Education
in the New Age.
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This page
constitutes a collection of passages by the Master D.K. compiled
by a student of the Ageless Wisdoms and published in "Ponder
On This". In essence, it represents views held by the Hierarchy
regarding education in relation to present humanity.
- "In
the educational world an apprehension of man's true nature will
bring about a fundamental change in the methods of teaching.
The emphasis with be laid upon teaching people the fact
of the Ego [Soul] on its own plane, the nature of the lunar bodies,
and the methods of aligning the lower bodies so that the Ego
can communicate directly with the physical brain, and thus control
the lower nature and work out its purposes. Men will be taught
how, through concentration and meditation, they can ascertain
knowledge for themselves, can develop the intuition, and thus
draw upon the resources of the Ego. Then will men be taught to
think, to assume control of the mental body, and thus
develop their latent powers." (A Treatise On Cosmic Fire,
p. 814).
"The true education is consequently
the science of linking up the integral parts of man, and also
of linking him up in turn with his immediate environment, and
then with the greater whole in which he has to play his part.
Each aspect, regarded as a lower aspect, can ever be simply the
expression of the next higher. In this phrase I have expressed
a fundamental truth which embodies not only the objective, but
also indicates the problem before all interested in education.
This problem is to gauge rightly the center of the focus of a
man's attention, and to note where the consciousness is primarily
centered. Then he must be trained in such a way that a shift
of that focus into a higher vehicle becomes possible. We can
also express this idea in an equally true manner by saying that
the vehicle which seems of paramount importance, can become an
should become of secondary importance, as it becomes simply the
instrument of that which is higher than itself." (Education
In The New Age, p. 12)
"Towards this consummation
all education should tend: Response to the Thinker or the soul.
With the registration of this response, the man enters into his
kingdom. The above and the below become as one. The objective
and the subjective worlds are unified. Soul and its mechanism
function as a unit." (Education In The New Age, p.
12)
"The Atlanteans had no educational
system as we understand the term. The kings and priests intuited;
the masses obeyed." (Education In The New Age, p.
40)
"The first effort of education
to civilize the child, will be to train and rightly direct his
instincts.
The second obligation upon the
educators will be to bring about his true culture, by training
him to use his intellect rightly.
The third duty of education will
be to evoke and to develop the intuition.
When these three are developed
and functioning, you will have a civilized, cultured and spiritually
awakened human being. A man will then be instinctively correct,
intellectually sound, and intuitively aware. His soul, his mind,
and his brain will be functioning as they should and in right
relation to each other, thus again producing co-ordination and
correct alignment." (Education In The New Age, p. 50)
"One of our immediate educational
objectives must be the elimination of the competitive spirit,
and the substitution of the co-operative consciousness."
(Education In The New Age, p. 74)
"What . . . should be the
effort on the part of parents and educators?
First, and above everything else, the effort should be made to
provide the atmosphere wherein certain qualities can flourish
and emerge.
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- 1. An atmosphere of love, wherein fear is cast out and the child
realizes he has no cause for timidity, shyness or caution, and
one in which he receives courteous treatment at the hands of
others, and is expected also to render equally courteous treatment
in return. . . . Love always draws forth what is best in child
and man.
2. An atmosphere of patience, wherein the child
can become, normally and naturally, a seeker after the light
of knowledge; wherein he is sure of always meeting with a quick
response to inquiry, and a careful reply to all questions, and
wherein there is never the sense of speed or hurry. . . . This
impatience on the part of those upon whom they are so pathetically
dependent, sows in them the seeds of irritation, and more lives
are ruined by irritation than can be counted.
3. An atmosphere of ordered activity, wherein the
child can learn the first rudiments of responsibility. The children
who are coming into incarnation at this time, and who can profit
by the new type of education, are necessarily on the very verge
of soul consciousness. One of the first indications of such soul
contact is a rapidly developing sense of responsibility. This
should be carefully borne in mind, for the shouldering of small
duties and the sharing of responsibilities (which is always concerned
with some form of group relation) is a potent factor in determining
a child's character and future vocation.
4. An atmosphere of understanding, wherein the
child is always sure that the reasons and motives for
his actions will be recognized, and that those who are his older
associates will always comprehend the nature of his motivating
impulses, even though they may not always approve of what he
has done, or of his activities . . .
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- It
is the older generation who foster in a child an early and most
unnecessary sense of guilt, of sinfulness and of wrongdoing.
So much emphasis is laid upon petty little things that are not
really wrong, but are annoying to the parent or teacher, that
a true sense of wrong (which is a recognition of failure to preserve
right relations with the group) gets overlaid and is not recognized
for what it is. The many small and petty sins, imposed upon the
children by the constant reiteration of "No", by the
use of the word "naughty", and based largely on parental
failure to understand and occupy the child, are of no real moment.
If these aspects of the child's life are rightly handled, then
the truly wrong things, the infringements upon the rights of
others, . . . the hurting or damaging of others in order to achieve
personal gain, will emerge in right perspective and at the right
time." (Education In The New Age, p. 75/8)
"In the future, education
will make a far wider use of psychology than heretofore."
