NEW CIVILIZATION FOUNDATION
7.8 EDUCATION
7.8.1 Education is a primary function of the New Civilization Foundation. It is
understood from the inherent values of the NCF that a society can not be
wholly free unless it has access to complete knowledge and understanding --
in effect, "Ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall set ye free."
Every aspect of the NCF -- from health and economics to agriculture and
ecology to interactive communities -- depends ultimately upon empowered
individuals making wise choices.
7.8.2 Such Individuals will, in turn, depend upon their
abilities to acquire knowledge and wisdom, understand implications,
discriminate between competing alternatives, and subsequently incorporate
new found knowledge into their lives. NCF's educational strategy is about
being mindful in all relationships, of being a light unto each
other, and always acquiring new meanings and skills.
7.8.3 NCF's goal is supporting new and existing forms of education that are in
alignment with the needs and demands of our society, our ecology, and of
humanity in the present and future. This includes support for projects,
initiatives, and pilot programs in all aspects of education and training at
every level of society and for all age groups.
7.8.4 NCF will also focus on the
expansion of existing curricula to encompass vital areas of information
that are otherwise being neglected, to actively encourage the worldwide
free flow of information, and ultimately, to support the dissemination of
all forms of knowledge, inquiry, and wisdom. NCF envisions an educational
paradigm of worldwide sharing of knowledge, wisdom, creative thought, and
new and old ideas -- including personal exploration into the self and the
place of the individual within the community and planetary society.
Diverse cultural differences and experiences are specifically sought.
7.8.5 NCF will support worldwide literacy programs and on-line creativity stations in community centers and schools, provide free or low-cost educational opportunities worldwide, leverage the use of appropriate educational technologies in the delivery of education and training, and provide high quality free education over the InterNet.
7.8.6 NCF wishes to foster free and easy availability of information without censorship or limitation by special interests, emphasizing programs which teach individuals how to discriminate fact from fiction, truth from deception. NCF's education and training strategies are to enable individuals to think independently, understand themselves and the world around them, allow considered and intelligent choices, prepare for productive lives, and to otherwise enable each individual in the achievement of their highest potential. In lieu of old paradigm values of surveillance, evaluation, reward and competition, NCF will emphasize uniqueness, equality, contribution, and mutual cooperation.
7.8.7 One of NCF's essential functions is in developing and implementing
innovative and aligned educational methodologies. Such methods may range from
basic literacy programs to functional InterNet techniques and availability,
from practicality-based fundamentals to accelerated learning techniques, and
from the basics of learning how to learn to the ability to critically analyze
and make meaningful judgments about the credibility of information or sources.
That said, the NCF believes that true intelligence can not be measured, but is the fruition of a
heuristic learning that can be attained only through
relationship. Therefore, methodologies are encouraged which do not encroach
on the simple and innate human ability to learn from relating to each other
and to the world.
7.8.8 Also included are the restructuring of classrooms to facilitate and encourage learning (eliminating, for example, the strictures of specific "periods" and alarm bell reminders of when it's time to shift gears from one subject to another, or any artificial construct which impedes the investigative partnership between student and teacher), removal of the inherent conflict of interest in a single individual being both teacher and tester, and methods of better accessing the creativity and interests of students with diverse backgrounds and unique cultural histories.
7.8.9 NCF also intends to greatly expand the existing curricula of traditional schooling and post-graduate education. This may include an improved musical education, mathematics which include sacred geometry, numerology, and other traditionally esoteric topics, alternative health and nutrition, energy and other sciences which may compete with but nevertheless have equal or greater validity than mainstream thought, required comparative religion courses (which are intended to teach tolerance and mutual understanding), and expansion of traditionally regionalized history courses to full-bodied world history (and herstory) courses. All such subjects will include -- very specifically -- competing and contrary viewpoints on controversial or debatable topics, as well as attempt to delve into traditionally esoteric ("for the few") subjects and treat them as exoteric ("for the many").
7.8.10 Of particular interest to NCF is the potentiality of education via the InterNet. Accordingly, NCF's educational efforts may include the support and encouragement of the creation of an InterNet Accessed Worldwide Information Database. This database will initially contain information not easily available, but will rapidly be expanded to include all human knowledge.
7.8.11 The greatly expanded web site(s) will be user friendly, will be constantly updated, and available to any and everyone. Proprietary information will be accessed (when possible) by links to other web sites, and as soon as possible by inclusion in the main Database. The development of the Database is expected to include a Library, a University (providing for feedback and testing in specific areas), and Mouseion ("seat of the Muses"). While the development of the Database may be centralized to a single NCF community created for this purpose, an enormous and possibly the majority of the work is expected to be done "off-site" by an "adjunct faculty".
