Friday, August 24, 2012

david orr - what is ed for



 More of the same kind of education will only compound our problems. This is not an argument for ignorance, but rather a statement that the worth of education must now be measured against the standards of decency and human survival – the issues now looming so large before us in the decade of the 1990s and beyond. It is not education that will save us, but education of a certain kind.
Francis Bacon’s ..Galileo’s ..Descartes’ ....Together these three laid the foundations for modern education, foundations now enshrined in myths we have come to accept without question. 
All things considered, it is possible that we are becoming more ignorant of the things we must know to live well and sustainably on the Earth.
The plain fact is that the planet does not need more "successful" people. But it does desperately need more peacemakers, healers, restorers, storytellers, and lovers of every shape and form. It needs people who live well in their places. It needs people of moral courage willing to join the fight to make the world habitable and humane. And these needs have little to do with success as our culture has defined it.
Ron Miller, editor of Holistic Review:
"Our culture does not nourish that which is best or noblest in the human spirit. It does not cultivate vision, imagination, or aesthetic or spiritual sensitivity. It does not encourage gentleness, generosity, caring, or compassion. Increasingly in the late 20th Century, the economic-technocratic-statist worldview has become a monstrous destroyer of what is loving and life-affirming in the human soul." 
A second principle comes from the Greek concept of paideiaThe goal of education is not mastery of subject matter, but of one’s person
Fourth, we cannot say that we know something until we understand the effects of this knowledge on real people and their communities.
praxis
Students hear about global responsibility while being educated in institutions that often invest their financial weight in the most irresponsible things. The lessons being taught are those of hypocrisy and ultimately despair. Students learn, without anyone ever saying it, that they are helpless to overcome the frightening gap between ideals and reality. 
via

Luann Lee (@stardiverr)
8/24/12 6:36 AM
Mind successfully blown. Thank you, @chrislehmann .tinyurl.com/d2l8gmn




also:
GOOD (@GOOD)
8/21/12 1:35 PM
Why is the most popular TEDTalk of all time about education?bit.ly/Qn5lsI