Post by Stefan Pasti on May 26, 2012 16:16:57 GMT -5
A. From Section “The Importance of “What Gets Passed On to Future Generations as ‘Cultural Norms’” in the 8 page introduction to the IPCR document “A Multi-Angle View of the Debt Crises”
(8 page introduction at www.ipcri.net/Introduction_to_Multi_Angle_View_of_Debt_Crises.pdf )
Sections II-VI (92 pages) provide some historical background, and provide evidence for some of the many challenges we now face. These sections may help readers understand that “what gets passed on to future generations as ‘cultural norms’” is an important part of the current “Debt Crises”. These five sections are titled: “Ghosts of Capitalism Past”; “The United States—and ‘Implicit Legitimation’”; “Cultures of Violence, Greed, Corruption, and Overindulgence”; “Other Challenges Which Are Part of This Writer’s Ten Point List (see Appendix A) and Which Need to be Resolved as Part of a Sustainable Solution to the Current Debt Crises”; and “Four Summaries of Critical Challenges Ahead”.
The evidence in these sections suggest that many of the issues which have resulted in the debt crises (and many other critical challenges) are problems which are at the very core of our difficulties with being human beings…and thus will require much more than the usual amount of problem solving, if we are to “change course”. The debts owed are not just monetary. The debts owed include the quantity of human effort which will needed in the future to remedy the destructive consequences of the tragic moral lapses in the past—and the destructive consequences of tragic moral lapses in our present circumstances.
People who believe that because they have no conscience there are no after-effects and consequences associated with their actions are disconnected from the reality of “what gets passed on to future generations as ‘cultural norms’”. People in the generations now alive on this planet have received (as our inheritance from previous generations) ideas about “cultural norms”—a “package” which includes many ideas which in reality have counter-productive, harmful, or even crippling effects on efforts to support and maintain the “greater good of the whole”. We are finding that out “big time” in our current circumstances. There are many danger signs flashing now. More and more people are coming to the realization that overcoming the challenges of our times will require problem solving on a scale most of us have never known before—and that there is an urgent need to restructure our economic systems and our education systems to respond to these challenges.
B. From Section A. “What do we want our education systems to do?”
[from “A Multi-Angle View of the Debt Crises” (p. 8-10)]
(at www.ipcri.net/A_Multi-Angle_View_of_the_Debt_Crises.pdf )
In times when people are trying to resolve multiple crises, it will be most helpful to make ongoing re-evaluations of education systems, to see if they are serving communities as well as they can. It will also be most helpful if a majority of the residents in a particular community or region understand how many different ways education occurs in our complex world—as once this is understood, efforts can be made to make better use of such pathways.
Here, in the beginning section of this document, some definitions, observations, and sample evaluation questions are offered, as a way of providing some insight into—and encouraging some careful thinking about—the relationships between our “world views” and our education systems. A central focus of The IPCR Initiative is its advocacy for a combination Community Visioning Initiatives, "Community Teaching and Learning Centers" with ongoing workshops, and "sister community" relationships as a way of generating an exponential increase in our collective capacity to overcome the challenges of our times. This kind of “constellation of initiatives” approach to identifying challenges and accelerating solution-oriented activity can be utilized by communities of people to revitalize an existing “world view” and its corresponding education systems—or to re-evaluate an existing “world view”, by building consensus for a “culturally acknowledged” set of challenges and solutions which are more appropriate to our current circumstances.
The five definitions below are offered as starting points for thinking about the relationships between our “world views” and our education systems. These starting points may help readers think of definitions and premises which relate more closely to their “world view”. The key point here is to encourage careful thinking about the relationships between our “world views” and our education systems—and to encourage careful thinking about the question “Are our education systems doing what we would like them to do?”
This writer believes that there are many difficult challenges ahead (see Appendix A), and that we will need problem solving on a scale most of us have never known before for many years into the foreseeable future. Thus, he believes it is a time to use a “constellation of initiatives” approach (details of The IPCR Initiative “constellation of initiatives” approach are provided in Appedices C-H) to re-evaluate our existing “world views”, to build consensus for a “culturally acknowledged” set of challenges and solutions which are more appropriate to our current circumstances, and to re-create our education systems (economic systems, etc.) in ways which are more appropriate to overcoming the challenges of the times.
