Schools are the last place you learn anything helpful about Life
is it not time to get real about what will genuinely have our children thrive?
A few years ago I was parking up in town. It was the first week of September and for many the start of the school year.
As I locked my car I noticed a little girl hopping along the street arms outstretched holding her grandmother’s and mother’s hands. I guessed this was her first day ever at school.
Then I heard this voice inside my head say……
“You’ve no idea what we’re about to do to you….
We’re not going to kneel down and ask you:
What are you here to bring this world?
What are you here to be in this world?
How can we help you with that?
How can we best support you, build you up and ready you for your mission ahead (that will serve us all)?
How can we best let you be YOU in all your magnificence?
How can we help you and all your classmates shine uniquely and wonderfully so that this world is enriched by your very presence?
(Okay so that last question would be too much for a 5yr old but still you get my drift!)
Nope! Sadly we’re not going to do that.
We’re going to put you in a cookie cutter machine; we will condition you to do what you’re told; we’ll evaluate you against some arbitrary baseline which you’ll have to be above or else it’s a problem - well actually you are a problem. It’s never the system. After all that’s over one hundred years old!
We will do this all in a nice way so you have a nice time and feel you’re achieving something which will be useful in later life.”
I felt so sad in that moment….yes it may well be that that little girl went on to enjoy her school years but regardless of that she was still being put through a big sausage machine.
I wonder if she got to be messy?
I wonder how often she laughed so hard she cried with joy?
I wonder how curious and inquisitive she got to be?
I wonder how many mistakes she was encouraged to make?
I wonder how much she was celebrated?
When you’re put on the scrap heap at the age of 6
When my children were younger I used to into our local village school to help kids with their reading. As it was a small village school five and six year olds were in the same class.
Every week I helped this six year old boy with his reading as his mother didn’t do it with him at home. Who knows maybe she couldn’t read herself.
He was a big boy for his age and I could sense that he felt exposed and ashamed because he was already believing that he was stupid compared to the others. Not least because his reading skills were lagging behind.
I could see how he could easily become the school bully using his size as that might be the only or best way for him to feel a sense of worth or power or control.
There were times when I pondered to myself that a school environment wasn’t going to serve him - quite the opposite. He looked like he was great with his hands and being active - he had a lot of powerful energy.
I wondered if, supported correctly, he could turn out to be a world class rugby player or an amazing carpenter.
Sadly this was highly unlikely to happen as the system was too rigid. I prayed at some point he’d meet a strong male role model who’d take him under his wing and get him into something hands on.
This kid knew he was already in “trouble” system wise ie he didn’t fit in and wasn’t meeting “expectations”. Sacrilege really.
So where did we go wrong and where can we go right for this era?
Don’t get me wrong I adore learning and thrive on it. I just think that the current education system is well past its sell by date.
Interestingly the word “educate” comes from the Latin Root “educare”. At it’s root “educate” means “to lead out” or to “draw out” ie what is already within.
That’s pretty different from the modern sense of pouring knowledge into someone right?
The original meaning of education is more aligned with awakening innate potential, drawing forth inner wisdom, and guiding someone to express what’s already inside them.
Our “modern” education system was born during the age of the Industrial Revolution though it itself was based on an 18th century Prussian model.
Industrialists such as John D. Rockefeller poured millions into this. In 1902 the General Education Board was created to promote education without distinction of race, sex, or religion.
However, Rockefeller didn’t hide what he really wanted as a result of his huge financial investment and involvement.
“ I don’t want a nation of thinkers, I want a nation of workers."
John D Rockefeller
One of his business advisors, Frederick T. Gates who was also high up in the General Education Board had even more to say on this front…
"We shall not try to make these people or any of their children into philosophers or men of learning, or men of science. We have not to raise up from among them authors, editors, poets or men of letters. We shall not search for embryo great artists, painters, musicians nor lawyers, doctors, preachers, politicians, statesmen, of whom we have an ample supply…
Frederick T. Gates
So the original premise of this “educational” system was to produce workers to support the Industrial Revolution. It has changed little to this day on many levels.
I remember my daughter saying to me that she wasn’t being taught to be wise or operate from an inner knowing but rather she received top marks and was deemed successful if she could regurgitate the information she’d been fed correctly.
