A Curriculum of Illusion and the Miraculous During DreadFul(l) Times

Abstract

The current milieu feels dreadful and full of that dread: gun violence and cis-heterosexism in the United States (and elsewhere), as well as the global climate crisis. Given our dread-full situation, what might we do to “keep going” from an ethical standpoint? On our minds is what we are calling a curriculum of illusion and the miraculous, which weaves together Jean Baudrillard’s illusion with Robert Orsi’s call to reclaim the language of immanence—the miraculous. This theoretical piece suggests that the loss of illusion and immanence forecloses the possibilities of imagination, and that repairing that loss is a pressing educational endeavour. Curriculum is the story we tell about the past and present that shapes our impressions of reality and possible futures, and consequently a curriculum of illusion and the miraculous helps tell a story that encourages persistence in the face of dread, but without being rigid in conceptualization or implementation.