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JeroenLuminous beings are we, not this crude matterNetherlandsVeteran
A short story...
A rabbit, a sparrow and a squirrel met in the forest and said it would be a good idea to educate their children together in a school. The rabbit insisted that running should be on the curriculum, while the squirrel said that perpendicular tree climbing was essential and had to be on the course, while the sparrow said that flying was a key skill and must be part of the teaching.
The young rabbit got an A in running, but only a C in perpendicular climbing, and after a while his skills in running deteriorated as he got the habit of hopping from his flying lesson. The young squirrel at first got an A in perpendicular tree climbing but damaged himself falling from a tree trying to fly. The young sparrow soon broke his wings and beak while attempting perpendicular tree climbing.
Education often does more harm then it does good, you need to adopt things according to your capabilities. Schools usually try to supply a series of ready-made answers, learning by rote.
0
federicaSeeker of the clear blue sky...Its better to remain silent and be thought a fool, than to speak out and remove all doubtModerator
edited June 2019
Funnily enough, when I was a Parent Governor at my children's primary school, we did debate the obvious anomaly in helping the educationally-disadvantaged, and ultimately what proved to be ignoring the more capable and educationally-gifted children. Those with 'Special needs' were given the time and facilities to improve their work, while the more capable children were virtually left to their own devices, to their cost.
It was tabled that the entire education system needed radical overhaul, and that children should be educated on a virtual one-to-one basis, in order to bring out each child's greatest gifts and abilities, while supporting and assisting the areas where they needed most help.
This would prove to be an astronomically expensive and ideological idea, and as such, unworkable.
Class sizes are extreme and difficult to manage (which is why 'Teaching assistants' exist), teachers have become Administrators and record-keepers and instead of being of benefit to the child, the Education system is hugely deficient and INefficient.
Couple that with the fact that there is a huge diversity of ethnic backgrounds and languages and frankly, were I The Government Minister in charge of Education in the UK, I would utterly despair, pack it in, throw in the towel, and learn to crochet... Easier knots to make and unravel...
@federica, as a current Special Needs teaching assistant, I agree it’s a hard balance to strike. Smaller class sizes would help, for sure, but I’m not sure one-to-one teaching is a perfect answer. The opportunity to socialise and experiment with relationships at school can be very beneficial for kids.
It does need an overhaul though, a major reassessment of values and priorities, not to mention sufficient funding. I’m throwing in the towel in July, but there are good people in schools, and I’m hopeful they’ll turn things around.
0
federicaSeeker of the clear blue sky...Its better to remain silent and be thought a fool, than to speak out and remove all doubtModerator
I don't think there IS a perfect answer, @adamcrossley , I wasn't implying one-to-one was, because for every pupil who you'd teach in a one-to-one system, you'd need the correct teacher. Frankly, I know that's far too big an 'ask' to ever be anywhere near successful.
And even if it were, I don't think EVERY lesson need be along that format. PE, for example, would have to be a community, group thing... so yes, I agree that the social aspect of Education is important (but if we're honest, that too can throw up integration problems...)
Funding is a major issue, isn't it? If only the Government considered Education as vital a priority as Arms funding...eh? But that's a whole 'nuther 'open your textbooks'...
JeroenLuminous beings are we, not this crude matterNetherlandsVeteran
From Eckhart Tolle’s The Power of Now...
A Buddhist monk once told me: 'All I have learned in the twenty years that I have been a monk I can sum up in one sentence: All that arises passes away. This I know." What he meant, of course, was this:
I have learned to offer no resistance to what is; I have learned to allow the present moment to be and to accept the impermanent nature of all things and conditions. Thus have I found peace.
I've been really under the pump with work yesterday and today and have started the following little exercise that has proven beneficial.
Whenever stress, anxiety, fear, anger have arisen in the body and mind, I try and catch it and:
Give it a smile.
Give it a welcome.
Give it a hug and a cup of tea.
Very helpful......reminds me of this.
3
JeroenLuminous beings are we, not this crude matterNetherlandsVeteran
Buddhism seems split into two streams. One for those who seek enlightenment, where they practice and verify what they learn through their own experience, and are encouraged to become monastics. The other for those who just seek merit and a good rebirth, where they are taught to believe in karma and rebirth and the many realms.
@Kerome said:
Buddhism seems split into two streams. One for those who seek enlightenment, where they practice and verify what they learn through their own experience, and are encouraged to become monastics. The other for those who just seek merit and a good rebirth, where they are taught to believe in karma and rebirth and the many realms.
