AFFECTIVE EDUCATION

Talk written for presentation at a conference held in
The Marino Institute of Education
May 1996.

 

When I was young I was presented with a confusing set of values. To begin with, both of my parents had come from an agricultural background where the lands and domestic animals were an essential element of everyday life. But before I was born, they had built what was at the time a modern suburban house with a small back and front garden, meant only for flowers and a game of football. Anything to do with farm animals or growing of food was definitely not on the agenda.

However, my parents did send me to an all-Irish speaking school. This meant travelling 10 miles each way per day at the age of six onwards. By going to this school I learned to speak fluent Irish and to love and value it. At home however, my mother had only a small amount, and my father none at all. This school, despite its emphasis on the language paid no attention to the rest of the Celtic heritage. I neither heard nor read anything about the great myths and legends of my country and the Celtic people, nor anything about the sacred places in our land. I did have to study Irish, English and Mathematics and of course I had to learn the 'catechism' off by heart in Irish. Although I hardly understood a word of the latter, the importance of it was brought home to me by the daily grind of having to learn off questions and answers and by the severity of the punishment for failing the daily tests in class - up to six lashes of a cane on the hand.

My education continued in an all-boys secondary school nearer to home run by priests. I had to wear a uniform to school each day. Having done an entrance exam for the school, I was placed in class A. There was also a class B, and this was for boys who had done less well in their entrance exam. For the A class, the subjects were all academic including science and a foreign language - French. For the B class, they studied commerce and art. After school there was football and basketball and an odd time we had debates. The focus in school was of course to pass the exams - the Intermediate and Leaving Certificate exams. The results of these exams would determine the extent of my possibilities for participation in future society.

So, in my schooling, here are the main values which were systematically communicated to me over the years:

1. my life has no important connection with the land, animals or nature in general. City life is the way of the future.

2.the Irish heritage of Celtic myths and legends, beliefs, festivals, sacred places or history is of no importance.

3. Academic studies take precedence over music, art or manual skills.

4. My value to society will be evaluated as the mark I receive in an exam.

5. Religion is very important, but nobody is too sure why. It has little or nothing to do with the rest of my studies.

6. Sex is an unmentionable and girls are best kept at a distance.

7. Adults know best what , when and how young people should learn.

8. Learning is best done with young people removed from their life situation in homogeneous groups.

9. My emotional state has nothing to do with schooling and may get in the way.

10. My feelings, intuitions, inclinations, beliefs are of no consequence and must not interfere with my schooling.

The attitude of the State, colluded in by schools, teachers and parents, is:

I. All young people are the same (other than age and IQ) and can be treated the same.

II. School is best organised as a factory system - the young people are raw material that needs to be sorted, graded and processed. A conveyor belt system is suitable for all but the most extreme types. After the processing they can be labelled and marketed.

When we talk about education and schools, it is hard to imagine anything very different from the above. Education the world over is now conceptually and structurally the same. Education is a word coined or maybe hijacked by western society and is used the world over to assist in the westernisation of countries and peoples. The word itself, EDUCATION, carries within it a hidden agenda. The hidden agenda is the promotion of a world economic system in which we perform efficiently as producers and consumers. Religion, the only joker in the pack, is okay provided it does not interfere.

In order to imagine what schools and education might be like outside of the present reality, we must try to stand outside western society itself. This is a difficult feat of the imagination, because western society is so all-encompassing and because we have been taught to dismiss all other forms of society as uncivilised or primitive.

However, let us try. I am becoming familiar with Celtic society as it existed in Ireland before Christianity came here. Let us look at how a young person would grow up in this society, where the word education was not used, but nonetheless where structures were in place to successfully pass on all that was required.

Let us take young Fionn and follow his growth to adulthood.


As Fionn is born, not only is a midwife called, but also a bard. The bard's role is to expose the new-born child immediately to music and through the music to the mysterious identity of the people. The child is reared in a house full of people - not just his immediate family, but an extended family which may include labourers, craftspeople, warriors and druids. If they do not all live in the immediate area of the rath, they live nearby as part of the tuath or tribe. In the house around him, the child sees articles of gold and silver, finely crafted. Apart from items of practical use like pots and cups, he sees swords and shields, and he sees ornaments and clothes of real beauty. Outside he will see land sown with vegetables, and he will see domesticated animals, mainly cows and horses. Gradually, as he gets older he will learn skills connected with these things.