(Education In The New Age, p. 84)
"A better educational system
should, therefore, be worked out which will present the possibilities
of human living in such a manner that barriers will be broken
down, prejudices removed, and a training given to the developing
child which will enable him, when grownup, to live with other
men in harmony and goodwill. This can be done, if patience and
understanding are developed and if educators realize that "where
there is no vision, the people perish"." (Education
In The New Age, p. 87)
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- "Modern
education has been primarily competitive, nationalistic and,
therefore, separative. It has trained the child to regard the
material values as of major importance, to believe that his particular
nation is also of major importance, and that every other nation
is secondary; it has fed pride and fostered the belief that he,
his group and his nation, are infinitely superior to other people
and peoples. He is taught consequently to be a one-sided person,
with his world values wrongly adjusted and his attitudes to life
distinguished by bias and prejudice.
. . . The general level of world
information is high, but usually biassed, influenced either by
national or religious prejudices, serving thus to make a man
a citizen of his own country but not a human being with
world relations. World citizenship is not emphasized." (Education
in the New Age, p. 38/9)
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- "In
the field of education, united action is essential. Surely a
basic unity of objectives should govern the educational systems
of the nations, even though uniformity of method and of technique
may not be possible. Differences of language, of background and
of culture, will and should always exist; they constitute the
beautiful tapestry of human living down the ages. But much that
has hitherto militated against right human relations must and
should be eliminated.
In the teaching of history, are
we to revert to the bad old ways wherein each nation glorifies
itself at the expense frequently of other nations, in which facts
are systematically garbled, in which the pivotal
points in history are the various wars down the ages -- a history,
therefore, of aggression, of the rise of a material and selfish
civilisation, and one which had the nationalistic and, therefore,
separative spirit, which has fostered racial hatred and stimulated
national prides? . . . Greed, ambition, cruelty and pride are
the keynotes of our teaching of history and geography.
These wars, aggression and thefts,
which have distinguished every great nation without exception,
are facts and cannot be denied. Surely, however, the lessons
of the evils which they wrought (culminating in the war 1914-45)
can be pointed out, and the ancient causes of present day prejudices
and dislikes can be shown and their futility emphasised. Is it
not possible to build our theory of history upon the great and
good ideas which have conditioned the nations and made them what
they are, and emphasise the creativity which has distinguished
all of them? Can we not present more effectively the great cultural
epochs which -- suddenly appearing in some one nation -- enriched
the entire world, and gave to humanity its literature, its art
and its vision?
. . . The world itself is a great
fusing pot, out of which the One Humanity is emerging. This necessitates
a drastic change in our methods of presenting history and geography.
Science has alway been universal. Great art and literature have
always belonged to the world. It is upon these facts that the
education to be given to the children of the world must be built
-- upon our similarities, our creative achievements, our spiritual
idealisms, and our points of contact. Unless this is done, the
wounds of
the nations will never be healed, and the barriers which have
existed for centuries, will never be removed.
The educators who face the present
world opportunity, should see to it that a sound foundation is
laid for the coming civilisation; they must undertake that it
is general and universal in scope, truthful in its
presentation, and constructive in its approach. . . . They must
lay an emphatic importance upon those great moments in human
history wherein man's divinity flamed forth, and indicated new
ways of thinking, new modes of human planning, and thus changed
for all time the trend of human affairs . . .
Two major ideas should be taught
to the children of every country. They are: The value of the
individual and the fact of the one humanity . . . The value
of the individual, and the existence of that whole we call Humanity,
are most closely related. This needs emphasising. These two principles,
when properly taught and understood, will lead to the intensive
culture of the individual and then to his recognition of his
responsibility as an integral part of the whole body of humanity."
(Education in the New Age, p. 45/8)
-
- "The
college or the university should in reality be the correspondence
in the field of education, to the world of Hierarchy; it should
be the custodian of those methods, techniques and systems of
thought and of life which will relate a human being to the
world of souls, to the Kingdom of God, and not only to other
human beings upon the physical plane; not only to the world of
phenomena, but also to the inner world of values and quality.
Again, I repeat, this fitting of
a man for citizenship in the Kingdom of God is not essentially
a religious activity, to be handled by the exponents of the great
world religions. It should be the task of the higher education,
giving purpose and significance to all that has to be done. If
this seems idealistic and impossible to you, let me assure you
that by the time the Aquarian Age is in full flower, this will
be the assured and recognized objective of educators of that
time." (Education in the New Age, p. 49)
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- "It
should be remembered (and this is being more widely recognised)
that the quality of the young children now coming into incarnation,
is steadily getting better and higher. They are in many cases
abnormally intelligent, and what you (in your technical parlance)
call their I.Q., is frequently phenomenally high. This will be
increasingly the case, until young people of fourteen will have
the equipment and intelligence of the brilliant college men and
women of today." (Education in the New Age, p. 50)
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