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In the fifty years since the Laboratory for Human Development at Harvard was founded in 1949, the social sciences have transformed the way we humans now understand ourselves. Feminism and multiculturalism destroyed the idea that the workings of white males' minds could define what it is to be human. Technology radically altered, among other things, the way we transmit and consume information. And modern cognitive scientists proved what was previously considered an impossibility: that we can rigorously and scientifically study what goes on inside people's heads. And in all these areas, HGSE's Human Development and Psychology (HDP) area—an outgrowth of the 1949 laboratory—has distinguished itself as a leader.
Today we're on the verge of changes at least as revolutionary as those
of the past 50 years. Invoking HDP's track record for seeing what's ahead,
we've challenged several distinguished
faculty and alumni of HDP to look into the future. We asked them: "What
are the key issues and questions just around the corner in your fields?
What are the big dangers, the big promises?" This response was written by Graham Professor Carol Gilligan. The fundamental contradiction between democracy and the continuation of patriarchy is as deep as the contradiction between democracy and slavery. That contradiction is now coming out into the open because of profound changes in the human sciences in the past 30 years—changes that started with the civil rights movement, joined by the women's movement and the antiwar movement. Now we are at a moment of enormous historic opportunity. There is a foundation today for understanding aspects of human development that were taken for granted in the past. Why do boys seem to have so many problems with learning around the ages of five, six, and seven? Why do girls have problems at adolescence? The answers, as well as the questions themselves, tell us something about a particular gendered arrangement—patriarchy—that has been passed on from generation to generation for thousands of years. Opening the Conversation to a Range of Voices The educational system is in the center of this historic transformation because education is a process that can foster human freedom and possibilities. Gender affects all our identities and limits freedom. A gender studies program can provide the kind of knowledge with which people can make intelligent choices. Opening the conversation to a range of voices is going to promote creativity because the world looks different after suddenly seeing something that you've never seen before. For More Information About the Article
HGSE News, Harvard Graduate School of Education
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