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Editors Note
"At present there can be little doubt that the whole of mankind is in mortal danger, not because we are short of scientific and technological know-how, but because we tend to use it destructively, without wisdom. More education can help us only if it produces more wisdom." E.F. Schumacher, Small is Beautiful (1973) *** What is wisdom? What does it mean to be a wise person or community? What does it mean to live wisely? How do we develop, evolve, and connect our diverse wisdom traditions and institutions? How has factory-schooling contributed to the construction/destruction of wisdom?
In this issue of Vimukt Shiksha, we ask you to think about the various meanings of wisdom; the role (if any) that wisdom should play in Indian communities in the 21st century; and, how we should transform our current educational goals, processes, relationships and spaces to re-generate wisdom. In Search of Wisdom It would seem that modern society currently has no time for wisdom. Indeed, there are many individuals across the globe who might be so bold as to ask whether, in this world of hi-tech instant self-gratification, we even need wisdom anymore? They would argue that traditional wisdom has been a barrier to modern progress, particularly when their visions of progress prioritize the logic of new consumer markets and unbridled profits, nuclear weapons, human cloning, satellite television, polluting factories, Western consumption/waste levels, pragmatic corruption, etc. Much of 20th century development work has, in fact, been premised on removing this 'barrier to progress by eradicating traditional cultures, knowledge systems, and governance systems, and by civilizing the backward, ignorant, irrational, and illiterate masses. Factory-schooling -- in privileging so-called rationalistic, scientific, practical, and economic thought and devaluing/discarding other ways for perceiving, knowing, expressing, understanding, and relating -- has been a primary vehicle for carrying out this destructive mission in India. Our modern education system has given no respect or space to local wise persons, wise languages, wise customs and wise institutions that have existed (and continue to exist) outside of the framework of formal/non-formal schools in India. We have not yet been able to lift the curse left by Lord Macaulays legacy in which he refers to studies in Sanskrit and Arabic as "absurd history, absurd metaphysics, absurd physics, and absurd theology" (Minute on Education, 1835). In post-Independence, there has been no explicit mention of the need to build pro-wisdom learning environments in any of our national education policy reports. Though, there have been many indirect references to the crisis of wisdom. For example, the National Policy on Education (1986) has called for "the existing schism between the formal system of education and the country's rich and varied cultural tradition to be bridged." The well-known Yashpal Report (Learning Without Burden, 1993) points to a breakdown of wisdom by stating that "a lot is taught but little is learnt or understood" in Indias schools. And even the 1999 PROBE Report describes "There is an implicit bias of curriculum makers and book writers that the village poor are ignorant and illiterate and therefore need to be told how to conduct their lives properly." But alas, in the end, all of these reports sink back into recommending an increase in funds, facilities, teacher training, enrollments, retention, literacy rates, competencies, and achievement scores. And factory-schooling not only continues to undermine our diverse wisdom traditions but also to promote a world of fragmentation, alienation, competition, superiority/inferiority, dependency, short-term selfishness, cynicism, purposelessness, and ultra-consumerism. Growing pockets of people throughout the world, however, have begun to realize that we urgently need something (radically) different, but what is that something different and how to develop it? They understand that it is absolutely necessary that we start thinking again about how to create new wisdom frameworks in communities if we are to truly work towards peaceful, just, and sustainable people-centered development(s). In our search for wisdom, we must begin by acknowledging that there exist many different understandings of wisdom ranging from the psychological to the moral, from the specific to the universal, from the practical to the mythical/spiritual. There are also many different spaces, times,
and experiences (stories, songs, dances, games, festivals, work activities, health practices) for inheriting, generating and sharing wisdom. These rich and diverse understandings and spaces contribute to dynamic learning processes which enable us to become more fully human processes for developing our individual and collective reflectiveness, creativity, sensitivity, and social responsibility; for dealing with the inherent ambiguity, messiness, complexity and sometimes absurdity of life's turns and twists; and for participating in humanity's struggle for greater meaning. The momentous task of consciously thinking about and generating dynamic new wisdom frameworks, however, is not exclusively for our male elders, for religious fundamentalist groups, for swamis/sadhus, for philosophers, or for tribal peoples untouched by modernity. We believe that it is healthy and necessary for those involved in education to debate these various definitions and to develop their own working understandings of wisdom which are appropriate to their specific contexts. We invite you to participate in this process.
