By conformity, I mean the institutional tendency in education to judge students by a single standard of ability and to treat those who don’t meet it as “less able” or “disabled” - as deviations from the norm. In that sense, the alternative to conformity is not condoning disruption; it is celebrating diversity. Students’ individual talents take many forms and they should be fostered in similarly diverse ways.
1. Health: Promotes the development and well-being of the whole student, intellectually, physically, spiritually and socially.
2. Ecology: Vital interdependence of all thse aspects of development, within each student and the community as a whole.
3. Fairness: Cultivates the individual talents and potential of all students.
4. Care: Creates optimum conditions for students’ development, based on compassion, experience, and practical wisdom.
Economic: Education should enable students to become economically responsible and independent.
- To cultivate the great diversity of young people’s talents and interests;
- To dissolve the divisions between academic and vocational programs, giving equal weight to both areas of study;
- To foster practical partnerships with the world of work so that young people can experience different type of working environments first-hand
Cultural: Education should enable students to understand and appreciate their own cultures and to respect the diversity of others.
- To help students understand their own cultures
- To understand other cultures
- To promote a sense of cultural tolerance and coexistence
Social: Education should enable young people to become active and compassionate citizens.
Personal: Education should enable young people to engage with the world within them as well as the world around them.
The conventional academic curriculum is focused almost entirely on the world around us and pays little attention to the inner world. We see the results of that every day in boredom, disengagement, stress, bullying, anxiety, depression, and dropping out. Yhese are human issues and they call for human responses.
