Who are the Africans?

#1. Persons of African origin are not their physical bodies, because these bodies are the same as those of other human beings and for all human beings, physical bodies are vehicles, machines or biomechanical appliances of agency and power of causation. 

Persons of African origin are easily identified with three natural features: the surface anatomy of the melanin-based skin pigmentation, facial features and hair texture. 

Beneath these biological features, Persons of African origin have exactly the same essence as any other human being with exactly the same organ systems consisting of 1) skeletal, 2) brain and nervous, 3) endocrine and circulatory, 4) digestive and excretory, 5) reproductive, 6) respiratory and cardiovascular and 7) muscular systems (“Atlas of the Human Anatomy” by Frank H. Netter). 

This means that Persons of African origin cannot allow themselves to be limited and restricted by surface anatomy of their physical bodies with regard to their current social or economic circumstances or conditions, because they can improve or degenerate anytime according to their willful and well-directed causative thoughts, words and actions or lack of them. 

Africans cannot remain in their economic, social or political conditions that have arisen out of the accident of history or other people’s choices, decisions and actions, because they can improve themselves economically and socially from now onwards through their own agency and power of causation. 

#2. Persons of African origin are not their languages and names, because they could have any other name without any effect or impact on their essence as a life form and human beings. There are some who speak non-African languages and have non-African names for one reason or another and still remained human and Africans.  

#3. Persons of African origin are not their own feelings, emotions and passions, tastes and appetites, views and socially-conditioned habits because those are temporary and they can change and improve them anytime especially if they are open minded and intellectually eager.

#4. Persons of African origin cannot be defined or limited by the geography of their own birth or where they are currently domiciled, because they could have been born or be living anywhere or somewhere. 

#5. Persons of African origin cannot be defined by “culture,” which is itself a human construct, social conditioning and socialisation arising out of deliberate nurturing and reviewed against new experiences, reasoning and learning. Culture is not something immutable and static. It is the collectivity of shared human experiences underpinned by a specific worldview and understanding. This means one needs to learn, examine and experience to be a human being. There should be balance between conserving underlying assertions and innovations through new knowledge and understanding.

“Culture” is a word derived from word Latin "cultus" which means to "labour, care, tend, nurture." Whatever is their behaviour in relation to nature or ecology, themselves and others, human conduct arises out of nurturing and socialization and therefore it cannot be fixed. Out of the word "cultus," we also have “cultivation” as in the effortfully labouring, caring and nurturing of the mental faculties, actions and repeated manners; and “agriculture” as in the tending of plants.

Therefore, persons of African origin are not these temporary and transitory aspects of themselves. 

Then, who are the Africans?

1. Human kinship – all human beings share the same kinship of evolutionary source or origins “Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind” by Yuval Noah Harari). The source or origin consists of two things – firstly, they have exactly the same genetic complex formula and secondly, every human being is an individual bearer and vehicular expression of the same agency and power of causation immanent in any life form.  

An invisibly common thread ties ALL human beings together. Every human being (male or female) is a compound of duality – a vehicle (mortality) and a driving force (immortality). 

The vehicular component consists of three planes: 1) structure (bones with the same chemical composition of minerals), 2) form (flesh, muscles and fibres with the same chemical composition of plants) and 3) egoistic or beastly animal-self consisting of the organic mechanical (bio-chemical) with physical body actions or motor reflexes, organs of locomotion. 

The driving force consists of the faculties of human agency: reasoning, discernment and power of causation. These faculties are discovered, activated and manifested by one's own willful, effortful thoughts, words and actions everyday. 

The outcomes, effects, results or consequences of these faculties are either controlled and restrained and thus beneficial (good) or uncontrolled, unrestrained and thus injurious (evil). Therefore the measurement of humanness is the intelligent and well-directed effort victory over the animal nature in one self.

Life is both a rationalization of the egoistic or beastly tendencies and a potentiality of an unawakened or latent excellency. 

Each preceding plane has three roles: local habitation, instrument and vehicle of the next plane. The preceding plane is activated by the one after it, as each plane expresses itself through the lower plane. 

