Special Session #7 – Education
– Mar. 19, 2010 Special Session #7
Teacher: MONJORONSON
Topics:
A general assessment of our current approach to education
Keeping the spark of curiosity and excitement of learning
Assessment by qualification, rather than quantification
Assigning teachers to the areas of their expertise
Incorporating other resources to meet the needs of students and society
The disparity of quality education between classes of society
The breakdown of education will accompany the breakdown of society
Relationship between collapse of education, societies and cataclysms
Awakening of consciousness to the need for revision
What can we do?
Utilizing the co-creative design team method to envision a sustainable future
Promote from local groups to national and international groups
Are we prepared for crisis intervention?
Preparation for the children in the coming crisis
Hope is essential to give to children
The value and positive use of competition
Teaching and sharing responsibility
TR: Daniel Raphael
Moderator: Vicki Vanderheyden
March 19, 2010
Vicki: Dear Father, as we grow in the ability to perceive our own divinity as your children, we ask that you accept our humble gratitude for the abundance of wisdom Monjoronson bestows upon us during these sessions together. May this wisdom spark within us a sense of well-being and a desire to serve our brothers and sisters in ways that truly inspire others to seek your presence within. As you encircuit us with your Divine Light and Energy, guide us, Dear Father, toward the expression of your will. Amen.
Vicki: Good morning, Monjoronson
MONJORONSON: Good morning.
Vicki: This week’s ponderings led me to a wider perspective of the wisdom you impart. I find myself not only applying these pearls to the topic at hand, but to other issues that surface in my life and in relation to the people I interact with, and the innumerable challenges we face together. I’m referring to those multiple meanings that tend to surface as we read these messages over and over again, and as our daily life unfolds. Do you wish to comment further on this?
MONJORONSON: No, please proceed.
Vicki: Today’s topic centers around the theme of education, which I can see we may be exploring for a while, and I thought that we would take a look at where we are now in the broader perspective, and first discuss some of the educational practices that we have in our institutions, and where our progress is at this point. Having spent a large percentage of my life in association with educational institutions, both as a student and as a teacher, this is another topic that is close to my heart, and not without its own frustrations, especially when it comes to the policies and practices that we use, and my concern about whether they are in the best interests of the children that we educate. In saying that, I’m going to ask my first question:
A general assessment of our current approach to education
Could you give us a general assessment of the progress we’ve made on how we approach education within our institutions?
MONJORONSON: Most gladly. As we survey Urantia, and all the educational situations of your world and your societies, we are overjoyed at some small enclaves of spiritual enlightenment, that help prepare individuals for living in their societies as spiritual beings; whereas in most of your world, there is tremendous progress yet to be made. In almost all situations, there is lacking the understanding of the old ancient principle that the student becomes the master, and the master always remains the student, that throughout life, life is a learning situation. When your institutions of learning and education really truly perceive this principle of life and existence on your world, then life and learning will become integrated, continual and ongoing for those individuals who choose to do so. I believe I have answered your question?
Vicki: Yes, you have, and I thought you brought up an important lesson that I learned as a teacher, and that is that the best teacher is always the learner. I am often so very grateful to the little children, and the bigger children, who have taught me so much in my effort to teach them.
I’d like to talk a little bit more specifically about some of the practices within our institutions, and some of the concerns that have come to surface. One in particular is that I am often saddened to see very young children, so full of curiosity and joy toward learning, enter school and lose that spark. And I am feeling that some of that has to do with our artificial and maybe overly standardized curriculums. Could you comment on that?
Keeping the spark of curiosity and excitement of learning
MONJORONSON: Most gladly. And I will strive to keep my answers briefer for you, so we can have a more rapid interchange of questions and answers.
The spark of learning is the most important spark than an individual can have during their lifetime, besides the spark of love between people, [between the] individual and others. The spark of learning emanates from the innate curiosity of the organism as it becomes excited in learning that it is in a world of tremendous opportunity for exploration. Institutions of learning that stultify this curiosity dampen the human spirit for exploration in their world, and lessen their capacity, both as a human social being, and as a spiritually ascending individual.
These institutions of learning of this nature have devised a crystallized, linear format for teaching, which serves “it” rather than serving the needs and innate excitement of the child. These institutions, these programs of learning, truly are not sustainable; they can teach the rudiments of social integration, but not the higher levels of learning and development of personality and social being of children, into adults, into responsible members of a larger society. Thank you.
