Unifying the Academic Curriculum

A crisis in education would at any time give rise to serious concern even if it did not reflect, as in the present instance it does, a more general crisis and instability in modern society.  For education belongs among the most elementary and necessary activities of human society, which never remains as it is but continuously renews itself through birth, through the arrival of new human beings.  These newcomers, moreover, are not finished but in a state of becoming

(Hannah Arendt: Between Past and Future The Crisis in Education:185)  

            Spiritual principles are rational statements of human values, what gives them intellectual definition and a social dynamism.  Spiritual principles resonate and connect with inner conditions of the human reality.  For example, unity is a human value.  The spiritual principle of it, such as: “It beseemeth all men…to establish the unity of all mankind” is not just a statement of possibility, the goal of a program of action, but is also a truth about an inner condition poised to emerge.  Unity is not manufactured from nothing.  It is not some ideal condition to grope our way towards, and it can’t be established and maintained within a state of disunity.  Unity is its own condition, something that exists already and is brought forth from the ideal mine.  It emerges from within to create a unified social context that mirrors it. Unity is a social possibility only because it is a spiritual reality.  “Unity,” wrote the Universal House of Justice, “is a condition of the human spirit.  Education can support and enhance it, as can legislation, but they can do so only once it emerges and has established itself as a compelling force in social life.” (One Common Faith: 42)  Education can “support and enhance” unity even in the design of the curriculum.  That is, spiritual principles can organize the academic curriculum so that unity is the result of learning. 

            Indeed, only spiritual principles can do this. I said in the last post that foundations and goals must harmonize, where goals are transformed foundations.  Absent spiritual principles to organize the curriculum, spiritual transformation cannot occur in present secular education, even when "moral education" classes are thrown in the mix.  We don't expect peach trees from acorns. Yet isn’t that what we somewhat foolishly expect when “moral education” is a special class, an ornament to the real curriculum? 

            Because spiritual principles are generators of both new consciousness and of new behaviors, spiritual education cannot consist solely of learning spiritual principles as merely part of the intellectual content of learning, any more than the principles of physics can be taught and understood in isolation from interaction with the physical world, or vocabulary taught independently from language use.  Applying spiritual principles to the organization of the academic curriculum will transform intellectual knowledge.  As I see it, a curriculum founded upon spiritual principles would reorganize academic subjects to give learning new purpose within the two interpenetrating contexts discussed in an earlier post, the inner context of self-transformation and the outer purpose of social transformation via service to humanity. 

            In today's integrating world, the master spiritual principle of all education must be, intellectually, the consciousness of the oneness of humankind and socially humanity is one family.  If the oneness of humankind were to be the guiding ideal and purpose of education, this alone would reconstruct the curriculum and go a long way toward reducing the unreality of most current moral education, for the academic curriculum would be built upon those qualities that come from the spiritual dimension of human nature.  This dimension, the Bahá’í Writings say, “can be understood, in practical terms, as the source of qualities that transcend narrow self-interest.  Such qualities include love, compassion, forbearance, trustworthiness, courage, humility, co-operation and willingness to sacrifice for the common good -- qualities of an enlightened citizenry, able to construct a unified world civilization.” (Baha'i International Community, 1993 Apr 01, Sustainable Development Human Spirit)  

            Using the oneness of humankind and related spiritual principles to organize the learning experience will be to change subjects so that they will be taught in ways that complement each other, as the inner values and outer virtues themselves do, creating a nurturing intellectual environment that will generate spiritual knowledge, will unify human understanding, promote moral aspiration, and mature the intelligence.  In this new curriculum the various religions may be taught as the fruits of the teachings of a succession of Spiritual Luminaries who have brought the same energy and principles of moral and spiritual life from the sacred dimension.  In this view, each religion is a stage in the unfoldment of one eternal religion, thus quenching the fires of religious prejudice.  The different cultural traditions can be presented as great collective human responses to the teachings of these Figures showing, in the variety of their civilizations, the essential unity of all human civilization.  Arts, or the symbolic dimension organizing and encoding perceptions of reality, will ennoble and unify human vision, not just reflect current, fragmented vision.  Natural science teaching can be structured around the necessity of preserving the natural world, because it is our common home, of perceiving its exquisite beauty and understanding its structure as an analog of human beings.  Social science can be built upon the idea of world citizenship, with all the rights, duties and responsibilities that the word citizen implies.  History may be taught so that students see civilization-building as an ever-advancing process to which all peoples have made important contributions.  Vocational training should emphasize the value of service to the common good, and physical education is an excellent arena in which to nurture cooperation, teamwork, and unity by working toward group goals and including everyone irrespective of ability, and to instill a sense of sportsmanship by applauding all noble effort regardless of winning or losing.

            In this way, organic, integrated, spiritual principles unify the curriculum of academic subjects, both within each subject and across subjects, making a single, ever-expanding body of knowledge capable of holding infinite diversity.  Simultaneously, learning becomes a shaping power behind the integration and development of the individual person and global society because the cognitive, affective and volitional aspects of the human being are perceived as essential faculties of the human spirit which is the same everywhere and every time. Academic subjects themselves "support and enhance" the unity now emerging from the ideal mine of the human reality.  They magnetize the supreme talisman and draw forth the gems of human qualities.  The result of this education is the enlightened and virtuous human being and the ever-advancing civilization embracing all humanity.                       

            Where can one find such a curriculum?  Of course there is none so far in any advanced stage.  But I would recommend study of the curriculum developed by International Educational Initiatives.  It has been successfully applied in schools in Japan, Russia and the United States.