A Brief History of Education

The education system in NZ is very much like the ones in the UK, USA and Australia – in fact I've taught in schools in 4 countries and found them to have the same ideology behind them.  This ideology is based upon the one that has been used for hundreds of years, and was especially instrumental at the height of European industrial development. 

The education system was devised for a need to prepare the population for industrial service in the areas of commercial industry - coal production, cotton milling, working machinery, working in factories and offices. The economic/industrial system did not require people to think for themselves or become inspired creators of original methods and means.  Industrial society already had institutions for the business owners, corporation managers, wealthy land/industry owners, monarchy and politicians.  These people had their own higher educational institutions and did not want an overly educated mass because they would want what they had.  Therefore, the ruling society went to great trouble to instill in the masses that their position in life was non-negotiable.  The church and the education system instructed the masses to accept their status in society - thus class-based society was created.  The caste system in India and class system in Britain are very good examples here.

The education system we have now is very much part of that tradition and little has changed since Victorian times.  Education was, and still is, a routine based programme of instruction, curriculum content and has little place for personal, social, environmental subjects and expressive arts.  Nowadays these areas are pushed out of the curriculum in schools because of an over-emphasis on curriculum coverage/testing/assessment in literacy, numeracy, science and technology.  There also exists a complete lack of creativity/awareness in management structure in government, local authorities and schools themselves, with maybe a few exceptions.

The education system doesn't promote anything that encourages inner awareness - calmness tools, anger management, understanding feelings, developing a sense of Self, sense of purpose in life, long term vision of human civilization, examples of humanitarian personalities and community responsibility.

Compared to generations of young people 40 years ago, youth and the masses are exposed to an increased frequency of images and messages that encourage sexual desire, alcohol consumption and a mass consumerism of products and services that develop obsessive, competitive and selfish habits.  All this is done through the television that promotes inequality and malicious behaviour between human beings.  Soap opera, film and programming now focuses upon gossip, judgmentalism and criticism between people.  These 3 issues have become the biggest environmental polluters that most people are unaware of – our negative and destructive thoughts and feelings.

Judgment, criticism and gossip are institutionalized practices in schools.  Teachers are simply used as tools to judge children constantly to such an extent now that children are now intimidated and frightened to say or write what they think incase they get the answer wrong.  Children are now frightened to be creative and original because the teacher has already selected the learning outcome for the child.  This practice takes away the ownership of education from the child.  Teachers no longer design programmes of learning themselves for the children in their care because they must conform to government handbooks of curriculum coverage and prescriptive learning outcomes.  With a repressed teaching profession, it isn’t long before the children also feel repressed.  Hence, truancy, rebellious attitudes towards schools, teachers and communities, aggressive behaviour, high incidence of teachers leaving the profession, breakdowns, illness/sick leave and early retirement of teachers harass the everyday management of schools leading to frustrations and powerlessness.

Children who are trained in numeracy and literacy programmes too early in their childhood often build up a resistance to this programming later on in their school life.  Not all children develop at the same pace and not all children are best suited to an academic regime of numeracy, literacy and standardized assessment and testing.

What will be suggested here in these pages on education is not the annihilation of the current system but the expansion and diversifying of it.  Education is based upon the idea of Unity in Diversity.  It is possible to create a provision of education nationally, that will inspire all children, youth and peoples. 

Nature will provide the environment for children to find place and purpose in their existence.  Desire for a more positive and kinder society will bring about the changes necessary.  People are going to want communal awareness and peace between neighbours, family and fellow human beings.  All parents and teachers want their children to be happy.  It is time to realize that we do not become better human beings by surrounding ourselves with artificial home and school environments that do not reflect everyday awareness and living.  Shutting ourselves off from nature, insulating ourselves from each others energy by condemning, criticizing and judging each other only breeds fear and loathing.  A better society rests upon the reform and regeneration of community and natural connection.  Simplicity is the keynote of human living so we can be truly happy beings.

Real education rests on the premise that education lies within the individual not outside.  Education is about what we can bring out of the child, not what we put into them and testing them at the end of the term to find out whether they have assimilated it and scored well against standardised performance tables.  This concept of expecting an individual to constantly perform to set criteria has become overused and even abused, because it renders the individual to outer conformity criteria and there is little in the way of opportunities for individuals to express their own constructive desires.

A Wider Perspective on the Necessity of Organised Education Provision

Education is a system of organisation and provision of human experiences for children.  It influences and promotes ideals, thoughts, feelings and desires for the rest of the human being’s life. 