Vicki: Yes, I have felt very much what you are expressing, MONJORONSON, within our institutions. Also, I have learned that it seems there is a need in our societies to quantify the degree of learning that has taken place among students, in order to determine their progress, promotion and readiness to enter certain careers. Unfortunately, as you’ve spoken to, those are very linear practices, and they fail to measure up to 90% of the learning that actually occurs, not to mention that some of these instruments do not take into account cultural differences. Could you respond to that?
Assessment by qualification, rather than quantification
MONJORONSON: Most certainly. It is unfortunate that most of my statements have to do with what is missing, but it is to us to state the obvious of what is necessary and needed in an educational system. In regards to the measurement instruments that you have, these are quantifiable, linear procedures, as you suggest, rather than a qualitative process of assessing the individual. The process of teaching, all of education, is truly an art form that there are unique outcomes developed and devised and brought into being through each individual, who begins as a pupil, then a student, and then eventually a teacher.
This art form is the most natural flow of teaching, though to the human mind the linear process is the most easily accessed, simply because there is Step 1, Step 2, Step 3. This, in a sustainable educational system that supports a sustainable society and civilization, is necessary to devise educational procedures that are more qualitative-oriented, rather than quantitative-oriented, to assure that each individual is able to access the potential within themselves, and develop it as they choose.
This begins by seeing each individual as unique and then finding similarities between individuals, rather than finding levels or grades and tucking each individual into those grades. What I am suggesting, the reverse process of classification of students, is that you take students that have educational needs in common, and developing a class for them. Eventually, you will find that this easily uses the existing resources of an educational system, but adapts itself to the needs of students, rather than the students to the needs of the system.
As I say, this is an “art form,” and it is eventual that education will assume the characteristics of teaching art, where some students are good at sculpture in the round, some are good at sculpture in bas relief, other are good at sketching, others with oils, and tempera, and so on, that there are individual needs, and then you will find those needs in other individuals and develop a class for them. Thank you.
Vicki: Thank you. And it speaks to our need to have multiple instruments, that are more holistic or authentic, to measure growth in children, and it also tells us we need to prepare teachers to be more spontaneous in reaching the child at the level that they are at, and moving them along and assisting them in that direction, rather than asking the child to follow a prescribed curriculum.
Assigning teachers to the areas of their expertise
MONJORONSON: You see, dear ones, that the students eventually become the teachers. There really is no separation between students and teachers; they have many commonalities, as I explained, and gave example of a student who has an excellence in sculpture in the round, there are teachers who have the same capacity to teach that skill, and so there are qualitative needs for assessing and assigning teachers to teach those skills, which they are best adapted to, and to teach those students who are best adapted to what they teach.
As you are seeing, there is a highly artificial latticework that has been superimposed on the reality of human nature, and this is what you call your “traditional, standard, educational system,” at least as far as it exists in this country. And this has been a major flaw in the progress of your population to become educated, plus the fact that your educational system does not know or understand the importance of teaching classes and subjects which sustain your societies, your traditions, and your civilization—but that is another topic. Thank you.
Vicki: Yes, it is another topic, but it does speak to this discrepancy that we have between our technological advancement, and our lack of social progress, and I’m guessing that we spend far too little time, not only modeling, but developing social skills and emotional intelligence within our educational institutions. Is that assumption correct?
MONJORONSON: Very correct.
Vicki: Nowadays, families are looking for alternatives to traditional educational institutions, sadly, because many highly intelligent and very bright children, struggle within these systems. So some of the alternatives that have been provided, such as private schools or private tutors, or home schooling, are now being pursued. I’m wondering if you could give us your take on some of this that you are seeing happening within our culture?
Incorporating other resources to meet the needs of students and society
MONJORONSON: Most certainly. What you are seeing is evidence of a system that is broken, and those individuals who are intelligent and aware enough to know that it is broken, are seeking outside sources/resources, to use to teach their children the higher levels of education, this rather art form of education. This is difficult in a large population, as many people are unable or incapable, or not trained, to teach at home or could not afford to participate in private schooling educational systems. A large society must begin to see the value that these other resources bring to the forum of public education, and incorporate the best of those into the old system.
