- Details
- Written by: Kamran Mofid
- Hits: 3738
Photo: beliefnet.com
Nota bene
All said and done, one of the main objectives of this posting is to gather some of the ideas and visions that are shaping our imagination and help fashion them into what I hope to be a vaguely coherent vision – or many visions – of the kind of world we are yearning for and hopefully can and might want to live in. It’s just a beginning and is part of a big conversation, the dialogue, to which many the worldover are contributing.
Globally, the coronavirus has taken a tragic toll on all of us. It has shown us what is important, valuable and worthy. Let’s use this time to open our hearts, minds and imagination to what is possible, and start building a better world. Let this be our legacy and answer to the pandemic.
Where is the Life we have lost in living?
Where is the wisdom we have lost in knowledge?
Where is the knowledge we have lost in information?- T. S. Eliot
Photo: bing.com
'We become teachers for the reasons of the heart.
But many of us lose heart as time goes by.
How can we take heart, alone and together,
So we can give heart to our students and our world,
Which is what good teachers do?'-THE HEART OF A TEACHER
In the beginning were the words...They bacame languages...They became poetry...They became how we express and project love, goodness, commitment and more
Let the words sing to you, dance for you, empower you to become the person you envision yourself to be: This is the mystery of values-led, purposeful and meaningful education.
This is How Wisdom Grows- Educating Hearts and Minds
'Some say that my teaching is nonsense.
Others call it lofty but impractical.
But to those who have looked inside themselves,
this nonsense makes perfect sense.
And to those who put it into practice,
this loftiness has roots that go deep.
I have just three things to teach:
simplicity, patience, compassion.
These three are your greatest treasures.
Simple in actions and in thoughts,
you return to the source of being.
Patient with both friends and enemies,
you accord with the way things are.
Compassionate toward yourself,
You reconcile all beings in the world.'- Lao Tzu
The Curse of ‘Modern Education’
When education becomes a meaningless ritual of nothing for nothing
Education is the making of meaning and purpose and the development of thinking individuals. It is the path to wisdom and the discovery of what it means to be human. Meaningless ritualism is the antithesis of all that matters.
Tragically, today, the so-called ‘Modern Education’, designed and implemented solely by the egoistic, narcissistic, values-less politicians- here today, gone tomorrow- has by and large, lost its moral and spiritual compass.
‘The answer is simple: When it comes to education, we have forgotten the big picture, the bigger questions of life, and have built castles on shifting sands, with no valuable and meaningful values, with too much concentration on competition and the so-called “success”.
‘We probably went to school for what felt like a very long time. We probably took care with our homework. Along the way we surely learnt intriguing things about equations, the erosion of glaciers, the history of the Middle Ages, and the tenses of foreign languages.
But why, despite all the lessons we sat through, were we never taught the really important things that dominate and trouble our lives: who to start a relationship with, how to trust people, how to understand one's psyche, how to move on from sorrow or betrayal, and how to cope with anxiety and shame?...’
To continue and read more on this topic ‘is to be invited to lead kinder, richer and more authentic lives - and to complete an education we began but still badly need to finish. This is homework to help us make the most of the rest of our lives.’
Photo: Successful Secrets
First, I would like to share a little, but a very relevant story with you when I attended a conference on ‘Leadership’ in Geneva in 2015 when I said the following:
…’Aristotle was clear on these matters, when he eloquently reminded us: ‘Education of the mind without education of the heart is no education at all.’ And educators ever since have been battling to ensure that education moves humanity forwards not backwards. If knowledge is power, those in the business of facilitating the acquisition of that knowledge need to be making sure that they put that power in the right hands and help those acquiring the knowledge understand their enormous responsibility to use that knowledge well. The imperative for values-led education with the pursuit of wisdom and not just knowledge on its own as its goal has never been more urgently required than it is now: To provide our students with a dynamic moral and spiritual compass, strengthening their resilience and well-being, and to nurture the development of good character, deep thinking and altruistic behaviour. The outcome of values-led education is the positive transformation of individuals and institutions - exactly what our world needs.
Now I want to share with you a little story about a simple speech I gave at a Forum at the Graduate Institute of International and Development Studies in Geneva on the afternoon of 25th of June 2015.