One of the most important things that Fionn will learn as he grows up is his place in society. He will appreciate his social status as prince, noble, freeman or unfree. He will also learn the different domains of men and women. Fionn's family will receive regular visits from warriors, druids, harpers and craftspeople. From these people in a family setting he will be inspired to heroic deeds, motivated to develop great skills and he will learn of the broader history of his people. These same people will be there as he grows older to develop those skills that he is drawn towards. Adults will take him aside, perhaps on his own, perhaps with others, to teach him how to handle animals, how to fight with a sword, and how to do many other practical things that are necessary for survival. He will also be free to pursue his own particular interests. For example, he may decide to put all his energy into being a warrior, or into being a particular craftsperson, or he can choose the druid line, and progress towards being accepted as a particular class of druid: diviner, bard, sacrificer, healer or brehon. In each case, part of it depends on his personal vocation and ability, and part of it on being chosen by those already in the profession.

The druids in particular will place before Fionn the deeper meanings of life. They will recite for him his genealogy back at least five generations. He will know who he is. They will recite for him the law - laws on marriage, on ownership of property, on social status, on honourable behaviour. They will teach him how to treat and respect Mother Earth. He will experience rituals at festival times which will celebrate the seasons and play out the myths surrounding gods and goddesses. He will listen to bards play their harps, tell epic stories and poems, record for posterity the great events and battles of his people. He will be brought to holy places on the landscape, druid oak groves, hilltops, dolmens, standing stones where he will learn of the other world and of the power of mysterious forces around him.

In this way, Fionn will imbibe the values, attitudes and beliefs of his people, he will learn to find meaning in his life, and his emotions and feelings will be catered for.

Now let us look at what happened when Christianity came to Ireland and transformed this Celtic culture. This was a hugely significant paradigm shift in Irish society, and it led to Ireland's golden age.

Until the advent of Christianity in Ireland, the model of society was to be found in the home and its connections to tuath and kingdom. When Christianity came, a new model of society was created which was expressed not in the home but in the monasteries. These were Celtic monasteries, not to be confused with monasticism as it developed on the European mainland.

A Celtic monastery was like a small town. Until then, no towns had existed in Ireland. A monastic town had as its centre, materially speaking, a church and an inner enclosure for the monks. Around that enclosure lived people associated with the monastery - labourers, craftspeople, etc., all of them called manaigh. Spiritually speaking, the centre of this monastery was a new ideal, centred on Jesus Christ the High King, with lives dedicated to his service, and his teachings.

Around this monastery continued all the normal Celtic activities in relation to agriculture and animal husbandry, and in relation to crafts and practical skills, but in other areas things were changed. There was no longer any emphasis on war or the training for war, no warrior class, and the druids and their traditions were absorbed into the Christian tradition or had a layer of Christianity overlaid on them, or were outrightly forbidden. Nonetheless some of the druidic roles continued, most notably the bardic tradition of poetry and historic legend and the brehon laws.

Should Fionn have been born into this time, his growing up would have been different. He would still have had the same type of home life and extended family connections, but with a difference. He could well now find himself living in the precincts of the monastery, or as he gets older being fostered by the monastery. There had always been a tradition of fosterage in Ireland. Children of neighbouring clans and kingdoms were fostered in order to create bonds of allegiance between them and to strengthen the ties against the possible outbreak of war. Children in this situation benefitted from experiencing not just their own home and clan, but someone else's, offering them wider contacts and friendships for their future lives and greater opportunity for learning and experience.

The monasteries continued the practice of fosterage. But in the monasteries, the experience of the young person would have been very different from home outside of the monasteries. Here, everything about the layout and rhythm of the monastery emphasised the centrality of worship. At the heart of the monastic life was the daily rhythm of prayer. In practically every aspect of the daily life of the monks, the young person could see the imprint of the divine. Ideally, prayer was a never ceasing activity, enriching every chore and task of life. In front of the church door, young Fionn could see a stone cross with many pictures inscribed on it and painted in various colours. Monks took him and explained to him the pictures, telling him stories from the Bible.

