Internationally recognised speakers including the Dalai Lama, Parker Palmer, David Orr, Huston Smith and Joan Halifax expressed deep concern about the education of today's youth.
Most often mentioned were:
The conference looked at a number of possible ways to transform education to address these issues and the overwhelming positive response was that much could be done to create a living education that could fully engage the wholeperson.
These responses formed the themes of the conference and included:
In the past it was the responsibility of the church to look after human values but that influence has diminished. It is important that secular education now takes on this responsibility. "Education needs to concentrate on developing a good heart."
Going deep
Striving for growth, transformation and wisdom was considered a key to being fully human. Speakers asked how can we help students to be engaged in a meaningful search, in deeply enriching experiences, and to see the tension between dichotomies as the opportunity for transformative solutions? "We teachers need to stop needing to be liked by our students - to help them grow we need to make them uncomfortable ... and they won't like us for it!"
Responsibility for the planet
Over 10 years ago 70 Nobel Laureates wrote a letter to humanity. They emphasised the critical state the world is in ... greenhouse gasses, toxic wastes, loss of species etc. They strongly recommended that if we wished for a world where our grandchildren could live then we, the people of the world, needed to take serious action.
David Orr asked what skills would be needed by people in 2025 to eliminate global warming, address loss of fossil fuel, counter toxic products, stop loss of species? "How do we reinvent the world and reinvent the curriculum for a sustainable future?"
Building community
"Relationships are our greatest teacher." Community is a real knowing of and about others ... action together, commitment together and celebration together. Many speakers asked how we can make communities work better?
Spirituality in Education
The spiritual poverty of contemporary education provides few opportunities for today's youth to quench their deep thirst for meaning and wholeness. Misguided, or unconscious attempts by students to attain some sense of fulfilment can result in varying degrees of addictive behaviour toward activities, substances or relationships - all of which make teaching and learning difficult, if not impossible.
Compulsive or reckless activity, substance abuse, and empty sexuality can result from students trying to escape the pain of an inner emptiness. In the classroom this can manifest as lack of interest, lack of self-worth, lack of compassion, lack of self-discipline and lack of spirit.
A spiritualised education would seek to open the mind, warm the heart and awaken the spirit of each student. It would provide opportunities for students to be creative, contemplative, and imaginative. It would allow time to tell old and new stories of heroes, ideals and transformation.
It would encourage students to go deep into themselves, into nature, and into human affairs. It would value service to others and the planet. It would challenge students to find their own place in space and time, to look for their vocation, and to reach for the highest aspirations of the human spirit.
A sacred universe
Parker Palmer believes that "education is dull because we have driven the sacred out of it.• He described the sacred as "that which is worthy of respect. As soon as we see that, the sacred is everywhere. How it would transform academic life if we could just practice simple respect." But in institutionalized education, we only grant respect to "the text, the expert, and only those who win at competition. We do not grant respect to students, to stumbling and failing ... We don't grant respect to silence and wonder ... We are afraid of hearing something that will challenge us and change us."