Pedagogy of the Sacred

Only dialogue truly communicates.

(Paulo Friere; Education for Critical Consciousness:45)

           

            The word curriculum means “to run a course.”  The curriculum is a doorway that opens onto reality whenever its content and structure reflects the perceived nature of reality.  The word pedagogy meant originally “to lead the child” as a tutor, or guardian, does.  In spiritual education pedagogy must embody principles that enable human beings to lead each other to educe their true or sacred humanity, to run that course that leads them to the highest and noblest they can be.    

            I want to explore how a pedagogy of the sacred can lead the child to that higher reality both within himself and within the world, can bring him into attunement with the sacred which is also his own best self.  As I will discuss, this is a paradoxical situation, because the most effective principle composing a pedagogy of the sacred is dialogue.  Usually dialogue is for sharing information, opinion, feelings and thoughts.  That is, it is an exchange to achieve more knowledge or better understanding. But to achieve connection with the sacred, dialogue is to evoke a numinous consciousness, a new state of mind, to arouse a latent level of mind and heart. It is not so much an exchange as a gift from above, an invitation extended to a third party to enter and participate in the dialogue and to transform it.         

            Intelligence in any form is diverse, interactive and dynamic.  We all know of the studies proving that people retain significantly different mounts of information according to the methods of instruction they receive. Generally, simple lectures rank very low, participatory methods of all kinds rank the highest. The main reason for this is the increased activity of the learners, their bringing more of themselves, as children do, into the learning process so they understand their own processes of learning by applying knowledge in trial and error situations. They learn how to learn—and pretty quickly, too.  Also, research shows that, whatever the curriculum and learning style, students learn best when they are engaged in real experiences within meaningful social and intellectual contexts that yield authentic results that have worth and purpose for a greater good, and potential for reward.

            From this view, then, even attending a lecture can be a participatory educational experience if the listener is fully engaged in what the speaker is saying and if it arouses a desire within him to know more, and he arises to find out what he wants to know.  On the other hand, while animated discussion about some problem or challenge is obviously participatory learning for those involved in the discussion, for someone who cannot follow the discussion it is not participatory at all, for he cannot enter the conversation.  He is likely to tune out, his mind wanders and he exhibits all the characteristics of profound boredom.  Also, what may seem like a lot of participation, with the give and take of sharing stories and anecdotes of “related” experiences, is often actually resistance to new knowledge and perspective, diverting the mind into known channels of thought that causes people to quickly lose the thread of argument or the possibility of change.  In such situations, while there may be an emotional resonance, or a sense of “Yes, I’ve been there, too”, at the end of the “discussion” no advance of consciousness has been accomplished.  This is because true participatory learning is not just a happy exchange between people, but the transformation that occurs between the intelligence and knowledge.  The mind and heart must participate in knowledge and be transformed by it.  

            When properly brought forth, what best engages the mind and heart are life’s great questions”: Who am I?; What is my purpose?; How do we get along with one another?; and when we have answered these essential questions, How do I gradually apply this knowledge to my everyday life? 

            What do I mean by when properly brought forth?  I mean the phrase in two senses.  First, the creation of a safe environment of inquiry.  Though the great questions of life are the most engaging, they are also, for many, the most frightening.  One may wonder about the appropriateness of stirring up fear and anxiety within students.  Should we not banish these subjects to the limbo of unasked questions, and take the safe, even road?  Absolutely not!  One of the great joys any human being can experience is the joy of overcoming: breaking free of limitations, tearing down Berlin-wall barriers to greater prosperity of spirit; giving hope and building capacity.  Of course there may be fear and anxiety initially, but on the other side of these is joy and abundant life. The teacher must lead her students to these Elysian fields.  Joy and fear are, together, the taproot of motivation.  Education is not for life.  Education is life, since the modalities of the spirit are at the same time manifestations of life.  We are “hard-wired” for spirituality!  Without it we are no more than zombies.            

            However it is unlikely these questions will be taken up unless students feel that it is safe to unfold themselves.  Often there are tentative reachings out, small, timid explorations undertaken, simple quick forays into the realm of spirit made by the uncertain soul which can be the “teachable moment”, the guide (and guard) to further exploration and discovery.  If teachers are full of wonder and mystery they will ask themselves: Why at this moment did that soul drop the curtain behind which it hid to peep out from its mental and emotional swaddling clothes to look at spirit?  In this sense, teachers should be like the battery name: Ever-ready.  These moments can be among the most precious moments of our teaching lives and we should approach them as we would approach any sacred place: with dignity, respect, even awe, and not with the pat answer.  The pat answer only trivializes the moment and reduces the whole question to entertainment, not education, the bringing forth of the real depths of self.  But neither should the student’s questions necessarily be met with a long philosophical soliloquy on the complexities of life, meaning and existential angst.  Too much too soon will also kill inquiry.  We want to invite them to share in the mystery of formulating their own experience, interpreting it almost as they are creating it. 