Wisdom 'Capital'
[Adapted from Claire L. Gaudiani, "Wisdom as Capital in Prosperous Communities" in F. Hesselbein, et al., eds., The Community of the Future, San Francisco: Jossey-Bass, 1998.] The term "capital" is often associated with purely economic ideas of profit, efficiency, and material wealth. Gaudiani challenges us to see the notion of "capital" in a larger context as something that adds value to the well-being of a community. For two hundred years, since the Industrial Revolution, we have spent capital to build societies. Through the 1950s, capital meant only cash. In the 1960s, economists urged us to treat "human capital" as an asset to be nurtured for profit. In the 1980s, sociologists noted that communities needed "social capital," or a sense of belonging. In the mid-1990s, Lester Thurow declared that knowledge, or "intellectual capital," was a community's most important resource. But this vision was still incomplete. We had overlooked the most important kind of capital, the kind that underlies communities just as a foundation keeps a great building from toppling. This fourth form is wisdom capital - the available store of thought collected over thousands of years that calls us to live in ways that sustain the well-being of others. In a time of growing change and complexity, without wisdom capital and the values it sustains, we cannot have strong and healthy communities. Wisdom capital is not dispensed by any treasury. It is the product of wisdom traditions where it is still vital. Those traditions are handed down through stories retold from age to age, whether written or unwritten. They are stored in texts like the Bible, the Koran, the I Ching, and the writings of Confucius, Plato and others. Uninformed by the wisdom tradition, data, information, knowledge, intellect, expertise, strategies, and even family or social groups can be organized to exploit, degrade, or violate. Wisdom capital is a community's common ground. It is the basis for negotiating the goals of individuals vs. the community. It leads to trust, respect, and commitment to work together within and among communities. A few suggestions for building wisdom traditions and applying them to our lives:
- Cynicism is the great enemy of future communities. Make every sacrifice necessary, both in good times and bad, to sustain community members faith in the core values found in the wisdom tradition. - Make learning and teaching an ongoing part of the community's life. Develop opportunities for the community to learn and develop wisdom traditions as expressed in diverse cultures. Give community members the chance to express their own personal relationships to and experiences with the traditions, and to share these with each other. - Create teams to document and teach local history in interesting ways, using the expertise of local historians, village elders, and storytellers. Facilitate the development of communication skills like conflict negotiation and mediation, listening, collaboration, and team building among all members of the community. *
What is Wisdom?
To define Wisdom is a task that may require more wisdom than any of us have. Nevertheless. . . An intellectual, moral, practical life; a life lived in conformity with truth, beauty. [Ancient Greeks] What men call knowledge, is the reasoned acceptance of false appearances. Wisdom looks behind the veil and sees. [Sri Aurobindo] Wisdom is the accumulation of deep understanding about our experiences of being human: knowledge about the mind, its capacities and delusions, the pains and strengths of the body, and the joys and sufferings of the heart. [J. Rozhon, The Wisdom Conservancy] Exceptional understanding of ordinary experience. [D. Kramer*] A smooth and balanced dialogue between two sets of attributes; outer, objective, logical forms of processing (logos) and inner, subjective, organismic forms (mythos). [G. Labouvie-Vief*] Includes characteristics of reflective judgment such as an exceptional intellectual ability and willingness to recognize the limitations and uncertainty of knowing, to consider how this impacts solving "thorny" or ill-defined problems, and to formulate sound, executable judgments in the face of this uncertainty. [K. Kitchener and H. Brenner*]
A balance between the opposing poles of intense emotion and detachment (affect), action and inaction (will), and knowledge and doubts (cognition). It tends to increase with experience and therefore age, but is not exclusively found in old age. [J. Birren and L. Fisher*] Your Definition: ___________________________________________________________________________ ____________ [*Source: Sternberg, R., ed., Wisdom, Its Nature, Origins, and Development. Cambridge University Press, 1990.]
M. Csikszentmihalyi and K. Rathunde frame wisdom as a virtue providing a compelling guide to action. They see wisdom to provide a major mechanism of cultural evolution and an alternative to extrinsic rewards based on pleasure and materialism. On a more individual level, D. Kramer suggests five highly inter-related functions of wisdom that appear in our daily life: to resolve dilemmas and make decisions in one's own life; to advise others; to engage in the management and guidance of society; to carry out one's own life review; and to question the meaning of life. P. Arlin argues that we cannot understand wisdom simply by looking at the results of specific decisions or solutions. Before we can reach the right answers, we must first formulate the right questions. According to Arlin, wisdom is closely related to "the art of problem finding." A number of authors also suggest that the human elements of traits and states are not enough to create wisdom, and that we also look at context when we consider whether or not to qualify actions or decisions as wise. For example, J. Meacham argues that many life experiences (including over-accumulation of information, success, and power) or atmospheres (such as today's atmosphere of rapid technological and cultural change) can be extremely threatening and damaging to wisdom. Only a "wisdom atmosphere of supportive interpersonal relations" caters to building the personal strength necessary to "engage in confident and wise action even when in situations of doubt." In their conclusions, the authors themselves admit that their explorations of the topic of wisdom are at an early stage. The subject of wisdom is complex and elusive and merits much more thought and research.
