Commentary: Current Education Tramples the Mind

INTRODUCTION:Not a day goes by there is not an article in our local paper on our local Public School System. If it is not a cry for more money, it is complaints over poor attendance, or that many local teachers are not fully qualified. While some schools are being “demoted,” others are being “promoted.” First, one thing and then another. Obviously, there is something amiss in our current approach to educating our children.Other articles in the local newspaper carry reports of the increased interests and energies being expended by the “little” people to end the imminent threat of our own government by the increasing invasion of our private rights in the name of protecting the people from inside terrorism. People are grouping at the grass roots level to petition their respective government representative, the President and members of Congress, to end these daily threats to our lives. They are sick to the bone of living in daily fear of imminently undermining the guarantees of our Constitution. We need to adhere to Franklin D. Roosevelt’s, Four Freedoms: Speech, Worship, Want and Fear.With all of this bombarding our brains, consider “holistically” the relationship of education to the many efforts of a given society to prepare its young for adult responsibilities; responsibilities of learning to control our own individual natures as well as contributing to the future of human evolution. Apparently, nearly all the fuss over our imminent demise is being conducted by adults in whom we’ve given our trust to govern and lead us. Obviously, something is wrong with this world’s political and educational systems.DISCUSSION:Some minor research will tell us that the word, “education,” derives from the joining of the Latin, “e”, meaning “out,” with the Latin word, “‘duco,” meaning to “lead” or “take out from.” Simply, it means to draw out of the pupil the inherent wisdom that lies within him or her. This word, education, has many implications given a little thought. One such implication is that the newborn brings into this world from previous incarnations a past history of acquired experiences and knowledge of the true value of things. The trouble is most educators and parental caregivers are ignorant of this fact. The newborn is flooded by the events of its immediate environment from the very moment of birth and forwards; as it grows it forgets to remember what it already knows! More people the world over believe in reincarnation than those who do not; mostly those seeped in the Judeo-Christian ideals.When formal education begins, the pupil is bombarded with facts and figures that are supposed to be memorized. And all these things being taught to the pupil are things to be grasped by the senses and are restricted to an empirically material and concrete world of so-called knowledge, whereas it is the world of Meaning that needs stressing.The current methods of education markedly contrast with a true “educational process,” as these words were originally intended. The existent model is more of a “putting into” than one of self-discovery. The students are being inculcated (from inculcare= to stamp into, or tread upon) with a body of pre-determined and quite mundane information of questionable validity, especially for the bringing into existence of a new “world order,” which the new Aquarian Age promises us. Such a new world order needs to be one based upon the ideals of world peace and the consistent application of goodwill, altruism and true brotherhood by each individual to every other individual upon this earth.The educational process must begin with an honorable and purposeful goal. It must go beyond the mere imparting of facts to be remembered to one of searching inwardly for the true meaning and causes behind the facts, which eventually should lead one to look within the self for such meaning. One anonymous educator has expressed it thusly: “Education can be an adventurous quest for the meaning of life, involving an ability to think things through.” (Emphasis added).The goal of education should be to promote the full self-realization and potential of every student; to encourage the goal of the person’s ultimate relationship with the universe, as stressed by Abe Maslow; that noted psychologist who died before his time. Self-centeredness must be transcended so the person develops a realization of his position relative to the whole of existence. To properly teach is to draw out of every student the potential wisdom which he or she inherently possesses. Teachers, conditioned by their own inculcated experiences need to be helped (but by whom?) to realize and accept the fact that the child, every child, has a body of universal wisdom at the core of its being, as they themselves do, waiting to “inform” the student who can be helped to make contact with this accumulated body of eternal truths which will vary with each student.EAST AND WEST NEED UNITING:The need in today’s world is to combine the ancient wisdom and spiritual concepts of the East with the intellectual know-how of the West. These two in combination will eventually bring to humanity the needed spiritual love-wisdom for the solving of all human problems.THE NEED FOR PSYCHOLOGICAL REHABILILTATION:Psychological rehabilitation essentially means bringing the individual personality into line with the evolutionary pattern of the Soul; the “God Within.”Every nation as well as each individual has its own Soul or individual psyche which demonstrates as its character or culture. Historical facts and the past conditions of every individual and nation have determined its current relationships; there is a consistent nationalism or selfishness when what is needed is for education to teach the student the need to take self-responsibility, and to grasp the need for a selfless international participation. Every student needs to give serious consideration to his or her “place in the universe.” Every individual and every nation needs to solve its own personality problems, which are mostly self-generated. And behind all human endeavors are a psychological motive and goal. Anyone who can “think truth,” can help to shape public opinion. Educators should be in the vanguard of such “truth thinking.”In the historical East, education was limited to a few outstanding individuals who showed their potential for a deeper understanding of the purpose of all existence while the masses were ignored. This was also true in the West up until rather recently in our history when education was legally required for the masses. Since that time the goal has been to bring every student to a defined standard by which the educational process would supposedly be “fair to all.” Every individual is different, and wise teachers should be sensitive, understanding and attuned to the wide differences of each child under their tutelage. Remember, teachers and caregivers of every description cannot teach their “charges,” what they themselves do not know.In the future when the psychology of the western world catches up to the Esoteric Psychology of the historical East, the universal Law of Birth and Rebirth will be accepted. Such a needed psychology has been in the public domain for over seventy-five years. (See, Esoteric Psychology, Volumes I and II, Alice A. Bailey, Lucis Press, Publishing House