Does Education Kill Creativity?

Sir Ken Robinson makes an entertaining (and profoundly moving) case for creating an education system that nurtures creativity, rather than ... all » undermining it. With ample anecdotes and witty asides, Robinson points out the many ways our schools fail to recognize -- much less cultivate -- the talents of many brilliant people. "We are educating people out of their creativity," Robinson says. The universality of his message is evidenced by its rampant popularity online. A typical review: "If you have not yet seen Sir Ken Robinson's TED talk, please stop whatever you're doing and watch it now

Kindest regards

Corneilius

Do what you love, it's your gift to universe

Shock, Horror and Grim Reality.

In a Jersey children's' home police ‘search’ for evidence of serious abuse against children, perpetrated by adults ‘entrusted’ with the care of those children. An all too regular occurrence. On two levels.

Level One : media reporting, shock horror stories, investigations, some arrests, some fewer charges, court case, incarceration and then back to the continued general media silence on the underlying issues of ‘child abuse‘, a subject which is well studied, well understood (by those in the field such as Alice Miller, Carl Rogers, John Taylor Gatto et al)…and yet Government and those officially entrusted with the overall administration of welfare for our children studiously ignore the information offered, and the often sensible and deeply compassio0nate suggestions made by those I have mentioned.

Level Two : One in four English speaking children experience some form of abuse that causes actual harm, be it physical or psychological. One in four women will experience serious sexual assault in their lives. One in thirteen men will experience serious sexual assault in their lives (though there is reason to believe that this lower figure is due to under-reporting, male reticence and all that). In all cases, their behaviour will have changed as a result. As will the behaviour of those that witnessed the abuse. After all that is the basic reason given for justifying rules, laws and prison. Deterrence.

Unpalatable Truth Numero Uno : Governance over people, senseless Competition, pointless War, and abject Consumerism and even Justice, that blind woman with a scales and a sword to guide her, all depend upon this systemic abuse for their very life-blood. Without that systemically abusive childhood, without the woundings and reshaping of the human personality that results, Western Civilisation would not be what it is today.

And only a fool, a willing ignoramus or a ‘believer’ would imagine that those who pull the strings of Western Civilisation are unaware of this. In fact the historical record is clear. What do you think the imposed conditions of the IMF, WTO upon ‘third world’ countries and the Invasion of Iraq for the ‘good of the Iraqi People’ who love freedom really amount to?

Unpalatable Truth Numero Duo : They do know what they are doing. . From Jesuits through to Marketing men, from Corporate CEOs through to Newspaper Magnates, they do know what they are doing. They freely admit to it, though not often in public. They are proud of their achievements, their ability, as they see it, to fool all of the people, all of the time. Dick Cheney is a good example. They are responsible for what they do.

Oh dear!

Over the weekend I was chatting to a young friend, a girl of good ’background’ about the difficulties experienced in ‘relationships’, and in particular she was concerned with the ‘self-loathing’ that is generally the lot of men, something she was beginning to ’intuit’ in her own and in her friends experience. I too experienced that self-loathing. It is not uncommon. It is a widespread fact of life. Fact of life is that I hated myself. Men do hate themselves.

For my friend, as this information was dawning upon her, as she was coming to terms with it, she was experiencing a deep shock. Part compassion, part depression, part incredulity at the scale of and profound implications of this issue.

I hope I was able to assure her that, in spite of the scale of the problem, once the core issue has been identified, it can be approached in a way that may lead to a healing.

That knowing was better than not knowing, and far, far better than the typical descent into myth and counter myth that typifies accepted or conventional wisdom on the issue of relationships.

As spouted by various writings, from self-help soul-mate seekers manuals to so called ‘agony aunts’ such as Deirdre in the Sun, from the dictats of Cardinals and Evangelical Pastors to the strident manifestoids of ‘feminists’ and ‘Gay-Rights Activists’, from the admonishments of Dr. Spock through to the ’advice’ of all of whom ignore the underlying issue : our culture revolves around child abuse, and depends upon it. Only it is never admitted to nor called by it’s name.

No wonder men hate themselves. No wonder I hated myself for so many years. And it did change my behaviour. I was and I remain a behaviourally modified organism. It is a daily work I undertake, to undo the negative effects of that behavioural modification through abuse that I lived through. I know of others who were there and are in denial. Many others. The majority, even still, will not admit to the truth.

And yes, women also hate themselves….self hatred is not exclusive.

Self-Hatred is the core driver of our civilisation. The Nuclear Bomb, the near constant Destruction of the Environment, The Constancy of War, Viagra, are all the result of hatred. The spread of AIDS through Africa as Western Policy, the advance of the American Empire are all the result of hatred. Glossy Magazines that sell the illusion of perfection, that play upon known modified behavioural and psychological weaknesses in order to sell the product are all the result of hatred. Elitism, the sense that one is better than, above or superior to another is the result of hatred. Gossip columns and ‘reality’ TV are the result of hatred. Loathing is fertile ground indeed!

Wakey, wakey people. Love is the answer. Compassion is the key. Healing is the solution. And it starts at the individual level. As one discovers the truth, and learns and heals ones own life, one becomes a lighthouse alluding to the possibility for the same process in others lives.

And that is the core of the ‘revolution’ that must occur. It is personal. Do not expect those who have ‘normalised’ the abuse to change. They will not, unless they too make it personal. Person by person. Understand that the systems designed by those who abuse, who exercise power ‘over’ others will not change and are designed to resist change from within.

