As in-betweeners we all have lessons to learn from each other, particularly those involving our harmonious use of shared space. With a diversity of backgrounds and cultural influences converging at an increasingly rapid pace, our educational psychology remains in its infancy in this regard.
We often pay too little heed to things we share in common that would promote greater unity on campus. Our differences therefore can become divisive, when insufficient attention is focused on our commonalities, especially the deeper ground of unity that prevents problems of alienation from occurring in the first place.
Heady rivalries and hyper-competiveness are a distraction for true community-based education. Preoccupation with standing or rank position stirs up more ego-identification and divisiveness than unity-in-action. Our culture is in such dire need of a deeper sense of unity, to attempt to outdo others rather than simply improve on ones past performance may keep us dysfunctionally divided indefinitely. Our society needs schools that aren't run like a triathalon or track meet. Winning at all costs and reigning in some category may amount to failing a much more profoundly realized mission. Over focusing on learning activities that are most easily measured may generate hard statistics for decision-making, but may easily fail to assess the overall quality of a learning program or environment.
Being excellent at putting "oneself first" may serve to make us the most feared of hated as well. Proclamations of district or campus excellence in community education can be divisively destructive when the larger learning community is our focus. Just as a school's worth can't be based on a single individual, neither should a district's worth be based on a single campus nor should a state's worth be based on a single district. Posturing as a boastful winner thereby casts others as relative losers. Districts and community colleges need to create models that raise the awareness ceiling that is currently perpetuating academic one-up-man-ship and stress-filled classrooms.
We only retain our own natural power and sensitivity by conscious choice and soul-presence, for others are often eager to decide for us. If parents have already lost their way and drifted from true self-awareness, they may subconsciously ensure that their children don't show them up — or attempt to lead them — by "blinding" their children to a similar degree.
If I use a computer to pursue a goal that I view as beneficial, the program or learning environment should not itself tend to defeat that goal. If I wish to promote unity through information technology while avoiding pitfalls -- I surely do not want to be learning in a pit of indifference and ineptitude. Classroom and campus environments are sending loud messages that have profound effects for better or worse.
A deeper reassessment of education policy is required that reflects a more progressive human understanding of the whole person and how learning potential is impacted at all stages of life by the presence or absence of life-enhancing opportunities. Misschooling, like misparanting, is dangerous to future learning. Only through a greater appreciation of higher awareness parameters can students' learning potential be properly guided.
Too often a gifted and sensitive individual is robbed of critical learning due to an inflexible and heavy-handed approach that in extreme cases becomes inflictive. Progressive individuals that progress in ways that are not specifically included in a program may even be criticized or sent away because they don't fit into an inflexible program. In such cases, the seeds for true reform are altered or ejected from the educational system before they can sprout and contribute an "edutrue-ing". This creates a stressful atmosphere of despair and hopelessnes for students rejecting conformity and subservience to some contrived elite . Educational policy-makers must look deeply at the self-destructive cultural imperatives that its own myopia may reinforce.
Imagine a fertile place for new vision being created by the campus climate itself, as opposed to a campus where superficial upgrades only reinforce an underlying staus quo. Denial-free honesty of heart must ground new vision in the day-to-day practicalities of preparing a progressive learning environment. The blind will continue to lead the blind as long as there are blind followers or sufficient funding to support paycheck-centered sameness. The current not-so-merry-go-round of divided interests and conflicting values and practices has obvious squeaky wheels and they are growing louder. At the very least, we need to be vigilant and mindful of the causes of abuse and deal with in proactive and preventive ways. Education should only mirror business at its community-serving best, not incorporate its dehumanizing, predatory, and self-serving worst.
Education reform requires eliminating patriarchical and predatory legislation, myopic management, and rigid program implementation that discourages critical thinking and re-visoning. Problems with the current system need to be better and more honestly identified if we are to progress in public education. The problems are too broad and too pervasive to expect a future generation to make the necessary changes. Instead, the longer we wait, the less likely it will be that the next generation will have a sufficiently progressive precedent to sustain public education at level worthy of public trust.
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