            There is a striking dramatic portrayal of what I mean by bringing forth the sacred depths of essential humanity in a scene from the movie Dead Poet’s Society.  In that scene a shy, inhibited young man has his “poem” of self educed by the teacher’s master application of threat and encouragement.  And when he does, to other’s applause, the teacher remarks: ‘Don’t you forget this.”  Beautiful!

            The second sense in which I mean the phrase properly brought forth is in the activity of dialogue itself.  Modern learning theory has proved that human beings construct meaning collaboratively, that human reason needs communication and community to develop, for human beings generally think best in communion. Such conversation seems also to be a valuable key to mental well-being and the ability to cope with life’s challenges.  From these points we note, again, that, if participative methods of learning form the matrix of the learning world, then dialogue is the core element.  Good dialogue is people engaged in authentic relations of mutual unveiling and revealing of self.  Dialogue is indispensable to education, for it is the manifesting of the human essence.  Dialogue is a primary method of social re-ligia. 

            Dialogue and conversation are so important because the presence of the self is evoked by listening to its thought. Dialogue is not just the conveyance of ideas and information, but the silent inquiry into thought and knowledge.  We hear thought when it is conveyed by the sound of words, or see it in pictures and sculpture, perceive it in motion in dance, experience its pure forms in music.  Spiritual Education sees the classroom as one opportunity among many for this transformation from inner thought to outer expression.  But it sees all situations that way.   More in the next post. 

Consultation as a Community-Building Power

Consultation bestows greater awareness and transmutes conjecture into certitude. It is a shining light which, in a dark world, leads the way and guides. For everything there is and will continue to be a station of perfection and maturity. The maturity of the gift of understanding is made manifest through consultation

(Bahá'u'lláh, in Consultation: A Compilation, p. 3

            Human beings are community-building creatures.  The classroom is both a shared physical space and a shared reality between members of a learning community.  Learning should be, in part, student-directed, but all learning should have both an inward-looking direction to find the Self, and an outward looking orientation to engage in acts of service.  Students need to explore themselves and their environment in their reciprocal interactions.  They must know themselves so they can be of proper service to their community.  Consultation is the proper means to accomplish all these ends.

            Consultation has many aspects and levels. It is more than the sharing of opinions in a common search for truth.  It is a means of self-reflection leading to the development of new capacities for individual perception, for good consultation enables people to know in common what they cannot know alone, and is, therefore, a way to accelerate the development of human thought.  Communication is thinking together and thinking in common is the basis of community.  Consultation is thinking in and toward comm-unity.  I mean that it is a process of shared reflection where truth may visit and thus confirm the search for truth of the community of searchers.  But this new confirmed community is built upon an implied community, for consultation does not assume that there are those who know and those who do not.  It assumes that everyone knows something essential to the full unveiling of truth.  Consultation brings these knowledges together in a new configuration that opens onto a new field of consciousness where truth may be perceived. 

            The foundation for these social and intellectual results is attitudes that individuals must bring into the consultative endeavor to create a real context of meaning. Some of these essential attitudes are: respect for others opinions, detachment from one's own opinion, courtesy, humility, honesty and frankness.  Such qualities create a magnet that attracts the needed truth.  Finally, consultation enables people to harmonize conflicting forces in themselves and their environment, and through service to others to build new, more inclusive social relations that reflect a sense of spiritual community.       

            The Universal House of Justice states that we should not underestimate the capabilities of children and especially youth in this regard.  Yet around the world that is precisely what is done.  The age group called youth is seen as lost in the throes of tumultuous physical and emotional change, unresponsive and self-consumed.  Yet within them are latent and powerful forces for altruism and idealism. They possess an acute sense of justice, an eagerness to learn about the universe, and a real desire to contribute to the construction of a better world.  Adolescence is that stage in life when an individual is highly interested in exploring questions of a philosophical character, especially those related to the purpose and nature of human existence. 

            We do not often see these qualities manifest because passivity is bred into active children.  It is this bred passivity that is the source of those unsightly qualities we often associate with adolescence.  So it is often assumed that youth only want to play and goof-off; that they are lazy and will not work unless they are watched diligently.  Further, that they are not capable of making wise choices; they are irresponsible.  Under the pernicious influence of such assumptions, a whole phalanx of external controls is instituted to keep a system of coercion intact, to keep pent-up, undirected energy siphoned off, to keep passivity going.   Independence and self-control are blocked and thwarted.  Initiative is blunted or goes unrewarded.  The end result is that their passivity justifies administrative tyranny in the name of “for their own good” and huge amounts of time are spent discussing student control and discipline.    

