Education: Time for a New Purpose

Written on July 25th, 2015 in politics Comments Off

Published on Dissident Voice, by Graham Peebles, July 23, 2015.

Given the catalogue of calamities raging round the world, one could be forgiven for concluding that we are a civilisation in terminal decline. The socio-economic system, which promotes negative divisive ideals, dominates all areas of life and is the cause of much of our difficulties. It is an outworn, unjust way of organising society; does not serve the majority of people – the 99.9%; and is causing far-reaching damage to the planet that, unless radical action is taken, may well prove irreparable … //

… Education and purpose:

  • Maria Montessori, who devised a groundbreaking way of teaching ‘uneducable’ children in the early 20th century (children we might now describe as having ‘special educational needs’), felt that traditional education neglects the child’s most basic needs, – what she described in The Child, as “the exigencies of his spirit and his soul. The human being that lives within the child remains stifled therein.” Perhaps we could think of the ‘human being’ within the child – within us all – as a flower; a beautiful flower at the center of a garden. The flower contains within itself all that is good, all that is innate – the person’s ‘potential’ as John Dewey called it; the flower is freedom and joy, intelligence and peace. However, all around the flower is rubbish, psychological detritus that accumulates with time (starting pretty much from birth) and forms a virtually impenetrable barrier to its realisation and expression. This suffocating waste is made up of various inter-twinned forms; sociological/psychological conditioning, fear, competition and selfish desire are some of the more noxious restrictive elements.
  • The work to be done then is two fold; identify and remove the obstacles that block the free expression of the “‘human being’ that lives within the child”, as Montessori puts it, and furthermore, stop polluting the garden. This is a pragmatic deconstructive work rooted in certain clearly defined philosophical ideas … //

… Cooperation and Unity:

  • The inculcation of cooperation in place of competition within education will facilitate sharing, fostering trust. This would help to bring about a sense of the underlying unity of life, and the individual’s place within the whole.
  • We are part of a collective called humanity, and as the writer Benjamin Crème states, education should “show the child that it is a member of a world family… that we are not living alone in one large or small country, but in a world shared by 5.7 billion people. The child, above all, should be taught that this is the fundamental position of his/her life on Earth: that they are one of a group, a family.” The realisation that each and every one of us is part of a ‘family’, as Crème puts it, would decentralise individuals, encourage social responsibility and selfless actions – service, which John Dewey felt is a natural human quality experienced by all children. He states in Democracy and Education that “the child’s natural desire [is] to give out, to do, and this means to serve.” Something that is clearly less likely to happen when people are conditioned into thinking about their own success and welfare over and above those of others. Such conditioning pervades schools and universities and suits the ruling elite; they do not want a united compassionate society, rich with independent thinkers. For as Dewey made clear “anyone who has begun to think, places some portion of the world in jeopardy.”
  • If we are to discover the answers to our social, economic and environmental problems, and create a new harmonious way of living, freethinking and self-awareness are crucial. Inhibiting ideological patterns of thought must be completely dismantled in all areas of education in order for these natural qualities to grow … //

… (full text).

(Graham is Director of The Create Trust, a UK registered charity supporting fundamental social change and the human rights of individuals in acute need. He can be reached at: graham@thecreatetrust.org. Read other articles by Graham, or visit Graham’s website).

Links:

Ukrainian News Service Says Standard of Living Is Plummeting, on Global Research.ca, by Eric Zuesse, July 23, 2015;

We are not alone? NASA’s Kepler telescope finds first planet similar to Earth, on Russia Today RT, July 23, 2015;

Greece’s Parliament Cannot Override the NO Vote. The Agreement with the Creditors is Illegal, on Global Research.ca, by Prof Michel Chossudovsky, July 21, 2015;

En Finlande, la fin du travail, c’est maintenant! (ou presque), dans RT en rançais, le 20 juillet 2015;

BCB Bancorp, Inc., Announces Net Income of $1.9 Million for the Three Months Ended June 30, 2015 and $3.7 Million for the Six Months Ended June 30, 2015,on Nasdaq, July 20, 2015;

We need a new version of capitalism for the jobless future, on The Washington Post, by Vivek Wadhwa, July 20, 2015;

La Finlande prête à expérimenter la fin du travail? dans France TVinfo, par Michel Lachkar, le 20 juillet 2015;

White House Efforts to Blunt 1975 Church Committee Investigation into CIA Abuses Foreshadowed Executive-Congressional Battles after 9/11, on The National Security Archive, by John Prados and Arturo Jimenez-Bacardi, July 20, 2015 (incl. 31 Docs):

  • Advisers to President Ford Sought to Protect CIA’s Image Abroad by Having Its Capabilities “Cloaked in Mystery and Held in Awe”;
  • Ford Administration Stratagem of Withholding Sensitive Intelligence, Spearheaded by Dick Cheney, Set Tone for Future Clashes between Claims of Secrecy and Public’s Right to Know;

… and this – WINDOWS 10, some explanations on YouTube:

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