Written by: Gila Hammer Furnes

Abstract: In a culture where children witness cruelty, grief, and injustice on their screens before breakfast—often without an adult to hold what they have seen—this essay reclaims moral presence as a pedagogical condition. Drawing on Lévinas, Buber, Todd, Biesta, and Ellsworth, it introduces Hineni—the Hebrew phrase meaning “Here I am”—as an ethical stance of availability that precedes instruction, autonomy, or deliberation. In contrast to dominant models of moral development that locate ethics in reason, regulation, or curriculum, Hineni reconfigures the child not as a future ethical subject, but as one already present in their trembling response to the world. Situated at the intersection of digital culture, ethical phenomenology, and critical pedagogy, the essay resists calls for digital resilience and instead frames education as a space of mutual presence. It argues that pedagogy must not merely protect the child, but stay with them—in their silence, uncertainty, and proximity to harm. To teach ethically in a digital age, it suggests, is not to command response, but to echo it.

Keywords:Hineni, moral education, digital culture, ethical responsiveness, critical pedagogy

Image: "Hineni" by Howard J Duncan is licensed under CC BY 2.0.