I'm in the throes of getting ready to lead a faculty learning community (FLC) about contemplative pedagogy. I've been using contemplative pedagogical methods for years now, and have been part of an FLC on this subject, but I've never led one by myself, so I'm a bit nervous. That's not what this is about though (I'm sure I'll feel compelled to write about that at some point). Nor is it about contemplative pedagogy per se (although I know I need to say what I mean by that at some point). Instead, as I was re-reading the first assignment for the FLC, I found this quote, and I just needed to share it, because it says something that I believe in completely, but that I think is usually not at all on the minds of those making decisions about education today:
"When I think about the reforms needed if higher education* is to serve our students and our world faithfully and well, I think there should be a litmus test for every project that claims to strengthen the mission of our colleges and universities. Does this proposal deepen our capacity to educate students in a way that supports the inseparable causes of truth, love, and justice? If the answer is no, we should take a pass and redouble our efforts to find a proposal that does." (emphasis mine)
- Foreword, Contemplative Practices in Higher Education: Powerful Methods to Transform Teaching and Learning (Daniel Barbezat and Mirabai Bush)
Can you imagine a world where that was the litmus test for education? The mind boggles.
*For my money, this applies to all levels of education - and perhaps should be even more important at the K-12 level.
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If it were a world that applied that litmus test to education, we'd be closer to a world that made it a litmus test for government, then for business, too!
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