How can we reclaim the soul of our school systems and structures and build the schools of tomorrow with the children of today? How can we let the children play in their learning and make school the happiest place on earth, for everyone participating in them? How can our schools become the true social, public, experience and experimental research & developmental hubs for the entire community? And recreate, rebuild, renew our local and global structures for medicine, governance, education/learning/knowledge expansion, and sustainable living the earth and all life calls for?
These, and many more relevant questions we asked of the administrators and teachers in elected and appointed positions across the California state department of education to every county board of supervisors and within every district office. Unfortunately, what the “reform” movement kept forgetting, was to include the students, their families, and the multicultural, multiethnic, multidimensional fabric that a healthy society knows is their most precious resource, its people.
For nearly ten years, I functioned as a “literacy coach” in the second largest unified school district in the United States. In the beginning, my credentials for that task were labeled as “highly qualified”, having passed all the requisite exams, degree fulfillment, and student teaching internships.
I also had a passion for school, for learning, I suppose I still do. Like Voltaire’s 1759 “Candide, all for the Best”, no matter what would come his way, he kept his heart open and loved it all. This version of life, looking through rose-colored glasses, is naïve, however. It misses much. Can be abused, betrayed, and confused by any with a more nefarious or selfish agenda. But, when a group of like-minded folks come together, there is a power in unity, a strength. Like the native American story of the bundle of sticks – together they are unbreakable. That freshness of mind also becomes unstoppable, invincible, and retains its innocent joy. A natural prerequisite of conscious creation.
And so, with The Melrose Experiment, we succeeded for a short while. Long enough for an entire generation AND their parents to pass through the eye of the needle and know they can think for themselves and how to do it, no matter the outer circumstances.
This is, I believe, is the true purpose of all education, of school at every level. For Life is an All-Age School. Life and the Laws of Nature are our truest teachers because it and they change as we do. Evolve as we grow. Adapt as to current circumstances, weather, and environment. To be an aware part of that cosmological constant which is change. Yet, to remain fluid with an open mind and heart. Rigid rules cannot rule, in fact, except by force. It’s like a personal and collective reclamation of the applications of humanity’s shared knowledge as wisdom. While allowing humanity’s multitude of ways of knowing and expressing to flourish, grow, and change as a united whole.
It’s not an arrogance of “being or having the right answer.” Rather, it’s a confidence grounded in peaceful curiosity. You know who you are. You know how you learn. You recognize when you’re not comprehending. And you do what it takes to get to the bottom of things-to the core of the essence – to the heart of the matter – simply, naturally, easily and with diligent focus. You know how to recognize the skills and capacities missing from your repertoire. You understand the natural power to create inherent in every one of the innumerable peoples of this planet. And, you know how to apply that inherent natural power with all energy through the life force energy that is your human form.
You know you know how to learn for yourself. You know how to find answers. You know how to collaborate and listen to others. You know how to discern reality from fantasy – opinion from fact – and lie from true authority. You know how to love and accept yourself. You relate to all in kindness, joy, love, and happiness (KJLH frequency.) Building resilience and creativity at every age and stage of your life.
I believe this way of learning, how to consciously create what you want in community, is a form of peace. A way to see the mistakes of our collective, familial, and even personal past histories without fear. Confident you know how to practice from a growth mindset. You are open to all thought and all possibilities. You can hear multiple solutions and choose what energizes you. You know how to start over when you find yourself on the wrong wall.
I believe it is a most natural and vital way that children learn. In joy, kindness, love, and happiness. I believe it is how we mend what ails us as a society because we have tended to humanity’s most valuable resource. We are asking what they know. We are listening. To the children. From the heart.
That is like Robert Frost’s “The Road Less Traveled”. It will make all the difference.
I loved school too.