Classical education co-creating

What is happening to classical education? Is there an insidious movement to deem learning to think a sure pathway to financial ruin? Check out the statistics for college majors in the fields of philosophy, painting, poetry, music, and dance—really small underfunded departments—usually tucked away in the dungeons of large universities. These are all fields which allow humans to co-create. Not only do the college statistics show a drop in funding for these fields but the public and private school systems have cut programs or relegated them to a bare bones budget—art and music have become labeled expendable. Children don’t have enough exposure to areas which awaken and expand the brain before they are programmed to become a test taking robot—point in case—no child left behind—America’s biggest educational band aid to date.

When I was in high school colleges boasted how students with a liberal arts education would have the upper hand in corporate America--supporting the belief that anyone with this type of background would come across to an employer as highly educable, capable, and desirable as an employee. At the time, what the educational institutions didn’t predict or anticipate is that a test, instead of a person, would screen for future employees. And no, I don’t consider a person screening a test result equivalent to the person who uses eye contact, body language, vocal tones, and intuition person to person to screen. And yes, there are times when a test is a valid measurement. What I’m stating has to do with balance, lack thereof, and distortion.

According to tests that measure other tests, companies can save a lot of money on training people who are going to leave due to a personality mismatch. It doesn’t take a test or research project for the average person to look around and realize that there is more job dissatisfaction and disloyalty than ever in the history of business. However, like a dog with a bone, institutions will not give up on the concept of profile testing.

Here I am in the second half of my life with a superior classical education, but pitted against the current needs of the labor force, if I allowed those needs to be the truth, I currently have no market value. A current institutional belief is that thinkers in organizations are huge risks because they might challenge the status quo and they are never seen as producers, hence, a drain on the assets. What a classical education provides is the ability to balance thinking and action. Why is this balance important? Because human beings have an innate ability which can NEVER be measured. That ability is INSPIRATION.

Probably every person can find somewhere in his/her life where the following is true. As much satisfaction can be found in thinking as in producing. Ask an artist who conceives of an idea and then brings it out through the action of drawing, painting, sculpting, writing, dancing, or musical expression. While locked in thought an idea brings a certain satisfaction, but allowed to evolve through action, the idea brings yet another level of satisfaction. I’m using the word satisfaction in place of happiness, contentment, and gratification, because we’ve all heard the phrase “job satisfaction” and know what that means to an employer. Ask yourself this question, when I retire I am finally going to...?