            Students must be provided real opportunities to expand their consciousness in an exploration of reality; an exploration that helps them to analyze the constructive and destructive forces at work in their towns, cities, neighborhoods, and schools, and to recognize how those forces work to direct their thoughts along certain pathways already laid out for them.  We must help them to sharpen their spiritual perception, enhance their powers of expression, and reinforce the moral structures that are the foundation of a strong individual and community life. They must be guided by adults who, themselves, are engaged in this great process of community building and the renewal of civilization.  We must so thoroughly establish this education that it takes on the dynamics of an irrepressible movement driven by the new vistas of knowledge that are unveiled.

            A consultative atmosphere is absolutely essential to a process whereby inner values get turned into social virtues, for learning that finds its end in service is civic.  An inner value goes from moral ideal to social virtue only when knowledge of spiritual principles enters into and helps to construct, regulate and transform social relationships.  Education must lead to transformative action through service to the common good. 

           But the importance of service will be seen only if the social purpose of spiritual education is understood and appropriate instructional methodologies that both reflect how human beings learn and that emphasize the ethical content of learning are used. Much of the effectiveness of such instruction depends upon the students will to learn and receive instruction.  If they don't see their purpose as advancing civilization by their personal nobility of character and behavior and by serving others they will not consent to be spiritually educated, nor make the effort to do so. 

            There are intrinsic rewards to this, of course, but consent can be achieved in part by pointing out the individual and social benefits to spiritual behavior and self-sacrifice.  People who advance the interests of other group members often rise higher and faster in social hierarchies.  Power to truly influence goes to those who are socially engaged.  Love, generosity, compassion, gratitude, charity—these are some of the key emotions to spiritual education and community.  What makes us happy is the quality of our human bonds, the health of our families, the time we spend with good friends, the connections we make with community members.

            Within a real classroom and school community each student is involved in the education of all other students.  They are mutually responsible for each other’s success and growth. For many that means entering into, perhaps for the first time, healing relationships.  Healing relationships actually retune the brain waves and help reframe events.  Many children need just one healthy relationship to steer them correctly.  Teachers have the opportunity to be that relationship. Teaching is not about managing people, but managing context to develop character.  Character is far more important than knowledge or skills, though knowledge and skills are tools to help build character. 

            Teachers, too, should join into networks, work together to liberate themselves and their own experience from the fetters of outworn notions of what they believe they are supposed to be doing.  Their intent must be to see clearly, think deeply and act effectively, so they may teach their students to do the same.  In this way, teachers can be powerful facilitators of social transformation, leaders in a process of community growth and change based upon their ability to evoke the humanity of their students, and not just functionaries passing on bits of cultural inheritance.
           The next post will discuss some pedagogical ideas.

Building the Classroom Community

The sacred…provides the basis around which a community can be constructed. (Unsecular Man:160)   

             

            The next few posts will present some general principles of building the classroom community, as I understand them, for the crisis in education also revolves around a disintegrating traditional relationship of authority between teacher and student.  The breakdown of authority in the classroom is part of the same breakdown of authority everywhere.  Much of this is due to a shift going on about the nature of authority, a shift centered around words like authority, obedience and responsibility.  Authority and responsibility, not authority and obedience, form the backbone of the emerging spiritual community at any level of social relations. 

            Traditionally, educators are in the position of supreme authority, not just in relation to the materials that they teach, but also as one standing between the unformed child and the already formed society.  In this position of authority the teacher initiates his charges into the world as it is.  They must conform in order to fit, to find a place, to contribute a share to that world that pre-existed them and which will outlast them. 

            But not today, for the world as we know it is rapidly crumbling and the new world pushing it out of the way is not yet clearly in view.  We sail through the choking smoke and flying debris of an exploding civilization to what shore?  We navigate not from what is ahead but from what is above, not from a horizon but from the stars.  What is the authority for such a voyage? Who is in command, and by what right?  For we must understand that with the decline of established order comes a breakdown in potency of all the authorities of that order, so that power is left directionless but still potent and thus greatly destructive.  Yet in that historical space between the not yet gone and the not yet born, between the vanishing and the emerging, real freedom exists, and we must seize the responsibilities that freedom gives us living here in the first light of a dawning world.  This radical disjunction, this contrast and clash of worlds, this great transition, is the source of anxiety, confusion and a great deal of learning.

            The old roles are finished, along with old authority structures.  Education as “bringing forth” is to draw forth an attitude of exploration and meaningful engagement, leading to directed transformation of the self and the world.  Inculcating and acting upon this attitude produces a new set of forces to create a new environment engendering a new kind of possibility.

