I am aware this year of a change due to the things that I have done, I am looking closely at what I am currently doing and that maybe I need to change that as well.
I have been troubled by the way education funnels the mind of children into smaller and smaller focus which may have been good for sending them to the office or the factory but in today’s society we need flexibility and creative thinking with the ability to learn new things and new skills and that is not being addressed by schools in my humble opinion.
I heard an interesting talk on the radio by science fantasy writer Jasper Fforde saying that schools need to promote imaginative thinking and not focus on science because what we need are new ideas not a reworking of old thoughts .He raised the interesting point that on a mobile phone the only new idea was the liquid crystal display everything else was reworking of old technology.
Old paradigms that drive political and economic thinking have taken us to a number of dangerous places which is evident in the non-ecological aspect of most government thinking. For example instead of creating more energy we should just use less, we are using three and a half times what this planet can sustain in the West and that cannot continue whatever we think, this is a bit like death, you might be able to delay it but it is coming for you.
What matters in our thinking should be what world are we leaving for our children? At this rate we are destroying our grandchildren because we are destroying the ecosystem that they require; don’t get me wrong here the planet does not need saving that will adjust but it will be without us. We are at the top of the food chain we are the most vulnerable and the change that we need comes from all of us not from politicians and we can start by changing how we teach our children.
Vic