New paradigm education is critical to a sustainable future. John Taylor Gatto is a school reformer whose book Weapons of Mass Instruction, we recently reviewed. Home schooling is one answer to the challenge of teaching in a flawed system. Another is revolutionary teaching methods within schools. In the award-winning documentary Children Full of Life, a fourth-grade class in a primary school in Kanazawa, northwest of Tokyo, learn lessons about compassion from their homeroom teacher, Toshiro Kanamori. He instructs each to write their true inner feelings in a letter, and read it aloud in front of the class. By sharing their lives, the children begin to realize the importance of caring for their classmates. Expressing emotions is critical to releasing energy that can turn into depression or rage and this class is helping students do just that. A great working model. Bravo!

On Jari Chevalier’s wonderful new blog, Living Hero, you’ll find twenty-two and counting great audio interviews including one with maverick educator, John Gatto whose new book, Weapons of Mass Instruction, which I reviewed yesterday.The full list of shows and program overview is available at http://livinghero.com. It’s a treat to hear John explore the educational system’s shortcomings and history which few know. If you’d like to listen to Jari’s September interview with John, click here.

Living Hero is a monthly audio interview show geared to an audience interested in healing the human psyche and society. Everyone is welcome and encouraged to listen in. We interview heroes in a wide variety of fields to encourage cross-disciplinary discussions that will yield new insights into the pressing problems we face and present fresh ideas for further inquiry and concerted action.

A LIVING HERO is an explorer, pioneer, maverick, and/or brave heart who offers a new pathway of thought, knowledge and/or action that inspires, empowers and serves others in the here and now.

John Gatto taught for 30 years in New York City public schools before resigning from school teaching on the oped pages of the Wall Street Journal the same year he was named “Teacher of the Year”. Since then, he has been a tireless advocate for school reform traveling over 3 million miles to lecture on the subject. He has been an advisor and speaker to homescholing associations around the world.  His previous book, Dumbing Us Down has sold over 150,000 copies to date.

John’s knowledge and writing about compulsory schooling is an eye opener and if you want the shocking and unvarnished truth about who, how and why education was structured in this country, you will find no better source.

Here is one instructive quote:

It is natural businessmen should seek to influence the enactment and administration of laws, national and international, and that they should try and control education. ~ Max Otto

Gatto goes on to show how and why students were and still are taught to memorize the dots rather than connecting them and how education was designed to separate the classes. It all began believe it or not in 1852 with the adoption of the Prussian model of education. Then just after the civil war, the country shifted from an entrepreneurial economy to a mass market economy and from freedom to industrial capitalism. Once in place, this new educational system took students and “confined them with hired mercenaries” which is what we have today, according to a very informed Gatto.

To contrast the two systems, he points to Ben Franklin whose biography he suggests is must reading. Frankin was the product of a brilliant and daring curriculum–his own. “He was an open source learner for the ages and he will generously show you how the trick is done”.

One of his personal experiences illustrates just one of the many trials by fire he went though during his career. He went to purchase copies of Moby Dick and Shakespeare’s Plays when he discovered he could get a 40% discount by shopping himself at  a book wholesaler.  He went and put 100 copies of each title in his shopping cart and went to heck out. The employee asked if he was a teacher and he answered yes. The clerk then told him he was only entitled to a 25% discount. John told him he was mistaken, that he was entitled to a 40% discount. The clerk replied, “If you don’t like it, take it up with your school board. They negotiated a 25% discount for teachers,  Why would a school negotiate a price that was less than anyone else could get?  You can probably figure out that a deal had been struck between the school and either the distributor or the publisher. Whatever the reason, you can be certain it involved some shadowy dealings. There are many more stories and historical facts that will make your head spin

I hope this short look into the mind of this exceptional educator will compel you to buy a copy of John’s book. It’s an invaluable well written story offering insights on the Alice in Wonderland education system you will find nowhere else. My two word review: Bravo John!

To learn more about this amazing and  highly principled man and his books, visit his site.

Editor’s Note: For the past few years, John and a director have been seeking funds to produce a documentary series, The Forth Purpose, to bring his visionary ideas to a mass audience. I spoke with John Gatto for an hour this morning and am going to be working with him to realize his vision for the film. I’ll keep you posted.

Peter Oldfield and I have been friends for many years. More than anyone I know, Peter defines a spiritually motivated man living a simple and elegant life. Peter has traveled the world as a tour guide, been an actor, art dealer, colorist, interior designer, entrepreneur, arts center host and is currently living at a beautiful retreat center in Hawaii.

World Memory Theatre is his brilliant and practical cultural gift to the world. I look forward to attending its opening in 2010. All that’s needed is a wise philanthropist or lover of the arts and/or culture to fund his magnificent vision.

By Peter Oldfield, Multicultural Visionary

It has been observed that one of the abiding characteristics displayed by people throughout history has been a steady curiosity to know ‘the others’ – the folk that live on the other side of the river, on the other side of the mountain, on the far side of the desert. How do they live? How are they different? How are they like us? We listen to and watch stories about them knowing that in them we may catch the essence, the pith of those ‘other’ folk.

In stories people everywhere ‘dress up’ their accumulated knowledge, their wisdom, both to entertain each other and as a valued legacy to pass on to future generations. In stories we find the common threads of our experience – the trials, the joys and the tragedies. Through their twists and turns, we tell each other what we think it is to be human.

Today, people of the world are connecting as never before, ushering in what was once unimaginable – the ‘global village’.  At last we are beginning to understand how we can become truly cultured and world-related human beings.

In hearing other peoples’ stories, in seeing their art, listening to their music, and in recognizing the shared archetypes and the parallel mythologies, we can find within ourselves the  common streams of relatedness that cover the whole breadth of human diversity

To enable the public to have this rich multicultural experience, the World Memory Theatre is being developed as a multimedia storytelling theater-in-the-round – featuring twelve rooms of interactive global folk art linked as a dodecagon under a single dome. Visitors can select any artifact from this meta-content learning environment to access the exhibit database, where parallel myths, woven through different folk cultures, are accompanied by music and imagery, narrated as cross-cultural stories that immerse the visitor in a chosen archetypal theme.

For a complete overview of the World Memory Theatre project visit the site by clicking on this link.

To support or keep up to date on the project’s development email Peter at admin@worldmemorytheatre.org.

Since Janine Benyus’ book, Biomimicry, was published architects and engineers from all kinds of industries have been exploring nature’s designs to create new products that mimic them with great success. It’s a hopeful sign that this trend away from conquest to cooperation and collaboration is accelerating. To learn more about thi exciting field and its visionary founder, visit her wonderful educational Biomimicry site

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