It occurs to me that, having studied the origins of the School system, as opposed to early education through the Trivium (Grammar, Logic, and Rhetoric) and Quadrivium (Math, Geometry, Music, and Astronomy), the standards and practices of learning are far off from their more enlightening roots of yesterday; in fact the use of education today is more for breaking the natural humanity in them, forcing them into a box, and selling them off to corporations and further boxes for the rest of their so called "natural life."
How are we to restore Education, rather than indoctrination to our children; and return our society to a decent state beyond the mind control, beyond the mindless entertainments, beyond the conditioning, beyond the think tanks, and finally beyond our own self doubt?
The current writer has authored a number of hubs and articles relating to this subject, but it must be understood that there is no conclusiveness to any idea. None the less if it must be written here and now for you all to read. I shall try to reduce the tenants and principles of Developmental Education for you to read them most easily. May these reductions be more of a refinement through simplicity into sophistication.
The first tenant of Developmental education is that learning has no beginning or end in the lifespan. Approximately nine months after birth, an infants Education begins. Stimulation, such as a second language, classical music, and geometric patterns, love, and human contact; all of these are essential as the first state of learning.
Infancy has been shown to be not only the most vital, but also the most receptive stage in the development of a human being; their brain is like a sponge, where information is a stream of content. When it's being determined by a system of education that actually gives a damn the human experience can be changed, altered according to natural principles, and natural harmonies.
By beginning education and learning at a basic level at infancy, the experience of learning for some may seem natural; and the gradual process of increasing that stimulus throughout the lifetime is the primary focus of developmental education.
Working with what we know about the brain and the mind through modern psychology, it becomes apparent that the best way to educate a person is by them educating themselves. This cannot come about with a competitive, centralized, corporatized indoctrination center; therefore, school has got to go folks.
Moving on to the second stage of this developmental learning process, starting at age three to four, which can be called childhood. It is at this stage that the infant is considered a child, and in childhood begins to experience practical-oriented recesses, consisting of things like gardening, music, and art, all of which the child can determine for themselves.
Breaking up those recesses will be hour long periods of a subject that the students will learn throughout the day, and will be at first tied loosely to a subject, like math, or grammar. The simplicity of how those subjects are conveyed will determine the receptivity of the young students; but a child psychologist, acting as a catalyst for the teacher to the students, will ensure that the teacher-student communication relationship improves with time.
Once a generation of students have reached adolescence, they begin learning more directly the subjects of the Trivium and Quadrivium, which are Grammar, Logic, and Rhetoric, and Math, Geometry, Music, and Astronomy respectively. The word Trivium is where we get the word trivial from. It was considered in antiquity to be essential to a civic life to be educated under the trivium.
Classical education, without practical knowledge cannot salvage the overall inadequacies of our current world due to inadequate education. The use of practicums-- recesses with practical purpose-- would increase as children reach the adolescent stage. Recesses that stimulate the mind, impart the finest wisdom of all, that learning is play.
Recesses at the adolescent level would consist of martial arts, music, astronomy, meditation, culinary art, gardening and farming. As the student passes from one stage to the other, more and more the responsibility is upon the student to learn what he or she desires.
By the young adult stage (comparable to high school) the student has gone from having teachers, to being serviced by librarians for academic information. Their recesses are about learning architecture, plumbing, how to drive a car, how to be a responsible citizen. The sophistication of education is epitomized by simplicity; in young adult education, sophistication is epitomized by simplicity, just as it is throughout the system being described to you.
The last, but not least stage of education is adulthood, and its age ranges from adulthood to death. This stage is the most important of all, because it requires the sustained investment of study for mental clarity. Only in this way can a civilization reach a level of decency in its operation, and reach a harmonious organization to its powers.
The place of adult learning could be like a grown up version of a mall, where only adult citizens can attend; places to share ideas, find community, and exchange items. Things like isolation tanks, synchronized tai chi, group meditation, etc. would represent an infusion of eastern practices, which have shown to reduce stress and improve vascular health.
The people must be enlightened. these are a salutation to Unity consciousness: Learning, Peace, Love, Appreciation.
