A Call to Conscious Evolution:

We of the wealthy 'west' who can afford state-funded mass education, need to broaden the boundaries of our education system to re-engage the next generation in what it means to be a healthy, happy human and to live harmoniously and productively in a community. An evolutionary education system would have a broader understanding of 'basic' skills and would do away with the idea that the education of our children is 'someone else's responsibility.' Our current system is geared toward perpetuating the idea that success at school is the only means of finding 'a good job', that finding a good job will make you happy because then you will have enough money to buy lots of cool, fun stuff. The next generation is one on hand aware of the hollowness of that proposal, and on the other, they are entirely brainwashed by it. Those who sense the hollowness of it are dis-engaged from school and disheartened by what they can (currently) see of their future. Those who are 'brainwashed' by it tend to be, unsurprisingly, a very selfish and narrow-minded bunch who behave as though education should be a form of entertainment and, saddest of all, if something can't be grasped or achieved immediately - then it's too hard or not worth the effort. How will such a generation cope with - let alone repair - the damaged world we leave them? We of the wealthy west have educated away our physical and spiritual connection to the land, our ability to grow our own food, our ability to provide for the most basic of our own needs and the necessity of strong local (as opposed to electronic) connections. We are so clever we have machines to do it all for us, or we are so clever we can pay someone else (cheaply and in another country preferably) to make the things we need. We are so clever, we can chat to someone on the other side of the world, but we don't know how to hold a conversation with a neighbour if they are of a different generation. The next generation has no idea where their clothes or their food or any of the fundamentals which are taken for granted have come from. They just buy it. I believe (as a high school teacher) that our system of education must diversify. Our system of education must include more frequent, productive and meaningful opportunities for interraction between communities and their schools, thus may we begin to realise what we once knew; that it takes a community to raise a child. Perhaps in this way, our system of education could contribute to a genuine shift in consciousness.