in the democracy, and is charged with the purpose of building community by connecting citizens and causes.
At NAIS’s 2011 Annual Conference, the recipients of NAIS’s annual Diversity Award are two school leaders whose schools have not only led in the first three traditions of philanthropy but also in the fourth, civic engagement:
• Al Adams, head of Lick-Wilmerding School (California), where the Center for Civic Engagement coordinates the students’ work within the larger community. When I visited last year, I chatted with a junior who had, on his own, tested the air and soil in an Oakland neighborhood near a chemical plant, discovered highly toxic conditions, organized the neighborhood to advocate for its health, and delivered a report to city council. He also organized a successful arts fund-raiser to support the local public school.
• Jim Scott, head of Punahou School (Hawaii), where a graduation capstone project combines economics with social entrepreneurship. For example, as a case study in microfinance, Punahou seniors invest in international micro-loans to entrepreneurs across the globe through Kiva.org. The school's Luke Center for Public Service also connects the school to the community via service learning and sustainability initiatives, and the Wo International Center offers a conduit for civic connectedness locally and globally, emphasizing cultural diversity and global responsibility.
Equally promising on the civic engagement front is new and comprehensive programming from the Glenn Institute located at Westminster Schools (Georgia) and from Grab the Torch “philanthropy camps” located at independent schools across the country.
People, Planet, and Purpose
For many years, NAIS has borrowed and modified slightly the “triple bottom line” concept (People, Planet, and Profit) that has transformed many businesses — the ones that have recognized that they can “do well by doing good.” The NAIS version of the triple bottom line is “People, Planet, and Purpose.” By committing to all four of the traditions of philanthropy, independent schools achieve their own triple bottom line: serving others (the public purpose of private education); becoming models of stewardship of the earth (the planet as school constituent); and committing time and energy to their communities (a purpose larger than themselves).
Independent schools promote public purpose and civic engagement by capitalizing on the wisdom, expertise, and good will within the school community in order to engage with others in public discourse and to work on projects that improve the shared commons. In doing so, they prove wrong the idea that the tragedy of the commons is inevitable. As schools, we may have limited power, but we certainly have enough power to help the next generation learn to grow the commons and share it well.
Notes
1. Kevin Jennings now serves in the Obama administration as assistant deputy secretary of the Office of Safe and Drug-Free Schools inside the U.S. Department of Education.