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Thoughts on Education-2025-03-14
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There are many problems in our systems of formal education, which I will not try to address here.
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These systems have come to be invaluable. However, they were never meant to replace the informal learning that has always been and still remains the bedrock on which all else stands.
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I mean by this all the things learned outside school and university settings, through our interactions with the physical world around us, as well as with other sentient beings.
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The term "sentient being" includes, of course, the beings of our own species, beginning with family and local community, but not only those.
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That term surely extends to all the animals, from the hugest to the tiniest, and peehaps even to plants and other living beings.
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Among these, each of us is but one individual out of a vast multitude. So also, our species is just one out of a great many on this planet.
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There are no easy replacements for the basic sensitivity, balance, sense of proportion, humility, reverence, and connections formed through our interactions with other sentient beings, and with the physical world, beginning in infancy and continuing until we die.
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Nor can we dispense with the acquisition of basic physical and mental abilities, primarily in childhood, such as:
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- the coordination between senses and muscle movements that give rise to our basic motor skills;
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- the development of recognition, memory, and imagination;
.
- the development of means of reasoning, questioning, exploration, conjecture, and verification;
.
- the utilization and development of emotional capacities and instincts such as those for empathy and for fairness/justice;
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- the all-important acquisition of the first natural language(s), along with all the associated conceptual and relational apparatus;
.
- etc.
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This is not to dismiss, in any way, the utility of formal schooling, learning the various traditional disciplines and their concepts and methods.
.
This could be in:
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- crafts such as carpentry, weaving/knitting/sewing, cooking, pottery, and many others;
.
- all of the skills needed in traditional means of sustenance such as farming, gathering, and hunting (including fishing);
.
- things such as religious training, the martial arts, yoga, tai chi, ...;
.
- all the "newer" fields of study and practice, as taught in the schools and colleges of our time, beginning with basic literacy, numeracy, and general knowledge, but going far beyond those basics.
.
To the extent that interactive devices and the globalized Internet, with their capacities for information storage, processing, retrieval and transfer (communications) can be used to enhance this informal and formal learning, these devices and these globalized connections can act as portals to an immensity of dynamic information exchanges. So they should be welcomed.
.
However, as in everything, caution, moderation, and balance remain key. One should not rush to throw out the old in our embrace of the new.
.
Our individual physical and psychological selves can only take so much of the stress that comes with having to adapt to:
.
- rapid changes, including having to comstantly learn new things under time pressures, while also having to deal with pressures for increased "productivity", especially when these changes and these pressures are imposed on us, and are beyond our control, or are purposely designed and marketed as addictions that are difficult to avoid and to clear, especially for those under constant stress;
.
- the associated destruction of older structures and working and coping mechanisms, however "creative" this destruction may be made out to be.
.
It is the same with our collectives, beginning with our families and local communities.
.
2025 March 14, Fri.
Berkeley, California
.
Thoughts on Education-2025-03-14
.
There are many problems in our systems of formal education, which I will not try to address here.
.
These systems have come to be invaluable. However, they were never meant to replace the informal learning that has always been and still remains the bedrock on which all else stands.
.
I mean by this all the things learned outside school and university settings, through our interactions with the physical world around us, as well as with other sentient beings.
.
The term "sentient being" includes, of course, the beings of our own species, beginning with family and local community, but not only those.
.
That term surely extends to all the animals, from the hugest to the tiniest, and peehaps even to plants and other living beings.
.
Among these, each of us is but one individual out of a vast multitude. So also, our species is just one out of a great many on this planet.
.
There are no easy replacements for the basic sensitivity, balance, sense of proportion, humility, reverence, and connections formed through our interactions with other sentient beings, and with the physical world, beginning in infancy and continuing until we die.
.
Nor can we dispense with the acquisition of basic physical and mental abilities, primarily in childhood, such as:
.
- the coordination between senses and muscle movements that give rise to our basic motor skills;
.
- the development of recognition, memory, and imagination;
.
- the development of means of reasoning, questioning, exploration, conjecture, and verification;
.
- the utilization and development of emotional capacities and instincts such as those for empathy and for fairness/justice;
.
- the all-important acquisition of the first natural language(s), along with all the associated conceptual and relational apparatus;
.
- etc.
.
This is not to dismiss, in any way, the utility of formal schooling, learning the various traditional disciplines and their concepts and methods.
.
This could be in:
.
- crafts such as carpentry, weaving/knitting/sewing, cooking, pottery, and many others;
.
- all of the skills needed in traditional means of sustenance such as farming, gathering, and hunting (including fishing);
.
- things such as religious training, the martial arts, yoga, tai chi, ...;
.
- all the "newer" fields of study and practice, as taught in the schools and colleges of our time, beginning with basic literacy, numeracy, and general knowledge, but going far beyond those basics.
.
To the extent that interactive devices and the globalized Internet, with their capacities for information storage, processing, retrieval and transfer (communications) can be used to enhance this informal and formal learning, these devices and these globalized connections can act as portals to an immensity of dynamic information exchanges. So they should be welcomed.
.
However, as in everything, caution, moderation, and balance remain key. One should not rush to throw out the old in our embrace of the new.
.
Our individual physical and psychological selves can only take so much of the stress that comes with having to adapt to:
.
- rapid changes, including having to comstantly learn new things under time pressures, while also having to deal with pressures for increased "productivity", especially when these changes and these pressures are imposed on us, and are beyond our control, or are purposely designed and marketed as addictions that are difficult to avoid and to clear, especially for those under constant stress;
.
- the associated destruction of older structures and working and coping mechanisms, however "creative" this destruction may be made out to be.
.
It is the same with our collectives, beginning with our families and local communities.
.
2025 March 14, Fri.
Berkeley, California
.
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