Ad Lucem? Towards the Light?

Where is modern education leading our children?

Education is my bread and butter. Although the classroom where I currently teach is rather small with a class of one, in every way that counts, I have never really left the schoolhouse.

Ad lucem (towards the light) was the motto of my senior school, Withington Girls’ in Manchester, UK. I’ve always loved the phrase. When I contemplate education, I think of progression to a state of illumination. I see a guided figure travelling a road which moves out of the darkness towards a fiercely shining light. However, in today’s fractured and plummeting world, there is a danger that this lamp will be extinguished and that education will become yet another way in which our rising generations will be bound in chains forged from an iron darkness. As a parent whose primary concern is to ensure that my children’s education complements and strengthens their Buddhist conviction, it is my fervent hope that those of us with power and responsibility are able somehow, to keep this light alive.

Anyone familiar with my writing knows that, as a classicist, the dictionary, meanings and etymology are my first ports of call when considering a topic. When you look up ‘educate’ you see the usual raft of meanings: ‘to bring up and instruct, to teach, to train.’ When you arrive at the etymological roots, two Latin verbs are cited, educere and educare.With the wisdom of experience I referenced my large Oxford Latin dictionary to check the meanings of these verbs and made a discovery whose significance will shortly become clear. In the context of children, educere means ‘to bring up, nuture or rear,’ with Virgil among others cited. ¹ educare is similar in tone, ‘to tend and support the growth (of offspring), to bring up, nuture, rear.’ ² This might sound strange to some. When you dig around in the weeds of modern educational theory ³ you stumble upon a debate which is based entirely on a fallacious translation of educere, misapplying its meaning as regards inanimate objects, ‘to cause (a thing) to come out, to draw out, extract’ ⁴ to children.

This misunderstanding sets the stage for the debate. Does the teacher draw forth latent knowledge from the child, thus leading to child-centered learning and an emphasis on creativity over precision of acquired knowledge or do they instill knowledge in the child, resulting in methods such as rote learning, and an emphasis on the teacher as the holder of knowledge to be transmitted?

I spent quite a bit of time thinking about this conflict of ideas. While its origin is based upon the opportunistic misreading of educere, nonetheless it has had significant impact upon educational theorising. I even came across reference to it in G.K Chesterton’s 1910 work, “What’s Wrong With The World?.’ Here he talks about those who have adopted this misreading of educere:

‘Education, they say, is the Latin for leading out or drawing out the dormant faculties of each person”

He goes on to state his own, more nuanced view, of the situation:

'There is, indeed, in each living creature a collection of forces and functions; but education means producing these in particular shapes and training them to particular purposes, or it means nothing at all.

And then illustrates it with a very clear example:

‘Speaking is the most practical instance of the whole situation. You may indeed “draw out” squeals and grunts from the child by simply poking him and pulling him about, a pleasant but cruel pastime to which many psychologists are addicted. But you will wait and watch very patiently indeed before you draw the English language out of him. That you have got to put into him; and there is an end of the matter.’

In other words, the child has the capacity for speech within, contrast a monkey, a dog or a cat, none of whom would be able to speak no matter the time and effort spent by the best of speech therapists. However, without the skilled instructor giving the external knowledge to the child, no speech would be produced.

To me, this understanding seems to get to the heart of the matter. The Buddhist view is that the mind of this life arises in dependence upon the mind of the previous one, as the mind of this moment follows the mind of the prior moment.⁵ Far from being a tabula rasa⁶, the child’s mind contains the karmic imprints of previous lives but nonetheless, all conceptual knowledge must be reacquired in this one.

Thus, the teacher is not a facilitator, in contrast to the information given to us hapless student teachers, along with other useless and fruitless nuggets of modern educational theory. Rather he or she is a figure of supreme authority. One who is able, if they wish, to bend the minds of their students to their purpose. And it is at this point that, as a Buddhist parent, my concern for children in the grip of modern education surfaces.

From the Buddhist perspective an education rooted in ethical behavior and a correct understanding of the world of appearances is essential if the child is to develop into a strong spiritual practitioner. The Buddhist understanding of morality is very different to the Christian reading where it is seen as a set of commandments adhered to in deference to a benevolent creator deity. The Buddhist demand for ethical behavior rests upon the understanding that self-clinging and the selfish behaviour which results, actions driven by the three primary disturbing emotions of greed, hatred and delusion alienate us from the world and cause all suffering. Therefore it is necessary to train in morality to overcome such destructuve attitudes and learn to cherish others and ultimately develop insight into the nature of the world.⁷ In the West of today, a culture in flight from that which once made it great and increasingly confused about basic realities of life and death, an ethical education is increasingly hard to find. As Lama Jampa Thaye says:

'It starts with loss. Our culture seems to be one that is haunted by it. It is as if we modern men and women have lost our sense of place in the world, our place in the very rhythms of birth and death” Wisdom in Exile

Anyone who fails to see this, risks sacrificing their child on the altar of modernity. It is only by staying alert to the ever developing trends in education that we can ensure our children remain ethical beings, if such indeed is our concern to begin with. If so, then it surely must be our parental duty to be sure that those responsible for their education are not wolves masquerading in sheep’s clothing.