associations. Each group has its own collective wisdom, codes of conduct, accreditation, and adjudication. Living in wisdom happens when and where coherence is achieved between these groups and the rest of the society, as in the case of ethnic communities or areas influenced by ethical enlightenment and devotional movements. Examples of these can still be found in Ladakh, amongst groups like the Bishnois of Rajasthan, and in tribal areas. A more abstract concept of wisdom in the Indian tradition is expressed in the Sanskrit word "Pragna". This is distinct from "gnan" (knowledge) and "vignan" (science). According to Isopanishad, gnan and vignan are forms of ignorance or darkness if adhered to reductively. Pragna is wisdom with divine and cosmic dimensions. The search for and growth towards Pragna involves austerities and discipline, experience and endeavor, learning and knowledge, faith and devotion, but its ultimate realization/revelation comes through a Guru and/or with divine grace. According to the Bhagwad Gita, being situated in Supreme Wisdom -- Sthitpragna -- is the highest purpose of human incarnation. In addition to scriptures and literary classics, traditional wisdom finds expression in proverbs, folklore, legends, poetry, and songs. The narratives of the wise are laced with these expressive forms and are passed on informally through the generations. They provide listeners with multiple layers of insights and guidelines for action, behavior, and relationships in the natural, social, and cosmic fabrics. A doha (couplet) of the Hindi poet Rehman illustrates this well: Rehiman Paani Raakhiye Bin Paani Sab Soon Bin Paani Na Ubre Moti, Maanas, Choon. (Rehman says conserve water; without it all is barren. Neither pearls, spirit, nor lime can be formed or livened without the precious fluid of life.) Modern Thinkers on Wisdom Erik H. Erikson, an important figure in contemporary western psychoanalysis and human development, is amongst the few who have given serious attention to wisdom as one of the "inner strengths" of human beings. Erikson defines wisdom as "detached concern with life itself in the face of death itself." He also believes that "while each generation owes to the next that strength by which it can come to face the ultimate concernseach generation must find for itself the wisdom of the ages in the form of its own wisdom." Eriksons reflections on wisdom combine western psychoanalytic understanding of the finite condition of human beings with eastern meditations on the infinite and divine aspects of the spirit. The thinker and economist E. F. Schumacher also accorded high value to wisdom. He realized that "materialist scientism", the command ideology of our times, cannot address the nature or purpose of human life. Answers have to be sought in the wisdom of ancient religious traditions with their recognition of the spiritual, social, and personal dimensions of human nature. The purposes and tasks of human life are to discover and live in truthfulness to self, to the society, and to the divine in an ascending order. Gandhian Wisdom Finally, and inevitably, we come to Gandhi whose observations, advice, and life give us the guidelines for wisdom in our age. In Hind Swaraj, he categorically declares to his questioner-critic
that he will fully dedicate himself to the cause he defends so assiduously, viz. the freedom and reconstruction of India in accordance with her own civilizational genius. With this in mind, he initiated the Constructive Work and Basic Education movements. Constructive work included Hindu-Muslim unity, khadi and village industries, Panchayats, and removal of untouchability. All constructive work programmes were premised on the principles of "Swadeshi" or self-reliance, the mutual aid and tolerance in locality- and occupation-based human communities. Basic education too was founded on "wisdom and charity" as the prime human strengths to be cultivated through "creative activity, unselfish cooperation in living, and intellectual curiosity." For Gandhis wisdom to turn into action requires dedicated, and highly competent "lok sevaks" or peoples servants relying on the communities in which they live for sustenance. This Gandhian concept of grassroots community work aims to revitalize and transform the social milieu through education, organization, and social action. It is guided by principles of justice, tolerance, and cooperation. At the same time, the socially wealthy are expected to hold wealth in trust for the community. The wealthy should work towards facilitating the transition to community ownership and self-management in a sustainable, non-destructive, and non-exploitative manner. This nonviolent approach ensures social justice without the coercive power of the state. Living Without Wisdom Yet, while the Gandhian vision continues to be the conscience of the Indian people, it has long been abandoned in practice. What prevails in education, development, and governance are the not-so-efficient and partially successful imitations of the global development thrust-- geared towards maximizing private gain for the few in power. From time to time the conscience-keepers raise alarms about the sustainability, fairness, and quality of these systems. There are local protests and even innovations for redirection guided by ecological and ethical wisdom. These efforts receive momentary support and attention, but are invariably marginalized or co-opted in due