To build a better future today, we need to work at school level. United Nations has also understood it and has declared the period from 2005-2015, the decade of Education for Sustainable Development. See it at Unesco.
So, all schools and universities trough the world should make efforts toward this demanding request from society : make a living today in sustainable manner so our future generations may enjoy our planet. Many of us think we have a gap between a speech toward sustainable development being heard for decades already, and what we teach our children to build such future.
But we have the answer: HOLISTIC EDUCATION. This education has a great vision of man including a vision of the macro universe as well the vision of the planet, the social dimension, the emotional and cognitive skills and the micro particle world. The macro and the micro linked by the pursue of happiness and development of man and societies, in harmony with nature.
GET TO KNOW YOURSELF
Around the world with rare exceptions most of the curriculum is centered in the understanding of knowledge without focusing in the understanding of the students own life. Most of the normal education is centered on teaching not in learning skills of the students. Recently emotional intelligence approach is being added to the educational practices, improving human relationship and understanding. But we are very far away still of the Greek sentence, GET TO KNOW YOURSELF AND YOU WILL GET TO KNOW THE UNIVERSE AND THE GODS. We could translate that sentence into modern terms as follows. The Universe, are the laws of nature, the material side, the bodies, the energies of the universe, what is studied by Science today. And the Gods, is the Intelligence or the beings or the souls that occupy the bodies existing in the universe. So, getting to know yourself, you reach the understanding of Science and the inner life of the Universe, at the same time. This approach is centered in learning more than in teaching. Self learning. Learning for a life time. Growing as persons at the same time as our scientific knoledge of reality. The holistic vision makes it feasible.
Probably most of the challenges we face as civilization presently are due for not understanding our own life, who we are. We have moved from a purely spiritual concept of man to a pure materialistic concept of man and the universe. Holistic education gather both, since the whole universe is idea and matter, day and night, ying and yang, summer and winter, life and death. Life includes everything. So, the holistic vision of learning raises GLOBAL CITIZENS, CITIZENS OF THE WORLD. Holistic education develops leadership since it develops the skills to be a leader of yourself first, but at the same time building a more sustainable society.
Intuition, love, feelings, commitment to SERVICE are part of the talents raised by the holistic education in our students. Intuition opens the door to a new discovery in all fields. Holistic persons are able to correlate all sides of an issue more rapidly to come to an answer. The vast complexity of modern affairs requires these talents in our professionals, managers and leaders, to build more balanced and permanent solutions. Besides, they are more equipped to balance emotional disruptions and conflicting interests in the direction of large human groups. The holistic approach incentives the awakening of Intuition, spiritual and emotional intelligence. Most of the outstanding leaders of all times had an holistic understanding of reality. It can be taught, because it is rooted on self discovery. Perhaps, we may not be able to search the sky, but we can always study our own soul, our own spirit, our own mind and emotions. If the observer grows as person, his capacity of making larger discoveries in nature and providing new answers to the society increases.
Globalization is joining people from different backgrounds in every job and organization. So, our own culture of origin is not enough to understand fully the potential of other human beings. As Holistic education entitles us to understand ourselves, then we are able to understand other human beings goals.
Chile stretches for more than 4.000 kilometers from north to south, having different ecosystems from the extreme driest dessert in the world passing by Mediterranean weather, to several meters of rain in the south down to the cold and gelid ice fields of the Patagonia. From west to east we have the Andes beauty, the productive central valley and the coastal range open to the Pacific Ocean refreshed by the cold and rich Humboldt Current . So, Chile is naturally isolated. It is like an island in South America, because it has natural barriers in all its extension by every corner.
There are many schools in Chile and around the world that do not invest in our students as it should be. Clearly teaching Science using chalk and blackboard and a computer at the most, it is cheap. Teaching alive Science on the fields, on the country side by a river, a lake, by the sea, in the middle of the temperate rainforest, at the mountains, requires much resources. You need a bus, a driver, fuel, equipment, extra hours for teachers, meals, etc. We have paid such cost but at a great loss, because society and parents don�t see today the benefit in the long run of such education, so they really are not willing to pay for it. But I believe the entire world is paying the bill in huge environmental problems for decades of cheap and narrow minded education . For instance, most of the most highly reputed schools around the world, from where the future ministers, presidents, congress representatives, leading CEO of companies graduate, don�t have field farms, for environmental education. Eventually a few may have a resort for skiing but not for educating them. Many schools around the world invest in expensive sports facilities, but hardly none in comparison to alive sustainable education. Neither do most of the cities around the world for their public education.
So, saving a few dollars in not having a farm out of the cities, have created leaders of the world that see nature as something to be exploited and to get rich out of it and not caring for contamination. Or to have fun on it but not linking nature to their daily lives. Today, every year we hear more worrying analysis regarding the imbalance of ecosystems. To put some equilibrium is going to be incredible expensive. But most important of all, we can save those costs and begin entitling the future stewards of the solutions, investing in a good education at school level. At the end, the society saves money, but beyond all, we build a better and happier life. People living in more harmony with nature, also are going to be more peaceful, so we save costs in other social problems and diseases.
