This post will present the main points of constructive education. In any healthy system, some basic points are established for the sake of creating an strong base for future growth. It is not different when approaching the subject of education. These points are crucial, they establish some foundation for the new system. Moreover, they allow transparency as they give the tool needed for any person to understand the status of his current system.
The points below are some general points written under the principal of constructive education. These points do not reflect an educational system, but the ideas that should stand behind it. As different societies in the world have different ways to pass information to each other, a custom educational system should be built based on the habits and norms of the local population.
- Words exist to express reality, never the opposite. By creating a reality based on words, a lack of healthy communication will arise which will bring fear, separation, and loneliness.
- The collective, as a whole, is always problematic as it is a conceptual invention. For a better society, the individual should be educated as an individual and then as a part of a realistic group. (which do not imply a personal teacher for each student)
- Knowledge is a positive power only when it comes out of peacefulness. Change is a positive thing that should be encouraged and not feared. Knowledge is positive only if an individual or a group uses it for the benefit of the future generations.
- A person is better doing one simple task at a time. A complicated task is complex for an individual if the person didn’t master the simple tasks separately before putting it together, or if a person lacks the understanding of the task itself.
- The best way to optimize an individual and a society is to outsource everything that is not the core activity of an individual, while keeping an active part in the creation process.
- Core activities of an individual are the activities an individual like naturally, feels comfortable doing for long periods, creates an intellectual sense of existence, and those are easily understood in the individual’s mind.
- There are 10 basic principles of life:
- Know yourself as you are.
- Be an example of your demands.
- Respect your surroundings as you ask to be respected.
- Take the time to understand.
- Accept opinions as they are all part of the same reality.
- Embrace the needs of your society as they are your own.
- Strive to be the best version of yourself.
- Encourage love and understanding.
- Ask to learn and learn to ask.
- Accept failure as it’s a part of learning and success.
- To help people, an individual must focus on people’s needs and dreams, not on his own.
- The educational system should lead the individual not to compare themselves to what they think they should be, but to what they were yesterday.
- A person must know how to make decisions based on their own inner true, but should live by making as few decisions as possible.
- Positive productivity means creating better quality, not creating more. For positive productivity, time and peacefulness are required.
It is important to remember when approaching the idea of education, that its purpose to enrich the students perspective, give them better tool to handle with the life and make them better in the field they are trying to learn. As Alan Watts said – “The reward of learning french should be the capacity to enjoy their culture and people, not to holding a certificate”.
The capacity of each individual is unique as his interest in specific fields. A constructive educational system, should be aware of this reality and understand that creating a program that works on an average speed and on a general field of interest, could in many cases not be in the right speed for any specific individual seating in a class room. I call this trap – “the absurdity of the average system”. As it is complicated to fulfill the need of many individuals, coming from the same culture, sharing the same age. It will be impossible to to so on a Global scale.
Based on these points, a constructive educational system should be based on general guidelines and not on a specific detailed program. As humans, we are all the same and simultaneously all unique. Diversity is and will always be the key for progress, we should cherish it instead of fight it and fear it. This is what education is all about.
In my book “back to ourselves” I develop a deep conversation regarding the ideas of “Constructive Education” and show the different between the current education, which I call ” depressive education” and the one I believe should be developed for the sake of creating a better future for our children’s.
Share with me your thoughts, open conversation an awareness are the key for the creation of a better future.