This will require a new system to do so. Your society in the United States, in the early 21st Century, has an educational system which is almost functionally broken, that individuals are neither enculturated in the history of their nation or the world, to help cultural and social sustainability, and are not capable of engaging themselves in their society, as they are not able to read at early levels. There is a tremendous difficulty in sustaining a society whose education system is broken.
It is unfortunate that this situation exists, as there are many who are in the lower socio-economic groups of your society who are fully capable of attaining the highest levels of educational, social and cultural excellence available in their nation, to become leaders and social guides for the future. This is a squandering of tremendous potential resources for the future of your nation, and your technologies. Industry loses out by the lack of these individuals. Your nation loses out by those who could contribute tremendously to it. As a society and as a culture, your educational system is highly inefficient.
Imagine a steam engine with an efficiency of only 3%; you would discard that engine rapidly, and get a new engine of higher efficiency and greater effectiveness. So too, the engine of your society—public education—is antiquarian, though sufficient to teach it a century ago, is almost completely inadequate to do so at the present time, for the vast majority of its younger citizens. Yes, your families and local groups who have their own internal and local network, private educational systems, have chosen to go outside the system, to meet the needs of aspiring minds and intellects, and hungry souls and spirits. Thank you.
Vicki: And this inability for our young ones to read at an early level, to me also speaks to the importance of very early childhood education within the family structure, and a society that supports that, when families themselves are incapable of doing that. Am I correct?
The disparity of quality education between classes of society
MONJORONSON: Most definitely. What you are seeing is a spiraling of a small population upwards, and a spiraling downwards of a large proportion of your population. Either one is that one generation contributes to the other, that children become parents, and if they were incapable of learning when they were children, they are most likely incapable of teaching their own children to learn within the home environment. This leads to a huge disparity between groups of your society, a huge separation between the factions of these societies, which will eventually contribute to social disruption and social imbalance and social disharmony and social upheaval.
Your public leaders are too short lived to truly appreciate what they are doing and not doing, and seeing how the system can be improved. Education is the forerunner of the societies which will come into being in future decades and generations. If there is a disparity of education between the classes of your society, this will become even exaggerated, simply because those who are well educated are always a smaller proportion of the society. In sustainable societies, this is just the opposite, where the vast majority of people and individuals are well educated, and that there is a small minority of the population who refuse to participate.
This is normal in developed and evolved societies, and points to the fact that your society is still young and immature, and un-evolved, and further that the leadership is unable to overcome the political morass/molasses—and overcome the glacial movement towards progress. Thank you.
Vicki: Thank you. An awfully lot of this affirms my frustrations, my last several years working with educational institutions, and trying to encourage change. It appears to me, Monjoronson, that in order to make progress in this area, we are going to need a complete breakdown of this current system, that is somewhat archaic. Do you agree with this? And if so, how do we go about this?
The breakdown of education will accompany the breakdown of society
MONJORONSON: Let me answer the first part first, please. Yes, it is unfortunate that there will be a breakdown of your educational system, as this will lead to an era of social breakdown in your society, where those who have leadership capacity, and have a vision for the future, do not have the political wherewithal to bring their visions into existence, and those who do not have those visions, who are less capable, do have the political capacity to bring their views to bear in the political and social realities of your nation. Yes, I agree that there will be a breakdown of your educational system. You are quite literally seeing it now, in action. Evidence is all around you, in your educational system, based on the failure to educate those who are capable of learning, and the self-interest of educational groups, whether it is the management groups or labor groups, these all work against the upliftment of your society out of selfish interests.
There is a way of satisfying the needs of all, though this is not available as a popular view, or even as a minority view at this time. Those processes will be revealed to you in the very near future, should you have educational leaders with the foresight, forethought and courage to engage this process, and enlist those individuals, even those in opposition to traditional educational processes, whether from a managerial or labor standpoint, encourage them to participate in this re-visioning of your educational process. This is necessary, and I believe this answers the second part of your question.
Vicki: Yes, it does. And I am wondering, with all of these future changes that we are being prepared for—cataclysmic or whatever—if this will move this process along. So, what I am asking is, will we see this breakdown of education coincide with some of the geophysical occurrences that may happen in the future, and will we find ourselves then building smaller educational communities, to help this process along?
