Shaping a Person
Great People
Don’t we know what makes a great person?
Or do we?
It seems obvious that we want them to be kind, reflective, capable, self sufficient, self reliant, contemplative, thoughtful, hopeful, balanced, capable of self control, and other such things that almost anyone could rattle off quickly because - yes - we generally know what makes a good person.
Knowing vs Being
We make schools to make sure kids know things, instead of be things. We make them capable of knowing without having any capacity for being. In this way, we teach them that their knowledge is void of any meaning except to produce in this world. To create and become a commodity for the market and find their own way to being. If we teach them that being and knowing should be in balance, then we teach them that their knowing and their being are interrelated. What you know, changes who you are, how you see the world, and how you navigate in it. Who you are changes what you want to know, what it means to you, and how you might use that knowledge in the world. That’s an important realization for the self and an important one for any one seeking to educate themselves or others. Knowledge shapes being and being shapes knowledge.
One may exist in a blind and unaware state of existence, a distorted and disturbed existence, or even a nightmarish and horrifying existence. Doling out knowledge to people in these states without caring for their capacity to improve their state of being seems extremely reckless. That's how so many Hollywood villains are created! A purposeless or meaningless entity with a strong skill set is actually really dangerous.
The Cult of Being
There is no need to indoctrinate into a cult or a religion to offer students daily access to a physical regimen for the health of their body, an eating and food preparation habit for balancing their chemistry and providing sound nutrition, the cultivation of gratitude to give them an opportunity for positive outlook, a meditation practice to offer freedom from the chattering mind and distance from controlling thoughts, a social experience that allows life’s struggles to be shared with a network of friends and compatriots, a block of free time to explore their own ideas, a battery of academic drills to ensure mastery of fundamental skills and knowledge, and community planning for instilling a concept of civic duty and self actualization within the society.
It seems we literally do one of those and judge kids relatively harshly if they don’t master that one aspect of life quickly and completely. We compare them to others. We grind their hearts away day after day, week after week, semester after semester, and year upon year with two decades of meaningless work for meaningless and distant rewards. If you doubt the harshness of it, consider the grade level within which a child's entire trajectory in the study of mathematics is determined. In the district my children attended, it was 7th grade. That means, that when you are about 12, you have been placed on a track that will - with no exaggeration - partly determine your path through HS, the other students you get to commiserate with, the perception colleges might have of you as a student, which, in turn may influence the type of work you do for the rest of your life. Is it 100% deterministic? No, but I've watched kids go through that system year after year for 15 years - it is highly influential.
Being and Being Decent
What if the whole experience meant something to them? What if they didn’t ever get to know trigonometry or chemistry aside from a few basic ideas but they meditated and exercised every day to keep fit and reflective. They cared for what they ate because they cared about their bodies. They played music with friends in a band, they cooked with family and friends, and they shot pool with their buddies at lunch time in the student lounge? Imagine that they make money driving a train and love train and railroad history and lore but they feel accomplished and whole. On what planet does that person sound like a failure? Every day, students are made to feel, day in and day out, that they are not good enough because we are only measuring them in one thing. It's true that many students in their k12 careers might take a home economics course or a shop class and will be required to take physical education. But are those the grades that count toward the goal all students are being pushed towards? In our world, we cultivate efforts driven toward ends. They work toward a grade rather than working toward understanding or mastery. If you doubt this, ask students how they feel about various classes and then cross reference that with their grades. The pattern will be clear. Of course there will be anomalies but the pattern will be clear. The grade is what is important in schools and that is the beginning of the downfall of almost everything we actually value in a good person. It is the commodification of priceless things.
What type of culture have we cultivated? Or better yet, what type of culture would we like to cultivate?
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