The Roman philosopher and founder of Neo-Platonism, Plotinus (205 BCE -70 CE) would say that each plane above raises and adorns the one below it. “In consonance with this general law and in confirmation of its exactitude, we see the seed of vegetable life embodied in the soil of the mineral kingdom to achieve its new growth; we see the animal life implanted in the body constituted of vegetable matter (since the animal feeds upon vegetables); and again the human self is embodied in an animal form…The limitation of the forces of a plane to its own field has been expressed in esoteric lore by the phrase "Nature unaided fails." By "Nature" is meant those energies of life animating the physical form of any being, but lying below the plane of the mind or consciousness. As concerns man, "nature" embraces those forces operative in his constitution which lie below the range of his self-conscious mind. The mind in man is in fact the line of demarcation between nature and the (life force)…The energies of nature are mindless.” – ibid.

At the level of its unrestrained, unregulated, untamed animal plane, humanity is “engaged in the primeval "war of the elements," which even modern science postulates as an inceptive stage of the world formation. The forces run wild in the fiery convulsions of the mineral elements, in the untamed exuberance of vegetable life, and finally in most savage form in the war of tooth and claw, the internecine struggle for existence, in the animal kingdom… These (mindless) forces, having built up man's body, are still active in that segment of his life which lies below intellect, and there the war of elemental natures still rages, if not quieted and pacified by mind! How well St. Paul knew this is evident in many a passage in his Epistles. He finds in himself two opposing natures, a law in his members (physical body) which wars against the law of his mind!” – ibid. 

Our animal or elementary plane is exemplified by “the beasts of the field, the fish of the sea and the fowls of the air,” which we should have full control over. Every human being has an animal personality! 

The causative potentiality (in Eastern philosophy its called the “Atma-Buddhi-Manas” capacity) with which we are all born of the womb of matter and “in danger of being overborne, drowned out and swallowed up by the surging waves of animal sensuousness.”

“Like a mustard seed in the soil” awaiting discovery and cultivation, within our biological or anthropological constitution (soil) is found the causative potentiality (seed) awaiting discovery, fuller expression and actualisation. The seed is able to germinate, grow, rise in triumph and glow causatively anchored by the creative will and vista of possibilities in life.      

As any human being, we are potentially of a radiating brilliance of a spark and human excellences obscured. Figuratively, we are like a sculptor's masterpiece which is already inside a rough stone of the quarry and whose superfluous and unessential aspects require to be chipped away by skillful shaping and effortful smoothing through character development.

As any human being, we are a rough stone requiring the chisel of reason and hammer of discernment to knock off rough edges for character. Therefore “the achievement of virtue over ignorance and moral vice” is a worthwhile victory for any human being.

The best sculpture can only be carved or a mustard tree can only grow out of its own nature latent or dormant within. 

Evolution, growth or development is the willful unfolding or unwrapping and pouring forth of what we already have deep within - awareness, intelligence and creativity. As we evolve, grow or develop, we are able to bring out more and more of what is already indwelling in us. 

Steadily and gradually our intellectual, willpower (causative power) and lofty vision (aspirations) should heartily grow fuller, sublime, higher and better towards an expansive, deepest and the greatest "Good, Truth and Beauty" in our personal lives and in our families and communities.

The natural and intrinsic awareness, intelligence and creativity is exactly the same natural birthright for every form of life and human being and it is infinite, eternal and immortal. This constitutes the agency and power of causation within.

As any human being, our natural and intrinsic awareness, intelligence and creativity exists in various grades, degrees or stages of vehicular manifestation and individual expression. These grades, degrees or stages are a reflection of each person's development, growth and advancement. 

Like any human being, Africans mentally and physically experience seven ills: 1) insecurity and sorrow, 2) unhappiness and grief, 3) hatred and vindictiveness, 4) anger and bitterness, 5) pain and misery, 6) disharmony and conflict of wills, and 7) depression and disease. When they fail to overcome these ills with their own effort, they are like an unworked rough stone settled in a hill or a mustard seed lying in the dry and rocky field of inertia. 

As any human being, they should become useful and productive in life to make the world a better place. They should attend to those “asking, knocking and seeking” for their heartfelt and charitable assistance and kindness.

As human beings, we should be workmen or labourers for a better world whose main duty is to innovate, create and achieve. By so doing, we express our humanness as Africans and the sense of responsibility at our best, greatest and highest levels.