Relationship between collapse of education, societies and cataclysms
MONJORONSON: Yes, there will be a coincidence, a “co-incidence” of the breakdown of education and the geophysical and astrophysical phenomena that will bring about the collapse of your societies. It will be too late then, that is why we are beginning now, to infuse new techniques for teaching you sustainable social processes.
Your situation of awakening is much like a manufacturing sector of technology that realizes that it needs a certain class of workers or engineers available to design the next new product or service it is about to present to the public, but there are not enough individuals who are educated at that level, technologically or otherwise, to fulfill the needs of that vision and that product. You have seen repeatedly in this nation, when there is a lack of those workers that your government with the encouragement of education and industry then becomes very generous in allowing credits and stipends, grants and scholarships for these particular fields of enterprise.
In this case, however, with the breakdown of education, there will be such a need across the board, that these individuals will be unavailable. Only the true visionaries, who have a practical and pragmatic bent towards sustaining your nation and all of your world, have this capacity now, but very few of your public leaders appreciate that, as they are swimming in the swamp of political and social malaise.
Awakening of consciousness to the need for revision
MONJORONSON: Let us continue. Your society is within 30 years of social collapse, from internal needs— spiritual, material, cultural, educational and political. There is a coincidence of events that are now brewing, have been brewing in your nation, and in developed Western and Eastern nations, that is calling many into awareness, an awakening of this situation. We are waiting for this awakening, to develop into a consciousness—almost a panic—of need for revision. Then this will greatly assist the movement of your socially, glacially, slow process for progress. It will require simply a cutting away of the old vines, so new vines grow.
You will say this is not working, let us stop using it and invent and design a new a new process. We are striving to fulfill this need for revision now, before collapse occurs. Your nation, the world, the global civilization cannot afford an era of decades of social unrest, of social disintegration. Your world, your civilization has come too far to squander this progress to regress a hundred years socially, economically, and financially in the development of your nations into a more homogeneous, cooperative, complemental organization of nation-states. Thank you.
Vicki: Well, it certainly speaks to what we should do in the meantime, and I guess that would be my next question: How can we, in our discussion today of education, help this process—or at least help in providing the resources for this process, now?
What can we do?
MONJORONSON: I would revise your question to begin with, “What can we do.” Perhaps this is a minor, technical way of restating the question, but I believe it has two parts: one is the “what,” and the other is the “do.” And this is imperative that you understand “what to do,” and that others as well understand “what” to do. You already have the “how,” and that is the right attitude, and that is the right intention, and the “how” is also answered by your energy.
Now let us get to the “what” and the “do.” The “what” is, “What can we do?” “What is essential to the doing?” And it is important that you understand what to do, before you begin the doing. You will only run around like you have no GPS locator in your car, if you are doing the “what,” and not know what to ”do.”
Utilizing the co-creative design team method to envision a sustainable future
MONJORONSON: I present you with an irony—an uncomfortable irony—in this present discussion. As you know, we have been working with this one, on designing sustainable social institutions, not for the future, but for the present. And this is a compromise of integrity for this one to state this, but it is quite true that the designs, which were given to him, have tremendous capacity and capability to design, co-creatively, social institutions which become sustainable from the present and into the future.
“What to do,” is now to begin thinking outside of the staid, archaic and crystallized box of your educational concepts, to engage new ways of thinking about education, and then devise designs that are sustainable. “What to do” begins with envisioning a sustainable future, it begins by having a vision for the future that is sustainable social existence. What would that look like? Write that down, whether it is for education, as a sustainable educational model, as a healthcare model, as a process of governance, as a corporate existence—it does not matter.
You must have a vision of a sustainable future. This is first your global statement for that institution, and that would be, let us say for education, in the future there is a sustainable educational, social process. Then you would work backwards from that and design those factors relative to the values of life, equality and growth. This follows the model that was given to you by Sondjah, in the co-creative design team process. This one, with Sondjah’s assistance, has written some very brief instructions for using this design process, the schematic for sustainability.
These instructions and the schematic for sustainability are available to you; they are very brief and they are very concise, but they are workable and lead to amazing insights into new social institutions, which you have concerns for. “What” also is the question, as when you work the “what,” meaning the schematic for sustainability, it will give you a list of things to do, to bring that into existence.
