| Chapter 2: | The Shadowy Edges of the Path: Shifting Power From the Teacher to the Students |
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This quote highlights several important themes. The process of shifting power from the teacher to the students, with facilitation as central, will potentially alter the views of students about learning and about education, and the approach contests traditional models of education and learning.
I have only offered a few brief morsels from some educators who were interested in the human dimension and humanistic education. Their ideas were radical at the time. Interestingly, these ideas are still radical. I think this is so for a couple of reasons. First, these seem to be emotionally conservative times and the riskiness of such an approach is threatening for individuals, institutions, and the overall status quo. Secondly, some of the original humanistic educators could be best described as naïve. Their attempts to write about their experience were often vague and strange even to sympathetic ears. As well, the efforts of some to emulate what they thought was good practice turned out not to be good practice and, at times, led to situations that were chaotic, not good for leaning, and, at times, just unsafe. My writing is aimed at learning from and building on the past.
The Promise of Education for Living Well
Part of the unspoken promise of education currently is that those who are successfully educated will have the most resources and the best chance for survival and living well. This is at odds with my idea of living well. The survival orientation itself is problematic. It promotes competition and a lack of care for others and the planet, and negates thriving by failing to address it or mention it. Positioning on either side of the polarity is problematic. Both survival and thriving are very human. The crucial distinction is the development of consciousness that can see the possibilities in both sides of apparently opposing positions and is skillful in recognizing the edges that these dichotomies represent, is able to metacommunicate about them, and is able and willing to provide facilitation to bring out the message of both and support the potential integration that may be attempting to emerge.