Teach the Children Well

True education has a critical mission to play on the planet. Formal school education has always mirrored religious and social trends. Religious life, initially, and nation building, subsequently, were, and still are, the main philosophical platforms from which many of our schools are run and operated. But what if the spiritual life of religious schools were founded on untruths and the desire to indoctrinate children's minds? What if the idea of building strong nationhood means that children are subjected to excessive pressure, inappropriate testing procedures and processes which dampen their spirit and self esteem?

What, then, is a true education? This question will be answered differently depending on our perception of what a human being really is. Religious schools might give priority to the idea that God exists and children should obey and believe him. A materialist, reductionist or behaviourist may perceive that we are a blank slate at birth and that the role of school education is to implant the knowledge a child needs to get qualifications as a rite of passage into life.

A third possibility, to which this book is dedicated, is that human consciousness itself should be the goal of true education, where individuals can grow into freedom and are neither indoctrinated by religious fervour nor conditioned to be a pawn in the game of modern nationhood.