Thus the only way to bring those systems down is to refuse to comply. We must withdraw our support from them. We must not buy their products, their lies, their mythologies, their tainted foods. Without what we give to them, they will collapse. As the t-shirt has it, “Bite the hands that feed you poison”. Better still, feed yourself with what you know to be healthy. And do likewise for your children. For such is love.

The anger of love is a healer, the anger of self-hatred a destroyer.


Kindest regards

Corneilius

Do what you love, it's your gift to universe

Change Values for Survival. Set a course for Thrivival.

Four words, to meet again in a future reality where Thrivival is the human cultural setting.

I have spent a good part of my life on the healing path, firstly to heal my own wounds, so that I may breath freely, relax deeply and enjoy my being. I am still on that path.

Secondly and perhaps more importantly, to ensure that I do not inflict the same wounds upon my own children. Breaking the cycles. And I sense it as an intergenerational thing, from one entire generation to the next. We are all in this together.

The hope is that they might too breathe more freely, relax into who they are more deeply and enjoy their being. That is, I think, the second best possible gift I could give them. Peace as an internal reality.

The best gift is a cleaner, safer environment within which they can live as nurtured and nurturing beings.

Much of that healing has been through attempting to take some kind of responsibility for my diet, my thought processes, my actions. Small actions within my own limited sphere of influence.

A bumpy path, with many ‘wrong’ turnings, yet 'something' in me keeps me to the path.

That 'something' I have come to sense as an element of our innate nature. The biological urge to heal, to recover balance, to thrive, to live in a default state of trust and well being.

In recent years I have also spent much time learning about the structures that caused my wounding, by looking at them, by understanding them from different angles and by taking the piss out of them.

A sense of humour is a great gift to receive, and a necessary tool - to laugh when things do not work is a useful way to defuse, de-escalate, self regulate one's emotions. I have also devoted time to looking practices  that are truly healthy and in that now common phrase, sustainable. Often looking for love in all the wrong places.

The opportunities for self deprecating humour are everywhere in my life.

One of the things I know for sure, is that consumerism, market economies, power exercised over people as an addiction and much else of what is taken a granted by industrialised cults is not sustainable. The industrial revolution started the process whereby most of us did not grow our own food, but worked for money, and generally a pittance at that, so that we could buy food, inserting a middleman in the chain between food and eater, whilst that middleman extracted wealth from us.

Ignorance is not not knowing, ignorance is ignoring what is

That middleman does not exist in nature, and there’s the core of the problem. The fact is that in nature all living entities, from the microscopic to the macroscopic, have a direct relationship to their food, their nourishment. And we are all dependents. Others efforts make our foods available.

As lungs to oxygen. Eyes to light. Nature functions in ways that enable all living entities have access to what they require to reach their full potential, and that in the process of reaching towards that potential, they also guarantee all other living entities the resources required for reaching full potential, notwithstanding ‘shit happens’ as in natural ‘disasters’ or being eaten…….shit is not waste, it is a resource, if treated in the correct and natural way.

Given the complexity and perfection of nature, the exquisite beauty and balance of the vast system that covers the surface of our planet, it does not make sense that this is a mechanical mindless process, but an intelligent one.

The seed must ‘know’ that it is to be the plant, and must know how to become that plant, or at the very least be able to learn how to become that plant. As must all living creatures.

The culture into which I was born is by design quite different, insofar that access to resources is controlled so as to alter the innate behaviour of those that are controlled, be they plant, animal or humane being.

That control necessitates the abuse that I experienced as a child. It necessitates the abuse of billions of animals which we ‘farm’ for food. It necessitates the enslaving or exploitation of plants in much the same way, insofar that the natural life path of plants is controlled, carrots are planted in lines, forests are destroyed etc etc..

The controller is the middleman, the interventionist in the process of life. In nature all is food, and thus food is generally speaking, abundant. Strangely enough though, obesity is not common place, nor is starvation, in natural systems. Neither is existential insecurity as we experience it.

In Danger of Falling Fruit.

 Permaculture seeks to replicate those systems in such a manner as to obviate the ‘clear the land and grow food in lines’ for profit way of doing things. Bill Mollison made a great video about permaculture forest gardening entitled “In Danger of Falling Fruit” …….. as opposed to the Danger of falling bombs, as espoused by our governments, as the way towards ‘freedom‘ and ‘democracy‘.

 As ever, old Bill expressed a profound and beautiful truth in pithy terms, with no wasted words. A beautiful human being who with David Holgrem, and others, has bequeathed us with an opportunity to get ourselves out of the mess we are in. Perhaps that was the only danger in the garden of Eden.

Would that it were the only danger facing us today!

 Alice Miller and Carl Rogers are two others whose observations ring true in a similar manner, with respect to how we treat children and how we treat each other. If, in my life, I could add to, or share those great gifts, even in the slightest way, then I would judge my life worth living, beyond the sheer joy of being alive, which as ever I regard as a great mystery, a profound gift for which I am ever grateful.

We can do this!

To subvert the systems of control, we need to not give them our compliance. If nobody enlists, there can be no war. If we grow our own food, we do not need the money nor do we need Tescos.

If we don’t watch television, we don’t need the BBC. If we sing our own songs, we don’t need Bono, nor do we need the Rolling Stones.

 If we are prepared to be visionaries, we would need no movies nor would we need scripture. If we think for ourselves, we will need no leaders. We are born, each and every one of us, with innate wisdom and a great learning ability. Our expressions would be the sharing of that which enriches us all. Open sourced.

 Change values for survival" Helen Caldicott says, and I would add, let's change our values and behaviour so that we move well beyond survival and stroll and stride and run and skip and hop with joy into Thrivival.

 kindest regards Corneilius Do what you love, it's your gift to universe