Lifelong learning

My purpose was not so much to teach Biology as to make learning a lifelong habit. Learning supports escape from the myths and magic of your natal culture which will have evolved to promote some version of them v us. The task is thus as Bob Marley suggested – “emancipate yourself from mental slavery”.

Human cultures evolved slowly during the long millenia of foraging. And then they evolved quickly through settled agriculture, city states, empires, nation states and, nowadays, the globalised economy.

The human brain seems to be hard wired to create a small group of leaders who control a large group of the led. The pairings include the elite v the masses, the haves v the have nots, the starving v the obese, the bosses v the workers, the slave owners v the slaves, etc.

And, as the cultures get bigger, there is more division of labour -  God/King, priests, politicians, policemen, soldiers, philosophers, producers, manufacturers, traders, shop keepers, insurers, bankers, lawyers, doctors, nurses, teachers, actors, musicians, craftsmen, athletes, creative artists etc

Given the wide range of special interests there will be conflicts and systems for regulating them. Rules and regulations are created and are disseminated in more or less elegant ways.

Human babies are not born as blank slates. Their slate is hard wired into predetermined sections which become operational on receiving inputs from the environment. Minds have to change. The basic process is ‘education’ which has a range of meanings with ‘indoctrination’ at the spoonfeeding end, and ‘enlightenment’ at the free-thinking end.

I was a school pupil and a university student at the end of the teaching = lecturing period.  Come in, sit down, shut up, listen, remember, repeat in written exams.

When I began teaching the trend was towards individualised learning that was practice based. Topics were introduced through worksheets using a core extension system which allowed different students to cover topics at different levels.  And continuous assessment rather than final exams was the preferred method of grading students. But in the third world, where I did most of my teaching, the conditions called for enlightened chalk and talk.

I gave up teaching to be an education advisor and gave up that to be a plain language editor. My audience moved from secondary school students to community activists; and my topics moved from science/biology to social and community development and poverty reduction.

I am infatuated with my own propaganda. I am a lifelong learner. Topics include archaeology, music, drama, the social sciences, ICT, Website design, social and community development. I hold degrees in Zoology, Agricultural Extension and Rural Development, and in Education. And, more recently, aged 68, the academic interests include evolutionary psychology, neurology, and mindfulness meditation; the ICT interests include social networking, blogging and various digital music programmes; and there are over 800 doodles.

The bottom line – lifelong learning and changing minds