Spiritual Meme Question Seven
7-- What are your feelings on education at large? Its necessity (or lack thereof), benefits, downsides, cost. Feel free to include all levels of education that you have opinions on from preschool through grad school.
I preface this by noting that my career was teaching. At the time i retired in 2001, i had spent over 54 years in school either teaching or being taught or both. I had spent less than 14 years doing other things such as being a baby and a child and working at different jobs outside of school.
In primitive societies education is life and life is education. In agrarian societies, education is a part of the spiritual journey -- it is the preparation for being a worker, a homemaker, and finally (but not necessarily finally) a spiritual seeker. I have been a student and a worker and my role as a homemaker may be over soon, and i begin that final part of my journey, looking for my truth about reality and, if there be such a thing, salvation.
If we look at education as job training, we are missing three quarters of it. Education is important in an of itself, it is preparation for social and political life, and it is preparation for the philosophical or spiritual quest. This is one reason "distribution credits" are so important.
In spite of some bullying from teachers, i greatly enjoyed elementary school insofar as i can remember it. High school, college, seminary, and (after a six year sojourn in the non-academic world) graduate school were all enjoyable. From graduate school i was hired by the university where i spent the next 34 years. I loved every minute of it.* I doubt that i could have spent my life as happily by following any other course. I taught sociology, but i taught it as though i were trying to prepare students for a spiritual journey.
I'm not saying that spirituality should be taught in public schools, but then again, why not. It can stand the same critical and objective analyses as other topics. And notions of brain and mind which come out of the neurology lab ought to be challenged by thinking from the philosophy, social science, and humanities departments. And all colleges have courses in psychology ("psyche-ology")
Writing prompts: only ones that would be hard for you to answer please! {FULL!} - the eclectic ecstasy of an ecphorizing eccentric
I preface this by noting that my career was teaching. At the time i retired in 2001, i had spent over 54 years in school either teaching or being taught or both. I had spent less than 14 years doing other things such as being a baby and a child and working at different jobs outside of school.
In primitive societies education is life and life is education. In agrarian societies, education is a part of the spiritual journey -- it is the preparation for being a worker, a homemaker, and finally (but not necessarily finally) a spiritual seeker. I have been a student and a worker and my role as a homemaker may be over soon, and i begin that final part of my journey, looking for my truth about reality and, if there be such a thing, salvation.
If we look at education as job training, we are missing three quarters of it. Education is important in an of itself, it is preparation for social and political life, and it is preparation for the philosophical or spiritual quest. This is one reason "distribution credits" are so important.
In spite of some bullying from teachers, i greatly enjoyed elementary school insofar as i can remember it. High school, college, seminary, and (after a six year sojourn in the non-academic world) graduate school were all enjoyable. From graduate school i was hired by the university where i spent the next 34 years. I loved every minute of it.* I doubt that i could have spent my life as happily by following any other course. I taught sociology, but i taught it as though i were trying to prepare students for a spiritual journey.
I'm not saying that spirituality should be taught in public schools, but then again, why not. It can stand the same critical and objective analyses as other topics. And notions of brain and mind which come out of the neurology lab ought to be challenged by thinking from the philosophy, social science, and humanities departments. And all colleges have courses in psychology ("psyche-ology")
Writing prompts: only ones that would be hard for you to answer please! {FULL!} - the eclectic ecstasy of an ecphorizing eccentric