We Can’t Afford to Let Dreams Die!: Education Transformation

Okay, I have to admit something. I have written for the last two days about transformation to end up spending this third day to sum it up. Why? Transformation Tuesday, of course! It would probably be better if I were transforming my body more vigorously, but our inner being, inner essence deserves just as much, if not more, attention. So, while I will have no before and after pics, I have grown, have experienced transformation, and continue to engage in transformative actions. How about you?
I want to bring this to a culmination today built around a topic dear to me, one which I have previously discussed: education and its transformation.
Transformation is about leaving old forms behind for new, more useful, evolved forms: New form (-) Old form = Transformed. I mentioned how ego works hard to maintain old forms, and sometimes those closest to us, immediately around us, family, friends, colleagues, loved ones, work just as hard to maintain old forms, which really gives the old ego a boost! “Hey, I must be really good, really helpful, really dynamic,…, if they want me to keep doing this so badly.”
This could be true, and we might be great; however, the transforming energy source, Heart, should drive our transformation. Then, what anyone else says or thinks just doesn’t matter. This is how so many dreams are killed, tabled, or remain dreams. “Why would you want to do…? You are so good at this? Do you have any idea what you will need to do, learn, finance, etc., if you try that?”
Ego jumps all over this, like flies on dog shit. Safety, protection, ease, admiration — you name it.
Heart just doesn’t care. Now, this does not mean I pay no attention to others; it does mean, though, that if others try to dissuade me from heart action, transformative action, then I know they are appealing to my ego, and I need to be careful.
Lost dreams are untransformed dreams. Untransformed dreams die.
The heart never gives up, but it does grow quieter when it is ignored. Heart emits positive energy and thrives on reception of that energy by our willing minds, and it reinforces even the smallest transformative actions taken in response to that energy.
The proof is in the pudding when we say we are in the process of transforming. We have to look different, have different processes, show different outcomes. Which brings me to education.
Government, citizens, families, millions of people spend billions of dollars on education reform. Looking at the etymology of the word, it means to form again; it uses the same material. It’s like having a clay model of a school building that you don’t like, smushing it into a ball, and re-sculpting it. You didn’t change the freaking material; outward form may look different but essential material is the same.
Current prevailing educational philosophy is ego-driven. How? The whole clay model shows how we will pour knowledge into these empty little people, they will learn it because we know more and know what’s important, and then, we will make sure they have it by giving big tests that tell them if they are failures or not.
What new material is needed? Heart material, which produces transformation: etymologically, across forms, a metamorphosis, a new something emerges. And it is a wonderful thing when a new way of thinking, a new creation emerges from students who have come to know themselves, know their own hearts.
My aforementioned formula stated New form (-) Old form = Transformed. Heart knowledge (draw out) (-) Ego knowledge (pour in) = Transformed (self-realized, actualized young people who know how to think, create, learn, relate, and a thousand other things). The old ego knowledge means that students come out saying that they could pass certain tests and now they are prepared to take orders to be able to hold down a job. Guess what we get? Masses of people who lead lives of quiet desperation — loss of dreams, talents, creations that would help humanity evolve.
I would be willing to bet that more dreams and the spirit of dreaming die untransformed in school than anywhere else, more than in any other formal organization, even though it is mostly a subconscious effort, an informal conspiracy.
Therefore, education does not need to be reformed. Not one more dollar should be spent on just reorganizing the same old shit. It needs to be transformed, which begins with it being redefined as a heart-driven, heart-discovering, heart-evoking venture.
What does that mean, practically? Well, a lot of things, and that is where transformation begins — with transformative actions. That is the subject of true professional development.
Such actions begin with raising awareness of the issue, because where attention goes, energy flows, and we need heart energy flowing into education. Awareness of a new way of thinking allows us to start taking daily, little, transformative steps, actions, that build. And this is the only way a transformation will occur because the establishment will never embrace this. Too much money is at stake.
Maybe I naively believe change will happen; I am not naive, however, about the disastrous effects the old form will have, is having, on humanity.
And it’s not because it’s bad; it’s because it kills the effects of the most powerful force we possess — the heart. And it’s subtle and undetected because we see happy teachers with precious children, all doing their best.
Why do I care? Because of those teachers and children. Education should be at the heart of discovery, and I am all about discovery. I want ego efforts and constructs of others to stop being dumped into children through so-called reform. I want to draw out those young hearts in the spirit of discovery.