Description
This is the second of two books on Schooling and Education. This book, EDUCATION, a blueprint, presents a brief, general outline curriculum, appropriate for an Irish education system. But the general tenets proposed here could be adapted or modified to suit any country.
As with child-centred education where we ought to see each child as unique and special in the classroom; each country is also unique and special and should not be subsumed into a larger controlling world. If one child in a class is not getting the individual attention s/he requires, but is subsumed into the class and is treated as part of the group, then his/ her identity as a person is lost. Similarly, a country that is subdued through colonization or, that voluntary submits to an empire or global commercialism and to a global way of thinking loses its soul.
Sovereignty, independence, culture, heritage, and language give a country an identity. A country without an identity is like a child without a name. We ought to import what is best for us in the world including: progress and developments in science, information technology and medicine. We should retain our identity, however, that includes sovereignty and independence, and, retention of our language, culture, and heritage. We should learn about our folklore, myths, legends, stories, poetry, and history. We need to have pride in our identity.
We need to develop an education system that will teach, promote, and foster independent, critical, and lateral thinking and have health and happiness at the core of its philosophy. The rat-race that the commercial world is forcing people to participate in is sad. People are so focused on accumulating wealth that they have no time to pursue happiness
We might take the message from this poem:
“LEISURE” by W.H. Davies
What is this life if full of care?
We have no time to stand and stare
No time to stand beneath the boughs
And stare as long, as sheep or cows
No time to see when woods we pass
Where squirrels hide their nuts in grass
No time to see in broad daylight,
Streams full of stars, like skies at night.
No time to turn at beauty’s glance,
And watch her feet, how they can dance
No time to wait till her mouth can
Enrich that smile her eyes began
A poor life this, if full of care,
We have no time to stand and stare.
Health, wellbeing, and happiness Must prevail over Wealth, possessions, and worldliness
