Today is the first of a 5-part series of daily articles I am writing on the matter of education and learning. 

Right now the topic is uppermost in my mind, heart and life, and I want it to be the #1 topic for the whole of humanity for the next generation or two. With very good reason, as we shall explore together in this series of missives.

Suffice to say, humankind is in a terrible bind.

Only by overhauling our whole approach to education will we stand a decent chance of escaping the clutches of this darkness, division and disconnect which has descended over our human family in these troubling and turbulent times of transition, marked by severe trials and tribulations.

Today is a broad summary of where we are at currently with the school system, and in the following days I shall expand somewhat to give you a fuller picture. This series of articles is, if you like, a Situation Analysis.

For now, I will present the macro-problem, its root causes, and the solution.

I should first give you a brief background of myself, to contextualise what I shall be writing about, and why I might be any kind of authority on the topic. 

I accidentally became a teacher when I was 27, and at the outset it was teaching Thai adults to communicate in English, that is, teaching English as a second language. A decade later, after lots of experience, tons of fun, and hundreds of happy students, and having studied for my Certificate, Diploma and Masters, I began teaching English language teachers studying for their own Masters.

I became an educator of educators, and I should point out, I have always created most of my learning materials, curriculums and courses to ensure the learning experience empowered my students and matched their aspirations and needs.

I love teaching, I love motivating my students to love learning, and I love the English language. I am still learning, and will never stop.

I have seen how language, and the communication it leads to, can be both an enslavement and a liberation for each human being, more than any other single factor in our human world.

True education to me is empowering and liberating, and for those it touches they happily become lifelong learners. This is the best possible protection we can have, in this life full of challenges we all have to navigate.

In fact, I will say from my own classroom work of 25+ years that a true learning experience brings students FREEDOM. This means they find that learning is Fun, Rewarding, Engaging, Empowering, Dynamic, Organic and Moral. 

This learning prepares them beautifully for the world beyond the classroom. For my teacher students, the way and the word is spread!

In recalling your own schooling, you may wonder what on earth I’m talking about, having zero recollection of such a classroom experience! Let’s explore more.

Today’s society is yesterday’s classroom, today’s classroom is tomorrow’s society. ~ Philip

I never let my schooling interfere with my education. ~ Mark Twain

Well, let’s focus on this schooling for the moment. In my view school systems worldwide are the root cause of all our troubles, at both the individual and collective level. And we should not countenance ‘the elephant in the room’ a moment longer: humanity is in serious calamity.

 The devastating consequences for humankind, of what I call an anti-life, anti-health, anti-social, anti-education schooling, burst unequivocally onto the scene in 2020. Like any apparently ‘dormant’ volcano, the pressure had been building and building and then, massive eruption. The human family is now paying the price for this woeful and destructive ‘education’.

Since Mark Twain lived in the 1800s, we see this problem is nothing new. Humankind has been a brewing volcano for some time.

But, was it really that bad, the schooling we all got?

It was much worse. And is. Still.

Consider this brief charge sheet I am laying against mainstream education:

• the school systems don’t teach us how to learn or communicate

• they don’t teach us how to think, reflect, or research

• they sit us in rows and columns, denying us eye contact, facial interaction and peer collaboration 

• they teach us nothing of how our mind, body and soul work

• they teach us nothing of how the web of life works

(And bear in mind, we are born to be a social animal.)

In the process, they crush our spirit, our curiosity, our creativity, and, because we do nothing and are not given the chance to explore, investigate, inquire, express and think for ourselves, we cannot develop self-confidence, inner belief and a sense of self-worth. 

We are conditioned to refer and defer to ‘external authority’ for knowledge, answers, what to think, what to say, and what to do. Our own human essence and inner authority is completely buried.

In challenging times, such as we are in now, we find we are stuck and powerless to change, without the wherewithal to find our own solutions, and so, of course, we turn to the ‘God of External Authority’ to ‘save’ us.

We have been shaped into this tiny societal mould, or box, of who to be and how to act, and it’s almost impossible to think outside of the box because we’re stuck inside it!

A whole universe to shape ourselves into, and yet the school system pushes us all into a minuscule, homogenous dot of space.

If we consider this English language construction of the word family ‘de_____ed’, we will see that the meaning of these words is that the middle bit is taken from us, hidden from us, or crushed out of us. Let’s look at various examples of such words:

discouraged, demotivated, disconnected, disheartened, disempowered, dispirited, demoralised, disabled, dehumanised.

In effect, 12 years of schooling, which was roughly 14,000 hours of classroom time, suppressed or stole from us our courage, our motivation, our connection with others, our heart, our power, our spirit, our sense of morality, our abilities, and our very humanness and human essence.

We were conditioned into ignorance, know little of who we are, and little of how the world works.

THAT was your education. 

And I’ve not even mentioned the infiltration of ideology in today’s classrooms which has degraded things even further.

It is a nurture that antagonises our nature rather than complementing it.

No wonder so many of us struggle with our health and struggle in our relationships. No wonder there is so much conflict, division, stress, strife, and suffering in the human family.

But, here’s the real horror: as we become adults, we then become the next generation of parents and teachers, and so this negative cycle of anti-human anti-education schooling marches on through the generations. See the two quotes above.

It’s an absolute testament to ourselves, as miraculous creations of nature and the universe, that we have any successes whatsoever, and can find any kind of fun, joy, love and connection in our life.

Just imagine, if you will, how life would be if we had a life-enhancing, love-based, empowering education system as youngsters…

The Solution?

The opposite of all the above! True education will deliver that FREEDOM learning experience, and the teacher will focus on ensuring their students are enABLEd, enCOURAGEd, emPOWERed, emBOLDened, enLIGHTENed.

I will say that in my classrooms I do all that by delivering a heart-based learning experience. We are human beings, not robots, we have feelings and, revolutionary ideas of revolutionary ideas, shock and horror, we would all like to FEEL GOOD.

My view, even as I started out as a completely green teacher with zero training, was that first and foremost my students — and I — needed to ‘feel good’ about being in the classroom, being with the rest of the group, and being with me. Positive affect, is the jargon. If we feel emotionally supported, if we feel a bond with everybody else in our group, then we are absolutely ready to absolutely LOVE LEARNING.

With a happy and peaceful heart, now we can thrive by developing the skills of our mind. Engage heart first, then the head.

Why would we want it any other way? 

I have been building my new online education mission The Infinity Learning Academy for two years, and now I’m finally at the start line! I will be conducting a Free Live Webinar on Sunday 28th May 2023 (two different time slots so the whole world can make it). If you are interested you can learn more by clicking on the link. 

https://www.aspiritualrevolution.com/self-empowerment-webinar