Subject: Re:the purpose of education
From: Bill Ellis (tranet@rangeley.org)
Date: Mon 10 Apr 2000 - 10:57:24 MEST
Date: Mon, 10 Apr 2000 08:57:24 +0000 Subject: Re:the purpose of education From: "Bill Ellis" <tranet@rangeley.org>
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The ongoin discussion has been most revealing.
It seems that the consensus is "power" personal power is the reason we
educate.
But isn't the root of learning something much more satisfying than that?
Isn't there a feeling or emotion that comes from knowing that is just
satisfaction in itself? Or perhaps it is to satisfy our basic need to
"belong." I don't see that reading Poe or Shakespeare gives us power any
more than walking in the forest, listening to birds or watching a sunset has
anything to do with power. There is a deep feeling of belonging that comes
from such experiences. A feeling of awe, wonder, and participation in a
great mystery. This is what Einstein called his cosmic religion. It too
comes from knowing; from comprehending and understanding the cosmos. Isn't
that what drives our curiosity, our motive to learn? Just knowing.
That sense of belonging that comes with understanding is the basis for the
shift from the Dominator Paradigm based on power, to the Gaian paradigm
based on belonging. This transformation is happening throughout our
EuroAmerican culture. For 5000 years the Dominator Paradigm has been
building out culture. Today EuroAmerican values are dominant. and domineer
the world. But chaos, complexity and gaian theories have brought us to the
realization that everything is dependent on everything else. We belong to
Gaia, to the earth and its living parts. Belonging is more than just being
a a par of or member of. It is being possesd by, and obeying the dictates
of, a larger whole, Gaia.
The shift from Dominator Paradigm to the Gaian Paradigm is as shift from
educating for power to learning to belong.
We ned to evaluate the education/learning system from a new perspective
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THE PEOPLE ARE NOT THE PROBLEMS. THEY ARE THE SOLUTIONS.
IF THE PEOPLE LEAD, THE LEADERS WILL FOLLOW.
Bill Ellis
TRANET/A Coaltion for Self-Learning
POBox 567, 5 Lake St.
Rangeley, ME 04970 USA
(207)864-3784
for TRANET
http://www.nonviolence.org/tranet
for the discussion
http://www.onelist.com/community/CCL-LLCs
for the book
http://www.futureworld.dk/ccl-llc/book.htm
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