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Value/s: higher-order values
“If justice on this earth is ignored, life has no value.” Kant -
quoted by Judge in sentencing Bosnian war criminal Ch. 4 TV, 2nd Aug. 2001
Values are instrumental or moral, reflecting a desire or preference. Moral values carry a sense of obligation —- pride or shame. Instrumental values —- feelings of satisfaction or dissatisfaction. Whether or not values and higher-order values are seen as being on a single scale or a two separate scales there is clearly a difference between say a missionary who gives up her/his life for some higher cause and preferences e.g. ‘I value strawberry ice cream over banana flavoured ice cream’.
Baha’is term values, or at least higher-order values, spiritual principles. An interesting model of the application of the spiritual principle is to be found in The Promise of World Peace, a guide, or holistic blueprint, for the peace-making process, which was issued by the Baha’i International Community in 1985. The document says,
‘There are spiritual principles, or what some call human values, by which solutions can be found for every social problem. Any well-intentioned group can in a general sense devise practical solutions to its problems, but good intentions and practical knowledge are usually not enough. The essential merit of spiritual principle is that it not only presents a perspective which harmonizes with that which is immanent in human nature, it also induces an attitude, a dynamic, a will, an aspiration, which facilitate the discovery and implementation of practical measures.’
Viewpoint:
Nicholas Humphey in his (1992) book A History of Mind which seeks to pin down exactly what consciousness is, says;
There is nothing in the world that is finally and absolute ‘just’ what we may have chosen to describe it as – for the simple reason that there is nothing in the world that could not, if we were to choose otherwise, be re-described from a different point of view…..What matters in the end is that the questioner and the answerer should have the same point o view, the same agenda, and be interested in the same things. When the question is, “What is a skull?” an anthropologist will not be satisfied by the answer that satisfies a chemist. When the question is, “What is the purpose of existence?” a mystic will (possibly – my addition) want a different answer from a bus driver.
Virtue/s:
1) the quality or practice of moral excellence or righteousness 2) a particular moral excellence: the virtue of compassion 3) any of the cardinal virtues (faith, hope and charity) 4)any admirable quality or trait 5) chastity esp. in women (hmmm) 6) Arch. an effective, active, or inherent power 7) by or in v of, by reason of 
Make a virtue of necessity to acquiesce in doing something unpleasant with a show of grace because one must do it in any case (C13 vertu from OF, from L virtus manliness, courage.)
Vision:
“Education today needs a new vision, a new understanding of its fundamental purposes. In order to move out of the crisis we are in, it is not enough to “restructure” the system already in place; educators must radically examine their underlying assumptions and convictions about the nature and purpose of schooling, for these are stale remnants of a simpler time. Therefore, rather than restructure our schools – that is, to try yet again to design a better institutional form for established assumptions – we need now to deconstruct the socially/culturally produced meanings of “education”, “school”, and “teaching”. We need to examine the limitations of our nineteenth century conceptions and explore the possibilities of new meanings that can guide us – and more importantly, our children – into the twenty-first century.”
Ron Miller, p.8 The Renewal of meaning in Education
What’s Wrong with education as it is ?:
There is a very wide range of criticisms of contemporary education including the following;
Neil Postman: “There is no longer any principle that unifies the school curriculum and furnishes it with meaning.”
John Goodlad: “What students are asked to relate to in school [is] increasingly artificial, cut off from the human experiences subject matter is supposed to reflect.”
Harlan Cleveland: “It is a well-know scandal that our whole educational system is geared more to categorizing and analyzing patches of knowledge that to threading them together.”
Robert Stevens: “We have lost sight of our responsibility for synthesizing learning.”
Within individual academic disciplines, there is no less criticism.
Greg Stefanich and Charles Dedrick: “Mathematics and science education in America’s schools is sorely defective.”
Paul DeHart Hurd: “Biology, chemistry, physics, and earth science . . .no longer exist as they are portrayed in the simple division of school science into subjects.”
Philip Curtin: “Historians are narrower in their knowledge and understanding than they have ever been.”
Ernest Boyer: “The undergraduate curriculum is a disaster area.”
These criticisms were collected by the independent educationalist Marion Brady at:
http://webferret.search.com/click?wf,+%2BMarion+%2BBrady,,ddi.digital.net%2F%7Embrady%2Fwhat-wth.htm,,directhit
The first four of the above criticisms are particularly the concern of this model.
Amongst the most important powerful ‘wrongs’ according to the SunWALK model are that education is driven by the;
Fragmentariness/Atomism;
In the context of Perennial philosophy
Mechanistic The: The mechanistic is a world view that seems the universe, including humans, as machines.
Materialistic The:
Utilitarianism
Dogmatism
Empiricism
Individualism
Objectivism and Subjectivism
In SunWALK we want the objective and subjective to have full, appropriate sway.
