Neohumanism, Education, and Community Development

Education has long been thought of as the key to upward social mobility, a way to leave behind the poverty and hardship of rural or communal life and join the rootless (usually urban) ranks of the employed (and too often, the unemployed). Indeed, the promise of education has always been the reward of a better life – more comfortable, more abundant, and more secure. Parents, understandably, encourage their children to get as much education as possible in order to spare them the privations of their own lives. Often, this results in a brain drain, with young people moving to cities, and villages and small communities left to wither.

Paralleling this urbanization have been the promises of international development – top down approaches to alleviating poverty in rural areas. The Green Revolution of the last century, for example, undertook to feed an increasing world population based on the latest academic science of agriculture. Short term crop yields were improved with applications of chemical fertilizers and pesticides and genetically modified seeds, but this had a number of unforeseen consequences: the poisoning of soil and water, the loss of genetic diversity in crops, increased resistance to herbicides and pesticides, the increasing debt load of rural farmers and the displacement of them from their productive land. The failures of the Green Revolution, not to mention continuing widespread hunger and food insecurity, are widely recognized now by farmers, policy makers, and soil scientists, and a vibrant new movement of regenerative agriculture, devoted to the organic restoration of soil, air, and water is bubbling up across the world.

Agriculture is only the most obvious aspect of society that has been affected by misguided forms of development and the corporate domination of the planet. Communities are in crisis, indicated by skyrocketing rates of mental illness, drug abuse, gun violence, and other indicators of community dissolution. The systemic changes needed encompass all sectors of society in addition to food sovereignty: governance, criminal justice, arts and culture, health and well-being, finance, manufacturing, information systems, energy, and importantly—education. Like the murmuration of starlings, moving in harmony with a singleness of purpose, social movements dedicated to the transformation to a more peaceful, just, and sustainable world are working to effect the necessary transitions in these areas.

For Neohumanism to take firm root in the soil of Planet Earth, education and community need to be seamlessly connected in a new paradigm of development. I have long been a fan of the idea of “localization” – a concept attributed to the work of Helena Norberg-Hodge, author of the book Ancient Futures, which documented the social, economic, and ecological impacts of development in Ladakh starting in the 1970’s. Localization brings attention to the root causes of the multiple crises we face globally, and advocates grassroots policies that revitalize and restore communities. Central to the localization movement is a rejection of the western monocultural education model in favor of more vibrant, experience-based learning that is rooted in the local community. I believe that if we are to realize Shrii P.R. Sarkar’s vision of building a genuinely just and sustainable global society, localization is an important guide to implement Sama Samaj Tattva, or the principle of social equality. Neohumanist educators need to “think locally” to build a strong foundation for universalism.

The Community School Movement

The movement for community schools is taking root in many places, both in modern industrialized settings and in rural or tribal areas. Community schools are seen as an essential component of a transition from one way of life to another, and a lever by which to facilitate the deep system changes required to create and sustain a clean environment, a healthy economy, strong schools, and a vibrant and just social life. In order for their true value to be realized, virtually every aspect of schooling needs to be reconsidered: how schools are organized and for what purposes, what is taught, and how youth might become more actively engaged in the lives of their communities. There is no “cookie cutter” vision of a community school based on the idea of localization, as locales are nothing if not diverse, but there are some shared principles.

• Development should foster a resilient place-based culture with a focus on an economy that meets the needs of all of its inhabitants, cultivates strong connections to the natural world, and produces much of what it needs as close to the source of consumption as possible.
• There is wisdom in communities, such as traditional ecological knowledge, that comes from long inhabitation of a particular place, and education and development needs to build on this knowledge, not discard it.
• Learning across the age spectrum should be grounded in hands-on experiences that are designed to address the specific needs and values of the community.
• Solutions to local problems should be sought through inquiry-based, democratic problem solving.
• All of the members of a community need to be involved with the development of the youth.
• Schools need to be “community hubs” – places of learning for young and old, resource centers, spaces for creativity and invention, places for young people to congregate and plan projects, opportunities to connect young people with mentors in the community who can teach the skills necessary for the transition to a more just and sustainable society (foresters, farmers, artists and artisans, inventors, cooks, builders, activists, etc.).

In my forthcoming book, Becoming One with the World: A Guide to Neohumanist Education, many chapters deal with the imperative to create closer connections between education and communities. Some of the research-based practices that empower individuals and communities include the following.

Identity and Community

Though the ultimate aim of a Neohumanist education is to foster a universal outlook, an identification with all of humanity as well as with non-human others, the groundwork for such a “trans-egoic” orientation starts closer to home. Teachers work with young children to develop a sense of their personal history, and their memories are activated to recall important incidents in their lives. They are encouraged to listen to the stories of their parents, grandparents or other caregivers, which are then shared in classrooms, along with “family artifacts” that enhance the stories. Artifacts can include special foods, clothing, photographs, crafts, or other unique items.

