7

Seeking light as pursuit of reason and not of mere information, as pursuit of wisdom and not of mere knowledge

Promotion of seeking and sharing reason and wisdom as the basic process in education;

'Reinventing' the teacher as a 'sharing and learning facilitator' and of textbooks as channels of learning instead of authoritative 'last word' on anything.

Recognition and enhancement of sources of knowledge, skills and wisdom outside the school systems

Promotion of less-structured education systems for children that would encourage and enhance intuition, aesthetic appreciation and creativity, respect for self and others, love for all life, predisposition to team play, and basic spirituality.

Critique and repudiation of current data-memorization-based, competition driven, grades-indicated, teacher-centered & commercialized educational system, programs & policies

  1. Total Human Development and Harmony Through Synergism

  2. Holistic Health Care and Medicine

  3. Deep Ecology and Harmony with Nature 

  4. Sense of History and Sense of Mission

  5. Civics and Democratic Governance

  6. Culture as Community Creativity

  7. Light-Seeking and Light-Sharing Education

  8. Gender Sensitivity, Equality & Harmony

  9. Reconstructive/Restor-ative Justice

10. Associative Economics, Social Capital and Sustainable Development

11. Synergetic Leadership and Organizations

12. Appropriate/Adaptive Technology

13. Mutual Enrichment of Families and Friendships

14. Human Dignity and Human Harmony: Human Rights and Peace

15. Aesthetics Without Boundaries: 'Art from the Heart'   

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Old-School Teachers

in the New Millennium

By Esper Dowling

Mrs. Dowling manages the GINHAWA Alternative Wellness Center and its twin at Earthlite, the Philippine Federaration of Natural Family Planning (PFNFP). She is a member of Sanib-Sigla Movement for Holistic Health. At a Sanib-Sinag session with Ding Reyes and Marz Zafe one Saturday at the Earthlite alternative venue at Manila C.O.D. bldg. in Cubao, Quezon City, she shared among others her views on the predicament of the country's educational system as it relates now to the children and youth of the new millennium. Here are excerpts from that sharing.

THIS IS NOT about old schoolteachers, this is about old-school teachers. They are trapped in the old schools of thought, in the antiquated paradigms of the past centuries especially the last one. The old schoolteachers have replicated themselves, through the same Philippine educational system all these years, and there are now very young teachers who are now old-school teachers.

This can all make us laugh but it is actually a serious problem. Next week, all these old-school teachers will be facing the millions of the country's youth in classroom conditions that are all very tiresome but not really very educational.
The problem is the traps of the old patterns of thinking. Practically all left-brain.

Memorize, argue, recite, grading, memorize again. The whole exercise is not to form our youth into fully human citizens of the future but to just put enough into their brains to justify giving them the diplomas which they will be needing to land good or good-enough jobs. That's it.

And the entire motivation approach is negative. If you don't study, you will fail; if you don't graduate, you will be jobless and your family will starve. It is a motivation based on fear. That's really old paradigm.

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