The unprecedented manipulation of the global population operated by the media, press and politics in relation to their deceptive scientific treatment of the c·o·v·i·d-1·9 crisis (1) has motivated some awakened minds to seriously question: “But what has gone so wrong with the entire education system???”... Above all, these intellectuals are rather shocked by the fact that a very high percentage of individuals who comply with the deception hold university degrees, even in the field of medicine and biology, so these intellectuals end up hypothesizing that the deception operates successfully in these sectors because the crisis vastly transcends those domains of biology and medicine and is, above all, a techno-industrial and technocratic issue at a planetary scale which is directly linked to the problem of keeping up economic growth in a planet of finite resources (2).
Rigid specialization and the “industrialization of knowledge” is indeed an important factor that can partially explain the power of such deception, but there´s a much more primordial explanation, an explanation that nonetheless can´t develop dialectically from the assumptions implicit in the former question (“What has gone so wrong with the entire education system?”)… In effect, this question already assumes that education is exclusively linked to an education system, an assumption that necessarily limits all forms of education to those that are defined in a “system”… But let´s recall that the concept of “system” (3) defined mostly in the 1930s already implies functional specialization of all and every part, so the rigid specialization that these intellectuals claim as the real cause of why the recent c·o·r·o·n·a·v·i·r·u·s propaganda (with all it´s so-called “variants”, etc.) operates so powerfully in such rigidly specialized minds, as an inevitable consequence of an education that is typically systematic. And as the former question is a conceptual vicious cycle, it´s also a dead end. But, as encouraged by the most excellent educators, let´s “think out of the box”…
Let´s first depart from a fundamental principle: all we can know is the experiential knowledge which we´ve learnt by ourselves (4)… This principle is very present in ancient teaching methods and craft traditions (5), and in some very rare cases is still today the principle that underlies the ethical standards that ought to be respected along the most effective educational practices. The crucial problem faced by modernity in these educational contexts is how to make compatible such ancient disciplines with those of a modern education system which heavily relies in systematic examination methods. In other words: the crucial problem is the following: how can we actually “examine” the experiential knowledge that is gained by a student?... The answer is very simple, yet seldom practiced, and it consists in careful observation of the spontaneous attitude expressed by the student when facing personal challenge and when being in parallel potentially assisted in this regard by knowledge and culture in general. This observation is the true substantial “examination” and demands from the tutor the ability to capture the student´s urge for self-expression (something practically impossible to accomplish through online courses, webinars, etc.) an urge that is to be then nourished with a curricular program that is specific to that student. Along this path, all subjects of knowledge are not end-in-themselves but rather “ingredients” that the student learns to “taste” when triggered by the diverse phases of character and personal development. It´s no coincidence that in Spanish and Italian the word for wisdom (sabiduría/sapienza) is etymologically linked to “taste” (sabor/sapore), implying that the wisest is also the one with the better sense of taste. This taste is essentially a refinement of the perceptive faculties which allows the student to intuitively separate in the academic realm the wheat from the chaff, always conscious that those who truly embody the truth that derives from experiential knowledge constitute a very tiny minority that are well beyond the extremely systematic approach that characterize modern academic examination in general.
The great value of this approach to education is that, in a traditional context, the student is eventually granted a title that provides political legitimacy to the degree of experiential knowledge, a legitimacy that then facilitates the foundation of families, communities, etc. which then serve as an embodiment of values that enrich life and freedom. This is especially important in those contexts where life is impoverished at all levels due to the extremely systematic forms of education that derive directly from the agendas of any control-seeking-imperialist governments; a systematic approach to education which then fosters the production of faceless masses who not only can easily be manipulated by propaganda, but who then outsource the education of their descendants to the same institutions that profit from such manipulation in the first place.
To conclude: it´s not the “education system” what´s defective, but the concept itself of education. This concept has been degraded to such extent that the rich classes claim that “because they´re rich they no longer need any education”, and the poor classes claim that “they only want an education to become rich”… This commodification of education is another symptom of the commodification that affects practically all aspects of modern life. Yet in order to overcome this crisis, education ought to facilitate and encourage the development of human minds who can grant a cosmological dimension to the domain of knowledge, allowing knowledge to be coherently organized based on values that enrich life and aim for freedom.
(3) The concept of system applied to modern life is fully developed in this essay: https://www.thesolarwarrior.com/a-new-hope