The current age is a peculiar time. While not much different in essence from the brutality of earlier times, human barbarism is now cunningly hidden, often deep inside the pockets of a white coat. The evil genius of our age has put people to sleep with technology and progress, its malignant mantra. Like Sleeping Beauty, they slumber on, spellbound by the ever increasing comfort of convenience. Dreaming within their dream, they’re unaware that it won’t be the kiss of a handsome prince which awakens them but more likely the slobbering and fetid breath of one of Tolkien’s orcs, a slave to the all seeing eye.

This unfortunate situation spills right over into our current topic. In our dormant state we assume that the current Western situation of universal education, divorced from family life is an inherently positive phenomenon. We have failed in our duty of parental care and have not realized that we are in the grip of a decaying society which cares nothing for truth, beauty or transcendence but simply seeks to make us all soulless consumers bound to the machine. In such a society, universal education becomes a mouthpiece through which a uniform message of nihilism and despair can be bled into the eyes and ears and thus minds and hearts of our children. This is especially the case when their young and delicate minds are harnessed to technology with a demonic yoke.

Nowadays, still bewitched by the fantasy of the educational establishment as an innately benign outfit, parents may have no idea of what is passing for education in their children’s classrooms. Today’s creators and controllers of curricula are very far removed from the families they are supposed to serve. Indeed, in some situations today, parents are seen as hostile forces from whom classroom goings on should be hidden.

As a devout Buddhist, I’m not advocating for the creation of a utopia or earthly paradise. Bound as we all are to the wheel of suffering, there can be no perfect world and no true happiness in samsara. My point is this: in a more virtuous time, educational systems grounded in morality could provide a wholesome environment from a Buddhist perspective. However, when a society is descending into a nihilism that defines itself in opposition to its Christian past, the floodgates are opened to moral depravity.

The challenge for those parents who are aware of the dynamics of our current predicament is to find ways to work inside or outside of the system to preserve their children’s moral integrity. I know many such wonderful people who are doing just that. By ensuring that their sons and daughters have unshakeable core values they are surrounding them with an unbreakable ring of protection.

Our own personal situation called for such creativity with a little more besides- thanks to a certain lady of liberty! For those of you who know me outside of these written dreams and equally for those of you that don’t, it might be of interest to hear a few words about how someone who benefitted greatly from the education system, both as a student and as a teacher, became so disenchanted that she found herself working outside it.

I was a child of the east and west from the beginning. Born into a Buddhist family in England, my religious education happened at home alongside the rigorous Western education which I was fortunate enough to receive at school in a more innocent time.  In the final years of my school studies, I immersed myself in the study of English Literature, Latin and Ancient Greek. To this day I remember the best of my teachers with love; brilliant women who inspired me with their knowledge and understanding. They illuminated these subjects for me and had an impact whose positive force can’t be overstated.

I was always looking for and finding echoes and resonances of the timeless truths towards which Buddhism points in my studies of literature. Whether it was Virgil’s own tears of things, his lacrimae rerum,⁸ Pindar’s depiction of impermanence which still leaves me speechless⁹ or the display of karmic movement racing through the terrifying imagination of Macbeth’s soliloquies,¹⁰ I saw them, loved them and dwelt with them all and many more besides.

At Oxford, after four years of heaven and hell in the study of Literae Humaniores, I made the surprising discovery that the ivory tower of academia was not for me. Instead I entered the teaching profession where I spent the next decade, meeting and teaching some wonderful girls, now all wonderful women! The best part of this job has an emotional charge like no other. In the end however, I was entirely disillusioned by the straight jacket of harmful bureaucracy, declining standards and uniformity of method. I was also increasingly alarmed by the extent to which certain subjects seemed to have been dealt a death blow by the hammer and sickle. In terms of UK education, I had seen it from the inside out and was very ready to leave. Our departure for New York in 2010 was a welcome escape!