Here are five definitions, which are offered as starting points for thinking about the relationships between our “world views” and our education systems:
1) By this writer, with ideas (and one partial quote) from article “Moral and Value Conflicts” by Michelle Maiese (July, 2003) (see paragraph 3) (see www.beyondintractability.org/bi-essay/intolerable-moral-differences ) Michelle Maiese (see knowledge based essay "Moral or Value Conflicts", paragraph 3) The Beyond Intractability Knowledge Base Project is “A Free Knowledge Base on More Constructive Approaches to Destructive Conflict “, and is affiliated with the University of Colorado, Colorado (USA) Guy Burgess and Heidi Burgess, CoDirectors and Editors c/o Conflict Information Consortium (Formerly Conflict Research Consortium)
As young children grow into adults, the everyday circumstances of community life and cultural traditions provide “frameworks” by which they “understand their experiences and make judgments about what is valuable and important”. These “frameworks” shape the way people come into contact with each other, and the way they interpret facts, issues, and events—and provide the context by which people decide what are appropriate responses to the circumstances of their lives. These “frameworks” are often the source of a person’s thoughts about who they are, how they feel about themselves, how they evaluate other peoples “frameworks”, and how other people might evaluate their “framework”.
2) From “General Education in a Free Society” by The Harvard Committee, 1945 in “American Higher Education Transformed, 1940-2005: Documenting the National Discourse” Eds. Wilson Smith and Thomas Bender Johns Hopkins University Press Baltimore, Maryland 2008 Selections from “The Harvard Report” on p. 14-20 (Excerpt is from p. 20) Editor’s introduction to “The Harvard Report”, which may also be of interest to readers, begins “The dominant curricular statement of James Bryant Conant’s presidency of Harvard University (1933-53)….” (excerpt accessible through “search in book” for phrase “truths which none can be free to ignore” in google books limited preview of “American Higher Education Transformed….”)
“… there are truths which none can be free to ignore, if one is to have that wisdom through which life can becomes useful. These are the truths concerning the structures of the good life and concerning the factual conditions by which it may be achieved….”
3) From “Democracy and Education: An Introduction to the Philosophy of Education” by John Dewey New York The Macmillan Company 1916 (p. 24) (whole text accessible through google books) (confirmed October 20, 2009)
“… it is the business of the school environment to eliminate, so far as possible, the unworthy features of the existing environment from influence on mental habitudes…. Every society gets encumbered with what is trivial, with dead wood from the past, and with what is positively perverse. The school has the duty of omitting such things from the environment which it supplies, and thereby doing what it can to counteract their influence in the ordinary social environment. By selecting the best for its exclusive use, it strives to reinforce the power of the best. As a society becomes more enlightened, it realizes that it is responsible not to transmit and conserve the whole of its existing achievements, but only such as to make for a better future society. The school is its chief agency for the accomplishment of this end.”
4) From the Catholic Encyclopedia entry on Education (section at the beginning subtitled “Education: In General”) (at www.newadvent.org/cathen/05295b.htm ) (see paragraph 1). (Note: Could not identify which edition of the Catholic Encyclopedia this source represented; thus cannot identify editors
or publisher.) (confirmed April 3, 2011)
“The meaning of life, therefore, of its purposes and values as understood by the educator, primarily determines the nature of his work. Education aims at an ideal, and this in turn depends on the view that is taken of man and his destiny, of his relations to God, to his fellowmen, and to the physical world. The content of education is furnished by the previous acquisition of mankind in literature, art, and science, in moral, social, and religious principles. The inheritance, however, contains elements that differ greatly in value, both as mental possessions and as means of culture; hence a selection is necessary, and this must be guided largely by the educational ideal.”
5) From “Why the Village Movement?” by J.C. Kumarappa The edition this writer has includes the 1939 edition foreword by Mahatma Gandhi, and was printed on handmade paper in Rajchat, Kashi in 1960 [Excerpt a) is from p. 65; excerpt b) is from p. 183]
a) “Work absorbs most of our waking hours, and many of the problems connected with work and our dealings with our fellow man are what determine the nature of our life. Therefore, it behooves us to sit up and take note of what our work makes of us….”
b) “The function of work should be to practice our ideal of life.”