I think there’s some truth in that, @Kerome. But I suspect that most people here are somewhere in the middle; we believe in karma and rebirth to varying extents, but we also devote some time each day to practice and verification of the teachings, without necessarily aspiring to enter a monastery. What could we call this stream then?
0
JeroenLuminous beings are we, not this crude matterNetherlandsVeteran
@federica said:
I don't think there IS a perfect answer, @adamcrossley , I wasn't implying one-to-one was, because for every pupil who you'd teach in a one-to-one system, you'd need the correct teacher. Frankly, I know that's far too big an 'ask' to ever be anywhere near successful.
It does make you wonder what the effect will be of an AI on education. With a teaching AI, you could provide 1-on-1 teaching with a variety of methods most suited to the students. I think such an AI could be built in the next twenty years or so, if you look at progress with game-playing AI.
0
JeroenLuminous beings are we, not this crude matterNetherlandsVeteran
Perhaps there is less room in today’s world to do what the Buddha did, which is withdraw from normal society and go live in the forest, meditate until you find the answer. There is no society of ascetics here today, and there seem a lot more pressures to do well in society which come from education and so on. All the brilliant minds are led into very specific tracks.
It seems to be only the misfits, the rebels, those with mental disorders, who follow their own paths and try to live a different and unique life. Or those who later in life encounter some circumstance that completely de-rails them.
I’m not sure that’s completely true @Kerome. There’s still a huge population of ascetics in India, mostly in the Hindu/Yoga tradition but that was true of the Buddha’s time as well. In fact there’s arguably more ascetics now than ever before:
There are 4 to 5 million sadhus in India today and they are widely respected for their holiness.
And I think the Buddha’s story was always one of going against the grain. He was expected to inherit the rule from his father and contribute to society in that specific, conventional way. I think “going forth” was as unconventional then as it is now.
1
JeroenLuminous beings are we, not this crude matterNetherlandsVeteran
edited July 2019
You’re right that in India it might still be there... I guess it really depends on where you live, and a modern European ascetic might first take a flight to the Far East or to South America. Although I suppose visa’s and papers might get in the way.
It’s still a beautiful tradition.
0
JeroenLuminous beings are we, not this crude matterNetherlandsVeteran
Nobody dies a minute too early or a minute too late.
— Unknown Rinpoche according to Ram Dass
1
JeroenLuminous beings are we, not this crude matterNetherlandsVeteran
The world is nothing but an illusion, and should be seen as dreamlike as far as its reality is concerned. We do the best we can, because that is an expression of who we are, but there is no need to consider things as being serious, weighty.
1
JeroenLuminous beings are we, not this crude matterNetherlandsVeteran
In the proximity of death, the whole concept of ownership stands revealed as ultimately meaningless.
— Eckhart Tolle
0
federicaSeeker of the clear blue sky...Its better to remain silent and be thought a fool, than to speak out and remove all doubtModerator
And as far as I'm concerned, we would do well to be mindful of that when Death is NOT proximate. Because - let's be blunt - who can predict exactly when it will be...?!
Comments
A short story...
A rabbit, a sparrow and a squirrel met in the forest and said it would be a good idea to educate their children together in a school. The rabbit insisted that running should be on the curriculum, while the squirrel said that perpendicular tree climbing was essential and had to be on the course, while the sparrow said that flying was a key skill and must be part of the teaching.
The young rabbit got an A in running, but only a C in perpendicular climbing, and after a while his skills in running deteriorated as he got the habit of hopping from his flying lesson. The young squirrel at first got an A in perpendicular tree climbing but damaged himself falling from a tree trying to fly. The young sparrow soon broke his wings and beak while attempting perpendicular tree climbing.
Education often does more harm then it does good, you need to adopt things according to your capabilities. Schools usually try to supply a series of ready-made answers, learning by rote.
Funnily enough, when I was a Parent Governor at my children's primary school, we did debate the obvious anomaly in helping the educationally-disadvantaged, and ultimately what proved to be ignoring the more capable and educationally-gifted children. Those with 'Special needs' were given the time and facilities to improve their work, while the more capable children were virtually left to their own devices, to their cost.
It was tabled that the entire education system needed radical overhaul, and that children should be educated on a virtual one-to-one basis, in order to bring out each child's greatest gifts and abilities, while supporting and assisting the areas where they needed most help.
This would prove to be an astronomically expensive and ideological idea, and as such, unworkable.