Much of what I have experienced in education does little to embody these qualities.  In fact much of what I have experienced in education appears to serve not what the individual brings to society but what society expects of the individual.  Reforming education doesn’t begin with reforming the philosophy of education.  It doesn’t begin with the reform of curriculum expectations.  Reform of education begins with the reform of each and every one of us.  Reform of education begins with the sincere and unconditional love of our own being and our own relationship to each other.  It is about our divine purpose in life and the constantly evolving realisation of human betterment.

If the human race is to overcome its weaknesses and destructive desires, it requires a strong will to understand who we are as thinking, speaking and acting instruments of good.  If goodness is the highest aspiration of human beings, then this is where we may begin to reform our education system – in how we provide a constructive environment for children and youth, in how we interact and encourage freethinking, inspire co-operative project building and creating constructive and caring society.

In Gandhi’s words of inspiration we must “be the change we wish to see in the world”.  In essence we are what we give.  By creating environments of mutual love and respect for each other we inspire children to delve into their own essence of goodness to bring forth what they feel is important to express this goodness in whatever way they see fit. 

We can no longer build structures that expect children to fit an artificial norm of human behaviour.  We are what we are.  By denying or repressing what is naturally within us we deny our own goodness to express itself.  Good society is not built on a numerate and literate nation.  Goodness and happiness is built on human relationships and how we treat each other.  Education is based on inspiring people to be good people.  Good training programmes create good readers and writers, confident mathematicians, scientists and technology practitioners.  Education educates the human being as to what lies within and how it can be brought out.  Good education creates good people to become great scientists, builders, architects, farmers, politicians and business managers, for example.  Good education expresses Soul.  Current education oppresses Soul.

What we have created is a world that is unreal, a dream and an illusion. 

Our desires for material products and services, for example, are not based on a real necessity for living, but a projected fear-based thought form that convinces us it is real and necessary for our happiness.  These thought forms are projected into our consciousness by the media and social norms and expectations.  It may be marriage, partnership, house ownership, labelling, food, sex, alcohol consumption or cigarette smoking.  These thought forms distract us from the source of real happiness by keeping our attention fixed on outer form and away from our inner sense of self and being and real purpose.

By being hypnotised by outer distractions and separation from nature and the soil, we have forgotten who we really are and why we are here.  To reform education we need to look carefully at reforming society on a much broader level.  Reforming education requires raising the standards of commercial advertising, television broadcasting and human expectations.  The greatest hypocritical perception we have in society is the belief that something is ok for adults but not ok for children.  Social reform begins with the statement:

If it is harmful/detrimental to children, then it is harmful/detrimental to adults. 

There is a deeply ingrained social myth woven into the fabric of human society and that is the great rift between being a child and being an adult.  Think about it.  Older generations complain about the youth/children constantly, yet they have children and grandchildren themselves.  In criticising, judging and condemning groups of society we do the same to ourselves.  When adults complain about youth, they cause an equal and opposing force.  Youth therefore, complain about the older generations.  A rift or separation is created between 2 groups of people.  The flaws we point out in others are only the same flaws we have – the only difference may be the extremity of that flaw.

In labelling other peoples as prejudiced or even racist we are acknowledging the same prejudice/racism in our self.   When we see goodness in others, we acknowledge good in our self.  When we hear good in the news we acknowledge good in us.  When we speak good things about others, we acknowledge the same goodness in us.  In fact, the world becomes a mirror of our own strengths or weaknesses.

By feeding a perception of difference in humanity we invariably give it more power in society.  The keynote here is to see what you want to create.  We do not become richer by worrying about money.  We do not become healthy by worrying about disease and perceptions of old age. This is fundamental to creating an environment that will give rise to the future creators of society. 

In reformed society, children and youth will look more to assisting their family and community in learning to grow food organically and gaining a real sense of connection to the land.  Children and youth will have more opportunities to connect with their own purpose in life by expressing themselves artistically and creatively, by becoming their own healers and their own families healers and educating themselves and their families from within.  Training programmes, classes and workshops that promote numeracy, literacy, science and technology will continue to evolve and offer the highest standards of academic progress but not so much in a central role as it has in the past.

The ideology of education is therefore embedded in every thought, feeling, learning opportunity, teaching/learning method, organisational method, management technique and structural tactic.

The future of education rests upon the constructive desires of new policies and practices and not ones based upon fear.  At the heart of education is not the desire of society for children who will feed the fears it already has. At the heart of education is the happiness of the children to be creators of a world they want.