We as Africans, as any other human being, we are characters sheltered in the limitless human will, mental faculties and energies within us. That character that we are is the inner ray, spark and flaming consciousness, intelligence and creativity. Everything that we thought we were as Africans, is just but the visible and very limited vehicle of our innermost depths, imaginations and possibilities about life.

This allows us to be defined by the unlimited possibilities and opportunities of life. This is the key knowledge that dispels willful ignorance, despair and fatalism. 

2. Humanity is by nature social beings - human beings should rejoice together with fellow human beings in times of happiness and be part of solutions in times of need. They should confidently have a charitable attitude or sense of grace (courteous goodwill) towards the genuinely needy and disadvantaged and honour commitments and pursue aspirations without causing harm to own interests or those of others. 

As social beings, they are guided by the “Golden Rule” (Principle of Reciprocity) - “Do unto others as you would have them do unto you.” 

Dan Barker's take on the Rule, "Some people are kind to others because they want to be treated the same way themselves…Other people are kind because they think human beings are valuable, not because they want a reward." – ‘Maybe Right, Maybe Wrong: A Guide for Young Thinkers’ (1992).     

3. Persons of African origin are NOT cursed to slave, toil and suffer; INSTEAD through pain and struggles of life, they can arrive at the beauty and triumph of their birth through the “dignity of effortful labour.” This emphasizes the dignity and worth of each individual and that each individual should be a workman and an instrument of innovation, creation and achievement. 

“The ability of the human brain to conceive ideas, conduct painstaking research and explore new frontiers should excite any nation that is hungry for development and knowledge.” – Redi Tlhabi, “The Olympic spirit can live on in all of us.” - Sunday Times, 12 August 2012.

Beyond the comfortable, familiar and known horizons, persons of African origin should draw from deep within themselves to rescue their own humanity out of the lion grip of the three evils of ignorance, poverty and disease or in the Buddhist sense, sorrow, pain and suffering. 

Nobody else should do it for them because they should not be spectator and passive citizens of the world! They should not be blaming anyone for not doing it. They should not outsource such a responsibility or duty. Active citizens are positive and take charge of their lives by not focusing on accusing, blaming and complaining but identifying problems and providing solutions.

4. Persons of African origin are NOT weaklings in nature nor born in anything called sin; INSTEAD they are themselves an infinite, impersonal and immanent agency and power of causation embodied or encased in matter, the Physical Body, which may be in a state of willful ignorance, irrationality, blindness and many times in self-imposed exile. 

Persons of African origin can easily be feeble and fail on aspirations while remaining partially evolved. They can be subject to attraction towards the crass, gross and vulgar until and unless they undertake an effortful and industrious cultivation of character and craftsmanship competence.

“For man is like some prince in an old story, who has been brought up among peasants so that he is unaware of his royalty; though even in dark ages there have always been a few mystics and intuitive minds who have perceived the truth.” – H. T. Edge (1998).

The word “sin” is “chattah” (Strong’s Hebrew Concordance #H2403) and “amartia” (Strong’s Greek Concordance #G266). In both instances, it means “to miss the mark or to unintentionally err.”    

The Greek term for willful transgression, deviation and disregard is “parabasis” (#G3847). This is related to the Hebrew “avon” (#H5771). This means “an iniquitous act or to err intentionally.” 

Since 'sin' in Greek is a state or condition of an "intellectual error in judgemental reasoning," it is therefore “an offense against reason, truth and right conscience.”

“We are not sinners, we just make mistakes. In Hebrew, there is no word for sin. The (scriptural) word "Chet" appears in reference to an arrow, which "missed the target." The archer is not "bad." Rather, he makes a mistake - due to a lack of focus, concentration or skill. To avoid mistakes and achieve our fullest potential, get an education about life which is buried deep inside you and human nature.” - Rabbi Noah Weinberg, 'The ABC's of Judaism' (www.aish.com/jl/48970081.html)

Understanding this concept of 'sin' affirms full responsibility for the consequences for one’s own actions and learning from them. A person can only achieve victory over gross or beastly passions through knowledge.

5. Persons of African origin are NOT lost, degenerate or unclean; INSTEAD they drift away from their own indwelling potentiality of human excellence by their own willful, effortful and causative thoughts, words and actions. They exile themselves from their inborn potential to be at their best, highest and greatest. By their own willful and effortful thoughts, words and actions, they can live a life in the lower stages of consciousness or awareness.