            In Spiritual Education the classroom or learning space is for gathering individuals into a network of mutual care and sharing, creating what the document Hardwired to Connect calls “an authentic community.”  To create a community that encourages students to take initiative, to practice self-discipline in pursuit of worthy goals, to make decisions and assume personal responsibility for their learning requires that teachers and administrators understand their new roles and are ready to think in new ways.  They do not take either more or less responsibility, but different responsibility while, at the same time, sharing their authority.  The teacher ceases to be a “teacher” in the traditional sense of that term.  Rather, the teacher is, first, a facilitator of each student’s spiritual empowerment by, in large part, building a culture of encouragement, and, second, being a community-builder.  The “student” in this new relation becomes a co-facilitator of his own and everyone else’s development, for a devotion to bringing the good in others to completion is the path to the meaningful life.

            The teacher’s role, then, is not just to impart knowledge.  This does not imply transferring complete responsibility for his or her learning to the student.  Students should not have total responsibility to decide their learning, anymore than the teacher or some faceless bureaucracy should.  It is neither top-down authoritarian control, nor pure democracy, which quickly shades into anarchy.  It is sharing of power and authority.  The power of achievement resides in the student’s initiative and determination to achieve certain goals, but authority lies with the teacher who must guide that pursuit toward community enrichment.  Teacher and student are engaged in mutual service.  It is a reciprocal dynamic, a partnership, though not an equal partnership.  The teacher must be the senior partner. 

            One can only exercise spiritual authority noncoercively.  Certainly we know by now that the more one tries to control others the less responsible and accountable they become.  People of any age do not want to be controlled, but they do need feedback on how they performed.  Much about how to do this can be learned from good business practices.    

            Business consultant Dorothy Marcic writes that spiritual power “comes from one’s very being and is the capacity to influence others, not by controlling them as in political power, but through love, by example, as a result of kindness, consideration, humor and wisdom—or the power of truth.  Spiritual power knows no position.” (Managing with the Wisdom of Love: 49)   John Miller admonishes: “Teachers who cannot bring their authentic presence to the classroom each day, who cannot attune themselves empathically to their students are ill-equipped to give of themselves or respond appropriately to students’ needs.” (Education and the Soul: 121)  Dennis Bakke, CEO and author of Joy at Work, writes that “working according to certain timeless true, and transcendent values and principles should be our ambition”.  Such values and principles include giving “all workers an opportunity to make important decisions and take significant actions using their gifts and skills to the utmost.” (Joy at Work:18)   The same principles hold true in education.

          These values flow from the sacred dimension, for it is from there that qualities that transcend narrow self-interest originate.  A morality not of me-first, but of you-before-me, must be inculcated.  Not self-service, but self-sacrifice is the banner to follow.  These qualities must be demonstrated by those in authority to evoke them within the students.  The teacher should model them for the students so they may be brought forth, educed, from the students where they, as well, reside: prime the pump, so to speak, so that the well may flow.   As spiritual principles organize the academic curriculum in order to organize the perceptions of the student, as a pedagogy centered upon consultation provides the means for collective decision-making, so the behavioral model provided by the “teacher” organizes the behavior of the “students.”  If these qualities are good for teachers, then they are good for students: community is only built around shared demonstrated values.  

            This is motivation by the power of example and it must be held against all temptations to compromise.  There is a transcendent truth behind principles like integrity and justice that does not and should not change over time and should certainly not be adjusted because of changing economic circumstances.  Teachers are stewards of those core values and principles that are the backbone of culture and society, of every organization and community.  Good values are absolutely essential to all forms and sizes of human community.  Stewardship means that teachers are making the best use of these values and principles, protecting them, taking care of them for the right reasons, and inculcating them in their students in good ways.  Otherwise, we fall into a tendency to treat the moral dimension of values as merely the means to achieve material or expedient goals.  It is always the nobler human relations that are the chief factor in making spiritual education meaningful, and not any body of knowledge or technique for either getting or delivering it.                     

            If teachers and administrators are unafraid to invest students with some authority students will be less afraid to assume some responsibility.  And, if they take that responsibility they must be granted some authority.   The person who is willing to accept responsibility for the consequences and results of his actions will learn more quickly.  His life will become more engaging and meaningful, because consequences will rebound to him.  When making consequential decisions the rate of learning increases significantly: just think of the steep learning curve that occurs when having to make life-threatening decisions, such as in combat. Life’s greatest lessons are better learned by living them, than by studying them.  The social role of teachers is to create a community where moral qualities flourish.  More on this in the next post.