course. How do we explain the rift between knowledge, sciences, and technology on the one hand and wisdom on the other? Why does our age place the wise ones on high pedestals and then ignore or pay only lip service to the principles of prudence, love, and care which they represent? Why does our living continue to exhibit St. Augustines confessional insight, "The good I should, I do not; the evil I ought not, I do," or Duryodhanas self-reflection, "I know Dharma, but I am not inclined to it; I also know Adharma, and I am not averse to it?" We must first search for answers deep in our personal selves. We need to try to understand and redefine the essence of human nature, the purposes of human life, and the present human condition. These personal reflections, insights, and feelings can be shared and clarified with others in a spirit of genuine dialogue, listening, and learning; in short, a growing together in wisdom. Eventually, those who have the courage and competence must take this spirit of inquiry to the public spaces and fora of the prevailing systems of education, development, and governance. This is what the ancient seers Buddha, Mahavir, Socrates, Jesus Christ, Prophet Mohammed, and Guru Nanak, amongst countless others, did in their own times and ways. We can only assume and hope that our generation still feels the need to find its own wisdom. As this yearning for wisdom intensifies and reveals the deep-rooted distortions in human consciousness, an enlightenment may come about, revitalizing the will to change the current market-mediated, greed-driven, and destructive patterns of human living.
Shri Kishore Saint is with Ubeshwar Vikas Mandal (Udaipur, Raj.) a voluntary organization that aims to promote sustainable and people-centered development among Bhil tribals. He has extensive training, background, and experience in education, ecology, and development.
becomes our main source of wisdom as wisdom lies in following and not violating our conscience. In this manner, wisdom can be viewed as a self-discipline that ultimately translates itself into a faith. In situations of crisis, this faith gives us the strength and courage to take crucial decisions against mere reasoning, or worldly self-interest. Productive Work and Wisdom In my view, education is ultimately a process which seeks to convert all intelligence, all knowledge, all skills, and all interests into wisdom. Now, if we judge the prevailing system of Indian education on this criterion, we shall find that the present system of school-education in India does not allow students to learn from their own experiences. A pre-determined curriculum or syllabus binds the teacher as well as the students. Schools do not promote searching, critical thinking, or questioning. Without these, the spirit of inquiry and creativity - which are the sources of wisdom - do not develop. Thus, wisdom is a casualty of the present Indian system of education as planned and established by the British Raj. Awakening or promotion of wisdom requires the development of self-reliance and selfconfidence. Such self-reliance can be inculcated only when a student practices some lifesustaining productive work with his/her own hands. It should be clarified at the outset that productive work is not only for the poor to learn -- it must be an integral part of all childrens education, including the children of the rich elite. By actually doing something with one's own hands to produce some useful things which are required to sustain life, one will have the opportunity to attain wisdom by one's own work experience. Secondly, if one cannot work with one's own hands to sustain oneself in an individual capacity, one will be obliged to blindly obey bosses and managers and surrender one's conscience to them. One will not have the courage or fearlessness to risk losing even an immoral job. Thus, though wisdom seems to be an abstract thing, it depends on the concrete ability to work with one's own hands in order to gain firsthand experience of life and to sustain oneself in an individual capacity without depending on being employed by other people or organizations. According to this concept of wisdom, even an unschooled and illiterate person who is engaged in practical, productive work is better 'educated' than the present day schooled and literate person who cannot do any life-sustaining work with his/her hands. The colonial British government deliberately planned the present school system to produce servile Indians, and let us admit that the system has largely succeeded in producing such individuals. Mahatma Gandhi was aware of this anti-wisdom system of education established in India by the British government, and in 1937, he suggested that productive work with one's hands must be made the backbone of all education before universalizing education in free India. When Gandhiji was asked why he did not recommend moral wisdom as a subject to be taught in schools, his reply was that the productive handiwork itself, which he prescribed as the nucleus of his educational plan, would take the form of moral education. Towards Educational Transformation When India achieved Independence from the British Raj in 1947, the strong and influential elite class saw to it that Basic Education as conceived by Mahatma Gandhi did not replace the colonial educational system in free India. The elite class wrongly defamed Basic Education as a form of exploitation of child labour.
