I began teaching science and biology in schools. Then there was curriculum development and teacher training in a range of subjects. Next I helped set up an Education Advisory Service dealing with leadership, management and administration in schools. But, along the way, I lost faith in the ability of the formal education system to change the world.
My energy shifted to using plain language to produce materials that would help adults to better prepare themselves for participation in their governance – especially regarding the Poverty Reduction Strategy Programme (PRSP) and the Millennium Development Goals (MDG) which were being promoted by the IMF and the World Bank for a while. [Note 1] But, along the way, I lost faith in the willingness of the power elites to pay any attention to what ‘ordinary’ people had to say.
My energy shifted to being objective about the more emotionally sensitive (spiritual) aspects of multi-stakeholder processes (MSP) (ref Minu Hemmati). In terms of holistic development policy I developed the acronym STEEPLES (Social, technical, environmental, economic, political, legal, ethical and spiritual.) (for details see http://sites.google.com/site/steeplessrds/ ).
To cut a long story short I have not yet totally lost faith in the ability of ‘mindfulness’ to enable policy makers to engage in cognitive retraining and to be aware that their world views are not absolutes. They will thus be able and willing to renounce their limiting viewpoints for the greater good of humanity, the environment and the planet.
I am writing this story to address a negative thought that came to my attention this morning. Namely that I dumb down everything that I put my mind to. My main retort is that I help to point to the insubstantial nature of facts, ideas and concepts and the way in which they become hypotheses and then theories. These are mind-made entities seen from a particular point of view, there is no abiding reality.
But there is churn in the mindbrains of policy makers, freelance philosophers, media makers and ordinary people. World views and the language in which they are expressed change. Many new words are created but only a few are fully adopted, and old words drift out of fashion. This creative process happens in individuals and in groups. No culture sits still. The Dinka of the South Sudan are changing their ways and language as are my subcultural group of Doric speakers in the NE of Scotland. Both are building new nations – all change!
As a facilitator of lifelong learning I find Taoist philosophy to be inspirational. “The reality that can be described is not the real reality.” “The beginning of wisdom is in knowing that you do not know.”
I am also inspired by the scientific method which includes the duty to attack a colleague’s point of view. If the assertion survives the attack then it will be stronger. If it succumbs then it is good to cut it down before it can do damage. Ideally the scientific cut and thrust would be calm and mild mannered. But scientists are also human beings. Debate can often get acrimonious. So what is to be done?
In a word – mindfulness. Think about thinking. Notice what you notice. Be self reflective and find that there is no self. And it is said, “No self, no problem”.
I have been practicing mindfulness meditation off and on since my late teenage years and I have devoted more time to it since I retired. The main message is that what matters is not what you intuitively think and feel when you are on automatic pilot. What matters is that you should be calm and curious and ever willing to listen carefully to ‘other’ points of view.
My vocation involves changing minds. It has three sympathetic and increasingly consilient (ref E O Wilson) thrusts:
- In terms of western philosophy I highlight the hard academic question “How can we know?” (epistemology) rather than the softer one of “What do we know?” (ontology).
- In terms of eastern psychology I highlight the need to be still and know that my/your ‘self’ has no abiding reality. So ‘truth’ and reconciliation is possible,
- In terms of global science I highlight the structure and function of the evolving human mindbrain as promoted by neurology and evolutionary psychology.
SO – there are a lot of ideas in a short collection of words. Do they facilitate learning? Do they help promote freedom and enlightenment? Or is there too much dumbing down?
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Note 1> I wrote about the MDGs in the much read ‘No more broken promises’ http://www.srds.co.uk/mdg ) (144,712 page views as of today since April 2003). 345 returns from Google search for [“http://www.srds.co.uk/mdg”] References include http://www.gameonscotland.org/Images/LearningJourneyRightsValuesGoals_tcm4-748706.pdf
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