6. Persons of African origin are NOT pre-destined, pre-determined or pre-ordained to suffer punishment or receive reward, according to the whim or caprice of any external agency; INSTEAD they are pre-destined, pre-determined or pre-ordained to come into life by chance like any other human being who survived and to experience the pain and pleasure of earthly existence through their own willful and effortful thoughts, words and actions. 

They come into life to unfold and awaken self-knowledge for the indwelling grand powers or faculties of human agency through responsibility and prudence.

Other people’s voices: 

"We are not required to do great things for humanity. We are not required to cure the world’s ills singlehandedly. Rather, we are required to be become conscious of how our actions affect others and the environment. We need to make sure that our thoughts, feelings, and actions do not harm others. 



"In addition, we can be on the alert for opportunities to take positive, selfless action for the benefit of others, our community, or the world. Such a simple thing as avoiding environmentally harmful products is one example. Keeping our thoughts pure and refraining from polluting the psychological atmosphere with the violent energy of anger are other examples. The task set before us is not easy, but as a Chinese proverb puts it, “To remove a mountain, one begins by carrying away small pebbles.” - Ed Abdill, Quest magazine (Summer 2011).

"We each have a unique part to play, and we should try to discover what our contribution is meant to be. We should try to discover what specific color we should be painting into the shining multi-colored picture represented by all humanity. We should try to discover what type of thread we are being called upon to weave into the tapestry of humanity. We should try to discover what note we should be sounding and finding our own place in the movement of the dancers upon the floor of life." - H. K. Challoner, “The Path of Healing.” Theosophical Publishing House (1972).

“All sentient life is a scintillating burst of color that dances throughout the Cosmic Spheres while singing a Song Celestial. Each individual center of consciousness is a prismatic sparkling somewhere within the vast spectrum of infinitude; each one a luminous "Pillar of Light" streaming outward from the innermost center of its own Spiritual heart in that resplendent brilliance becomes increasingly stained with color, as it shines downward through heavier and thicker veils of matter. Thus, all unfoldment evolves through a fantasy of color and sound, the inner light of selfhood expanding forever through endless cycles of work and rest, day and night, life and death, manavantara and pralaya.

“Somewhere along the way, we learn at last that living is an art, and each of us an artist eternally mixing, matching, and changing the tones and colorings of the fire and music in our soul, fashioning it into character.

“During our lifetimes, we can choose to become the skilled craftsman, inspired to use our palette of skandas in creating a masterpiece of radiant light; or we may carelessly mar our work, blotching it with harsh and muddied pigments.” - Vonda Urban, "Our Character: Ownership in Full," Eclectic Theosophist, Special Issue, (Winter 1995).

Open Letter to the Education Minister: Rote Learning is Producing Failures

In July 2013, I wrote this letter to the Permanent Secretary of the Ministry of Education and the issues therein were not addressed in the response. 

In the spirit of goodwill, I wrote the letter as a Zimbabwean parent with both high and primary school going children locally and who made a serious study on the education system based on the statistics available.

It is highly commendable that Zimbabwe has one of the highest literacy rate in Africa. We thank the government for that. However, I argued that we need to move beyond the literacy rate and achieve productivity and usefulness of the products of the public education system.  

Background

For a better reminder of the statistics, here is a selection of the national performance in the Ordinary Level examinations, as sourced from the local media: 

Year	1984	1985	1989	1990	1991	1992	1993	1994	1995
Pass rate	21.9%	14.5%	13.4%	14.3%	15.3%	14%	12.9%	13.6%	12.8%

1996	1998	1999	2000	2001	2002	2003	2004	2005
11.8%	14.6%	15.7%	13.2%	14%	13.8%	12.8%	10.2%	12.2%

2006	2007	2008	2009	2010	2011	2012	2013
14.2%	9.9%	14.4%	19.3%	16.5%	19.5%	18.4%	20.7%

Notes: 

1.        The statistics of some early years (1980-1983, 1986-88, 1997) are missing

2.        1989 – 39.2% passed no subject at all, and another 36.7% passed 1 or 2 subjects

3.        2003 - full exam localization

Observations

For the years under review, the lowest and highest pass rate in Zimbabwe's academic ordinary level exams has been 10% (2007) at the height of an economic crisis and 22% (1984), respectively.  