But look at the result of continuing and expanding the same education system which we inherited from the British Raj. Individuals produced by this schooling system do not have the spirit of inquiry that would make them self-motivated learners. They are not interested in inheriting the wisdom contained in their local languages. And, they are not self-reliant enough in their livelihoods to be able to stick to their conscience and remain free from the rampant materialism, selfishness and corruption that we are facing today in our society. Today, our work ethic has deteriorated so much that our country is on the brink of financial bankruptcy and our political independence is being undermined by the so-called developed nations. So, the crucial question that faces us today is whether we can do anything even now to reorientate our educational system towards inculcation of wisdom in the so-called educated citizens of the country. In my opinion, the principles underlying Gandhis Basic Education are still relevant. They can open up many potential avenues for creative action and critical thinking giving birth to wisdom and the capacity to stick to one's conscience. For example, one small step in this direction could be dropping out the study of English language from our elementary education and introducing a productive craft as the core subject instead. Even this small change can begin to catalyze the learners and their teachers in again respecting and deriving wisdom from their own local cultures and from their practical work experience. Shri Dayal Chandra Soni is currently affiliated with Gandhi Smriti Mandir Samiti in Udaipur. He has been involved in the field of education for over 60 years, including serving as former principal of Vidya Bhawan Basic School. He has also worked with Seva Mandir on a literacy campaign for rural areas. He has written more than 300 essays and published around 25 books on basic education, non-formal education, adult education, and womens education.
- Flexibility -- The web of life is a flexible, ever-fluctuating network. The more variables are kept fluctuating, the more dynamic is the system; the greater is its flexibility; and the greater is its ability to adapt to changing conditions. In every community, there are contradictions and conflicts that cannot be resolved in favor of one or the other side. For example, the community will need stability and change, order and freedom, tradition and innovation. Rather than by rigid decisions, these unavoidable conflicts are much better resolved by establishing a flexible and dynamic balance. - Diversity -- In ecosystems the complexity of the network is a consequence of its biodiversity, and thus a diverse ecological community is a resilient community. In human communities ethnic, cultural, linguistic, and spiritual diversity may play the same role. Diversity results in many different relationships, many different approaches to the same problem. A diverse community is a resilient community, capable of adapting to changing situations. In a truly vibrant community sustained by a web of relationships, information and ideas flow freely through the entire network. The diversity of interpretations and learning styles - even the different errors and mistakes we make - is valued and nurtured because it enriches the entire community.
Lets think together: How do we develop ourselves into wiser individuals and communities?
Many people believe that wisdom is related to knowledge and life experiences. While this is true, the development of wisdom also depends on the frameworks for thinking that we use to consciously perceive, raise questions about, and give meaning to the various knowledge systems and life experiences we participate in. If we are concerned with promoting wise living, our education system must move beyond narrow notions of literacy, or simplistic competencies, and begin to nurture diverse and complex (meta)-cognitive frameworks in every learner. Jude Collins, Professor of Teacher Training in Northern Ireland, describes that "The problem with competency-based curriculums is that learning becomes a matter of being able to perform certain tasks efficiently (and so does teaching). And the importance of looking at a wider horizon -- the relationship between whats being taught and social matters, political matters, matters of value and worth -- become not just beside the point, but not even thought about." Consider the following features of integrated and holistic thinking. To what extent, does factoryschooling value or develop such decision-making frameworks in our children? Evaluation of long term future consequences of present decisions; Consideration of second-order consequences (side-effects or surprise effects); Ability to make creative plans and strategies for the future, to monitor and modify plans ("rolling planning"), and to conduct evaluations to detect early warning signs of possible problems;
Skill in "systemic" thinking (capacity to see the whole as well as its parts, micro and macro contexts, and multiple rather than single causes and effects); Capacity to detect inter-relationships and to assess their importance, which is often greater than that of the individual elements they inter-link. "Some Features of Integrative Thinking" adapted from Botkin, J. et al. No Limits to Learning, Bridging the Human Gap. Oxford: Pergamon Press Ltd., 1979.