This session was a public forum, open to all, including the general public, students, the youth and all other interested individuals. Present also were high level dignitaries from Geneva and senior city and university officials.
Interesting speeches on values-led education, business, trade, finance, etc were made.
Now, my little story:
After the speeches and during the Q&A session, when invited by the moderator (Prof. Christoph Stuckelberger) to make comments or ask questions, whilst I had no prior plan to ask any questions or make any comments, somehow, Christoph saw my raised hand.
I got up and allowed my heart, feelings and emotions to guide me in saying the following (as best I can remember now):
I said:
“When I look all around me, it breaks my heart to see that despite so many gifts that we have been given in this life, to be happy, to lead a good and worthwhile lives, we have abused these gifts and have created such a miserable world, the world of multiple, continuing and deepening crisis. Why?”
I then said:
“When I was a young lad, our elders used to tell us that education is a path to wisdom. Education will empower you to take action in the interest of the common good. It will enable you to build a better world, a world of peace, harmony and prosperity for all.”
I then continued that our elders also used to say that:
“Educators, too, are here to make a difference: To do something meaningful and to leave a legacy that guides future generations to take action in the interest of the common good, building a better world. Educational leaders should seek to create cultures where people learn together and lead together to create real and deep sustainable change.”
I then concluded my remarks by asking:
“Then why is it that with millions and millions more “educated” people in the last few decades, the world is in such a mess, misery and continuing into a deepening crisis, etc, etc?
What we see is not a sign of wisdom, but stupidity, ignorance and arrogance, I said. Don’t you think, it is time, we all come together and think very carefully, what education is, what has gone wrong and what ought to be done?”
Wow! The reaction to my comments in the hall, the continuing conversation during the reception afterwards and the stream of emails I have received since, has been very humbling to me. I firmly believe that this is a challenge to every one of us, a challenge that we must rise to if we are serious about values-driven education.”-The Time is Now for Values-led Education to Make the World Truly Better and Great Again
And now reverting back to: ‘What They Forget to Teach You at School’
Modern Education Model and Teaching with No Heart and No Soul,
Standardised Mumbo Jumbo, is Nothing But an Emperor With No Clothes
Photo: transitionvoice.com
‘The modern world treats education with unique seriousness. Never in the history of humanity have so much thought and so many resources been devoted to the development of the minds of the next generation. In all advanced nations, until a human is 21 or so, there is little else to do other than study. In sensible households, homework has the power of a sacrament. An army of teachers and educators, colleges and pedagogical bureaucrats is set up to feed industrial quantities of the young through complex staging posts of scholastic achievement. Politicians on every side of the spectrum outstrip each other to prove their devotion to the educational cause. The central government-mandated examinations claim a power to determine the course of our whole lives; the dread they provoke can be felt in dawn terrors decades after the event. It may, in rare, tragic but telling instances, feel like there is simply nothing left to live for if the grades go wrong.
'And yet despite all this, it is very rare to find a thoughtful adult who – by middle age or earlier – does not at certain moments of crisis and difficulty look back in a somewhat puzzled and even incensed ways at their school years and wonder why, amidst all the study, the disciplines, the earnest commitments and the panic, so much managed to be passed over in silence. How come, in all those hours sitting in classrooms, did certain fundamental concepts and notions that would (it now seems) have been so important to a halfway decent life somehow slip through the net? How come there was so much time for calculus, the erosion of the upper glacial layer, the politics of the Burgundian states of the 1400s, the poetry of Emily Dickinson and trigonometric equations, and yet so little time for a range of puzzles that have rendered the passage through grown up life so tricky? Why – in short – did no one ever tell us?