This means that Zimbabwe has had between 78-90% failure rate for its ‘O’ Level exams since 1984! If this is not scandalous, it is a dysfunctional measurement of the academic performance and human potential of our children.

We need to be comforted by the specific measures to be taken in addressing this unacceptable situation. Unfortunately, the purported failure rate of our children has been wrongly diagnosed. Albert Einstein would say, “No problem can be solved from the same level of consciousness that created it.”

The Presidential Commission of Inquiry into Education and Training (Nziramasanga Report) of 1999 is still to be released and implemented other than being mentioned indiscriminately and casually.

We are in a country that has been and is still reducing 78-90% of its young people into being convinced that they are hopeless failures. This creates a citizenry that surrenders or gives up its own deep sense of human worth, causative power and responsibility because of such an academic exam failure rate.

In my view, a one-size education system that fits all is irrelevant and counter-productive.

Our pitfalls

It is my well-considered view that our education system has a fixation with academic attainment and therefore is not identified with sporting and non-academic excellence. Schools are harshly judged around academic performance, as if academic achievement is the only measurement of being human. This may be the reason why our nation is doing badly at the Olympics and other competitive tournaments in various sporting disciplines.

The whole educational grounding is purposefully producing a hostile or uncharitable attitude towards entertainment, athletic and sports personalities around the world because they did not excel academically. Entertainment, athletics and various sporting disciplines may provide the biggest employment levels and a direct impact on the economic activities and value (“manufacturing and construction of sporting facilities, consumer spending, corporate activity and funding, sporting events, government grants/spending, sports marketing and broadcasting rights, employment/jobs/salaries, tourism…”).

There are also instances where sporting excellence has been undermined by the attitude of seeing non-academically talented as less human. This has caused school and college top athletes to stop being serious about their sporting talents because they would want to pursue their academic studies. China, the USA and Australia are top sporting countries and they offer sporting scholarships and greater learning flexibility for sporting students.     

After the compulsory basic primary education, the technical and sports secondary education learning should have general learning of “classical liberal arts” education.     

Pillars of an Educational System

There are critical and defining seven pillars of a public educational system – structure; infrastructure; content (curriculum); human capital; the efficient administration of the public examination system; cost and government and incentives for corporate funding for schools and students; and location of schools.

Structurally and according to learners’ abilities, there should be three types of schools or streams for public secondary education:

1.      “Academic Education School” (AES) (consisting of Arts, Sciences and Commercials), taking one to academic universities;

2.      “Technical Education School” (TES) should be considered as an option for secondary education for those of technical ability: Metalwork and Welding, Woodwork and Carpentry, Agriculture, Building and Bricklaying, Fashion and Fabrics, Cookery, Music and Dance, Art, and Technical Drawing taking one to technical colleges and later technical universities. “The students are expected to get exposure to the industries, gain basic skills and processes for a particular industry, and develop technical skills to a degree where they are self-sufficient. An awareness of the industry and acquisition of basic skills seem to be on extreme ends of the continuum with advanced skill proficiency”; and

3.      “Sports Education School” (SES) should be considered as another career route based on individual talent in various sporting disciplines. This takes one to general or focused sports institutes/academies and various other tertiary specialised schools.  

Apart from a highly needed public sector investment in the infrastructure (buildings, teaching and technological resources, extra-curriculum facilities, libraries, and school certification, inspection and supervision) and human capital (teacher training and remuneration, and school administrative capacity), the nation needs to reorient and refocus the content or curriculum so that a fish is not judged by its inability to climb a tree.  

Reforming and Transforming the Education Content

Looking at content, how can anyone expect the swimmer Kirsty Coventry or athlete Usain Bolt to be a professor, doctor, lawyer or an engineer? How can anyone say that singer Oliver Mtukudzi or golfer Tiger Woods are failures in life because they do not hold university degrees?

Conceptually, seeking academic excellence from and/or not catering for the non-academically gifted children, destroys the whole fabric of individual human worth, the capacity to develop causative and moral agency and the responsibility of the majority 90% of the next generations of the country. But it is simply not possible to imagine and therefore to accept that only 10-20% are confident enough to think it is only them who are set for success just because they succeed academically. “Zimbabwe (is) graduating far too many students whose exam results (are) not good enough for (academic) university entrance, but who (have) no practical skills and therefore (cannot) not find employment” (T. Barnes, 2003).

