What If We Can Re-Humanize School Again?

It all starts with a focus on the human being.

I want to start this article by asking a question: “When you think about the educational system, what is the first word that comes to your mind?”

School? Uniformity? Conventionality? Teachers? Discipline? Control? Sustainability? Learning? Knowledge? Efficiency? Homework? Pressure? Exams? Degrees? College? Fees? Limiting? Broken?

Those were the answers in my first circle. The last attribute broke my heart, but it speaks so much truth.

I am guessing that like all my friends living on several continents, not one of you would have thought to use the words freedom, empowerment, pleasure, passion, creativity, happiness, balance, and leadership as frequently as those in the aforementioned group.

People who are scripted deeply in logical, verbal, and left-brain thinking will discover how inadequate that thinking is in solving problems that require a great deal of creativity. They become aware and begin to open up a new script inside their right brain. It is not that the right brain wasn’t there; it just lay dormant. We haven’t been developing the muscles, or perhaps they had atrophied after early childhood because of the heavy left-brain emphasis of formal education or social scripting. ~ Stephen Covey

What about starting from the very beginning? Sounds like a wise plan, right?

This educational system I am imagining will be effective only if we raise kids in a healthy family system. We need to understand that human beings do not have access to consciousness until their 7th year.

“Come on, Myriam! You must be kidding me!”

I’m afraid I’m not. If you need to blame someone here, it will be the brilliant Epigenetics expert Dr. Bruce Lipton who stipulated the following:

The program we acquired in the first six years shapes how we live our life. From the first two years before birth to the first two years, we are in the lowest frequency called “Delta”. For an adult, Delta is like sleeping or being unconscious. For a child, it is like being behind a window watching the world but can’t respond. From two to six, there’s a higher activity called “Theta”. When we’re in Theta, it’s like imagination. That’s why children between two and six mix the real world and the imaginary world in their play. When the child gets to 6, another level starts called “Alpha” which is calm consciousness. When the child reaches 12, s/he can express all the ranges from “Delta”, “Theta”, “Alpha”, and this is like schoolroom consciousness called “Beta”. The most vital point is that consciousness, the way we think consciousness, is not available to the child until after 6! The first six years are the programmable state. Whatever goes in the first six years is the first structure in the subconscious mind. This period of our life is where we learn the fundamentals of relationships, connections, family, and community.

Pre-requisites of the educational system

Armed with such information, how would we, as parents/caregivers, be able to raise the free spirits who would thrive in this new educational system?

Pssst… It’s all about positive communication patterns.

• Elevating them instead of criticizing them
• Actively listening to them helps them avoid developing a narrow range of thinking
• Being consistent in terms of showing affection. Loving them unconditionally, so that they feel emotionally safe, given space to create, and stay connected to their inner passions
• Celebrating them and being their cheerleaders — even when we could be worried about the future of those passions — instead of limiting them with the “success” social lens
• Teaching them the value of giving, being empathetic to others, and reinforcement of their efforts
• Teaching them responsible behaviors by letting them make their own choices; empowering them to do so; and making sure to take note of the good things they do
• Reminding them daily that their worth is intrinsic and only depends on who they are as a person. They need to get the message that they will never have to prove their worth to anyone, but that they can aspire to grow and become better from day to day. The only person they would need to compare themselves to would be the person they were yesterday. We call this behavior the “Abundance Mentality”!
• Raising them in alignment with the principles — namely respect, fairness, integrity & honesty, human dignity, abundance mentality, service, quality or excellence, potential, etc…

So where does the educational system fit into all of this?

All the schools are pretty much the same

When your neighbor asks you, “Which school will your children be going to?” your answer will typically revolve around the proximity to home, and maybe grade rank amongst other schools in the area.

A reformed educational system based on the fundamental principles of relationship building, consideration, and integrity could make the neighborly chat over the fence an entirely different conversation.

There would be no need to plan your residence area depending on your search for the most suitable school.