It’s clear to me now that the fresh dawn which rose on our arrival to the USA created the possibility for me to develop a radically different view of education. I saw with new eyes and the life of a teacher seemed very far away. While I tutored privately and have continued to do so whenever asked, in all other respects it was a parent’s world for me. During the years which followed our arrival, despite some lovely interludes, my husband and I became increasingly frustrated with the overall quality of our son’s educational experiences in both New York and California. This led me to consider home education on several occasions, a position it would never have occurred to me to adopt in my UK life. However before the world changed in 2020 I never did pursue it. Our son had already decided in 2019 that he would return to the UK for University and we had agreed that the most effective preparation for this would be for him to pursue his A Levels privately with UK tutors rather than stay at high school.

Our young daughter was in her first year of school when Covid hit. I smile ruefully now to remember how complacently I was contemplating her future at that point. Somehow, my mind had refused to make the connection between the shortcomings evident in our son’s schooling and what lay ahead for my daughter. Those four months of homeschooling that were required here by initial school closures, which in the end lasted for over a year here in California, were just so helpful. They gave us a trial run at the homeschooling game without the pressure of commitment and were sufficient to convince me that this was something that I could do and enjoyed doing.

Without the backdrop of Covid and the falling away of everything we had taken for granted like so many leaves blowing in the wind, I am not sure that I would ever have made the leap; too many worries about the unknown most likely. But when the world changes, you change with it. And so in the midst of a world that had lost its moorings, a world gone wrong, we found a stability and I found a shining purpose, setting sail in our little boat of the Manjushri School of Knowledge.

Since we made this decision three years ago, the news that we hear from the educational world across the US, the UK and Europe makes me ever more certain that we made the right choice. That’s without mentioning our ferocious determination as Brits, to avoid the sirens of Americanisation who sing to children in schools here. But, I’m always aware that what works for one family at a particular time is simply a specific solution to a certain set of circumstances. Without my background in teaching, for example, I would not have felt qualified to take on this responsibility. Similarly, had I accepted any of the teaching posts which have been offered to me here over the years, this homeschooling project would never have seen the light of day. And so we deal with the cards we are holding, that’s all any of us can do after all!

As for the future, I can’t help but think that, if the world keeps rolling towards the darkness, it’s up to those of us connected to the light to keep it shining, however we can. For me at the moment, with our son having flown the nest towards his next chapter, this is through leading my daughter’s mind along that road out of the darkness towards her brother up ahead, to ensure that she can embrace all that is good and true. May they both become keepers of the light themselves!

‘May you grow up to be righteous
May you grow up to be true
May you always know the truth
And see the lights surrounding you
May you always be courageous
Stand upright and be strong
May you stay forever young,’

Bob Dylan - Forever Young

Footnotes

1 Aeneid VIII,412-3 ‘..castum ut servare cubile/coniugis et possit parvos educere natos’ ‘and all to keep the bed of her husband chaste and rear her little boys’ (trans Fagles)

2 Terence, Phormio Act V Scene 7 ‘Ex qua filiam suscepit; et eam clam educat’ ‘by whom he had a daughter and he is secretly bringing her up’ (Trans HT Riley)

3 Celsus, De Medicina 7.13.1 ‘Quo facto, sive umor est, profluit; sive quid densius, digits educitur’ ‘When this has been done, if there is humour inside, it flows out; if anything solid, it is drawn out with the finger’ (trans WG Spencer)

4 Craft M 1984. Education for Diversity In Education and Cultural Pluralism. Bass R & Good JW 2004 Educare and Educere: Is a Balance Possible in the Educational System? In The Educational Forum Vol 68

5 Patterns In Emptiness Chapter 3, Lama Jampa Thaye

6 In John Locke’s philosophy, tabula rasa was the theory that the human mind is at birth a ‘blank slate’ without rules for processing data and that data is added and rules for processing are formed solely by one’s sensory experiences. The notion is central to Lockean empiricism.

7 Discovering the Causes of Happiness, Lama Jampa Thaye

8 Aeneid I, 462 ‘sunt lacrimae rerum et mentem mortalia tangunt’ ‘even here the world is a world of tears, and the burdens of mortality touch the heart’ (trans. Fagles)

9 Pythian 8, 95-6 ‘επαμεροι· τί δέ τις; τί δ´ού τις; σκιας όναρ άνθρωπος.’ ‘Creatures of a day, what is anyone? What is he not? Man is but a dream of a shadow’ (trans. Sir JE Sandys)

10 Macbeth Act 5 Scene 5, l12-17

‘I have almost forgot the taste of fears.
The time has been my senses would have cooled
To hear a night-shriek, and my fell of hair
Would at a dismal treatise rouse and stir
As life were in ’t. I have supped full with horrors
Direness, familiar to my slaughterous thoughts
Cannot once start me’