I asked him if he knew why.
He said he did not. I tried to explain that trees had roots deep in the ground, which allowed them to hold on, to keep them from falling even when the wind is blowing very hard. After he dozed off, I found myself thinking about this. What I could not explain to him then, was that trees with developed roots not only can withstand strong gusts, but they are able to support increasing height, which allow them to obtain more sunlight and reach their inherent potential.
This led me to reflect on my teaching philosophy, concocted for a portfolio in my first year at the university. I recalled my journey of self-discovery as an undergraduate, one of growth, adaptation and survival. The most lasting lessons I gained were outside of the laboratories and lecture and examination halls.
They came from reflections and discussions with peers and lecturers, when I was able to make sense of existing knowledge and sprout my own ideas. So, although I was bound to cover topics based on a pre-determined syllabus, I took advantage of the freedom to design assignments to provide some opportunity for creativity and reflection on the material related to the course. This led to TED-inspired talks on microsurgery, fun videos of pop songs adapted to describe the history of microscopy, and intellectual debates on whether use of viruses to treat cancer is a positive development in biomedicine.
But these moments are few and far between. For universities in the 21st century, the focus is now rarely on experience, and even more rarely on the student. They all culminate into one thing — a spot in the rankings. Since global rankings became the main measure of value and worth of higher education in , national governments and institutions have been coerced into taking conflicting stances in the quest to survive or to conquer in an increasingly competitive ecosystem.
Pursuit of these rankings have led to the birth of myriad of evaluation systems and key performance indicators KPIs — all of which are conducted yearly. Because these rankings are determinants of practical outcomes — such as enrolment and critically, funding, universities are motivated and pressured to chase these constantly moving targets — even if many of them may be antithetical to the ethos of education and scientific inquiry. The irony is that these rankings are supposedly what informs the public, and in particular, the prospective students, of the quality of the education a university delivers.
Yet the very activities that lead to higher positions in the rankings are often directly competing with basic elements in education, such as time, patience, and personal interaction — because these do not generate numbers at the end of the assessment year. Even for research activities, for which rankings are inherently biased towards, the overemphasis of metrics relegate them to rather superficial endeavours, valued only for the amount of funding and number of papers they produce.
The counter argument perhaps is, if we do not count the numbers, then how do we measure performance? While there is some wisdom in setting targets and identifying indicators of performance, there can be no value in a blanket adoption of KPIs without nuance. Intuition and the New Age. Relax, You're Going to Die.
Exercise for Karmic Insight. Life Between Death and Rebirth. How to Meditate to Improve Your Life: The Enigma of Self-Realization. Lecture 4 of 5.
N is for A New Sky with Osho. The Four Foundations of Mindfulness. The Ego and the Personality. Lecture 3 of 5. The 'I Am' Creation Story: Embracing Your Divine Origin. A Little Book For Lovers. The Light of the "I": Essay 4 of 4. Our New Human Consciousness: The Roots of Education. The end of the searching.
Life Between Death and a New Incarnation. Working of Karma in Life After Death. How to Awaken and Direct it. The Child's Changing Consciousness: Lecture 5 of 8.
The Influences of Lucifer and Ahriman: Lecture 2 of 5. Meditation for the Aspiring Caveman. Inward Experiences After Death. The Foundations of Human Experience: Lecture 13 of Lecture 5 of 5. Moment of Death and the Period Thereafter. The Truth Is Beyond Belief. Living Dharma in the 21st Century.
Not only are we inside of the cosmos, but the cosmos is inside of us. How to Know Higher Worlds. A thread from the above lion question could bring up the idea that every animal is somehow a part of a human being, so might it be useful for a human to lie down after a meal like a lion does? We can never measure creativity and curiosity. My hope is that they stand a chance to be nurtured by a system that prioritises growth, fostering strong values and foundations of good character. Knowledge of the higher worlds and its attainment.
The role model wives in Hinduism. Second Coming of Christ.
Spiritual and Physical Healing: The Presence of the Dead on the Spiritual Path. The Roots of Education: Essay 2 of 4. Awakening of Inner Consciousness. Who You Really Are. The Logos and the Word: A Rational Approach to Spirituality. Concerning the Affinity of the Living and the Dead. The Stages of Higher Knowledge: Essay 1 of 4. Essay 3 of 4. The Art of Mysticism. Kotra Siva Rama Krishna.
Lees „The Roots of Education: Lecture 3 of 5“ door Rudolf Steiner met Rakuten Kobo. This lecture is part of the collection "The Roots of Education" by Rudolf. The Roots of Education , a course of five lectures given in Bern. For your convenience, below is a zip file of this entire set of lectures. It does require that you.
A Tether Tied to Space. How to Know Higher Worlds. Lecture 1 of 5. Mystics of the renaissance.
The Four Sacrifices of Christ. Death as Metamorphosis of Life. From Elephants to Einstein From Sunspots to Strawberries Lively Interchange Between the Living and the Dead. Harmony of the Creative Word. Learning to See into the Spiritual World.
Waldorf Education and Anthroposophy 1. The Riddles of Philosophy.
The Spirit of the Waldorf School. Karma of Untruthfulness, Vol. The Spiritual Hierarchies and the Physical World: Knowledge of the Higher Worlds. Inner Impulses of Evolution: Education as a Social Problem.
Intuitive Thinking as a Spiritual Path.