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.