Older children are taught to inquire into family (or tribe or clan) histories, to ask historical questions and to collect historical data, using various sources of knowledge about the past (artifacts such as tools, quilts, craft items, personal letters, ancient maps, photographs, old newspapers, interviews, cookbooks, fashion magazines, portraits). They create “history museums” in their schools. Gradually they discover how the past differs from the present, how events in the past shape the present, and how technologies have changed the modern world. They learn how to collect and analyze data. They come to see themselves as historical actors—active participants in the making of the world—and with proper guidance, begin to walk the path towards universalism.

Democratic Living

Communities have become “devitalized” through corporate globalization, stripped of cultural meaning, their resources and labor extracted and exploited, languages discredited, and governance coopted. Regenerating communities requires the cultivation of democratic skills and practices, in order that communities be empowered to make their own decisions about development. It is not enough, however, for young people in a community to be taught the principles of democracy, they need to experience democracy. In a community school, students take active roles in local democracy: serving on boards and committees, sharing ideas in community meetings, participating in collective problem-solving. Their curriculum needs to foster the knowledge, skills and dispositions of democratic living (such as a sense of justice, recognition of equality, open-mindedness, and critical thinking).

Critical Place-based Learning

Given new awakenings to ecological limits, a sense of place is a vital intellectual asset for young people. The current generations are faced with the enormous task of rethinking the various aspects of modernity: how humans live and consume, what they produce, how they spend their time, what they value, and how they organize their societies. Understanding how their place has been shaped by the forces of nature, by political histories, and by economic decisions from afar can help them move forward in ways that have a positive impact on where they live.

A place-based education fosters ecological awareness of the interconnectedness between human and more-than-human species, increases young people’s knowledge of their environments, and includes practical knowledge and skills in subjects that support sustainability such as ecological architecture, appropriate scale energy technologies, permaculture, and agroforestry. Students spend time in their communities pursuing authentic investigations and engaging in real work (not, of course, exploitative child labor!), in a spirit of service and civic engagement.

Culturally Relevant Pedagogy

Neohumanism values diverse cultural expressions. It also embodies a critical understanding of the ways in which the politics of colonialism, imperialism, racism, consumerism, and ethnocentricity have served to oppress people and destroy the unique cultural expressions of humanity. Culturally relevant pedagogy is a way of teaching that works in multiple ways to affirm young people’s identities and challenge prevailing injustices in school and society. It also recognizes that there are many “ways of knowing” and values the various expressive means by which children can demonstrate their learning.

Centering Ethics

The “new human” in Neohumanist education is a person who recognizes their entanglement in the larger ecosystem, and has given up the idea of the individual as “master and controller” of nature in favor of a relationship of kinship with and respect for the many inhabitants of the Earth. They have become “eco-centric” rather than “ego-centric.” Recognizing the existential value of all creation requires a reorientation of our value systems and ethical behaviors. In Neohumanist education, the skills required for ethical decision-making are embedded in all the subjects of the curriculum.

Ethical conversations and problem-solving are extraordinarily complex. Our ethical decisions do need to be informed by reason and logic, but there is much to be learned from ancestral wisdom, traditional Indigenous knowledge, embodied knowing, intuition, etc. In these ways, the narrow, instrumental, human-centered model of rational thinking and problem-solving can be replaced by a Neohumanist model, one that incorporates the aesthetic, sensuous, and spiritual dimensions of human knowing and being.

We have the opportunity here and now to reorder our values and priorities, restructure our relations with the natural world, and create just and responsive systems of economics, ecology, education, and governance that support truly resilient communities that work for everyone. We can look backward to the status quo, a past of fossil fuels, unrestrained economic growth and the pollution that comes with it, corporate control, and conflict over scarce resources, or forward to a future of abundant renewable energy, food sovereignty, economic democracy, ecological sustainability, and new, human scale models of living, learning, and working. We can explore innovative ways of engaging communities in meeting the needs of the present and planning for the future. We can commit to making young people an essential part of this planning. We can decide that we wish for schools to be vibrant spaces where all young people want to be — spaces of equity, deep learning, relevance, empathy, relationship, belonging, sustainability, and joy. Another world really is possible.

-Norberg-Hodge, H. (1991/2016). Ancient Futures. Local Futures.
–The Community Schools Blueprint, a report written for the State of Vermont by Dr. Kesson, can be accessed at https://www.vtlff.org/community-schools
-For more information about the relationship between the cultivation of a Prout society and education, see “The Synergy of Prout, Neohumanist Education, and the Spirit of Service” in Issue 54, of the Gurukula newsletter (https://gurukul.edu/newsletter/issue-54/54-introduction/)