A Plea to Rehabilitate Wisdom in Our Cultures By Verena Kremling and Boubacar Sadou Ly
The following article has been translated and compiled from texts written to prepare for and document the 1st and 2nd Meetings of the Council of the Wise (Burkina Faso, November 97 and 98). The idea for a Council of the Wise and an Academy of Wisdoms originated with the Association pour la Promotion de lElevage au Sahel et en Savane, an association working towards agricultural development and human potential in Western Africa. By calling together an open group of women and men from many diverse cultural, spiritual, and professional backgrounds, the APESS hopes to initiate new forums and processes that will revitalise wisdom for all humanity. Wisdom in the "modern" age. To be a scholar or expert is most prestigious in todays society. But rarely does a person accept to be designated as a wise person. In fact, the institution of the sage is only recognised in the context of indigenous, non-western societies studied by ethnologists. We do not want to let sages into our modern society. The image of a manager, technician, or businesswoman is incompatible with our image of a wise person. Even academics dont correspond well to this image. They are knowledgeable and well-schooled, of course, but wise? Thats something different. How is it that today being wise is outdated? We arent even interested in wisdom. The proof is the discomfort expressed by many when invited to this "Council of the Wise" forum: "But Im not a wise person." Now, we recognise without difficulty the merits of the ancient "lovers of wisdom" or philosophers. We still admire the Greek tradition of interconnecting continuous thinking on human nature and the sense of human existence with scientific research as well as political and social commitment. How about the great interest in books categorised as "new age" or mystic? Doesnt all this point to a resurgence in questions about the origin and sense of our existence, or about God? People are also increasingly concerned with the absence of ethics in the natural sciences, which is perfectly understandable considering the effects of atomic energy or the scientists announcement that we will soon be cloning human beings.
We are realising more and more that current mentalities and ways of teaching are not capable of advancing a harmonious and beneficial development for humanity. We interpret the current unsatisfactory evolution in our societies as a dis-equilibrium or a dis-functioning due to: - Education models that separate knowledge from wisdom, and - Teaching models that have no consideration for the principle of harmony or for the wholeness of human nature. We all have a gift for wisdom. The rehabilitation of wisdom begins by allowing that we are all more or less wise or potentially wise and that this is a gift to be valued, not hidden. We suggest that there are approximately four degrees of wise persons: Confirmed (by others) sages. They have fulfilled their wisdom potential. Budding sages. They have good potential, have chosen to follow the path of their potential, and have begun to evolve this potential. Sages in intention. They have definite potential for wisdom and have only just murmured their intention to follow the path of wisdom. Everyday sages. They have wisdom potential like all beings but are dominated by other considerations. As with all things, human beings exhibit a range of these degrees. Thus, there is no shame or pretension in aligning oneself with the wise. To each degree of wisdom falls a responsibility and a role with respect to others. As with musicians, physicists, athletes, etc., sages of every degree have the duty to realise and manifest their talent (gift) to its greatest extent and quality. The wise and potentially wise further have the function and mission to bring clarity to the notion of universal wisdom and its implications and to propagate it. Wisdom in Theory What then is wisdom? Anatomically or structurally, wisdom is a harmonising and protective repository. It is the repository for knowing without which knowledge would burst forth and blind rather than enlighten. To be wise is to understand and practice the right, useful, and harmonising relation in all things. It is to know and establish the appropriate distance in our relationships so that all neighbouring things may live fully without feeling rejected, attacked, or oppressed. Whence the saying, "The sage has distance with respect to facts, events, and phenomena." At the same time, wisdom can be understood as the compassionate intent to link oneself with other living beings. It is to feel, know, and conform to the principles and laws of nature.
Contextually, we have both universal wisdom and specific/particular wisdom, the two being present in each being. Everyone must understand and connect these two wisdoms within him/herself. The Council of the Wise Any person, no matter how wise s/he is at present, who is deeply committed to rehabilitating wisdom in all cultures, is invited to become a Council of the Wise member. The first two annual meetings in Dori, Burkina Faso were attended by 10-15 participants, including spiritual leaders, university professors and students, educationists, engineers, development professionals, writers, and farmers from Burkina Faso, Egypt, France, Germany, Mali, Niger, Nigeria and Senegal. The Councils function is to debate and retain those universal principles that should be known and integrated in our education systems (formal, non-formal, and informal) in order to favour the whole worlds development. It will consider possible principles and give an explanation, meaning, and function to those principles. At the past two meetings, the Council worked to elaborate on the meanings of wisdom and refine processes for reconnecting wisdom to traditional and modern institutions and knowledge systems. The Council also began to give shape and form to the Academy of Wisdoms and to consider a number of principles for the Academy to take up and further develop with respect to todays world context. The Academy of Wisdoms It is envisioned that the Academy will be made up of persons elected at the annual Council of the Wise Meeting. Some elected members will work as a core team in Burkina Faso while others will contribute from their different locations. The Academys function is to refine the conceptprinciples identified by the Council of the Wise. The Academy will determine the conditions and processes that should allow for the wise usage of these concept-principles of life. All knowledge will thus be re-wrapped and re-impregnated in its original wisdom. It is further envisioned that relations between the Council of the Wise and the Academy of Wisdoms will not simply flow in one direction, but will be based on mutual exchange and stimulation. The Academy of Wisdoms will take on the continuous in-depth work through persons elected for their competence and life experience. The Academy will present and discuss its work at the annual meetings of the Council of the Wise. The Councils meetings will be events to re-nourish and re-orient the work of the Academy. Education Centres affiliated with the Academy of Wisdoms Once the Council of the Wise has set forth the concept-principles necessary for life (the perfect symbol of harmony) and the Academy of Wisdoms has worked through their generalised usage, Education Centres from all over the world may become affiliated with the Academy. Each Centre will receive support to contextualise these concept-principles according to its own cultural and territorial conditions. Ultimately, education systems throughout the world may draw from this web of knowledge resituated in its original wisdom.j For further information or to find out how to contribute to this initiative, contact the authors at:
APESS, BP 291 Dori, Burkina Faso Tel: 226-66-0202 / Fax: 226-66-0125 / e-mail: apess@fasonet.bf
Only when people start believing that a grain of wisdom exists in every one of us -- and that we must respect and value this wisdom in ourselves, our learners and our learning institutions -- will be able to (re-)integrate and (re-)cultivate wisdom in our cultures.