This is an amazing instrument, which will have tremendous repercussions from your local area to your international organizations, when it is applied sincerely, and without self-benefit in its intentions. This has been a slow process to bring into existence, as it is necessary to give validation to it coming into being. We have found heretofore, that presenting a miraculous solution to a longstanding problem, in an almost instantaneous manner, is not acceptable as it lacks credibility as not validated, or even verified, but rather dismissed promptly by potential users.
In this case, it is brought to your presence, gradually, slowly, has been proven to work and is now presented in a timely manner as your social institutions continue to break down, and are in need of reinvention and replacement. Thank you.
Vicki: Thank you, Monjoronson I know that the sustainability project was presented to a group of individuals. Should we seek more international participation in groups, to do this process? Is that necessary, or is it just necessary maybe to publish the results of our work?
Promote from local groups to national and international groups
MONJORONSON: We suggest both, as they will want to be exposed to this early on, and to test it on their own—we are speaking of national/international groups—and it is definitely recommended to local state, city groups as well. This is something that they will need to have in their awareness. when your civilization—nations, states, cities and counties and locales—are engaged with crises, they will seek answers.
First, overcome the immediate crisis, and then they will realize that when they are overwhelmed or will be overwhelmed, that they need a solution for the future. Those farseeing visionaries and futurists will recognize this schematic as something that will help them design for the future, and do so now. As well, they will realize that many of these actions that are suggested in this development of the schematic can be applied promptly in many situations. Awareness needs to be made of this to all those who are decision makers, whether they are heads of household, or heads of nations. Thank you.
Vicki: Monjoroonson, many of our schools offer crisis intervention training for staff members, to assist children that have experienced a home or school related trauma. I’m wondering whether this training is sufficient to meet the needs of an entire population of students, who are caught up in a trauma of cataclysmic proportions, as we may see in the future?
Are we prepared for crisis intervention?
MONJORONSON: With considered thought, no. Your nation has been protected from tremendous calamity of a large nature, of a cataclysm of a crisis of major nature. Your society is unprepared for this. Crisis intervention that teachers and others have been given in training is excellent, as far as it has been developed. This training gives you a base of reality for interacting with your social environment, which is not available to your larger population.
Your political system has, unfortunately, taken a paternalistic, protectionist perspective on these types of dealings with the masses of your population of your nation, so that vast swaths of your people are unable to think about cataclysm and disaster with realism. They (the population) are always looking for a quick solution, or someone else to handle the problem for them. They do not know that “life happens,” and that they are required to step up to make decisions, or become victims, if they do not. Your nation is unprepared for this. There is an unrealistic social environment that all will be well, forever, and this simply is not the case.
The crushing situation that will develop in these cataclysmic disasters is that people will be unaware of how to respond. They will be in such emotional shock as to become personally and socially disabled and no longer responsible for their situation. Many people will be disabled, and incapable, due to this shock, which will lead to great difficulties in those areas, which experience these social and geophysical traumas. What will follow then will be social in nature and will be more pervasive. It is most difficult for people to anticipate a negative future, and prepare for it, and then live pleasantly, happily, joyfully in a life of ease in the between time.
Your teachers, and those who have been prepared for interventions of this sort, are most prepared to do this. They will be the ones who will have the capacity to provide leadership during these calamities. This is an obvious statement that there needs to be more preparation for social trauma. Firefighters, disaster relief individuals, policemen, have been prepared for this, and they will be useful, but the vast majority of your population, approximately 95%, will be unprepared for what is to come. Individuals, who have spiritually and emotionally prepared themselves for this eventuality, will be well prepared. We are not talking about the extreme survivalists, who stockpile years of goods and weapons in their basements and storage houses, but those people who have prepared to survive spiritually and socially with others, in an integrated society. Thank you.
Vicki: Thank you. And a concern has come to my mind about children. What can you offer us in terms of helping children during the aftermath of these crises?
Preparation for the children in the coming crisis
MONJORONSON: Certainly. In decades past, and centuries past, personal trauma was known to exist to everyone, that the happenstance of death or disability of a parent, or someone who is responsible, was almost an inevitability, that life was short and sometimes in some cases, life was very mean. These parents told their children what to do in case of these emergencies. And this advisement now is very rare. Children were told, “In case we do not come home from market you are to go to the neighbor’s house, or to Uncle John’s house and wait for our return.”
