Is Formal Education Enough to Help Humanity Grow ?

More than 16 years ago, I couldn't but try to find answers to questions about what we were teaching, how "students" were experiencing their age levels and school obligations, how we were spending work days, how departments were managed, and more. Two years later, I was entrusted to lead a department, and the echoing questions became sharper, and later when I became the whole-school director, those questions were demanding action, that I found myself digging deeper and deeper.

Combined with other head-and heart voices in my personal life, my life as an individual, that call personified itself and stood right in front of me, and I could not but acknowledge it.

As a person with responsibility, I could not but attend to children, adolescents, teachers, other staff members, parents, school owners, external quality controllers,

and the knot was huge. I saw smiles and felt the joy , but I also saw frowns and felt the anguish. We celebrated achievements as communities, but we also faced disappointments and withdrawals.

What if the whole system could be viewed in a different way ? From the inside out ?

Four years ago, I made up my mind to put all those years, days and nights, smiles and anguish of us all on a crossroad: either withdraw completely or design a way that can bring two extremes to a midpoint. And this midpoint embraces professional and personal life - handling and solving issues at grassroots level. This may not be easy, but if it is 1% applicable, then why not?

However, the Debris?

What could stand in the way of achieving this type of "learning"? Listing only a few below:

1. Rigid systems : World systems are too rigid to twist. They have been built with steel screws, making it onerous to dismantle them. But there are always starting points. (Foster, 1986) wrote that when leaders attempt for change, they need to critique existing social circumstances and look towards more emancipation in working and relating. Without attention, there can be no realization of flaws and limitations.

2. Blind Compliance : Compliance is necessary to assure that certain standards are met and it is essential when considering thousands and thousands of education units. However, compliance for the sake of checking points to guarantee seals of approval and branding is by itself a violation of compliance to the values that those education institutions state they have.

3. Biased Leadership: Leadership is key to transformation, mainly because it has the needed elements for taking action. A leader can envision, study, facilitate, and bring all stakeholders on board. However, when leaders fall into cognitive, social, and emotional biases, the transformation becomes impossible to pursue.

4. Distracted Families: Lack of awareness from the community in general and the family in particular keeps the circle of growth too small to expand. Families have gone down the rabbit hole as they strive to keep up with the challenges and allures. Their minds revolve within a small circle of familiarity to the extent that they cannot spot what lies outside that circle. Life obligations and social media have pulled their attention away from "out of norm" ideas or other options for consideration. Programming has pulled them tight inside that small circle.

5. Stifled creative and critical thinking: All the above relate to stifling creativity and critical thinking. With systems that enforce schedules and requirements, leaders who cannot see beyond the visible patterns, and families who are too occupied with day-to-day hustle, not enough room is left for creativity and critical thinking. These two are evident, but with less strength and impact.

O.R.B.I.T.S. Learning Hexagon below presents a different way of looking at "education" as we know it, and thinking of "learning" instead. Life is complex, and in the stage that humanity is going through now, we need this more than ever.

When the learning of each of us is represented by a hexagon, the collective impact is paramount, and with these hexagonal clusters, there lies all the beauty.

What I am doing is only a drop in the ocean of the thousands of educators, who are taking new steps towards more balanced, fulfilling experiences, who care to ease a painful look from a child when taking a difficult test, comfort a mother when her child reports bullying, "wholeheartedly" facilitate daily obligations of completing endless tasks, create totally new (nontraditional learning models), and much more.

All appreciation goes to parents, children, educators, and all those who are putting effort, no matter how big or small, surviving or thriving in this massive maze.