WHY YOU SHOULD GET INVOLVED ?
WHICH IS YOUR BENEFIT AS FOREIGNER?
We need assistance to develop THE ENGLISH SCHOOL, to prove that any school can make the changes toward a better education. There are wealthy individuals and foundations involved in conservation in the Patagonia, but who is in investing in the human lives that need to care for such beauty ? They have invested more than US$ 100 million dollars in properties for conservation in the south of Chile or to develop lodges and ecotourism ventures. But they have invested almost NONE, ZERO in holistic education and sustainability in the region.
It is hard to understand for me these concept of sustainability. They keep the trees but don�t teach the people why to respect the trees. If the present generation of students are not taught sustainability and holistic ideas, when they become adults and may be voters, congress representatives, majors of a city or state bureaucrats, or professionals or businessmen, most likely they are going to take decisions damaging those conservation estates. Not for being bad guys, but due to the fact they don�t know other way of doing things.
So I have taken the challenge of developing this education in the South of Chile, but truly speaking I need urgent assistance. Chile has and extraordinary wealth that may sustain future generations from around the world. We have clean and safe water, the most valuable and scarce resource in the near future. Probably most valuable than oil on the years to come. Water is going to be needed elsewhere. The temperate rainforest and the Andes glaciers are keeping this treasure. We need to develop awareness in our community to care for these resources. Our isolated condition as country may drive you in the future to buy and drink water bottled in Chile. Today you buy all types of fruits, wine, fish, meat from Chile, because it is a safe country. But hazards are right there. We could be the leading country in the world in producing organic products, but sustainability has to be taught early so, families may understand that the future is moving to be more organic than heavy industrialized.
There are so many sources of potential contamination in developed nations, like atomic plants, deadly weapons in the armed forces, heavy chemical factories, huge amounts of wastes, etc, than any accident may distribute such contamination toward the soil , the atmosphere and the underground water reserves. So, most of developed nations are seated on a contamination bomb built by a wrong educational system. Now, developed nations are investing on more clean and environmentally friendly technologies. But if any accident happen by human mistake, by parts wore out, by a natural disaster, by war, by terrorist action, like an accident on an atomic plant, is going to harm a wide area and people for many years to come. And the rest of the developed nations is going to get scare this may happen to them also. So, countries like Chile, in particular the south of the country can be a safe reservoir for living, food and water. So, can I tell you of more reasons for protecting this area and giving better education to the young people who must develop such duty ?
We need to protect the people, the communities. Lets invest in education.
THERE ARE SEVERAL OPTIONS OPEN FOR FOREIGN COOPERATION AMONG WHICH ARE:
1. Teachers may come to teach sustainability ideas while learning from our ecosystems.
2. English teachers could work side by side with our regular Spanish speaking teachers, learning Spanish.
3. We need computers, furniture, books, lab. We are very modest.
4. We need a van or a small bus to drive our students to outdoor activities.
5. Of course we need cash money to finance our activities. Small donations.
Either grants, loans or investment money. Everything helps. Thus far I have financed by myself this venture, but it exceeds my capacity presently. I have gotten many liabilities for carrying on this initiative. I am an individual who believes each one of us has to put everything, I really mean it, to improve our world. We can just complaint. We have to provide solutions.
6- We want to have an ecofarm out of the city. So we need help for this project.
7. I am searching for good mates that can work with us at the school and building the curriculum and the model of education that could be used in many schools.
8. We offer you the alternative of designing an environmental trip to Chile for your students.
9. We can provide assistance for your school and educational programs.
In term of finances you can also help us by referring my professional services to your associates, so the outcome of those ventures I return them to the school and the environment.
Clearly developed nations are located in the northern hemisphere. But most of them have exhausted their resources or they under surrounded by potential contaminating bombs, as outlined earlier. Not all, but some of the great reasons southern regions of the world are in total chaos is due to the actions of northern hemisphere nations. Now, we are discovering mirror relationships trough the environment because the planet is just one. Wind currents, ocean currents, magnetic currents, etc., carry energies, solutions and problems around the world. So like acupuncture, if we work or improve a mirror area of the world, we may also improve our own. Some day we will learn more about other sciences of earth that may teach us the meridians of the planet. Like they had been studied and drawn in the human body by the Chinese doctors. However there are advances on this regard presently studying the �planetary grid�, Hartman lines, etc.
But writing this in more simple terms, Chile has several ecosystems that mirror in some extent others located in different regions of the planet. In particular the south of Chile. So I invite you to work in holistic education and sustainability in our country, because it offers a learning opportunity for your own nation.
For instance the southern areas of Chile has a lot in common with Northern California, Washington state and British Columbia. The fiords of the Patagonia reminds of the Northern Europe fiords and Alaska ice fields and glaciers are similar to Patagonia icefields. Anyhow every area has unique and wonderful features. Many see in the southern Chilean District of Lakes ( Regi�n de los Lagos) a lot of similarities with Switzerland.