If the children were old enough, they were given charge of the household, and the milking of cows, and tending of the animals, and so on. They were to see to the regular outworking of the family/community/group, in the event that the parents were missing. This was a necessary advisement for the children to know how to cope with the situation.
Hope is essential to give to children
Now children are left in hysteria, as they have no means of hope, they have no thought of hope. It is essential that children—even at a very tender age—be given an avenue of hope, which is the capacity and capability within them to do something, in the event of these disasters. When people feel hopeless, and helpless, whether they are 38 or 3 years old, it is a desperate situation for them; they have no hope; they have no capacity, even though they may have inherent talents and skills to assist themselves to survive.
It is essential that all children be given routes of survival, meaning what to do in the event of crisis. Yes, many children have been told what to do when the “Boogeyman” comes by, or a sexual predator, but they have not been prepared for the event where their parents fail to come home, or if they have a father or mother who becomes severely disabled, and will never return to the household as a regularly contributing member. Hope is essential; it is your responsibility to give these children hope. Thank you.
Vicki: Thank you! After this discussion, I have one other question that veers off, considerably, but I’d like to ask it anyway.
MONJORONSON: Most Certainly.
Vicki: We talked about the importance of teaching cooperation in a way that it is infused with a sense of love for one another, and so now, I’d like to talk a bit about competition. We’ve been told that competition is more ego involved and less task involved than cooperative activities. But also that cooperative activities do take place on the morontia worlds, and this tells me that there is value to the competitive spirit. Is that correct?
MONJORONSON: (Chuckling.) This is correct.
Vicki: So my question is, how do you then view the role of competition in the arena of education?
The value and positive use of competition
MONJORONSON: Use of competition is a very subtle device to advance your societies and the growth of individuals. Competition is a wonderful avenue for the development of confidence and the skills that support that confidence. The positive aspects of competition are tremendous, when they are truly appreciated, and your venue for competition explores these positive attributes. The downside of competition is that it does engender a sense of superiority, of “better than,” one person has greater value than the value of another, that the other person is given lesser value, whereas this is almost completely not the case in all regards. One person is never better than another; they only have more superior skills than another person.
The other way of exploring this would be to discover in competition who is least capable? This would be rather mean spirited, don’t you think? But it is as mean spirited too, to put another person on a pedestal as better than others. It is wonderful to see the well-balanced athlete, or the academic scholar, who is humble in their achievements, who truly appreciates their assessment of superior performance, but who nonetheless is as humbly accepted and accepts himself among others as equals.
This truly is the morontial way of exploring competition, and the morontial realm does use competition to engender the positive development of skills. It is a way of exploring the interest and aptitude of individuals, and in the development of confidence, that will later assist them in being assigned to various training groups, and as instructors, for those of lesser capability. Thank you.
Vicki: Thank you, that was very enlightening! It will cause us all to think a little further about our competitive activities. I think that I’m ready to close this session, Monjoronson, unless there are some big gaps we should discuss at this time. I think I need some time to think.
Teaching and sharing responsibility
MONJORONSON: Let me close then, for you.
Vicki: Thank you.
MONJORONSON: You are most welcome. One of the most important things to do in devising a new educational format is to appreciate the capacity of individuals to be responsible for themselves, and to teach individuals how to do this. Your educational system can be perfectly designed to give individuals responsibility to meet their needs, as well as to use the capability of teachers and instructors to the best of their capability. It is important that responsibility be shared at the lowest levels of those who teach, and of those individuals who are students.
It is important to assist individuals in broadening their sense of responsibility for who they are, and for their place in their society, and in the development of their own lives, and the unfoldment of their innate potentials. This will truly be one of the most astounding discoveries and developments in your social and educational processes; it is very simple, it is very straightforward, but it requires courage to allow other people to become responsible for the results in their life and yours, as a teacher. Thank you.
Vicki: Thank you and my guess is that we may revisit this topic quite a bit in the near future, as questions evolve and as we may begin some of our co-creative work, along these lines.
MONJORONSON: I would be most glad to engage that, and you are also welcome to engage the resources of the morontial teachers, if you wish.
Vicki: Thank you. Well this has certainly been a very interesting session, Monjoronson; very enlightening. There is much to think about and I thank you again, with all the gratitude of my heart for what you have given us today.
MONJORONSON: You are most welcome and good day.
