Monday, July 18, 2005

Can we survive without education?

There is no need to education. It is not that you read a book, pass an examination, and finish with education. The whole of life, from the moment you are born to the moment you die, is a process of learning.
- Jiddu Krishnamurti

Isn't that an odd thing to say, that we don't need education? Doesn't that go against the findings of studies galore and experience through the centuries? Yes and no.

Krishnamurti means that true education is self education. In school, just as at home before we go to school, we need to learn the things that are critical to our survival and thriving as adults in today's world. These are things that are not necessarily written down as school curriculum, but are collected wisdom that has been passed down through the ages from parents to children, things we consider straightforward, such as the Golden Rule.

The problem is that while people are capable of learning what they need to function in jobs, schools and as keepers of their own homes, vehicles and other property, we are not all receiving the same basic messages about the collected wisdom of the ages. Not every child is taught that murder is wrong, so we have too many murders. Not every child is taught proactively that using non-prescription drugs or using prescription drugs improperly is wrong, so we have people who die or who destroy their minds and the lives of their family members by using drugs improperly.

Every child must receive the same messages, those messages that all of us reading this received from our parents and our teachers. TIA wants to insist on this simple rule for parents and for schools. It's cheap to implement and it will have benefits for the rest of the history of our planet.

Let's tell others about this. The time is now.

Bill Allin
'Turning It Around: Causes and Cures for Today's Epidemic Social Problems' is available now for order from book stores and online book sellers.
See http://billallin.com/cgi/index.pl for more information.

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