From the social side, humanitarian problems in the southern regions are going to be a burden to developed nations sooner or later. Humanity is just one. If part of the family is suffering terrible conditions, those problems are going to hit the family meetings, when decisions have to be taken. But teaching to catch a fish instead of only giving a fish, is an ancient and wise lesson.
Besides seeding good karma or good actions, the harvest is always positive. Somehow life and nature is going to return back to you or to your descendent or to your nation, the assistance given to others, even if you didn't expected it. Life has its own laws.
So, educating mankind under the holistic vision and sustainability is the modern answer to such challenges. This particular proposal is coming from a southern fellow, because the purpose of the holistic education is to raise WORLD CITIZENS no matter where we are born.
We can offer educational assistance to schools and organizations interested in these ideas, which can be used elsewhere. At the same time I would like to get in touch with an organization or person interested in financing our school and a set of schools oriented toward the future. Many authorities around the world are concerned about improving skills of students toward the labor market when they graduate from school or the needed competencies required for further studies of a professional career. So many policy makers are educating our students at school as it is needed today. My vision and the vision of many, is that our students are going to live in a totally different world when they graduate.
A kid entering kindergarten today, in any country has normally 13 years to graduate from school. Add 5-6 years of university studies. So a 5 year old child is going to begin working in approximately 20 years more.
What is the scenario your child or your grandchild is going to face in year 20025 ?
1. More population. There will be 2.000 million more of inhabitants, jumping from actual 6.500 million to 8.500 million.
2. More cars
3. More contamination
4. Less natural resources
5. Less room for living.
6. Scarcity of good land for living.
7. Less farming land due to population growth
8. Higher prices to buy a house or to rent it.
9. Increase in social disorders and crime due to the above pressures
10. Less fresh water availability for drinking.
11. More mental illness due to stress for living
12. More instability in weather pattern as it is happening already.
13. Ozone layer hole growing as well as skin cancer.
14. Serious energy crisis due to increasing prices of oil and not easy replacement availability.
15. So, increase in cost of driving, cooking and heating.
16. More wars for controlling energy and fresh water access.
17. Immigration avalanches to more stable countries.
18. Epidemics grow without control for lack of stable water and energy supply.
19. Disorganization and division of weak nations. Take over by powerful countries to assure availability of natural resources.
20. Sporadic flooding of sewage systems of large cities around the world by slow increase in sea level. These once in a while events during storms are going to become more frequent on the next 3-4 decades if we can decrease global warming, affecting the lives of million of citizens around the world.
21. Flooding of lower land around the world in 3-4 decades.
22. Most possibly, terrorist actions against developed nations seen by radicals as the cause of this world crisis.
23. Atomic radiation in developed nations affecting civil population and water, soil, air, food.
All of these challenges to be faced in 20 years from now, are going to create a nightmare of troubles of huge consequences changing the way of life in developed nations.
Our students are going to face these harsh conditions then, but also, they may bring us the SOLUTION to these challenges IF we provide them with the OPPORTUNITY OF AN HOLISTIC EDUCATION. We must address the issues our children are going to face when they become just young adults, and lets provide them with the vision and the skills to develop the answers. IF WE DON'T BEGIN NOW WORLDWIDE with and HOLISTIC EDUCATION, our children are going to be thrown naked to the jungle of survival. Chances of failing for humanity are great.
We are adult people, we have enjoyed this beautiful planet, but our children are going to live in a different world. We must give them the opportunity of building a good life. They are going to give a new meaning to the word FREEDOM. They are going to quest for Wisdom, when everything fails. Hope necessity may not bury those quests for many..
But if we develop this new education, we can change the world, so softening or avoiding some of the troubles coming. We built the society the way it is with the good and bad things. So, we can build a better society if we learn from our mistakes and from wise men.
There are so many things we are teaching today that are going to be worthless in 20 years. We need to change the approach to educate our youth, so they can solve our problems then.
So, I invite Governments, foundations, private investors, ALL of them, to act fast in developing these ideas everywhere. We need private investors to act rapidly in changing the actual course. Foundations should concentrate on these issues.
If we loose time, we may loose a generation of answers. I think the most critical moment is going to happen when oil and energy crisis may become evident. We have to build the answers now, when we are in peace yet and enjoying freedom, and beauty of life. Developed nations have resources available now, but in 15-20-30 years from now, many countries are going to be in chaos. We need alternatives energies. We must seed these ideas at school level, at university level now. Global warming is right here. The glaciers are receding in many places in the mountains as in the poles as we see them from the Patagonia. You can discuss if global warming is caused by humans ( as many we do believe) or if it is a nature cycle. But it is happening. No doubt about it. The consequences foreseen are devastating. So we need to cool down the planet, or nature will do it on its own and violent manner for us.
Do we need more signs that something terrible challenging is coming ? Then we need to educate our youth for that scenario NOW. So, I invite you to join me in such efforts. I hope you are brave enough to lead the path of a renewal of education around the world. Your descendants need it, and if you are not too old, you also need it.
JOIN US, COOPERATE WITH OUR SCHOOL, AND WE MAY ASSIST YOUR ORGANIZATION IN RETURN.
March 01, 2005