Without the paths of beauty there can be no education. [1]
Thinking of education in ideal terms, there is an immediate association with concepts like openness, acceptance, support, sharing, availability, love.
However, the reality seems to be rather different, as education processes are mainly on the shoulders of individuals (teachers) who do their best to transfer knowledge to other individuals (students). In this way the process can only develop unilaterally instead of producing active involvement of all parties, whose interaction could create additional learning opportunities.
The education process could rather be seen as a set of opportunities where all participants could learn in favourable conditions. Everyone could have a specific role and those most expert on a topic could be an integral part of the learning process with the responsibility to facilitate common learning. This would be a group able to learn from itself, where both teaching and learning processes are active and may have the power to light torches (paraphrasing Quintilian).
And those torches are all of us, as life is an educational process without end. Those torches are our consciences and our souls seeking learning opportunities to evolve.
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“The basis of Education is Love”: not knowledge, skills, competence, experience, but LOVE. This energy feeds our emotional part, which once satisfied can open to motivation and wish to get involved and learn.
If we consider education as a permanent learning process to support conscious evolution, our perception of education immediately changes. We understand its importance in each individual life, realizing how it is actually penalized.
If we consider how the learning process is activated, we realize that the basic component is really the emotional part. If it is well fed, it can become fuel for intellect, which is also fundamental to proceed.
The task to follow children’s and young people’s educational process can be very difficult if (as often happens) targeting only the intellect, ignoring the emotional part.
People engaged in educational processes therefore have a big responsibility, since in particular with children and young people (but also with adults) learning is activated when the emotional part is satisfied. Only then it is possible to have a favourable learning environment, ready to enhance the strengths to be able to absorb even weak points and everyone feels able to flourish to their potential and get involved in a rich learning process.
This is not easy at all, becuase education is still everywhere very much based on transfer of information, instead of focusing on common and shared results oriented towards the evolution of consciousness. It is time to review teachers’ role, as often it is closer to instructors imparting notions rather than to educators. Educators are present to themselves, aware of different education needs and learning styles, and can apply the approach: “I listen and forget; I see and remember; I do and learn”.
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[1] New Era Community, § 104, Agni Yoga Collection
