Episode 37: Empowerment & Individualism | Erec Smith & Jason Littlefield

In the Hold my Drink — navigating culture with a chaser of civility, and Counterweight podcast, Episode 37, we speak with Erec Smith and Jason Littlefield. Both Erec and Jason are working to introduce empowerment and compassionate humanism back into education. The theory of empowerment, which takes a tiered approach to social and emotional learning starting with the individual, has recently been subsumed in anti-racist pedagogy that focuses on group identity at its foundation. This focus on the group segregates us making it harder to see ourselves in each other. It has also led to a mistrust of liberal values such as individualism, freedom of speech and deliberative democracy, promoting the destruction of current systems to usher in a new framework for social interaction and governance. All discussed with a chaser of civility, of course, and a virgin vodka with lime (aka water), bourbon, Gatorade & coffee.

To read a recap of the conversation and additional thoughts, and to see what we are each reading, visit our post Empowerment & Indvidualism on the Hold my Drink website. You can also watch the conversation on the Hold my Drink YouTube page.