(8 page introduction at www.ipcri.net/Introduction_to_Multi_Angle_View_of_Debt_Crises.pdf )
Sections II-VI (92 pages) provide some historical background, and provide evidence for some of the many challenges we now face. These sections may help readers understand that “what gets passed on to future generations as ‘cultural norms’” is an important part of the current “Debt Crises”. These five sections are titled: “Ghosts of Capitalism Past”; “The United States—and ‘Implicit Legitimation’”; “Cultures of Violence, Greed, Corruption, and Overindulgence”; “Other Challenges Which Are Part of This Writer’s Ten Point List (see Appendix A) and Which Need to be Resolved as Part of a Sustainable Solution to the Current Debt Crises”; and “Four Summaries of Critical Challenges Ahead”.
The evidence in these sections suggest that many of the issues which have resulted in the debt crises (and many other critical challenges) are problems which are at the very core of our difficulties with being human beings…and thus will require much more than the usual amount of problem solving, if we are to “change course”. The debts owed are not just monetary. The debts owed include the quantity of human effort which will needed in the future to remedy the destructive consequences of the tragic moral lapses in the past—and the destructive consequences of tragic moral lapses in our present circumstances.
People who believe that because they have no conscience there are no after-effects and consequences associated with their actions are disconnected from the reality of “what gets passed on to future generations as ‘cultural norms’”. People in the generations now alive on this planet have received (as our inheritance from previous generations) ideas about “cultural norms”—a “package” which includes many ideas which in reality have counter-productive, harmful, or even crippling effects on efforts to support and maintain the “greater good of the whole”. We are finding that out “big time” in our current circumstances. There are many danger signs flashing now. More and more people are coming to the realization that overcoming the challenges of our times will require problem solving on a scale most of us have never known before—and that there is an urgent need to restructure our economic systems and our education systems to respond to these challenges.
B. From Section A. “What do we want our education systems to do?”
[from “A Multi-Angle View of the Debt Crises” (p. 8-10)]
(at www.ipcri.net/A_Multi-Angle_View_of_the_Debt_Crises.pdf )
In times when people are trying to resolve multiple crises, it will be most helpful to make ongoing re-evaluations of education systems, to see if they are serving communities as well as they can. It will also be most helpful if a majority of the residents in a particular community or region understand how many different ways education occurs in our complex world—as once this is understood, efforts can be made to make better use of such pathways.
Here, in the beginning section of this document, some definitions, observations, and sample evaluation questions are offered, as a way of providing some insight into—and encouraging some careful thinking about—the relationships between our “world views” and our education systems. A central focus of The IPCR Initiative is its advocacy for a combination Community Visioning Initiatives, "Community Teaching and Learning Centers" with ongoing workshops, and "sister community" relationships as a way of generating an exponential increase in our collective capacity to overcome the challenges of our times. This kind of “constellation of initiatives” approach to identifying challenges and accelerating solution-oriented activity can be utilized by communities of people to revitalize an existing “world view” and its corresponding education systems—or to re-evaluate an existing “world view”, by building consensus for a “culturally acknowledged” set of challenges and solutions which are more appropriate to our current circumstances.
The five definitions below are offered as starting points for thinking about the relationships between our “world views” and our education systems. These starting points may help readers think of definitions and premises which relate more closely to their “world view”. The key point here is to encourage careful thinking about the relationships between our “world views” and our education systems—and to encourage careful thinking about the question “Are our education systems doing what we would like them to do?”
This writer believes that there are many difficult challenges ahead (see Appendix A), and that we will need problem solving on a scale most of us have never known before for many years into the foreseeable future. Thus, he believes it is a time to use a “constellation of initiatives” approach (details of The IPCR Initiative “constellation of initiatives” approach are provided in Appedices C-H) to re-evaluate our existing “world views”, to build consensus for a “culturally acknowledged” set of challenges and solutions which are more appropriate to our current circumstances, and to re-create our education systems (economic systems, etc.) in ways which are more appropriate to overcoming the challenges of the times.