Photo:TeachNorthern
'There are, at present, few places for this thought to go. The debate is overwhelmingly focused on how best to deliver an education to a child; not what he or she should be educated in. School curricula are not reverse engineered from the actual dilemmas of adult life. The subjects in the timetable, and their distribution across the week, in no way reflect what will actually go on to make life such a trial; otherwise, we would be hearing a lot more from our teachers about how to approach the dilemmas of relationships, the sorrows of our careers, the tensions of families and the terrors of mortality… To the surprise of any visiting alien, humans blithely educate themselves as if the chief requirement of adulthood were the possession of a set of technical skills, without acknowledging the fact that what mostly runs us into the sands is not any shortfall in our knowledge of matrix algebra or the French pluperfect but our inability to master what we could call the emotional dimensions of our lives: our understanding of ourselves, our capacity to deal with our lovers, children and colleagues, our degrees of self-confidence, our handle on calm and self-compassion. It is failures in these zones that, far more than anything we might pick up at the best schools and universities, ensures the repeated betrayal of humanity’s best hopes for itself.
A painting by Fraser, James Baillie, 1783-1856.View of the mountains; a man pointing to the far
distance as others sit around a fire.Wellcome Library
'When we turn over the thought of what we should have learnt, it typically feels far too late, and far too hopeless. Despite our vigour at innovation in so many areas of the economy, a lethargy can fall over education. It is meekly assumed that it may simply be impossible to teach ourselves the sort of emotional skills whose absence we pay such a heavy price for. As the heirs of a misplaced Romantic philosophy, we assume that we should be guided in the emotional realm by our untutored feelings, that one couldn’t possibly instruct anyone in love or wisdom, fulfilment or kindness, that these have to be the occasional and sporadic fruits of time, not concepts that can be harvested systematically from the start. The collective cost of this resignation is vast. It means that every new generation must collide afresh with problems that are, in theory, already worked out in the minds of their aged predecessors. Every young person is compelled once again to discover, in midnight sobs, what is already theoretically very well known about ending relationships, finding a career or dealing with damaged but well-meaning parents. We set ourselves up on our individual islands, and force ourselves – with needless pain – to reinvent the wheel and rediscover fire. The education system is, in this sense at least, the purveyor of a willed myopia. The focus on those glaciers and the laws of motion become unwitting excuses not to learn the laws of kindness or the principles of family diplomacy. The struggles at court in early modern Europe blind us to the need to make time to learn the history of our own anger and the mastery of the sources of despair…’-What They Forget to Teach You at School
World Science Festival: WHAT IT MEANS TO BE HUMAN
BBC: What Makes Us Human with Jeremy Vine
Cortona Week in Todi, 22-29 June 2019 – Being Human in a Technological World
……
Learn more and buy this book HERE
Learn more and buy this book HERE
……
A selection of related readings from our archives:
A Journey of Re-imagining Education
Planting the Seeds of Values-led Education
Photo: inspiringnewbeginnings.com
Yes, it is true: “Education is what makes us fully human”
Brexit, Trump and the failure of our universities to pursue wisdom
Britain today and the Bankruptcy of Ideas, Vision and Values-less Education
Socio-economic justice and education
Detaching Nature from Economics is ‘Burning the Library of Life’
The Time is Now to Explore the Benefits of Nature-Based Education in Our Teaching Models
By Forgetting Mother Nature- We have Now Ended Up with This unenviable World
The Time is Now to Explore the Benefits of Nature-Based Education in Our Teaching Models
Nature the Best Teacher: Re-Connecting the World’s Children with Nature
On the 250th Birthday of William Wordsworth Let Nature be our Wisest Teacher
Poetry is the Education that Nourishes the Heart and Nurtures the Soul
Why We All (Children and Grown Ups) Need Emotional Literacy, Now More than Ever
Our Emotional Inheritance and the need for Emotional Education
A Path to a Spiritual Education for the Common Good: Education for a Just and Sustainable World
Towards an Education Worth Believing In
What if Universities Taught KINDNESS?
Why Happiness Should be Taught at Our Universities
Nature the Best Teacher: Re-Connecting the World’s Children with Nature
A Sure Path to build a Better World: How nature helps us feel good and do good
Finding sanctuary in poetry during lockdown
Reflecting on Life: My Childhood in Iran where the love of poetry was instilled in me
Poetry is the Education that Nourishes the Heart and Nurtures the Soul
The beauty of living simply: the forgotten wisdom of William Morris
Simpler life and simpler times: A Journey in Life
Stop the Seeds of Destruction: Toward teaching economics of the real world
Calling all academic economists: What are you teaching your students?