 

We need to have a content or curriculum that makes it possible for a person to identify his/her own natural or inherent abilities and to develop them into a skill, profession or vocation. This identification should be done at the end of primary school education in Grade 7 using a combination of scientific career personality tests and a public examination system. Such tests should be reconfirmed at the end of Form 2.

An educational content should help young people to shape their inborn or innate essence so that they can professionally manifest it in due balance, proportion and orderliness.

The most talented, innovative and creative people in the world have been found to be the less academically educated ones while they definitely need the services of technical and professional people to institutionally manage their talents, innovations and creations.

The public education content should assist students to “find meaning in our own lives, in other people, in discoveries, and in experiences. These things make us to have hope, to care and to love. They help us define what it is to be human. These elements provide the basis of a fulfilling human life on the here and now.”

It was after the 16^th century that academic “rote learning” was formally introduced and replaced liberal education which made it possible for children to be “critical and creative in their thinking” in a rigorous way. Rote learning, technical or professional education for commercial vocations and trades allows one to just earn a living but not to become a full human being as what liberal education does to a person.  

Rote learning is a method of learning by cramming, repetition and memorization. “Rote” literally means mechanical, fixed or habitual and frequent parrot repetition of something learned triggering an uncritical and unthoughtful response to assumptions and their relevance in light of new scientific and technological discoveries and possibilities. “Rote learning can be an appropriate learning technique is in a special needs classroom. Students who are mentally handicapped or suffer from learning disabilities such as dyslexia or dysgraphia often require repetition in order to learn new things. In fact, some students with disabilities may only be able to learn by rote.” – ‘What is Role Learning?’ www.wisegeek.com/what-is-rote-learning.htm  

Rote learning is about reading, writing and recollection of spoon-fed ideas while lacking curiosity, whereas “classical liberal education” is about “thinking or disciplined analysis, communication or reasoned arguments, judgment and value cognition.” A curriculum needs to be “structured with a basis of rote learning followed by a much lengthier period of applied, practical study and critical thinking.”

How should the educational content or curriculum be framed? Let us illustrate using a child development exercise.

At home, workplace or any other social setting, do the following game: break yourselves into two groups.

Within ten minutes, one group should list the natural (unguided and untaught) fifteen positive attitudes and attributes of a child less than 5 years old, before conditioned by the schooling, social and religious system.

The other group should list the cultivated and learnt positive attitudes, attributes and tendencies of an adult person “to live, to prosper, be well.”

The two groups should not influence each other and they should not use any other resource other than the intellect of each of the group members.

When the two groups are done, come together and on a clean sheet, create three columns. In the first two columns, separately list them. Pick out the common words or terms and list in the third column. You may find that the listings use different terms that mean the same. Reconcile the terms so that the two groups agree on one term in the third column.

At the end of the exercise, it will be noticed that 75-100%, the unguided and untaught behaviours of infants and adults’ cultivated and learnt positive attributes “to live, to prosper, be well” are the exactly same.

The following have been found out to be common between the two groups – (1) engagingly active, energetic and passionate, (2) confident but not arrogant, (3) strong-willed but not stubborn, (4) experimental, adventurous and exploring, (5) effortful without blaming or excuses, (6) hopeful about possibilities, (7) joyfully and warmfully courteous towards anyone, (8) sense of sincerity, authenticity and truthfulness, (9) creative, imaginative and innovative about solutions, (10) easily adaptive to new situations, (11) a persistently focused and never give-up approach, (12) free-spirited and social unlimitedness, (13) observant, (14) inquisitive, exploratory and curious, and (15) open-mindedness and ease reception to fresh ideas or perspectives.

  

These unguided and untaught aspects constitute our “Essence Self” unrelated to the conceited Mind. If these are the unguided and untaught but highly perceptive behaviours of a child so young and are the same as the cultivated and learnt positive attitudes and attributes for adults to “to live, to prosper, be well”, how do they recede as we grew out of childhood? What does this inform us about our upbringing, conditioning and socialization in the family and education system as influenced by religion? This may mean the Essential Self during the ages 5-21 is being destroyed in the families and education system as influenced by low culture and literalist religions. The destruction conditions people to be prejudicial, unthinking and vainglorious believers who avoid the “use of sound evidence and valid reasoning.”

