Push beyond!

An exciting time to be in education

It is truly an exciting time to be involved in education.  The world is changing and the institutions which were important guides and actors in the past can no longer be relied upon (e.g., religion, politics) to lead the way.  Young people can no longer just follow, they must themselves be creative.

It is education that can encourage the full and healthy development of every child to do this.

In consciousness development, it is likely that unconstrained, many young people will exceed the levels of development achieved by their parents’ generation.  This is as it must be if we are to build the capabilities to face up to the existential problems that the world faces.

To develop in this way, young people need, at a minimum, not to be held back and at best, encouraged to grow and develop beyond their teachers.

It is teachers who either restrain or support this growth.  To weaken restraints and to increase support teachers themselves must develop their practice.

This is not about curriculum, or pedagogy, this is about the nature of relationships that they have with their students.  Relationships that can recognise when a student is pushing against their own internal limits and needs the support of an adult to move into, what is for them, a new world with new perspectives and capabilities.

The whole idea of 21st century skills is pushing in this direction - these skills need developments in student capabilities that our education systems were never designed to provide.

It is people who can provide the support for these developments.  To do so, they themselves must develop.

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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