If Fionn was fostered by such a monastery, he would maintain his connection to his people and his kingdom, because the abbot, according to the law, had to be a member of the family on whose land the monastery was built. He would have had many other family ties here also. Again, like home, some of his time would have been taken up basic instruction, possibly with others in groups. Many monasteries had a school room for this purpose. Also, he would have had an opportunity to choose his own teachers from the people living there, and to learn from them what they had to teach him. These monasteries were sometimes centred around a group of women, as in the case of Brigid's monastery in Kildare and Ita's monastery in Limerick. In the case of Ita, she fostered so many young people who later themselves became founders of monasteries, that she is known as the mother of the saints of Ireland.

These Celtic monasteries flourished because they offered a vision of a society and a way of life that inspired and motivated people. People were willing to put their energy into this project, and could foresee the benefits it would bring. For a start, it promised to bring an end to the constant warring of tribes. But the peace dividend that would follow from that would ensure many other benefits. The belief that they put in this new God, Jesus, gave a new perspective to all their previous beliefs and practices, and allowed them to focus on his teaching and his alone.

The monasteries took on the work of gathering the knowledge and wisdom of the time, unimpeded by wars, and then of transmitting that treasure chest to others. They did so by first getting their hands on books in Latin and Greek from the mainland of Europe and making copies of these. In their transcription, they often embellished the writing with artistic work, the Book of Kells being the classic example.

The monks work also stretched to stone-work, metal work, and other fine crafts. A young person living at the monastery or fostered into it, experienced first hand this work in progress. The monastery was not primarily a school, but a way of life. People who lived there were engaged in an exciting life project. Young people got drawn into this project, inspired by it and motivated to learn and play their part in it.

There are many stories of young people coming to these monasteries to learn. There is the story of Ciaran who came to Aran as a young man to visit the monastery of Enda. Ciaran had a vision of a tree growing in the middle of Ireland, producing great fruits, which the birds from all over the world came and took away with them. Enda told him that that tree was he himself. He told him to go and build his monastery by a stream. Ciaran went an built his monastery on the river Shannon at Clonmacnoise. It was to become one of the finest monasteries ever established in Ireland, with at one stage over 5,000 students attending it.

Or Ciaran with his tutor Justus. Justus would write out the lesson on a scroll. Ciaran had a pet fox and the pet fox would stand near Justus and wait until the scroll was ready, then bring it to Ciaran. However, one day the fox was hungry. He began to eat the leather tongs which held the scroll. A pack of dogs appeared and chased him and he could find nowhere to hide except under Ciaran's cowl. In that way both the scroll and the fox were saved by Ciaran.

Or in Brigid's monastery there was a young man whom Brigid had fostered. He regularly came and ate in her dining room. This day Brigid saw him eating. She said to him "young man do you have a soul-friend". "I do" he said. "Well, let us sing his requiem, for he has just died. As you ate your food, I saw that it was going directly into your stomach without going through your head. A person without a soul-friend is like a body without a head. Go and find yourself another soul-friend and don't eat until you do."

Analysis

In the first example, of children learning in a pre-Christian Celtic setting, the centre of learning was in the home. The home was the model of society offered to the young person. This was very uncomplicated. It worked because the home was a busy place with a wide variety of people living there, and many others from around regularly in contact. The young person learned by soaking up the environment, asking questions, following his/her own interests, and on occasions being taken aside with other children to be trained in something essential. The society of the time provided clear avenues for that young person to progress down and a status to match whatever achievements were made.

In the second example, the model of society is no longer the home, but the monastic village. This village is visibly focussed on a spiritual reality and a spiritual task. The adults in this village although engaged in many different occupations form a cohesive whole because of the overall spiritual focus. Into this setting a child is introduced. From the beginning the child is immersed in this adult project. Because of the way the adults live and behave, the child can see what are the central values and beliefs of the people. From an early age, the child is drawn in to activities related to this spiritual project - attending worship, learning prayers, beginning to read and write, watching the transcribers and illustrators in the Scriptorium, learning from the craftspeople, and so on. In some of these monasteries, there was a separate school building (i.e. a small stone cell). However, it was not that all learning was meant to take place in this building, but that sometimes a space was needed in which to gather the students for a period of instruction. The context for learning was always the whole monastic village and everybody in it had something to teach.

This latter system obviously worked. It brought Ireland to its finest hour. During this period some of the finest metal work and stone work ever done in our history was produced by craftsmen from these villages. The Book of Kells and other books like it were produced at this time. It was also a time of high scholarship, with monks becoming proficient in Latin and Greek, and reading every piece of writing, Christian, pagan, heretical or otherwise, that they could lay their hands on.

