Natural Education, Natural Enterprise, Natural Community: Creating a Virtuous Cycle

By Stephen Downes - Stephen's Web. Natural Education, Natural Enterprise, Natural Community: Creating a Virtuous Cycle
I have had occasion to write about global warming over the years. So I am one of the first to warmly applaud Al Gore and his Nobel Peace Prize. And it's this sort of thing - this sort of reflection - that carries over into the wider domain of learning and society and technology. And this Dave Pollard post on natural education and natural enterprise. The older industrial model is a dysfunctional system, he writes, a vicious circle that does immense damage to our psyches and our environment. Harold Jarche picks up on this theme, wondering whether these old systems are starting to crack. "It wasn't that long ago that politicians and some scientists were saying that global warming was only a half-baked theory. We now know that we're going to be completely baked, and Al Gore's Nobel Prize shows that the world understands." That's why I demanded an apology not so long ago - and caution, today, that the same sort of model that has produced global warming is continuing to produce - and protect, with the same disinformation - traditional education. The consequences aren't obvious - but if you go into the poorer regions of the world (or of your own community) and look into the people's eyes, you'll see them. More...