We are creators.

[Justin Pickering]

by Justin Pickering » Tue Sep 22, 2009 10:51 pm

“The purpose of philosophy is not to help men find the meaning of life, but to prove to them that there isn’t any.” - The Fountainhead by Ayn Rand. Using our linguistic facilities from this ontological position, we are therefore free to create anything we wish to see manifest itself in the world.

If you ask me what this statement means, my answer will be, 100% of the time, "Everything and nothing."

The goal of Education, as an enterprise, therefore becomes the milieu in which human beings teach and instruct other human beings to become creators.

Regardless of level of education: elementary, middle school, high school, university, or graduate level; regardless of subject matter - mathematics, sociology, science, literature - we clearly see an imperative in the 21st century to harness the creative power of the human mind, heart, and depending on where you find yourself on the theistic spectrum, spirit.

I assert that this new paradigm of education has less to do with standardized testing and state measurements more with the empowerment of a tripartite relationship that is essential to the growth and nurturing of academic communities: the parent-student-teacher relationship.

The parents and teachers and students who struggle against one another lose sight of the most essential and important element of education: that it's goal is the provision of practical and useful knowledge to the student in order that the student learn and grow and transform from a child into a productive member of society and that, above all, the student's choice in the matter of his or her own education at all levels become sacrosanct.

Perhaps you could argue that I am opening a can of worms here. Perhaps you'd be right.

However, when I stand back and take a dispassionate look at the state of the world today, without attaching any undue morality to my analysis, I notice that the planet is in trouble.

Young people have never faced, in the history of the human race, a more complex and burgeoning society. We, as educators, would be sadly remiss, to continue to leave children behind and leave them ill-prepared to make powerful choices in the world of the 21st century.

It is our charge, as educators, to teach young men to be providers, nuturers, and creators and to take pride in their chosen vocations and professions in such a way that those men become contributing co-creators of society - and not the destructors and takers from that same society.

It is our charge, as educators, to teach young women to be the same.

Our identities could cost us the whole ball game, should we choose to indulge them.

I have my reasons for writing what I write here today.

However, my reasons are unimportant. They are unimportant because they are not the student's reasons... They are not those who will inherit this gigantic mess and have to choose their paths and make their marks.

I open this topic up for discussion and debate.

There is no such thing as the final answer or the "truth" when it comes to education.

For my Christian brothers and sisters, we remember Pontius Pilate who asked Jesus "Quod est veritas?"

"What is truth?"

I am willing to bet dollars to cents that Jesus remained silent and did not answer that most unanswerable of all questions.

So, I will follow suit: I remain silent and open the discussion up to the community.

Let's find out what we create together.

Please note: I am not implying in any way, shape or form that Christianity is the only valid religion or that it should be incorporated into schools. I am merely citing a reference in a familiar context.