Small is Beautiful: The Wisdom of E.F. Schumacher
My letter to the editor of FT on the teaching of economics
My Economics and Business Educators’ Oath: My Promise to My Students
- Details
- Written by: Kamran Mofid
- Hits: 4539
John Keats 31 October 1795 – 23 February 1821
(A Celebration of Beauty, Love, Mother Nature and Life)
'It's hard – no, it's impossible – to think of another writer who suffered and achieved so much in such a short time at such an early age...
'The man we discover is fierce in his dislikes, generous in his friendships, passionate in his loves.'-Sir Andrew Motion, Poet Laureate, 1999 to 2009
‘The loveliest and the last,
The bloom, whose petals nipped before they blew
Died on the promise of the fruit.’- Percy Bysshe Shelley, ‘Adonais: An Elegy on the Death of John Keats.’
Joseph Severn's painting of Keats 'Listening to the Nightingale on Hampstead Heath',
c1845. Picture: Keats House Hampstead - Credit: Archant
‘Teenagers often discover poetry through Keats because he was so romantic and tender and evocative of the emotions he was feeling at the time.
You feel tearful at the sadness of knowing that he died so young, yet his poems celebrate life and beauty and have a wonderful sense of joy.’- Judith Chernaik
- Details
- Written by: Kamran Mofid
- Hits: 3338
First Publishedon 05 February 2021. Updated on 06 October 2024
‘To detach nature from economic reasoning is to imply that we consider ourselves to be external to nature.’
'Our economies, livelihoods and wellbeing all depend on our most precious asset: nature. We are part of nature, not separate from it.'
Earth seen from above.- Photo:nasa.gov
‘Respected Mother, you have children who are proud of themselves as brilliant mathematicians, skilled artisans, gifted architects,{genius economists, the know it all academicians- Emphasis added} but few are able to see that you are the greatest mathematician, the most accomplished artisan,the most talented architect, and {the wisest economic teacher that has ever been- Emphasis added}. We only need to look at a branch of cherry blossoms, the shell of a snail, or the wing of a bat to see this truth. We have talented artists, but how can our paintings be compared to the works of art that you reveal to us in the four seasons? How can we paint such compelling dawns or create such radiant dusks? Our musicians are geniuses, but how can our songs measure up to your wondrous orchestra of Earth and Sky, or the magnificent sound of the rising tide? We have brave soldiers, knights, and heroes who have endured extreme heat and cold and traversed mountains and rivers, but how many of us have your patience and capacity to embrace? We have great love stories, but who among us has your immense love that includes all beings without discrimination?’- Adapted from Love Letter to the Earth by Thich Nhat Hanh- Continue to read HERE
Economics and a sustainable world: What to teach our students?
Photo: Via Pinterest
Nota bene
‘In all my academic life, spanning over four decades, I have been dismayed, frustrated and overwhelmed with pain to notice that our education model has not embraced the beauty and the wisdom of our mother nature and our sacred earth, incorporating them into the teaching curriculum.
This, to my mind, has seriously deprived the students, our future leaders, or indeed, our current leaders, to get a wholesome, values-led education, and thus, has prevented them, to vision and implement policies to heal our world, to better our lives.’
At times of chaos, crises, and disorder, as it is today, in this rapidly changing world, faced with many environmental challenges, ecological degradation, and social inequalities, to name but a few, the role of economics education in shaping and inspiring students- our future leader- is more critical than ever. If we wish to aspire them to become the architects and builders of a sustainable future, it is essential to (re)evaluate what we teach our students about economics and its implications for the world we live in.
My Plea to my fellow academic economists: Make your classrooms the regions of hopes, dreams, kindness, empathy, and beauty and let poets and philosophers of love be your sources of inspiration in all you do and in all you teach.
You should open your eyes and look beyond economics to the beauty and wisdom of Mother Nature and in the timeless, precious words of William Wordswoth, ‘Let Nature be Your Teacher’ and ‘Make Economics ‘A Thing of Beauty’ and Build a Better World’.