Furthermore, it produced some of the finest leaders ever to emerge in Ireland: Colmcille (Columba) probably the greatest of them who founded 37 churches in Ireland before going to live in Iona, Scotland, to become the patron saint and founder of the nation. Columbanus, whose work across Europe brought learning and scholarship back during the dark ages. Secondary patron of Europe. Brendan, the Navigator, whose sacred voyages led him to discover the islands off Scotland, probably Iceland, and possibly even America. He was also a founder of 17 monasteries in his time.

It is obvious that the needs of young people were provided for in this setting. Not alone was knowledge and skills passed on to them, but they were immersed in a belief structure that they could subscribe to, and that motivated them. Within that structure they could find their own path, giving meaning and purpose to their lives.

In comparison with these two examples, let us now put the modern day system, the secondary system in particular.

Here we have young people who have knowledge and skills offered to them. However, the choices are limited. Most young people make very few choices about what courses they will actually take. The decisions are made for them by the limitations of the school they are attending, and by the results of tests. The pressure of the exam system means that many of them learn not for the love of learning but in order to get an exam.

While our system of schooling today is producing people with high achievements in academic fields, it is not in general looking after the people themselves. The high achievers are often forced into professions for which they are now academically qualified, but for which they have no particular vocation. The middle achievers compete against each other for places in college often ending up with a course they are not particularly interested in. The low achievers leave school, often before time, with a sense of failure. They experience school as a place of oppression and meaninglessness, and often their life experience can continue in the same vein.

A pastoral service in schools under this system can only be a mopping up exercise. As long as the system stands, no amount of pastoral care will undo the damage being done. The most it will be is damage-limitation.

What is the alternative?

The challenge is to find a common set of beliefs among some people and to create a learning environment based on those beliefs.

The set of beliefs at present being applied in schools is as above. I cannot subscribe to these. We have allowed far too much power be handed over to the State. It rules out the possibility of bringing young people up within a community of people who share the same vision and values and whose vision and values are reflected in the structures of learning set up for the young people.

I'm not talking here of eccentric or minority beliefs necessarily. Take for example, our belief in democracy. If a group of us wished to rear our children in a way that would communicate to them the value of democracy - would we teach them the way they are taught at present? An autocratic system ruled by edict from the Minister's office, where most of the decisions concerning the curricula and examinations are made before even the school principal gets to hear of them, let alone the students.

If we wished to rear our children in a way that reflected the high value we placed on participative democracy, we would have built into our structures opportunities for young people to make choices at every level. We would have installed a continuous process of consultation and negotiation, where not alone would it be communicated to the young person that his/her views, values, interests, etc., would be respected, but also that others too must be. In this way, young people would take whatever responsibility they were capable of for their own education.

If we wished to rear our children in a way that recognised the differences between them, and the uniqueness of each person, how would be structure their learning? Parents are the first to admit that each of their children are different, and sometimes very different, yet our present day schools treat them as if they all were the same. How would we do it?

We would hardly begin by insisting that they all dress in the same uniform! On the contrary, we would encourage them to explore their individuality and uniqueness, discover who they are. To do this, we might find for them mentors (soul-friends), older people to whom they feel drawn and from whom they might learn. We would seek to discover where their real interests lay, and in the spirit of Maria Montessori, offer them choices within a rich environment of possibilities. We would provide resources for them, material resources, contacts with relevant people, opportunities for certain experiences, etc to let them follow their path of inquiry and learning - wherever it might lead them.

And what of examinations.

Again I am not putting myself out on a limb by saying what I have to say. Examinations are a useful way of assessing the achievement of someone. If we wished to assess the achievements of our young people in a way that would be meaningful and objective so that others who did not know them could find them reliable, how would we do it. If we were following the democratic path mentioned above, and a path that recognised individuality, then we would try to assess whatever work or effort was made by the young person in whatever areas that young person had chosen. These would not be limited to academic subjects, and could even be very personal - for example, the struggle to overcome a stutter or speech impediment. Where possible these tests would assess the young person according to an objective scale of achievement. For example, the piano is tested in this way. Other tests would be scored by the young person him/herself - i.e. the young person would set himself/herself objectives, which he/she would then try to achieve. Evidence in the form of references could be gathered to verify this achievement. Finally, there are tests where there is a competition to outscore others. Running a 100m race is such a test. Some young people thrive on tests like this, provided the opposition is matched to their ability and they are given an equal chance.