We need to represent the fairness principle carefully. Similar educators’ qualifications. Similar educational means. Similar pedagogy, etc. What is that supposed to create?

Nurturing the kids’ core values which have been vehiculated to them by their caregivers. Observing the alignment between what they were told and its execution in their schools is creating a sort of faith in the world’s goodness!

Primary school: No official educational program

The teachers would be, most importantly, highly qualified in terms of child psychology, and have the highest level of Emotional Intelligence.

They would build the program with the students based on their interests and passions. The learning methodology would be 100% interactive — mostly based on games.

After diagnosing the different students’ strengths, the teachers could divide the kids into heterogeneous groups and plan workshops where the talent of every student would be required.

What is this strategy aiming to create? Not only learning to work as a team from a very early age but also nurturing the feeling of being able to make an impact.

No single kid would feel the pressure of comparing oneself to another one; simply because everyone has something different to offer to the rest of the group!

Middle school

After having collected all the unofficial educational programs from all the primary schools and consolidating them, the secondary school would have an official program inspired by the kids themselves and centered on their passions and interests.

To emphasize again the fairness principle, all the taught subjects need to have the same weighting. Physics is not more important than Music in any case. We equally need both of them to create a balanced world.

There would be exams, but using different logic. There would be no ranking. The grading scale varies between 0 and 10 for each subject. Each student would be rated on each subject separately.

No shows, no resentment, no pressure, or the need to compare themselves to each other!

The only purpose of the rating is to have a global picture of the different tendencies educational decision-makers may use. Also, confirming the strengths areas for the students to work on raising the quality effectively.

High school

Now that the tendencies are clear for each student, the scholar orientation would be chosen naturally.

There would be more knowledge of the material. Still, self-development and curiosity to complete the school input would be highly encouraged.

For the final grade giving college access, there would be ranking.

Instead of being general, it would be a ranking per area to keep all the chances for the students to follow their passion even if they completely suck in all the other areas:

Music, theatre, writing, magic, biology, astrology, plumbing, comedy, economics, mechanics, sports, history, accounting, design, dancing, artificial intelligence, sales, gaming, finance, architecture, etc…

The college would need to adapt depending on the number of students in each area every year. I have no clue about the how, but I’m pretty sure there are brilliant experts in the world who would have an answer to any question!

Most importantly, there would be no fees. Every single individual should be granted the right to education even when the caregivers cannot afford it.

The bonus about the educational content

Given how many people are abused by individuals suffering from some dangerous Personality Disorders who can be parents, I am a firm believer it is becoming more and more urgent to introduce a psychology class from the early stages of the official educational system.

I explored the different aggressive personalities as well as the link with the kids’ sanity in a previous article. Should you be interested, you can find details here:

You need to understand that those disturbed individuals could be anybody in your circle: a parent, a sibling, a partner, a friend, a coworker, a manager — you name it!

In other words, if you don’t have the required knowledge, you could be such easy prey. It is, unfortunately, how they perceive you.

Takeaways

This education reform might seem interesting — possibly fixing many issues and concerns of many of you. Appealingly, you might ask yourself this legitimate question:

“Why would I choose an area I know for sure the world is not taking seriously? Why would I risk struggling with paying my bills — even if this is the only thing making me feel alive — in the first place?”

The solution I am imagining is: To make sure we could grant similar entry salaries so that we could live decently no matter our passion and the industry we choose.

Two main criteria that could make a difference afterward would be:

• Being a life-long learner and self-investor.
• The balance between life's four dimensions — Mental, Physical, Emotional, and Spiritual — level, and maintenance frequency.

I hope my crazy imagination is making sense to you. My dearest wish is that those thoughts could trigger the discussion, and maybe — just maybe, start some brainstorming sessions around the topic!

If you enjoyed your read and that you can get excited about the idea, we can become email friends here!

Subscribe to Insights from Educate for a midweek dose of professional learning and inspiration with the latest news and research from education.