This moment creates an opportunity to bring about a better future for ourselves, our children, and grandchildren
An open letter to all my fellow academic colleagues: Make Education ‘A Thing of Beauty’
World in Chaos and Despair: A Manifesto for Education to Build a Better World
World in Chaos and Despair: Let Wordsworth be Your Teacher
Journey to Healing: Let Me Know What is Essential
Detaching Nature from Economics is ‘Burning the Library of Life’
Photo: Brasil2/Getty Images/The Guardian
‘We are facing a global crisis. We are totally dependent upon the natural world. It supplies us with every oxygen-laden breath we take and every mouthful of food we eat. But we are currently damaging it so profoundly that many of its natural systems are now on the verge of breakdown. Every other animal living on this planet, of course, is similarly dependent. But in one crucial way, we are different. We can change not just the numbers, but the very anatomy of the animals and plants that live around us. We acquired that ability, doubtless almost unconsciously, some ten thousand years ago, when we had ceased wandering and built settlements for ourselves. It was then that we started to modify other animals and plants…
‘Economics is a discipline that shapes decisions of the utmost consequence, and so matters to us all. The Dasgupta Review at last puts biodiversity at its core and provides the compass that we urgently need. In doing so, it shows us how, by bringing economics and ecology together, we can help save the natural world at what may be the last minute- and in doing so, save ourselves.’- These are the opening and the concluding paragraphs of The Foreword by Sir David Attenborough to a landmark study ‘The Economics of Biodiversity: The Dasgupta Review’ published February 2021.
"We need a new way of thinking, one that tightly links the human-made world of economics and politics with the natural world of climate and biodiversity and with the designed world of 21st century technology. Consider my own home field of study, economics. Sometime in the 19th century, economics largely dropped its traditional attention to land, water and food, as industry replaced agriculture as the leading economic sector. Economists decided, by and large, that they could ignore nature – take it “as given” – and instead focus on market-based finance, saving, and business investment. Mainstream economists derided the claims of “limits to growth.”
“Of course this was never correct; economies have always depended on what we now call “natural capital.” Yet the complete separation of economics and nature was the predominant way of economics thinking and teaching until very recently. Libertarian free-marketers in the US and UK hold to this day that climate change must be a hoax because if it were true it would overturn the laissez-faire economic philosophy”- Jeffrey Sachs, former director of The Earth Institute, Columbia University and author of The Age of Sustainable Development
Photo: Gov.UK
‘We are embedded in Nature” and “nature is more than a mere economic good’
‘Nature nurtures and nourishes us, so we will think of assets as durable entities
that not only have use value, but may also have intrinsic worth’
The Dasgupta Review calls for urgent and transformative change in how we think, act and measure
economic success to protect and enhance our prosperity and the natural world.
'It’s time to say farewell to one of the biggest and longest running myths in the economy: that social development must come at the cost of nature.
That this dichotomy is false has long been articulated and promoted by the conservation movement, but to little avail.
Around the world, countries and businesses have continued to empty natural resources for short-term economic profit.
Now, more than ever, someone needed to tell them this cannot continue – but who would they listen to?
This is where the Dasgupta Review on the Economics of Biodiversity comes in.’- Prof. Alexandre Antonelli, Director of Science at Kew Gardens
Nature is our Greatest Life Asset
Photo: The Conversation
‘To detach nature from economic reasoning is to imply that we consider ourselves to be external to nature.’
'Our economies, livelihoods and wellbeing all depend on our most precious asset: nature. We are part of nature, not separate from it.'
These are the opening lines of a newly published landmark review of the economics of biodiversity.
The Economics of biodiversity review: what are the recommendations?
Photo: What is biodiversity and why does it matter to us?/ Via The Guardian
First and foremost: The report recommends that ‘GDP should be ditched as a measure of wealth and nature valued to protect wildlife and humans. The use of GDP “is based on a faulty application of economics” because it measures the flow of money, not the stock of national assets. Introducing natural capital into national accounting systems would be a critical step.’
Then the report notes that: ‘Instilling an appreciation of nature through education is vital in a rapidly urbanising world. The discipline to draw on nature sustainably must, ultimately, be provided by us as individuals. Many people have grown distant from nature. Our education systems should introduce nature studies from the earliest stages of our lives, and revisit them in secondary and tertiary education.’-- WOW! This is music to my ears!
