Education: Imagine all the endless possibilities

The above title comes from young Patrick Camacho of Kagman Elementary School as the theme for the upcoming Education Day celebration in November. Elementary grade students are now writing essays on the theme that will be read during the day. An unrepentant practitioner of redundancy myself, we shall spare Patrick any comments regarding the scope of the all-encompassing phrase—”all the endless.” Suffice to say that if we are to err at all in our views of education, it would be on the side of excess of possibilities rather than being mired in the inhibiting sinkholes of our limits.

Education is, of course, every politician’s favorite zone of platitudes. It is like motherhood and apple pie. It would be un-American not to approve of it. Lately, it seems like politicians are stumbling over each other trying to appear supportive of the administration of the Commonwealth’s public education program.

We might recall that the task of education is universal. It is a part of the human process. It is about appropriating the wisdom of the past, enlarging our recollection and memory so that we can understand what had gone before. We seek to be enlightened on how and why we got to where we are. Then we look forward, anticipating what is yet to come. We discern patterns and trends, we extrapolate from previous experiences to glean how tomorrow may be planned with the instructive assistance of previous learnings.

The past, however, does not come as inert knowledge simply to be absorbed. It is an object of much shifting, of analysis and of imaginative reconstruction. No longer are verities eternal. The articulation of truth does not remain constant but rather it is understood to be shaped by the eye of the beholder. The organic nature of accumulated knowledge renders learning to be an exercise more in statistical probability rather than discovering solid chunks of neatly packaged and beribboned wisdom. Nor does the future beckon as determined fate and destiny. It is rather an allure, a come-on to human choice. The promise the future holds is the promise that the present chooses to keep.

Thus, in school we sharpen the practices of memory and recollection, the tools of precision and exact measurements, and the critical discernment of process and patterns. But more than teaching by benchmarks and standards, pedagogy is a continuing eruption of individual human consciousness, of the depth, the breath and the height inherent in every moment. Being aware of the context in which learning occurs is infinitely more valuable than recalling what had been learned by previous generations. It is the endless possibilities of every moment that is indeed the pillar of education.

I digress to offer a lecture. Innovative learning happens when a “paradigm shift” occurs, when the image of people’s operating “common sense” changes. This paradigm shift is a change in the popular “big picture” or the commonly accepted fundamental perspective, e.g., from the “flat earth” to the spherical planet picture. A paradigm shift involves changes in images of the WORLD (for now, confined to this planet), of SOCIETY (in our time, of people on the move and congregating in urban centers), and of the SELF (every person mired in the rapid alienation from familiar comforts and securities, and confronted by the awe and the mystery of every persons’ solitary existence).

Here are my pedagogical assumptions. People live out of images. They have pictures of themselves and their world. Images determine behavior. People base their decisions and action on their present operating images. Images change. People’s images are impacted daily. Images change through appropriated messages. When people receive messages which MAKE SENSE out of their experiences, their operating images change. When images change, behavior changes. Those who undertake strategic planning, especially in the social sector, understands this evolutionary process. When intentionally accelerated, swift, rapid, and radical change occurs. Here lies the secret of revolutions.

It is then the first task of learning to discern and objectify people’s operating images in order to work with them effectively. We inherit our operating images from our traditions and cultures. To paraphrase what was said of old, the unexamined operating image is not worth using. Further, no two learners are alike. The individual learns, not the class. Human psychology posits that decisions are generally made without accompanying awareness of underlying roots or reasons. Daily consciousness skates above a chaotic morass we conveniently dub the subconscious and the unconscious. That is why a paradigm shift invariably occurs as a jolt, an assault, an affront to orthodox thought.

We understand that no one can control the images of another person, but it is possible to develop awareness of existing images and to enhance the sensitivity to alternative ones. For effective learning, alternative images have to be demonstrated. They have to be shown, tasted, smelled, touched, heard, and relished as such. Image change happens as a result of the intruding impact of “messages.”

Since the Renaissance and the Enlightenment, human knowledge has sought to create images of WHAT IS. The emphases are on sense experience, emotional relevance, cognitive clarity and willful acts of freedom. This is maintenance learning with the accompany skills that are taught of analysis and adaptation. Innovative learning inquires and investigates WHAT CAN BE. The key learned skills are anticipation and participation—of discovery, invention and creation. Effective educational programs utilize both maintenance and innovative learning.

We ask that our students cogitate on the above Education Day theme. Maybe we should require each teacher to do likewise, and submit them for peer consumption.