Removing the bricks from our school walls
Confucius, Buddha, Jesus, Solon, Plato, Socrates, Aesop, Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, Voltaire, John Locke, Thomas Jefferson, Benjamin Franklin, Mahatma Gandhi, Ayn Rand, Ralph Waldo Emerson, Author C. Clarke, Henry David Thoreau, Mark Twain, Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn.
These larger than life characters of our past all have left a striking impact for the betterment of mankind.
Where are the Franklin’s and Jefferson’s of today?
To start the focus of this conversation, the quote below will serve as such.
"Man will ultimately be governed by God or by tyrants." ~ Benjamin Franklin
Edumucation
Nowadays, the question begged to be asked, is at present, "why are there so few men of wisdom amongst mankind?" When one considers that Thomas Jefferson was learned in Philosophy in his early teens and was quoting Solon and Plato, we must stop and consider the lack of advancement in today’s education system.
Should our children not also be as wise and learned at this early age as one of our Founding Fathers? Imagine a Philosophy course in our 1st grade education guidelines.
Shouldn’t that be the time to plant seeds for sowing a creative nature, a disciplined character and affirming a moral guideline for one’s life?
Is truth, philosophy, honor, good judgment and integrity, important to instill into our children’s minds, hearts and souls? Of course it is. Then why is every aspect of every one of these endeavors diminished within the schooling of our children throughout the world?
One has to move their child to a private school to even hope for such an atmosphere to achieve even the slightest of improvement. Parents who are skilled and fortunate enough to provide homeschooling are statistically producing child prodigies so far above that of government education, we can easily see the path for a more enlightened world within this simple understanding.
A critical thinking mind might determine that someone does not want our children to think for themselves, much-less facilitate an education beyond the capacity of an obedient worker.
Critical thinkers are hard to control. That is the simple fact that shadows this conversation at all levels.
Once you know how the world operates, there is no going back. You will realize that we can remedy this elephant in the room, bind the perpetrators and start to move our world into an amazing new future void of any more nefarious agendas.
Systems
After Napoleon defeated the Prussians (Germans) in 1806, it was decided that too many soldiers were not following orders, which in turn caused their defeat. What eventually resulted from this battle was the “Prussian Educational System”, which was developed by the Prussian philosopher Johann Gottlieb Fichte (1762-1814). This system of education is what we have continually developed and improved on. It teaches our children to “Follow Orders”. To be “Obedient to Authority”. “Independent Thinking” and “Critical Thinking” be damned. And here we are 212 years later graduating children onto the world stage, who appear to have the intellect similar to a box of rocks.
If one has a mind for critical thinking that has not yet been destroyed by billions of dollars of quiet efforts to amend such expanse, the “Obvious” might one day reckon itself within ones minds eye, to suddenly alert one’s internal bullshit detector. And then Zap! The sudden realization that you have been had; been played for as a useful idiot, and the fatal realization that you have been wronged within the subjugation of subtle mind control and further through technological means, will have an overwhelming and stunning realization.
One can simply be amazed at arriving at this point in ones journey. A new world awaits the awakened soul. The creative force of mankind’s intelligence and inner being lies in wait, like the potters origin clay.
Connection Issues
Snap.
The powers that be, do not want to hear that sound.
As when your kitchen smoke detector gets set off due to one’s lapse into distraction, and one burns the casserole, the immediate reaction is complete helplessness. The detector is in alarm and will not shut off. Smoke overwhelms the senses.
We all kind of panic in these situations. Upon awakening to the walls of deception. One may feel a similar panic.
The smoke will clear and the alarm will cease.
We will either evolve to an evolved anarchy where we do not need government, or we will digress toward tyranny. The less intelligent and unaware we become, the more certain tyranny and subjugation will reign.
Representative Government is the stop-gap measure as we await to evolve, and only if we remain as Benjamin Franklin suggests; a virtuous and moral people. Franklin suggested this formula would be the only manner in which to keep our new Representative Government.