Such expertise meant much more than simply memorising information, having a few functional skills or even acquiring some specialized knowledge. Expertise was built on a foundation of deep learning (as opposed to surface learning) which emphasized the development of inquisitiveness, creativity, intrinsic motivation, collaboration, and personal responsibility. It involved being part of a wider 'community of practice' which entailed having a complex understanding and sensitivity for the field including its history and customs, social roles and responsibilities, aesthetics and values, and its place and meaning within the functioning of the larger society. Above all, expertise was about being able to synthesize, that is, to construct and apply several very different forms of knowledge to a new problem or situation. The apprenticeship process blended the development of practical and social skills so that the learner was well-prepared to participate in all aspects of community life. In effect, it brought learning, working and living together into a seamless whole. The Emergence of Industrial-Schooling The organismic/synthetic worldview that nurtured apprenticeship learning and wisdom was pushed out by the mechanistic/analytic worldview. The formation of this "modern worldview was strongly influenced over the past 300 years by three concepts which were taken from the natural sciences: (1) Newtonian physics and the supremacy of reductionism, determinism, and universal truths in the scientific enterprise; (2) Darwin's theory of evolution, predicated on the survival of the fittest and the pre-imminence of (ruthlessly) aggressive competition over collaboration; and (3) the behaviourist nature of incentives and rewards which saw the brain as an empty and blank slate waiting for external inputs to shape it. The American engineer Frederick Winslow Taylor applied these scientific concepts towards assembly-line management to improve the efficiency of factory workers. Scientific management spread rapidly across different social institutions. At the Chicago World's Fair in 1933, it proudly proclaimed, "Science finds/ Industry applies/ Man conforms." This was a complete turnabout -the day of the thinking, reflective, self-motivated, imaginative (and wise) craftsperson was dead. The link between Taylors scientific management, behaviourism, competition, and the subdivision of knowledge into specialised disciplines was most influential on the system of schooling. Education became limited to only that which could be quantified within the four walls of the classroom; and, it became characterised by the hierarchical and routinized language of instruction, supervision, grades, tasks, marks, intelligence measurement, certification, etc. Scientific management certainly led to vastly increased productivity, but it effectively shattered the earlier seamless web of sustainable living, working and learning. Learning Environments for the 21st Century "The highest wisdom is not founded on reason alone, nor on those worldly sciences of physics, chemistry, and the like, into which intellectual knowledge is divided. . . The highest wisdom has but one science - the science of all, the science explaining all creation and man's place in it." L. Tolstoy There is a growing understanding of the severe limitations of the mechanistic/ analytic worldview and industrial-schooling in solving the complex problems that we face in the world ---- and of the
deeper damage that these systems have wrought on the human spirit. Knowing what we know today, we simply can no longer continue to do what we are currently doing. Ironically, cutting-edge research on the brain and human learning from across several disciplines (Neurological and Cognitive Sciences, Cultural Anthropology, Pedagogy, and Evolutionary Psychology) indicates that there is much we can learn from the principles underlying traditional models of apprenticeship learning when seeking to radically transform industrial-schooling and to open up new learning contexts that nurture wise individuals and communities. This research calls for schools, families and communities to work together to create and connect meaningful learning environments in which young people are progressively weaned from their dependence on teachers and institutions; and, given the confidence to take responsibility for the management of their own lifelong learning -- which would involve being able to think about one's own thinking and learning processes, to be consciously aware of oneself as a problem-solver, to creatively synthesize and apply knowledge across domains, and to flexibly collaborate with own's colleagues. Many countries around the world have begun to experiment with new forms of apprenticeship learning. For example, in a town in Sweden, a Work Orientation program was formulated so that children and adolescents