A discovered Essential Self makes it possible for us to realize and manifest our own internal faculties already resident in the recesses of our own humanity. This drives us to be creative and innovative thinkers of “critical thought, fair-mindedness, self-insight, and a genuine desire to serve the public good.”    

“The term 'education' is the noun form of the verb educate. It comes from the Middle English ‘educaten,’ itself coming from the Latin term ‘educare,’ ‘educatus’ meaning 'bring up, rear.' It is linked to ‘educere’ meaning 'to lead forth' or 'bring out'.”

According to Webster's Dictionary: Educate: “to bring up or guide the powers of, as a child; to develop and cultivate, whether physically, mentally or morally, but more commonly limited to the mental activities or senses.” Education: “properly a drawing forth, implies not so much the communication of knowledge as the discipline of the intellect, the establishment of the principles, and the regulation of the heart.”

The Concise Oxford Dictionary defines ‘educe’ as to "bring out, develop, from latent or potential existence."

In terms of content, education is thus a process of two aspirational objectives: bringing out the child’s inner faculties within and leading forth the child out of ignorance about the self. In both instances, the idea of social upbringing and education is that deep hidden within the biological condition amid the conflictual human sounds, colours and forms about race, culture, gender, ethnicity and religion; and obscured from the delusion, disorderliness and coarseness of the mental state, is the latent and embryonic “Essence or True Self” in every person.         

Upbringing should be about making it possible for a person to later live a life of being a fair-minded critical thinker capable of building sound relationships, walking through life confident, true to him/herself and genuine to others, able to discover and manifest his/her natural genius (one’s own best, highest and greatest).

Through the educational system, a person needs to be developed and raised in an onward and upward direction whose disposition is a “moral sense” – understanding and accepting the impact of own actions on others; and “citizenship sense” – act responsibly and accept responsibility for own actions, learn cooperation and show initiative, and know the value and importance of making a positive contribution to the lives of others.          

The purpose of education (“paideia,” a Greek word meaning “the upbringing of a child”) can be considered to be fourfold and its content should be make it possible to:

1.      1. Develop human genius or grand powers, faculties or capacities consisting of:

                    i.    Reasoning (the faculty to understand, think and examine rationally and explore logically, apply knowledge innovatively and make decisions responsibly to accept the consequences, results and effects of one’s choices, decisions and actions, i.e. to each person the fruit of that which he/she sows as "the fruit lies in the seed") This is the faculty that makes it possible to inquire, analyse, compare and further research so that a choice, decision and action is based on sound and sensible facts. By this faculty, a human being consents to lawful authority, vigorously explores and continuously re-examines established traditions and customs and socially conditioned existence according to new discoveries and convictions,

                   ii.    Causation (causative agency, i.e. the faculty of imagination, innovation and creativity to mentally and physically shape, fabricate, weave, mould and form) and

                  iii.    Discernment (the faculty of cognizing, freewill or the exercise of moral agency i.e. the ability to judge and determine what is good and bad, right and wrong). What is good and bad, or right and wrong? That which sustains the purpose of life, which is the human well-being or flourishing (“eudaimonia” in Greek). The purpose of human life was depicted in ancient Egypt at the end of the references of kings’ names or to their household, with a phrase, “ankh, wedja, seneb,” which meant “life, prosperity, health” or “to live, to prosper, be well.” In some countries, this has been immortalised e.g. the first and second article of the Virginia Declaration of Rights adopted in 1776; the declaration of independence of the United States Declaration of Independence later incorporated in the US Constitution by way of the Fifth (ratified in 1791) and Fourteenth Amendments (ratified in 1868); the Chapter III, Article 13 of the 1947 Constitution of Japan; Article 3 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (1948) reads, “Everyone has the right to life, liberty, and security of person,” the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms (1982) states “life, liberty, security of the person.” A healthy and supportive upbringing nurtures such a possibility. The result is that of an individual and public life of a high sense of honour or integrity in the work involved, dutifulness or responsibility to what is expected of us with fervency and strong eagerness, and better and sustainably improving standards of service.