I remember another kid in the UK who got 100% in his GCSE maths. They failed him!!!
They failed him because he’d an inner abacus in his head which he used to work out the equations but because his work didn’t follow the traditional maths approach (and they couldn’t understand how he did what he did) they failed him.
What if every child is born with an inner creative genius?
In 1968 Dr. George Land conducted a study, originally designed for NASA, to assess creativity in engineers and scientists.
1,600 children aged 4 to 5 years old were tested by Dr. Land. Wait until you see the results!
Ages 4-5: 98% of the children scored at a creative genius level
When Dr. Land retested them at the age of 10: it was down to 30%
At age 15: it was down to 12%
Adults came in at 2%
Wow!
Dr. Land thought that this massive reduction in creative genius within these children was largely as a result of the traditional educational systems where the emphasis is on convergent thinking vs divergent thinking.
Convergent thinking is everyone’s thinking coming down to or together to a single correct answer.
Whereas divergent thinking goes in the opposite direction to multiple ideas, outcomes, solutions.
One is deductive and the other creative.
“Education is not the learning of facts, but the training of minds to think .”
Albert Einstein
We need to be able to use our fabulous minds to do both and benefit from both. But if our education system is only focusing on and valuing the former the later becomes dormant and unused.
Not least we become dull. It’s like going from 3D to 2 D.
11 things I’d bring into our education systems:-
All of these are fundamentals in terms of navigating life, making the most of this life and being fully yourself.
Understanding finances: How to create and grow wealth in a powerful healthy generative way - were you ever taught about money and wealth creation?
Understanding how your inner world creates the experience of your outer world not the other way around! The truth behind our thoughts, feelings and sensations - this is freedom from conditioning.
Learning to breathe properly (adults don’t) - Nervous system regulation using breath work - this will be huge this decade so why not start with kids? Some private schools in the UK are already doing this which is fab.
Grounding in our home base of inner calm - Various forms of meditation: formal sitting meditation or walking meditation or qi gong. Qi gong is the spiritual form of Tai Chi - it’s so powerful that the Chinese banned it. It’s a heavenly practice. Tai Chi or Kung Fu for kids with more alpha.
How to create relationships consciously
Understanding your individual operating software; coming off automatic.
How to navigate the natural transitions in life; to honour them and cherish them but not blunder our way through them rudderless and blindfolded.
Definitely more fun, creativity, day dreaming, art for arts sake
Teens have the right to pursue subjects that they’re passionate about and take responsibility for their own learning
Building something real - whether it be a garden or cactus plants - something to tangibly keep them connected to nature.
Anything that creates wonder and awe in them - because you can only feel that if it’s resonated with the wonder and awe existing in you too!
So many inner geniuses to set free……….
I love the look of this girl - doesn’t she look like a bad ass leader of the future?…
Curiosity knows no bounds…..
Quiet innocence in nature…..
So what would you include in children’s education?
Remembering that the original premise behind “to educate” was to:
awaken innate potential
draw forth inner wisdom
guide someone to express what’s already inside them
Maybe you can dream up a way of bringing some of your ideas into local schools? It doesn’t have to be a huge thing - it could be your presence and something you’re passionate about sharing.
What about for yourself? Your own inner genius?
Yes it may feel it’s been dormant for a long time due to the demands of the world.
To hell with the people who said you couldn’t draw or paint or sing or dance…..(that includes your own mind!)
Listen to your heart and spirit - let them come out to play and see how that feels!
“Imperfection is beauty, madness is genius and it's better to be absolutely ridiculous than absolutely boring.”
Marilyn Monroe
Have fun - do let me know in the comments what you’d put into schools - I’m imagining some fantastic ideas in this group so do share 🙏🏻
With love,
Alison
Couldn’t agree more and, as a not-yet parent, this leaves me feeling a bit helpless! What’s the alternative? My sense is that, like most things, the education of our children needs to be the responsibility of local community (ie parents/friends/family), not outsourced to strangers/systems at the mercy of politics and standardisation. And this would require that parents don’t have to work the hours they currently do to support their families… tricky!
Brilliant piece! Couldn't agree more!