Theories that various kinds of judgement are, respectively, objective, i.e. pertain to objects, or subjective, i.e. pertain to subjects (people). (1) ‘Fish have fins’ is an objective claim: its truth or falsity is independent of what anyone thinks or feels about the matter. (2) ‘Raw fish is delicious’ is a subjective claim: its truth or falsity is not thus independent, and indeed arguably it is neither true nor false, even though taste can be sophisticated, discriminating, insensitive, etc. The statement (3) ‘Most Japanese find raw fish delicious (while most Britons do not)’ is an objective truth or falsehood about subjects. It is therefore perhaps surprising that one theory labelled ’subjectivism’ about morality, aesthetics, etc. is the view that evaluative claims within these fields are of kind (3), while another theory asserts they are of kind (2).
It is counter-productive to use a different term, ‘relativism’, to mean the same as ’subjectivism’. If by ‘relativism’ we mean the theory that what is valuable (or even true) depends on changing circumstances, then it does not entail subjectivism. http://www.xrefer.com/entry/553039
Relativism
Objectivism
Secularization
Activism
Watson, Brenda and Ashton, Elizabeth (1997), Priorities, Grounds for Fresh Thinking in Education, West Malvern, Worcs.: Moorhills Publishing (p.65)
Positivistic – Positivism is the belief that natural science, based on observation, comprises the whole of human knowledge. Positivists like August Comte, then, reject as meaningless the claims of theology and metaphysics.
This empirical way of collecting information, via the senses in ways that can be measured, is seen as vital, but it is its displacement, and de-legitimization, of all others ways of knowing that has created major problems. Following Wilber in The Marriage of Sense and Soul, SunWALK seeks a balanced view that combines IT knowing the empirical and objective), with WE knowing (the interpersonal) and I knowing (the creative and subjective including the intuitive).
“Such a crisis is a crisis for education and for educators on at least two counts. In the first place, our ways of knowing and our dominant conceptions of knowable reality – central concerns of education by its nature – are implicated in the crisis at every point. Reductionist and fragmenting ways of knowing, truncated conceptions and, hence, impoverished experiences of reality, the failure to nourish and, therefore, the atrophy of qualitative sensitivities in art, in statecraft, and in science, all bespeak a momentous educational failure.”
Douglas Sloan (Foreword) The Renewal of Meaning
“If men are unable to perceive critically the themes of their time, an thus to intervene in reality, they are carried along in the wake of change. They see that the times are changing, but they are submerged in that change and so cannot discern its dramatic significance. And a society beginning to move from one epoch to another requires the development of an especially flexible, critical spirit. “ Paulo Freire, p.6 Education: The Practice of Freedom
‘More and more as the corporate culture exercises more control over schools, teachers are reduced to the role of imposing ‘an official truth’ predetermined by a ‘small group of people who analyze. Execute, make decisions, and run things in the political, economic and ideological system.’ In order to achieve this teaching task (which ironically is a for of dumbness), teachers must treat students as empty vessels to be filled with predetermined bodies of knowledge, which are often disconnected from students’ social realities and from issues of equity, responsibility and democracy. This type of education for domestication, which borders on stupidification, provides no specs for students, as Chomsky thoughtfully argues …. “not to be merely as an audience but as part of a community of common concern in which one hopes to participate constructively.” Instead students are rewarded to the degree that the y become complicit with their own stupidification and become the ‘so-called good student who repeats, who renounces critical thinking, who adjusts to models, (who) should do nothing other than receive contents that are impregnated with the ideological character vital to the interests of the sacred order.’
Macedo, Donaldo, (Ed)., (2000), Chomsky on MisEducation, Maryland, USA: Rowman & Littlefield Publishers Inc.
Marion Brady, an American independent educational reformer, cites the following critics of contemporary education;
Harlan Cleveland: “It is a well-known scandal that our whole educational system is geared more to categorizing and analyzing patches of knowledge that to threading them together.”
Robert Stevens: “We have lost sight of our responsibility for synthesizing learning.”
Neil Postman: “There is no longer any principle that unifies the school curriculum and furnishes it with meaning.”
John Goodlad: “What students are asked to relate to in school [is] increasingly artificial, cut off from the human experiences subject matter is supposed to reflect.”
Within individual academic disciplines, there is no less criticism.
Philip Curtin: “Historians are narrower in their knowledge and understanding than they have ever been.”
SEE: Aims, Meaning (making), Unifying Principle/s, Human Being/Experience;
Wholeness: SEE Holism
Will:
Will: volition, the connate, c.f. motivation, character, drive
Free Will
Whereas the Greeks gave to will the boundaries of reason, we have come to put the will’s impulse in the very center of reason, which has, as a result, become deadly.
Albert Camus (1913–60), French-Algerian philosopher, author. The Myth of Sisyphus & Other Essays, “Helen’s Exile” (1955; first published 1948) Columbia Dictionary of Quotations
LaBoskey (1993 p. 32) in her conceptual framework places student teachers on a common-sense/pedagogical continuum and distinguishes what she calls alert novices, who are closer to pedagogical thinkers, and common-sense thinkers. She says that one of the distinctive qualities of alert novices seems to be the desire to know. They appear to be internally motivated to engage in both spontaneous and structured reflection. The Common-sense Thinkers, she says, may not only lack these personal purposes but may have interfering attitudes, emotions and values;
‘If as many emotion theorists suggest, emotions not only influence motivation, they ‘constitute the primary motivational system for human beings, (Izard, 1977 p.3), an understanding of student teachers emotional states and traits becomes critical to
reflective teacher education.’
