The Origins of A New Culture

Just as it takes a wise person to look within and realize their own needs to change; to look long and hard at the truth of themselves, their own shortcomings, and acknowledge their subterranean desires to improve - desires more deeply-rooted than the layers of "brick and mortar reasoning" they have been piling up since birth - it takes a wise culture to realize its flaws and take actions that shift things for the better.

The Roman Catholic Church has adapted to the changing world to remain relevant and accessible so it may serve its flock.  Australia saw the loss of life as too great a price to pay for guns and the mass murders that are part of a gun culture, so they changed.  Communist-bred generations rose up and said, "No more."  And even the narcissistic and brutal culture of the NFL is looking to improve its standards for what is acceptable behavior toward wives and children.  Cultures, like individuals, can take long, hard looks at themselves and decide to make changes.

But, it takes leadership.  It takes a single man in Algeria lighting himself on fire to create the Arab Spring.  It took Mikhail Gorbachev manifesting perestroika into a "permission to change" that allowed the Iron Curtain to fail.  It takes a Cesar Chavez speaking for the rights of those who cannot.  It took Martin Luther King, Jr. speaking the truth about what our nation's birthright was missing.  It took Mahatma Gandhi to teach a nation how to win its independence without becoming like the bully it sought to depose.

Our children "in utero" will have no say-so about what school system they inherit.  They will not go shopping for the right fit.  They will not be able to return it for defective workmanship.  They will not be able to get a refund of their time spent trying to fit into a culture that destroys the desire to learn and self-actualize.  But, they could be given a new culture.

Our national school system is crumbling and failing, and the next generation of education systems is waiting in the wings for someone on stage to bring them out from behind the curtain.  But... will those who are on stage share the spotlight?  The audience is booing.  They are screaming for a better act.  And yet the system we have doesn't know how to exit gracefully.  There will come a day and a way for the new generation to make its splash, but until then we are left wondering how it will happen, how it will look, and whether we will really like it or not.

Where do the seeds come from that germinate and grow into a whole new species of schools?  Where do they get planted, watered, fed, protected, and allowed to eventually drop their fruit for new generations of schools?  Would we know what these seeds would even look like if we saw them?  Imagine the orchard grower who brought Johnny Appleseed's "best" south with him to Florida's tropical plains only to have his apple trees not grow very well and not produce much fruit - if any.  Would he realize orange pips would be the answer to his dreams?  Would he buy a sack of them cheap and commit to them by planting an orchard?

The origins of a new school system require wisdom.  The leaders of the current culture must see the need and be willing to not only allow change, but to manage, support, advocate, and commit to "whatever needs doing" to make it happen.  This can be political suicide, and yet it will also be a legacy of historical proportions.

Lincoln's changing of the Union cost him his life.  Martin Luther King, Jr. paid with his own as well.  The Australian Parliamentarians who voted out the guns were not re-elected.  Mikhail Gorbachev is an embittered pariah in his own country.  And there are many stories throughout history where the masses who made up the culture did not understand the need for change as well as the wise ones who made it happen.  It takes guts.  It takes a willingness to serve the children of tomorrow with a better tomorrow, a legacy that gives more than would otherwise be available.

The true culture of our education system is found in the roots of what we currently have.  Before we had any education system we had only a hunger for it.  We had a nation of people wanting more, wanting better, and wanting better for the future generations.  This is our culture... the roots of our greatness.  The hunger for a better tomorrow and the freedom to make it happen is who we are at our national core

The towns that didn't have schools wanted them.  Colleges were too far and too few.  There was only a disorganized, discordant smattering of options, and yet people were happy to have something... anything.  The need for mandated testing to ensure uniformity of quality was way beyond their scope of dreams.  The use of technology to facilitate the flow of ubiquitous knowledge was not even a dream of educators thirty years ago.  And, keeping the old system because "It's what we have" and "It's what we're used to" is not good enough reasoning... it's not consistent with our heritage.  There is a hunger growing in the land and there needs to be a new species of schools.  The same hunger for "better" that was at the root of our present system's birth is here again.  And it is up to us who are here and can see it to create the new and better just as the Committee of Ten did in 1892.

The origins  of a new education culture begin in the lives of the next born as they encounter the concept of school and then follow their own curiosity and "desire to know all things".  The new culture must harken to the wisdom of following the lead of these children - creating education systems that serve (and do not hinder) their natural acceleration of wonder; their natural excitement for learning. The new culture must be compiled of current trends, current knowledge, and the future trends of technology that will carry the perpetuation of this better system, and then we must shift toward that system as gracefully and quickly as possible.

The origins of a new culture are found in two places.  First, it comes from the hunger for a better tomorrow; for a better life for those who follow us.  And, second, it comes from the willing servants who lead us now; the ones who can see the road ahead; who know how to manage the changes that are needed; and who are wise enough to make it happen - even unto their own demise.  Once we have set these two forces free from the constraints of oppressive traditionalism, we will be on our way.  Things will move.  Things will change, and new expectations will arise - and the masses will come around to appreciate their better tomorrows... without really knowing or caring how we got there.