2. Assist in the discovery of “thyself” for human worth, self-confidence and the actualisation of one’s potential to the fullest (i.e. “enabled to understand the processes of nature, the laws of growth, and the central place of human consciousness”) “For through self-knowledge and self-awareness not only do we get to know ourselves, but we automatically become aware of the world or worlds in which we live”; and

3.      3. Assist in the discovery of one’s talent or develop the competence of an art, craft or skill to earn a living using the human genius.

The word, ‘humanitas’ is associated with Roman philosopher-politician, Marcus Tullius Cicero (106-43 BCE), which means a “better human being.” As an attitude and approach to life, ‘humanitas’ asserts a human’s importance as a virtuous cultivated being, confident of his/her human worth, courteous and genuine to others, honest in his/her social conduct, and active in his/her citizenship role.

A human being becomes a better human being by refining and respectably cultivating him/herself (Cicero, “De Legibus,” Book 1:25) through education and altruism.

According to Rabbi Moses Maimonides, “One whose merit surpasses his iniquity is a tzaddik” and every person can reach this level.

Therefore, ‘humanness’ means ‘a life with moral values’. ‘Morality’ is the system of the (1) Duties to Self (“Know thyself”) and Others (“Golden Rule”); (2) Fully comprehending the Cosmic Laws of Nature (the enduring perennial and self-evident Truths) and the Law of Causation, and (3) Living a full life of civic excellence (virtue and integrity) and active citizenship.

In a book “The Global Achievement Gap” (Basic Books, August 2008), the Harvard Innovation Education Fellow Tony Wagner set out seven core competences that every academic and non-academic student must master before the end of high school: (1) Critical thinking and problem solving (the ability to ask questions); (2) Collaboration across networks and leading by influence; (3) Agility and adaptability; (4) Initiative and entrepreneurialism; (5) Accessing and analyzing information; (6) Effective written and oral communication; and (7) Curiosity and imagination. This is not achieved through rote learning but “classical liberal arts” education.   

Daniel H. Pink points out that today’s graduates need to master six critical skills, aptitudes and competencies to succeed in a “conceptual economy” of the 21^st century: (1) Design – the ability to conceptualize and think creatively; (2) Story – the ability to tell a story, to use metaphor and to write and speak clearly; (3) Symphony – the ability to summarize and synthesize information, to bring various ideas and people together to work as a team; (4) Empathy – the ability to immerse yourself in someone’s else culture, and to be tolerant of ideas contrary to one’s own cultural tradition; (5) Play – the ability to imagine, to be humorous, and to utilize game strategies in everyday problem solving; and (6) Meaning – the ability to seek out meaningful, non-material activities, to appreciate symbolism, and to develop lasting meaningful career skills – ‘A Whole New Mind: Why Right-brainers Will Rule the Future’ (Riverhead Books, 2005), www.d.umn.edu/cla/deanwelcome/whatare.php Again, rote learning is not the route for this conceptual mindset.

There is something about us that is natural, untaught and innate and we have lost it through rote learning, the kind of education we have received.

The “instinct, inclination or predisposition” to have a full life and live well is natural, untaught and born within. Our instinctively driven ability to cry and suck our mothers’ breasts for milk soon after birth is natural, untaught and born within.

Our ability to sit up, crawl, stand and then walk is only perfected but the beginnings are natural, untaught and born within. The conception in the womb, the multiplication of cells into billions and the full development of the body and its parts till birth are natural, untaught and born within.

That which is natural, untaught and born within is our "primordial state" or natural condition! This state or condition about us arises out of an indwelling "consciousness, intelligence and creativity." While these three are innate or inborn, they need to be discovered so that each of us can evolve towards our best and highest.

Conclusion

It is a national interest to understand and immediately do something about 78-90% of our young people every year who are full of despair about their employment prospects because of a structure and curriculum of an education system built on 100% academic pursuits. An increasing number of the unemployed and a highly informalised economy is unsustainable and a serious threat to political legitimacy of the gains of the liberation struggle as it debases and demeans the social and moral fabric of our country.

Our young people can easily become the entry points of a distorted national discourse, and easy targets for those intending to threaten and destabilize the nation. Such political destabilization uses the social frustration arising out of high unemployment largely driven by the lack of technical skills and the capacity to create jobs. 

Read earlier, http://shingaindoro.blogspot.com/2011/07/professional-education-creating-zombies.html