I take the view that ‘teacher’s emotional states’ is not a phenomenon to be studied, zoo-like, but a part of human nature and a part o f the life of the educator and the student and therefore a part of the process and one of the domains of study
Wisdom:
In SunWALK wisdom (or wise action) is human, directed, consciousness that appropriately uses caring, creative and critical knowledge (information made subjectively as well as objectively meaningful) to ends that balance the just, the true, the good and the beautiful.
Wisdom, as the highest form of knowing and acting, is a chief aim of education in SunWALK. Wisdom is not seen just as the domain of special elites but as part of the make-up of many, perhaps all, children. Such wisdom is often evident in such dialogic process as Philosophy for Children.
The following extract is from an outstanding paper by Tobin Hart;
What is Wisdom?
We recognize it, we talk of it, it is described in all of the worlds sacred traditions, yet wisdom remains difficult to define precisely. Thomas Aquinas, the 16th century theologian, gives us an image to consider when he writes that “wisdom differs from science in looking at things from a greater height” (in Gilby 1967, 364). He said that it involves gnome, or the ability to see through things.
Wisdom does not come from amassing bits of information; it is not a thing that’s accumulated, not an entity. Instead it is an activity of knowing. We don’t possess wisdom as if it were an object, instead we act wisely.
Ralph Waldo Emerson describes wisdom as a blend of the perception of what is true with the moral sentiment of what is right (Sealts 1992, 257). As is the case with moral decisions, wise action moves beyond mere self-interest. Jesus was said to have turned over the tables of the money changers who were doing business in a holy temple; Martin Luther King, Jr., organized a sit-in at a lunch counter in Montgomery, Alabama, in an attempt to challenge segregation; Gandhi’s radical non-violence directly confronted the authority of the British Empire. We would not say that these actions were “smart,” but they were wise. In this sense, wisdom does not simply serve individual growth but growth in general. The actions of Jesus, King, and Gandhi not only helped to define their own lives but helped human society to grow. Lawson (1961, vii) concludes that “wisdom lies in human action which possesses both intellectual and ethical orientation; and the promotion of such wisdom is the task of education.”
The full paper is available at; http://www.great-ideas.org
Joseph Meeker in Wisdom and Wilderness
“Wisdom is a state of the human mind characterized by profound understanding and deep insight. It is often, but not necessarily, accompanied by extensive formal knowledge. Unschooled people can acquire wisdom, and wise people can be found among carpenters, fishermen, or housewives.
Wherever it exists, wisdom shows itself as a perception of the relativity and relationships among things. It is an awareness of wholeness that does not lose sight of particularity or concreteness, or of the intricacies of interrelationships. It is where left and right brain come together in a union of logic and poetry and sensation, and where self-awareness is no longer at odds with awareness of the otherness of the world.
Wisdom cannot be confined to a specialized field, nor is it an academic discipline; it is the consciousness of wholeness and integrity that transcends both. Wisdom is complexity understood and relationships accepted.”
Meeker calls it “wisdom”. It really has several names more indicative of its true nature: systems thinking, holistic thinking, creative thinking, whole-brain thinking, integrative thinking. We prefer the term “integrative thinking”.
http://www.wisdomtalk.org//basisofgenius.html
Wit:
“Cheese is milk’s leap towards immortality!” unknown wit
Ah where would we be without the fools, comedians and wits who ease the soul by making us laugh!
This world is a comedy to those that think, a tragedy to those that feel.
Horace Walpole, writer 1717-97
Work:
Work is seen in SunWALK as a human right, not just for the benefits of earning, vital though they are, but as a right to make one’s life meaningful through participating in the community by being of service to others.
BIBLIOGRAPHY:
For the Master Bibliography see here
Williams, Allan/Dobson, Paul/Walters, Mike, (1989), Changing Culture: New Organizational Approaches, London: Institute of Personnel
To add
“How far does, “Don’t do what I do, do what I tell you,” still prevail?” The lecturer who lectures a monologue on the vital importance of participatory methods in learning is proverbial – or is he? The nature, quality and circumstances of feedback surely affect the quality of reflection. LaBoskey (1993 p. 26) considers that the content of reflection is influenced by the conditions of reflection. I would want to argue that the whole process of education, especially in a programme designed to nurture the spiritually and morally-based ‘holistic’ teacher must model the style and qualities looked for in the students and in their teaching!
Can piecemeal change ever be effective? Valli (1993 p12) points out that piecemeal attempts fail to influence the perspectives of teacher candidates and that a more intense, coherent framework is necessary. What we need is one or more countries, or regions, that are willing to apply the holistic perspective thoroughly and whole-heartedly.
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