Nota bene
Before I proceed further, I must note my happiness and joy of reading the two vitally important recommendations above, which have occupied my mind, my heart and my research over the last couple of decades. I have noted these in detail elsewhere. For the purpuse of now and this posting it suffices to note the following:
Photo:bing.com
The madness of the never ending economic growth
We have to look beyond the madness: we should invest in everyday services to create a society run for collective good
The Growth Delusion and Confusion, The GDP Measurement: lies, damned lies and statistics
We must do better, much better. Why?
Economic Growth: The Index of Misery
The Case for Degrowth: It is urgent, necessary, and greatly needed for our survival
......
Re-Connecting the World’s Children and Young People with Nature
‘When there is no Mother Nature Present- There is no Balanced, Values-led Education’
'Educating the mind without educating the heart is no education at all.'- Aristotle
Young children play on a tree on Hampstead Heath, London. Four out of five children in the UK
are not adequately'connected to nature'.- Photo: Gregory Wrona /Alamy/Via The Guardian
‘In all my academic life, spanning over four decades, I have been dismayed, frustrated and overwhelmed with pain to notice that our education model has not embraced the beauty and the wisdom of our mother nature and our sacred earth, incorporating them into the teaching curriculum.
This, to my mind, has seriously deprived the students, our future leaders, or indeed, our current leaders, to get a wholesome, values-led education, and thus, has prevented them, to vision and implement policies to heal our world, to better our lives.’- Kamran Mofid
The Time is Now to Explore the Benefits of Nature-Based Education in Our Teaching Models
By Forgetting Mother Nature- We have Now Ended Up with This unenviable World
Photo:bing.com
On the 250th Birthday of William Wordsworth Let Nature be our Wisest Teacher
In this troubled world let the beauty of nature and simple life be our greatest teachers
Nature the Best Teacher: Re-Connecting the World’s Children with Nature
A Sure Path to build a Better World: How nature helps us feel good and do good
Nature is the model to teach business how to thrive
The healing power of ‘Dawn’ at this time of coronavirus crisis
......
And now continuing with the Economics of biodiversity review: what are the main recommendations?
‘The world is being put at “extreme risk” by the failure of economics to take account of the rapid depletion of the natural world and needs to find new measures of success to avoid a catastrophic breakdown, a landmark review has concluded…
‘Prosperity was coming at a “devastating cost” to the ecosystems that provide humanity with food, water and clean air. Radical global changes to production, consumption, finance and education were urgently needed’
‘’The review urges the world’s governments to come up with a different form of national accounting from GDP and use one that includes the depletion of natural resources. It would like to see an understanding of nature given as prominent a place in education as the “three Rs”, to end people’s distance from nature.
‘Nature is our home. Good economics demands we manage it better,” said Dasgupta. “Truly sustainable economic growth and development means recognising that our long-term prosperity relies on rebalancing our demand of nature’s goods and services with its capacity to supply them. It also means accounting fully for the impact of our interactions with nature. Covid-19 has shown us what can happen when we don’t do this.’
‘Humanity’s impact on the natural world is stark, with animal populations having dropped by an average of 68% since 1970 and forest destruction continuing at pace – some scientists think a sixth mass extinction of life is under way and accelerating. Today, just 4% of the world’s mammals are wild, hugely outweighed by humans and their livestock.’
‘The report said almost all governments were exacerbating the biodiversity crisis by paying people more to exploit nature than to protect it. A conservative estimate of the global cost of subsidies that damage nature was about $4tn-$6tn (£2.9-£4.4tn) a year, it said. “Humanity faces an urgent choice. Continuing down our current path presents extreme risks and uncertainty for our economies.” the review said.
......
Ten Steps to Successfully Build the Library of Life
Photo: Dream world painting by Jacek Yerka webneel.com
- The Curse of Neoliberalism and Covid: The Tsunami of Self-harm and Suicide in children and young people
- Can President Biden Restore Hope, Narrow the Division Among Opposing Groups and Build a Better America?
- My Poem of the month (February): Let Hope and Healing Begin to Brighten the Covid Darkness
- The Golden State’s Ode of Joy to the US: 'California is America, only sooner'
- President Biden, his Faith and the Healing of America