This is the start of a new series where I post things from others I know. Content that is certainly worthy for adding to this little place. This first post is from Welles. You can read more of such essays at http://www.theoreticsinstitute.org/forum/forum.php.
"Last fall a good
friend of mine died. He had been a practical engineer. That means he had
contracted projects in a number of industries to build the physical
systems that created products. He rather facetiously called himself a
plumber because pipefitting was a part of many of his projects. In his
personal life he was a meticulous craftsman who spent years crafting his
home and much of the furniture in it.
When he died he left
behind a marvelous shop. The possibilities present there were endless —
woodworking, metalworking (including plumbing/pipefitting, welding, mill
and lathe work), common electrical work and an auto bay. I loved
visiting and occasionally working there and started to imagine how a
resource like that might be used as a community educational center for
industrial arts.
Six months later I was chatting with a new
neighbor. He was in the conceptual stage of planning some sort of
agricultural education program, perhaps a school. I listened to his
thoughts carefully. We agreed during that conversation that there were
many highly skilled people living in our rural community who might be
wonderful teachers given the opportunity. With that thought we parted
company. I kept thinking.
To me education is a lifelong endeavor
and has one primary goal. That is to allow individuals (ideally
everyone) to discover and develop their potentials so they become
capable of initiating the actions that support their lives. Creativity
strengthens the community. True education requires that physical skills,
intellectual goals and spiritual growth all be addressed. Each is an
important component of human development. Physical skills yield beauty
and material support for our lives. They provide the freedom from want
that allows us the time for of the intelligent pursuit of truth, which,
in its turn reveals the spiritual values discovered in the pursuit of
goodness.
In more down to earth terms a personal desire to
achieve a specific goal is the most fertile ground for the process of
education to flourish. Active pursuit of an objective instantly creates
the context in which the necessity for various studies becomes obvious.
Information is easily comprehended when we can see the relevance to our
projects. Development of skills becomes more play than work. Each bit of
learning incorporated into the realization of our goal yields an
enthusiasm that builds inertia to keep the undertaking exciting and
moving toward the satisfaction of completion.
How might a
community educational system work? It would simply be a function of
putting together people needing help with creative goals and those of
greater experience and resources willing to help foster their projects.
It would be decentralized and individual in scope rather than
institutional. Physical things could be created in shops. Suggesting
approaches and resources would be an avenue in the development of
intellectual aspirations. Teachers would be students and students would
be teachers.
Generosity is the spiritual foundation of this plan.
The result would be growing a more vital community, which is simply the
network of our individual connections. We would be building strength
and trust into those links. That is goodness in action."
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