| Seeing an orbital image of planet Earth at night you | | | | equation. Thus we find humanist, utilitarian, |
| immediately become aware of two things. Firstly, | | | | democratic, environmental and romantic strands at |
| how much energy is used to maintain the human | | | | work; all provide energy and work to maintain the |
| experiment; secondly, how inequitably it is distributed | | | | coherence of the system. |
| around the globe. As James Lovelock recently | | | | And the cost? The humanist tradition privileged the |
| observed, civilisation is energy-intensive yet the real | | | | old elites, where culture and money and power |
| energy that is involved in human existence cannot be | | | | coalesced, the poor payed; the utilitarian, as power |
| seen as easily as the orbital photo of our nightly | | | | shifted from the old elites to the new, a new form |
| planet suggests. | | | | of education emerged and the user pays, ultimately |
| The real energy driving the human experiment is | | | | the poor are excluded and as money flows upwards, |
| psychic energy. There is undoubtedly some | | | | they pay again. |
| correlation between the physical energy emitted each | | | | The democratic offers a way out, as does the |
| night by our cities and the psychic forces that are | | | | environmental: both stem from traditions that |
| driving late-modernity, yet this tells only part of a | | | | challenge hierarchies, yet both are too fragmented to |
| much bigger story. | | | | challenge the dominance of the utilitarian, their effect |
| Much of the psychic energy driving the human | | | | is ameliorative but they contain the potential energy |
| experiment is bounded by traditions. In fact it is quite | | | | to challenge this dominance should a shift in the |
| a plausible proposition to claim that traditions are | | | | world-system cause a power failure such a shift could |
| energy streams that draw on energy from the past, | | | | be either social or environmental. And the romantic? |
| condense and focus energy in the present and, like a | | | | Child centredness is powerful, as it is the root of |
| torch light, channel and project energy into the | | | | both soft and hard individualism, but it is too easily |
| future. The fibre optic cables and satellite | | | | coopted by the dominant cultural elites, particularly |
| transmissions that bring speed and flexibility to the | | | | those seeking a cultural off-set for the vacuum |
| planet and its globalising economy and culture, as well | | | | created by the loss of humanism to utilitarianism. |
| as the urban incandescence of the Earth at night, are | | | | Alternative Energy |
| in fact the by products of an invisible but clearly | | | | We have lived in a resource rich world that at the |
| defined confluence of energy generating traditions. | | | | physical level is coming to recognise its limits. What |
| Roots & Rivers | | | | has been left largely unharnessed is the natural capital |
| Rabindranath Tagore, one of Indias great poets, | | | | essential to traditions: human energy. To date human |
| describes creation as a waking up, an explosion of | | | | psychic capital has been focussed on the control and |
| energy. Not the traditional Big Bang, but something | | | | manipulation of the physical world. It has been largely |
| akin as Brahma awakens and its joy is boundless. The | | | | shaped and directed by the materialism inherent to |
| roots of the Indic tradition lie in this expression of | | | | the Enlightenment and the drive to generate capital. |
| boundless-joy. Today this story has merged with | | | | Holistic solutions embrace spiritual energy. This is |
| many others like the course of the Ganges as it first | | | | energy locked in ancient traditions such as that |
| meets the great rivers of Yamuna, Ghaghara and | | | | Tagore describes above. Captured by the so-called |
| Kosi and goes on through twists and turns, finally | | | | Protestant work ethic creation becomes an act of |
| spitting again and again in the monsoonal Delta of | | | | toil; schooling as a result is about hard work, |
| Bengal. | | | | productivity and accountability. Add to this a healthy |
| Similarly, the turbine engines of culture are alive with | | | | dose of capitalist rhetoric with user pays and choice |
| the dynamic dance of traditions, churning away like | | | | on the menu and we end up with an entropic system |
| the great river Ganges as it makes its (untidy) way | | | | that consumes energy, in the form of the lives, heart |
| to the sea. The stories cultures tell themselves are | | | | and imaginations of people and communities, rather |
| the source of much energy, the dreams (and | | | | than generates it. |
| nightmares) that inspire nations, drive business and | | | | This formula can be turned on its head with creation |
| political leaders are more powerful than nuclear | | | | becoming an act of joy. Creative, life-affirming |
| energy. The myths and metaphors that frame our | | | | neohumanist traditions generate energy. If we infuse |
| unconscious daily coming and goings are what we | | | | education with spiritual energy drawn from the |
| need to turn to when seeking to rethink civilisation | | | | practices, values and commitments of the great |
| and our role in its maintenance. | | | | spiritual traditions we produce a system that channels |
| The Educational Power Bill | | | | powerful creative forces into the future. The turn is |
| When you think of traditions as conduits of power it | | | | inward and thus saves us from the materialist despair |
| is possible to look at any social structure and ask | | | | inherent to the thinking of James Lovelock who can |
| about it: What traditions power it? Who pays? Are | | | | only measure energy at the physical finite level. |
| there alternative energy sources? | | | | Physical energy is a measure of the psychic, but it is |
| Take one of societies most complex and contested | | | | a symptom not a driving force. This is so, despite the |
| institutions: Education. Far from being monolithic | | | | obvious fact that both physical decline and |
| education is a veritable power grid generating huge | | | | technological advance, a la Moores Law, have |
| energy for the expansive and predatory economic | | | | momentums of their own once they gets beyond a |
| and the cultural practices of a globalising world. | | | | specific point. |
| The energy of this system draws on an array of | | | | To harness traditions of power and depth and focus |
| traditions each bringing to the current system energy | | | | them into systems such as education is a powerful |
| in the form of values, practices and beliefs. The | | | | idea. Education that generates rather than consumes |
| humanism that drove education for centuries has | | | | energy has the potential to return hope and |
| been absorbed by the utilitarian needs of a rapidly | | | | creativity to the human experiment and enliven our |
| globalising society. The pragmatic concerns of | | | | daily dealings with the pressing environmental |
| utilitarianism are at least in part off set by an opening | | | | concerns that seem so overwhelming. Moores law |
| up of democratic processes and a greening of the | | | | and environmental catastrophe theories are certainly |
| school. Furthermore, we also have the romantic | | | | a pressing concern but they overlook the largely |
| tradition placing the child at the centre of the learning | | | | untapped power that lies within us all. |