Class sizes are extreme and difficult to manage (which is why 'Teaching assistants' exist), teachers have become Administrators and record-keepers and instead of being of benefit to the child, the Education system is hugely deficient and INefficient.
Couple that with the fact that there is a huge diversity of ethnic backgrounds and languages and frankly, were I The Government Minister in charge of Education in the UK, I would utterly despair, pack it in, throw in the towel, and learn to crochet... Easier knots to make and unravel...
@federica, as a current Special Needs teaching assistant, I agree it’s a hard balance to strike. Smaller class sizes would help, for sure, but I’m not sure one-to-one teaching is a perfect answer. The opportunity to socialise and experiment with relationships at school can be very beneficial for kids.
It does need an overhaul though, a major reassessment of values and priorities, not to mention sufficient funding. I’m throwing in the towel in July, but there are good people in schools, and I’m hopeful they’ll turn things around.
I don't think there IS a perfect answer, @adamcrossley , I wasn't implying one-to-one was, because for every pupil who you'd teach in a one-to-one system, you'd need the correct teacher. Frankly, I know that's far too big an 'ask' to ever be anywhere near successful.
And even if it were, I don't think EVERY lesson need be along that format. PE, for example, would have to be a community, group thing... so yes, I agree that the social aspect of Education is important (but if we're honest, that too can throw up integration problems...)
Funding is a major issue, isn't it? If only the Government considered Education as vital a priority as Arms funding...eh? But that's a whole 'nuther 'open your textbooks'...
So, you fell, again.
Get back up.
I have dual nationality.
I am not proud of my chauvinistic Appenzell heritage (my Canton)
Power to all the people ...
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-48615911
From Eckhart Tolle’s The Power of Now...
A Buddhist monk once told me: 'All I have learned in the twenty years that I have been a monk I can sum up in one sentence: All that arises passes away. This I know." What he meant, of course, was this:
I have learned to offer no resistance to what is; I have learned to allow the present moment to be and to accept the impermanent nature of all things and conditions. Thus have I found peace.
I've been really under the pump with work yesterday and today and have started the following little exercise that has proven beneficial.
Whenever stress, anxiety, fear, anger have arisen in the body and mind, I try and catch it and:
Very helpful......reminds me of this.
Buddhism seems split into two streams. One for those who seek enlightenment, where they practice and verify what they learn through their own experience, and are encouraged to become monastics. The other for those who just seek merit and a good rebirth, where they are taught to believe in karma and rebirth and the many realms.
I think there’s some truth in that, @Kerome. But I suspect that most people here are somewhere in the middle; we believe in karma and rebirth to varying extents, but we also devote some time each day to practice and verification of the teachings, without necessarily aspiring to enter a monastery. What could we call this stream then?
It does make you wonder what the effect will be of an AI on education. With a teaching AI, you could provide 1-on-1 teaching with a variety of methods most suited to the students. I think such an AI could be built in the next twenty years or so, if you look at progress with game-playing AI.
Perhaps there is less room in today’s world to do what the Buddha did, which is withdraw from normal society and go live in the forest, meditate until you find the answer. There is no society of ascetics here today, and there seem a lot more pressures to do well in society which come from education and so on. All the brilliant minds are led into very specific tracks.
It seems to be only the misfits, the rebels, those with mental disorders, who follow their own paths and try to live a different and unique life. Or those who later in life encounter some circumstance that completely de-rails them.
I’m not sure that’s completely true @Kerome. There’s still a huge population of ascetics in India, mostly in the Hindu/Yoga tradition but that was true of the Buddha’s time as well. In fact there’s arguably more ascetics now than ever before:
And I think the Buddha’s story was always one of going against the grain. He was expected to inherit the rule from his father and contribute to society in that specific, conventional way. I think “going forth” was as unconventional then as it is now.
You’re right that in India it might still be there... I guess it really depends on where you live, and a modern European ascetic might first take a flight to the Far East or to South America. Although I suppose visa’s and papers might get in the way.
It’s still a beautiful tradition.
Nobody dies a minute too early or a minute too late.
— Unknown Rinpoche according to Ram Dass
The world is nothing but an illusion, and should be seen as dreamlike as far as its reality is concerned. We do the best we can, because that is an expression of who we are, but there is no need to consider things as being serious, weighty.
In the proximity of death, the whole concept of ownership stands revealed as ultimately meaningless.
— Eckhart Tolle
And as far as I'm concerned, we would do well to be mindful of that when Death is NOT proximate. Because - let's be blunt - who can predict exactly when it will be...?!