Education in the New Age - Daily: Thursday, 25th of December The above [see prior] is, I realize, a broad generalization. It leaves out of reckoning altogether the innate and inherent [102] capacities of the child, his achieved point of soul development, and any recognition of the powers with which he enters into life as a result of many previous life experiences. It leaves out also the influence of the many conscientious, spiritually-minded and highly evolved teachers who have - down the ages - set their mark upon the young people they have taught and thus oriented them and led them forward to better things. I am dealing solely with the institutional aspect of the educational systems and with the proven effect upon the young of every nation who have been subjected to these systems. The realized goals which the institutional teacher has set before himself have been narrow, and the consequent effect of his teaching and of his work has been the production of a selfish, materialistically-minded person whose major objective has been self-betterment in a material sense. This has been strikingly aided where any individual ambition has been present which would lead the child to operate willingly with the narrow selfish goal of the teacher. The natural idealism of the child (and what child is not an innate idealist?) has been slowly and steadily suffocated by the weight of the materialism of the worlds educational machine and by the selfish bias of the worlds business in its many departments, plus the emphasis always laid upon the necessity of making money. Little by little this disastrous state of affairs (which reached its climax in the early years of this [last] century) has been slowly changing, so that today in many countries the welfare of the State itself, the good of the Empire, the need of the Nation is held before the child from its earliest years as the highest possible ideal. He is taught that he must serve the State, Empire, or Nation with the very best that is in him; it is strongly inculcated into his consciousness that his individual life must be subordinated to the greater life of the State or Nation, and that it is his duty to meet the national need, even at the expense of life itself. He is taught [103] that in times of great emergency he, as an individual, does not count at all, but that the larger corporate whole, of which he is an infinitesimal part, is the sole factor that matters. This is a definite step forward in the expansion of consciousness which the human race must achieve. I would here remind you that it is the expansion of consciousness and the production of increased sensitivity and perceptive awareness which is the goal of all divine and hierarchical effort. The goal is not for betterment of material conditions. These will automatically follow when the sense of awareness is steadily unfolded. The future of humanity is determined by its aspiration and ability to respond to the idealism which is today flooding the world.
Posted on: Fri, 26 Dec 2014 02:00:24 +0000
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