Education (n.) the process of receiving or giving systematic instruction, esp. at a school or university. Derived from the Latin educere meaning to lead out.
Democracy (n.) a system of government by the whole population or all the eligible members of a state, typically through elected representatives. From the Greek, dēmokratia from dēmos ‘the people’ and kratia ‘power, rule.’
How far our modern definition of education has strayed from its roots. How interesting that within what is considered to be the most sophisticated system of governance, democracy, we define and practice education in such a barbaric form. It seems that our tools of culture are still catching up to our ideals. And at a related rate to which we don’t catch up, our actualization of those ideals may be deteriorating.
Education in the United States is rooted in many outdated traditions. Beginning with its tap-root in Puritanical culture, schools preferred conformity and order over individuality and original thought. As industrialization grew and jobs moved from the farm to the city, this neat and tidy schoolhouse was a perfect tool for dominating the working class. Paired with the call for compulsory education, industrialists reaped the benefits of trained “students” who were dependent on their factories for jobs and sorted into laborers and managers through ranking and testing in schools. Our modern incarnation of school still upholds the architecture of this system where responding to bells and doing as you are told is more important than thinking.
Today we have inherited a most awkward and inefficient thing, called “public education.” We continue to employ rewards that promote values of conformity. Grades are one of the most powerful. They replace authentic learning, eroding our natural love of learning and orientation toward being good people. Over time, grades become salaries, where our livelihood depends on our blindness to the ill effects of our actions.
Fundamentally, education needs to honor the individual as capable of directing her own learning. Any structures surrounding children and students must be built on this respect and teachers must be mirrors. First, modeling healthy human development, we must practice holistic lifelong learning. Secondly, we must reflect back to the students where they currently are so that they can progress. It is within this process that instruction must be embedded.
I wish to put the modern definition of education and the institutions founded upon it into the compost pile. They need to be broken down into their smaller parts so that they can be reconstituted as part of a healthier and more timely whole.
In order to achieve the outcomes we need today we must begin with a new definition of education (or return to its roots), as the current one is incapable of delivering what the world needs now. But how do we arrive at what the outcomes of education should be? Let’s look at what a democracy needs in order to succeed.
Democracies are dependent on having able-minded people to carry the responsibility of power. Citizens must be able to think critically about complex issues, and resolve conflict with compassion and insight, both to a degree much higher than currently is average.
As the torch of power has descended from the gods; to the pharaohs, kings, and queens; and finally to every human being, we need an idea of education that is just as powerful. Power at its root is simply “to be able.” This ability may be exerted immaturely or wisely, and the effects of our actions tell the tale of which was the case.
Evidently, we are currently a very immature populace. There’s more monetary wealth in the world than ever before, but at such a cost that the majority of the biosphere’s life systems are near collapse. Despite having the greatest security against hunger and attack in human history, we live paralyzed with fear and suspicion. Resources are hoarded by very few, who shape policy for their own enrichment, while a majority of people in the United States are more concerned about celebrity drama, “reality” television shows and toys.
Meanwhile hundreds of species are lost each year, and millions of people are starving and without clean water. There’s a plastic whirlpool as big as Texas in the Pacific Ocean and a 3,000 square mile dead zone at the mouth of the Mississippi River.
We excuse people all the time for not doing more, “Oh, it’s just too big a problem for most people to wrap their head around.” This is not excusable. History is written everyday by the accumulation of individual habits. Our current habits of ignorance, greed, and immaturity are spoiling the riches of this planet and the true power of democracy.
Thus, education needs to be for the development of profoundly sane personalities. It is nothing less that will bring about the environmental restoration and rejuvenation necessary to avoid the worst of possible scenarios. It is nothing less that will bring about an end to armed conflict. It is nothing less that will be able to confront the problems yet to be known. It is what a democracy needs in order to be viable.
By focusing on character development we have hope. To continue focusing on test scores means we have lost it. We “know” more than ever before, we are “smarter” and faster than any of our ancestors, and thus far this has largely facilitated an accelerated downfall of human capacity to live wisely on the planet and with one another.
But as contrast is the necessary condition for consciousness, this means that there are in the world, talented personalities that are enacting the beauty we so desperately need. It is these personalities that need to be recognized as desirable, as truly those who are the “fittest” to survive. Fittest meaning those that best support life as well as make use of it for themselves.
Thus, the outcomes we should be aiming for in education today are:
- Emotional sensitivity and intellectual curiosity oriented to expansive love, compassion, respect, and responsibility, in contrast to disharmonious tendencies to neglect, apathy, and disavowal of personal responsibility for collective well-being.
- Conceptual focus on cyclic powers in human development, exhibited in habits, customs, and traditions concerning the presence or absence of effective self-reflection, self-examination, research, inquiry, and dialogue.
If every high school graduate embodied these outcomes, our neighborhoods would be cleaner and safer, our communities would be strengthened, our country would be robust, and our world would be saved on a perpetual basis.
Lastly, I propose that we widen our view even beyond the singular idea of democracy. I propose that we utilize The Earth Charter as our curricular and thus assessment framework. Developed by an international group of diverse, thoughtful, and caring people, The Earth Charter articulates four principles that human civilization needs to adopt or it will perish. Those principles are: Respect and Care for the Community of Life; Ecological Integrity; Social and Economic Justice; Democracy, Non-violence, and Peace. These can all be reached through the two outcomes I outlined above.