Do the right thing!

Not cogs, real people

The shift that is taking place in the world is long overdue yet, is only slowly gaining momentum.

For too long people have been treated as cogs in a machine to be forced to fit in and be valued based on how well they perform their work, on doing things right, with that value being reduced relentlessly over time.

Yet, rather than being cogs, people are rich, deep, complex beings where thought and emotion – head and heart - cannot be healthily separated, where doing the right thing is as important as doing things right and doing the right thing benefits everyone.

For two centuries, education has been the way society replicates itself and inculcates the ideas that we are just cogs in a machine.Every new generation must be taught to act unnaturally, to satisfy this vision of society.

Yet, if we stopped doing this, how long would it take for healthier habits to take hold?  Of course, this is happening already.  Young people today are less repressed by their schooling than the generation before but what many are still lacking is the resilience to resist the new methods of control that modern technologies can bring to bear that equally diminish free will and replace it with anxious crowd-following.

Education can and is reducing its traditional role of limiting free will but must replace it with actively supporting autonomy and resilience and both, paradoxically, are born out of strong reciprocal relationships.

We value ourselves fully, when we are fully valued by others.  We grow healthily when we are in deep, reciprocal connection with others.

Schools that seek sustainable growth in student learning and outcomes are moving in this direction, seeking to build these connections among their staff.

 John Corrigan is an expert in helping individuals to bring their whole of mind to their daily life and increase their effectiveness and the effectiveness of those around them. This expertise scales from the individual to the team to the organisation. At the core of this work is the practice of encounter.  Earlier blogs can be found here.

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