Message from the Dean, Prof. Patricia Rached

The Imperceptible in the background of School Life

What can we hope for in a world that is becoming increasingly polarized, making extremism the cure for all ills? When our attitudes become entrenched and our opinions radicalized, suppressing all forms of difference, what can education do? What can a teacher, a manager or a school principal contribute to humanize the educational environment and allow others to exist in their singularity? The question Marcus Aurelius has posed for centuries continues to resonate in the contemporary world: "To what then should we attribute our concern?" and he himself answers, summarizing our mission as educators: "To this only: a thought consistent with justice, an activity devoted to the common good" (Thoughts for Myself, 1962, p. 66). How can we fulfill this today? How can we strive for justice and allow difference to exist? No doubt by avoiding “the evil of scandal” (Jankélévitch, 1980) that we often add to the inevitable evils of natural laws.

This "I-don’t-know-what and the nearly nothing" as the author of the Imperceptible puts it, is "what seems insignificant in everyday life, what goes unnoticed," but which makes all the difference and "gives meaning to our existence" (p. 152). Some of our actions and words often convey insidious and latent messages such as indifference, implicit prejudices, demeaning glances and small gestures that demean and destroy others without even naming them. The teacher, the manager or the school principal can help combat this evil, which results from human will, in order to allow education to become an encounter and not just a service. There are silent and discreet attentions that can be cultivated daily, in the classroom, during a meeting, at the crossroads of a moment, in the tiny details that shape our daily educational life.

Dear students,

Today more than ever, in a fragmented society, consumed by individualism and marked by social injustice, addressing the question of otherness is urgent. I invite you to join Albert Camus's call (1944) when he asserted that "our world does not need lukewarm souls" but "burning hearts" to allow each person to flourish within a supportive and caring collective. Beyond the institutional constraints of curricula and assessments, let us cultivate a Jankélévitchian "ethics of the moment," let us make each classroom a place of mutual recognition, let us make each moment an opportunity for the existence of others, let us bear witness to simple gestures and not just grand principles. Our individual and collective responsibility in the face of evil is immeasurable. Let us live our daily educational life by choosing to pay attention to the imperceptible, valuing the dignity of others, ensuring that each interaction, each word, each silence can give the educational act its full human significance.

Pr. Patricia Rached - HDR 

Dean of the Faculty of Education

Pr. Patricia Rached - HDR