of World Good Will Organization, N.Y., London and Geneva, 1937 and 1941.) In these volumes the human Soul and the chakras and the “etheric envelope” through which we distribute our individual energies are discussed in detail; none of which western psychology or education has yet discovered, although there is a dire an desperate need to do so. How can psychology or education teach a human entity when it does not understand the true nature of the “Constitution of Man.” (See, A Textbook of Theosophy, Ch. V, International Theosophical Publishing House, Madras,(now Chennai), Adyar, India, 1927.)In the East reincarnation, which along with karma, the Law of Retribution, or the Law of Cause and Effect, has been readily accepted and applied to each individual student. “What so ever ye sow, so shall you reap,” Saint Paul tells us. We are each on our own previously earned position on the evolutionary arc (back to the House of the Father), and we each have a Soul Age, which must be discovered and accepted by the wise educator. Our soul age determines our readiness for exposure to the world of meaning; the world of Causes behind the world of Effects. Not only should “advanced” students be given special consideration and culturing, the masses should also be exposed to the spiritual idea that our materialistic world is one of Effects; a mere reflection of a higher world of Truth, Beauty and Reality. Religion is not an issue to be considered here. (See, Education In Light of Theosophy, by Annie Besant, Ibid, 1912.)EVOLUTION IS A CONTINUOUS EXPANSION OF CONSCIOUSNESS:The only difference between an earlier world savage and a Savior, like our Christ, is one of an expansion of consciousness. Like the f-stop on a camera the more open the slit the more light comes in. From the Instinct of the savage, we are now at the more advanced human stage of the Intellect. The next expansion of consciousness leads us to Intuition, or Pure Reasoning and Direct Knowledge, which should be the goal of all modern education. All symbolic, indirect knowledge is merely the interpretations of so-called authority figures, and that based upon their own prior educations. (See, From Intellect To Intuition, Alice A. Bailey, Lucis Publishing Company, World Goodwill, N.Y. 1932.)Intuition develops when our consciousness is not hindered or limited by facts of questionable importance, or restricted by a world of sensory empiricism. Truth can never be discovered by a mind imprisoned in a world of Materialism. The pupil must be left free to expand his or her consciousness without interference from anything or anyone outside the inner self of the pupil. There is in truth a Real world behind this limited world we refer to as the materialistic and physical world. It is the goal of every human entity to discover that inner world for him or herself since Truth cannot be communicated; only Self-discovered. The true purpose of education should be to support that effort.CHILDREN GROW FROM WITHIN OUTWARD:Let us take an example from the vegetable kingdom. A plant grows from a seed; it grows from within outwardly when exposed to the proper environment. Every child grows and develops internally, from within outwardly just as a plant does. That is, if given the proper environmental “nutrients.” Education is one of the major “nutrients” for that growth, or at least should be. Correct understanding of the child, a loving attitude and an encouraging environment by the parents are yet other major “nutrients” for the proper blooming of the inner child seed. What incarnates from one life to another is an “Egoic Seed” which needs encouragement and a nutritional environment to flourish and bloom.It goes without saying that correct education proceeds by way of the human mind; an expansion of consciousness. But it is not the relative contents of the educational materials as absorbed by the mind, no matter how stimulating, which should concern educators. It is rather the very process of thinking itself that requires their rapt attention. (See, The Use and Power of Thought, by C.W. Leadbeater, TS, Ibid, 1911.)It needs to be remembered that to inculcate is to trample on the minds of the young with information of relative value, thus keeping buried the very essential truths of life so needed for the living of a peaceful and harmonious existence with one’s fellow beings. There is a real issue here which educators should consider: from whence comes the most reliable and trustworthy knowledge needed to guide humanity toward its ultimate realization? Remember, teachers cannot teach something they do not know themselves. It should also be remembered that it was the East and not the West which has given to humanity all of its outstanding Avatars for Humanity: the Buddha, Zoroaster, Sri Krishna, the Christ, and others. These earlier Eastern founders of our world religions, the Teachers of our human race and their spiritual concepts, reincarnation and karma among others, have remained with humanity for thousands of years whereas the teachings of the West are forever changing and are restricting, limiting, unstable and temporary. Real Truth is immutable, permanent and everlasting. Western concepts limited to a materialistic world are ephemeral, transitory, mutable and restricted to a world conceived of by our empirical senses. Modern western society generally speaking has no idea of the Truth of Life, or the spiritual meaning behind human existence. How many have honestly tried to turn inward and discover their true Being; their spiritual origins? The inner discovery of eternal Truths, Spiritual Truths, should be the ideal of all educators; not only for themselves but for every pupil. The first step to discovering Truth begins with these questions: Who am I, and what is the meaning of Life?The most appealing answer discovered comes from the injunction of theDelphi Oracle: Man, Know Thyself! (Greek=Gnothe Seauton). This implies, of course, an inwardly directed search for a guiding wisdom; one arising from a source deep within the creative wellspring of the individual seeker.CONCLUSION:In conclusion, altruism, universal Brotherhood, peace and goodwill toward others, are internal spiritual ideas stemming from the inherent wisdom amassed through the countless trials and tribulations undergone by the whole of humanity throughout the eons of time. Each individual, searching deep within the self, striving diligently and persistently to truly know thyself will come to discover the same unerring truth. We are all parts of a larger spiritual Whole. There is only one humanity, one Life, one Universal Mind consciousness. We are inseparable and the ideal of separateness held by the western world is perhaps the greatest illusion humanity has imposed upon itself. This one idea has led to more “Inhumanity to man,” continual warfare, and more human misery than any of the many other false ideals humanity as a whole entertains.To behave cruelly toward any portion of the whole is to injure oneself. Our choice regarding peace is quite simple. We survive as one humanity or we destroy the whole. Now, the question is, Why does it take most would-be authority figures so long to discover this fact? Could it perhaps have something to do with the way they were educated- by INCULCATION?The End

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