Here are five definitions, which are offered as starting points for thinking about the relationships between our “world views” and our education systems:
1) By this writer, with ideas (and one partial quote) from article “Moral and Value Conflicts” by Michelle Maiese (July, 2003) (see paragraph 3) (see www.beyondintractability.org/bi-essay/intolerable-moral-differences ) Michelle Maiese (see knowledge based essay "Moral or Value Conflicts", paragraph 3) The Beyond Intractability Knowledge Base Project is “A Free Knowledge Base on More Constructive Approaches to Destructive Conflict “, and is affiliated with the University of Colorado, Colorado (USA) Guy Burgess and Heidi Burgess, CoDirectors and Editors c/o Conflict Information Consortium (Formerly Conflict Research Consortium)
As young children grow into adults, the everyday circumstances of community life and cultural traditions provide “frameworks” by which they “understand their experiences and make judgments about what is valuable and important”. These “frameworks” shape the way people come into contact with each other, and the way they interpret facts, issues, and events—and provide the context by which people decide what are appropriate responses to the circumstances of their lives. These “frameworks” are often the source of a person’s thoughts about who they are, how they feel about themselves, how they evaluate other peoples “frameworks”, and how other people might evaluate their “framework”.
2) From “General Education in a Free Society” by The Harvard Committee, 1945 in “American Higher Education Transformed, 1940-2005: Documenting the National Discourse” Eds. Wilson Smith and Thomas Bender Johns Hopkins University Press Baltimore, Maryland 2008 Selections from “The Harvard Report” on p. 14-20 (Excerpt is from p. 20) Editor’s introduction to “The Harvard Report”, which may also be of interest to readers, begins “The dominant curricular statement of James Bryant Conant’s presidency of Harvard University (1933-53)….” (excerpt accessible through “search in book” for phrase “truths which none can be free to ignore” in google books limited preview of “American Higher Education Transformed….”)
“… there are truths which none can be free to ignore, if one is to have that wisdom through which life can becomes useful. These are the truths concerning the structures of the good life and concerning the factual conditions by which it may be achieved….”
3) From “Democracy and Education: An Introduction to the Philosophy of Education” by John Dewey New York The Macmillan Company 1916 (p. 24) (whole text accessible through google books) (confirmed October 20, 2009)
“… it is the business of the school environment to eliminate, so far as possible, the unworthy features of the existing environment from influence on mental habitudes…. Every society gets encumbered with what is trivial, with dead wood from the past, and with what is positively perverse. The school has the duty of omitting such things from the environment which it supplies, and thereby doing what it can to counteract their influence in the ordinary social environment. By selecting the best for its exclusive use, it strives to reinforce the power of the best. As a society becomes more enlightened, it realizes that it is responsible not to transmit and conserve the whole of its existing achievements, but only such as to make for a better future society. The school is its chief agency for the accomplishment of this end.”
4) From the Catholic Encyclopedia entry on Education (section at the beginning subtitled “Education: In General”) (at www.newadvent.org/cathen/05295b.htm ) (see paragraph 1). (Note: Could not identify which edition of the Catholic Encyclopedia this source represented; thus cannot identify editors
or publisher.) (confirmed April 3, 2011)
“The meaning of life, therefore, of its purposes and values as understood by the educator, primarily determines the nature of his work. Education aims at an ideal, and this in turn depends on the view that is taken of man and his destiny, of his relations to God, to his fellowmen, and to the physical world. The content of education is furnished by the previous acquisition of mankind in literature, art, and science, in moral, social, and religious principles. The inheritance, however, contains elements that differ greatly in value, both as mental possessions and as means of culture; hence a selection is necessary, and this must be guided largely by the educational ideal.”
5) From “Why the Village Movement?” by J.C. Kumarappa The edition this writer has includes the 1939 edition foreword by Mahatma Gandhi, and was printed on handmade paper in Rajchat, Kashi in 1960 [Excerpt a) is from p. 65; excerpt b) is from p. 183]
a) “Work absorbs most of our waking hours, and many of the problems connected with work and our dealings with our fellow man are what determine the nature of our life. Therefore, it behooves us to sit up and take note of what our work makes of us….”
b) “The function of work should be to practice our ideal of life.”