Unfortunately, the present examination system in Ireland, puts all of the tests in the latter category, marking the achievement of young people in relation to the achievement of everyone else. This applies to the eventual score they receive, and again applies when they are applying for admission to college. Their actual score is not important, but their relative position on the scale of applicants is.

The second real difficulty with the present examination system is that the range of subjects being tested is extremely narrow and reflects more what certain adults think young people should be learning than what young people actually want to learn. The fact that many young people fail this examination altogether is an unacceptable tragedy for those young people, and it is scandalous that we run a system which allows our young people to be labelled as failures in this way.

The solution
Harking back to what made learning work in the time of the Celtic church in Ireland, it would be good if we could again find the formula. It would appear that the formula was:

1) A coherent vision of how society could be, based on spiritual values (not material ones).

2) A group of people (monks in this case) prepared to live out this vision themselves. (Practice what they preach).

3) A structure which allowed other people, especially young people, to enter into this environment and learn from it.

Examples of how this could happen:

1. Home educators: parents who keep their children at home do so because they, for whatever reason, do not agree with sending their children to schools. Usually they create some alternative way for their children to learn, and do not leave it to chance. In this way they are like the Celtic families before Christianity.

2. Steiner schools: In Steiner schools parents take the initiative, agree on the philosophy and the values of the school, and often participate themselves in teaching. In this country, they have no recognition from the State.

3. Youth Clubs: have the potential to be alternative schools run democratically and operating according to the needs and interests of the members.

4. Extra Curricular Activities in Schools: possibilities here too.

5. Pastoral Teams within schools: the most difficult task.

Hope for the future:

a. a greater participation of parents at every level of schooling and planning.

b. the unsustainable society in which we live will have to change, as it does so will education.

c. the growth of interest in concepts like 'holistic' and 'organic' if applied to education.

d. the possibility of young people suing schools or the State for not providing an education.

e. the recognition of the need for diversity and its value in all areas of human life and in nature. Its cultivation among young people.

f. a movement away from transnational control, and a growth in grassroots and local autonomy.

g. a growing recognition of the importance of spirituality, as distinct from religion, and its application to all areas of human endeavour, including schooling.

Systems

Primary meaning: complex whole, set of connected things or parts, organized body of things.

The education system is vast. It employs at various level from student through to teachers, staff, civil servants, etc, over 1 million people or almost a third of the Irish population.

When I was at school, I thought that the teachers had all the power. We were stuck in class, told what to do. But the teachers, they were the bosses. They could do what they liked.

Then I became a teacher myself. I went in to the classroom with great zeal. My mind was awash with new ideas for schooling and education. To my shock and horror, I found there was little that I could do. The system was set, and my role in keeping the wheels turning was laid out for me - the courses, the groups of children, the locations, etc. No matter how I twisted and turned, I realised I was in a cage as much as the young people were. The only difference was that they resented me for it, and did not understand that I too was caught.

It subsequently became clear to me that school principals feel the same way. While their personality and their manner can stamp a school temporarily, and while a school can be run efficiently or inefficiently, at the end of the day they too are doing what's laid out for them to do and what's expected of them. If you were to tour around Ireland, visiting secondary schools, which I did when I subsequently began to give school retreats, you would see how there is little diversity among schools in Ireland, except in the essentials.

If this is the case, then who is running our schools? Ministers for Education come and go fairly rapidly. Some make a strong impression, some not so much. But looking back over the last 40 years, the major change has not been in the content or the philosophy behind schooling, but in the fact that it is now free to everybody.

There is little doubt that schooling is controlled by politics. The church may have been in control at one stage but it has long since lost it, and is now a puppet of the government like the rest of us. However, there is a power that lies even behind governments and this is the power of the transnational economic and finance systems. It is important for capitalism, and those who wish to promote its values, that young people are prepared for operating in it and living within it. Education is a key tool of the capitalist vision for the world. It not alone aims at giving young people the skills to participate in its system, but by its system of schooling it teaches them, forms them, moulds them, into acceptance of authoritarian structures, acceptance of others knowing best, acceptance of rigid timetables and pressure to produce, willingness to take orders, and from an early age getting used to being quiet and accepting of the status quo without questioning.

It is only when adults see through this hideous plan for mechanising human beings in the service of a materialist plan that the real care of young people can begin, and that their presence on this earth can reach its full potential.


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