could periodically take a day off from school to shadow their parents or substitute parents at their places of work. So successful is the scheme that the number of days has been increased to five at the age of 10; ten days at the age of 13; and fifteen days at the age of 16. Such orientation is always one-on-one and with an ever-increasing array of adults. The adults admit that they themselves have learnt from the interactions and sometimes have changed their work practices as a direct result of a young persons questions. More importantly, the adults in this community have begun to realize that the education of young people is too important to be left solely in the hands of schoolteachers and isolated classrooms. A wise society of the future will certainly not be a heaven in which all our problems have disappeared, but a realistic utopia in which endless reflection and problem-solving will be a highly valued part of life for all human beings. With this in mind, there are many immediate steps that we can take to start to transform industrial-schooling, including: - nurturing more multi-generational interactions and encouraging elder students to take on responsibilities related to supporting the learning of younger children; - developing collaborative, project-based learning exercises that encourage teams of students to research real world issues with the help of external resource persons;; - working with students and parents to identify positive role models in the community and creating opportunities for students to purposefully interact with such people; - encouraging students to take on internships in real work settings for academic credit (and train adults to help students link their theoretical work with their practical experiences).
The Honey Bee Network "pursues collective goals to document, disseminate, and reward grassroots creativity" in part through regional network meetings and publication of a quarterly newsletter. Honey Bee is a metaphor for certain ethical and professional values. A honey bee does two things which development professionals usually do not do: it collects pollen from the flowers in a way that does not cause them to complain; and it connects flower to flower through pollination. The Honey Bee Network aims to conserve biodiversity through documentation, experimentation and value addition, and dissemination of local innovations by creative farmers, pastoralists, artisans, horticulturalists and other grassroots innovators. It stands for people to people networking in local languages, assurance to knowledge providers that they will not be impoverished by their sharing, and overall concern, respect, and [rapport] with natural environments. Honey Bee, c/o Anil K. Gupta, IIM Vastrapur, Ahmedabad, Gujarat 380 015, India (Tel: 079-640-7241 / Fax:079-642-7896 e-mail: honeybee@iimahd.ernet.in) *** The Aastha Foundation for Human Learning and Growth hosts an annual Confluence conference. The topic chosen for November 98 was Indian Knowledge Systems - Awareness Building and Integration in Education. As Seetha Ananthasivan states in the conference journal, "While many great western and Indian scholars and thinkers have valued [Indian wisdom, spirituality, knowledge systems, and learning processes] very highly, it is ironical that they find no place in our education system. () Fifty years ago, with a mind colonized by the British, we could not appreciate them enough to legitimize their inclusion in the education system." Confluence 98 aimed to explore some of the basic principles underlying Indian civilization holism, synthesis, pluralism, ecological wisdom, spiritual search - and how these principles may become reintegrated in formal education systems. Aastha, 177/8, 15th Main, Vasanthnagar, Bangalore, Karnataka 560 052, India (TeleFax: 080-220-3879 / e-mail:prakriya@giasbg01.vsnl.net.in)
Further reading and resources-Websites Cultural Survival 21st Century Learning Initiative The Wisdom Conservancy School of Wisdom Articles and Books
Apffel-Marglin, F. (ed.) The Spirit of Regeneration: Andean Culture Confronting Western Notions of Development. London: Zed Books, 1998. Bruner J. The Culture of Education. Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1996. Erikson, J.M.Wisdom and the Senses: The Way of Creativity. New York: Norton, 1988. Frodsham, J.D. The Crisis of the Modern World and Traditional Wisdom. Singapore: The Institute of East Asian Philosophies, 1990. Gandhi, M.K. Hind Swaraj. Ahmedabad: Navjivan, 1938. Lehrer, K. et al. (eds.,) Knowledge, Teaching, and Wisdom. Dordrecht: Kluwer Academic, 1996. McFadden, S. (ed.) Profiles in Wisdom: Native Elders Speak About the Earth. Bear & Co, 1991. Norberg-Hodge, H. Ancient Future: Learning From Ladakh. Delhi: Oxford India Paperback, O.U.P., 1992. Sachs, W. (ed.) The Development Dictionary. London: Zed Books, 1992. top