Trends
What astounds me still, is the amount and degree of awakened minds flourished within the days of our Founding Fathers and as far back as ancient Greece with the Philosopher Solan. Why were these gentlemen so much better educated than we are now at some 250 years to a couple of thousand years in the past?
What path and within what circumstances did these men and women take to awaken their inner wisdom? Was is due to no rules set on their learning?
John F. Kennedy once remarked at a White House dinner for Nobel Prize winners.
“I think this is the most extraordinary collection of talent, of human knowledge, that has ever been gathered together at the White House, with the possible exception of when Thomas Jefferson dined alone. Someone once said that Thomas Jefferson was a gentleman of 32 who could calculate an eclipse, survey an estate, tie an artery, plan an edifice, try a cause, break a horse, and dance the minuet.” ~ John F. Kennedy
Remedy
Starting from scratch with new education guidelines, our intentions would first need to be set. We need to know and desire what we want to be as a species within our cultures and communities.
I might suggest a few desirable traits for our children to have by the age of 14, before the storm of “stupidity” hormones become fully embedded within.
- Understanding right and wrong within the care of civility and morality.
- Becoming a soul of honor and integrity.
- Understanding the value of truth in all things while maintaining a highly developed braking system for the tongue.
- Being studied in historical and modern philosophy.
- Honouring oneself, furthered by the encouragement of others, to follow one’s talents and desires. Developing support systems for each other.
- Being studied and skilled in the nature of effective communication with each other.
- Having a full understanding of the nature of freedom, balanced with responsibility.
- Being studied in the relationship of math to the nature of reality.
- Having a full understanding how our bodies and nature work and how to properly nurture and care for ourselves and our surroundings.
- Having a highly developed understanding of man’s past and not his-story.
In reference to #10 above, At the end of a kings reign, the king was endowed with the ability to write his version of how events during his time on the throne passed through time. This was His-story, which later became “history”. Fortunately we have multiple accounts of our past, as to compare to any “official” versions.
Distractions
The above (10) desired attributes are worth so much more to humanity than “New Math” skills, or verb conjugation. We will probably need to balance the training of the mind through repetition, with deeper and more logical thinking.
If a parent desires the attributes listed above for their children, they must fully understand the many and varied blatant distractions that abound to compete for your kids attention. Television would be one of these distractions that one would have to maintain strict limitations.
It has been maintained that saying “No” to something a child desires, must be completed with a response that expresses logic and reasoning while leaving their child’s senses nurtured and fulfilled. The “Because I Said So” line is quite damaging and helps develop a latent sense of rebellion.
Farm Schooling
Setting education as one of the main priorities will demand that we attract top minds throughout the world to come be with our progress for our K-12 age groups and to also set up new standards for our College program.
Our College will not produce minds for meaningless careers. We envision this to be more than just a turning point for higher education.
A new economic vision will become manifest in parallel, as we map our new horizons in the way we live our lives. Independence in home and land ownership that stays in the family, generation after generation will be key to the foundation and security of the new system. Food production and energy independence will be the twin.
We envision seeing teen’s discussing philosophy around the fire on a brisk October evening and then charting the movements of the heavens while God’s little lanterns twinkle on and off in the evenings sky. Boys and Girls will progress through their Rites of Passage studies to pass from teen to full-fledge Men and Women. I can even see Courtship coming back in fashion!
We will sincerely take care of each other and have no need or reason to develop systems to remedy anyone that may become in need of external support.
To end this writing, Benjamin Franklin’s point to the Continental Congress, provides the perfect note.
"Only a virtuous people are capable of freedom. As nations become corrupt and vicious, they have more need of masters."
"Whereas true religion and good morals are the only solid foundations of public liberty and happiness . . . it is hereby earnestly recommended to the several States to take the most effectual measures for the encouragement thereof."
Benjamin Franklin ~ Continental Congress, 1778
And encourage thereof we will Mr. Franklin.