He lost his sight and found a vision. He proved dramatically that it’s not what happens to us that determines out lives – it’s what we make of what happens.
My life, like yours, is a constant process of improvisation between my interests and personality on the one hand and circumstances and opportunities on the other.
The reason that neither he nor I could predict my life, any more than you can predict yours, is that life is not linear; it is organic.
Compassion is more than empathy; it is the living expression of the Golden Rule, to treat others as you would have them treat you. Compassion is the practice of empathy.
The Element is the meeting point between natural aptitude and personal passion.
If you want to change the world,” he said, “who do you begin with, yourself or others? I believe if we begin with ourselves and do the things that we need to do and become the best person we can be, we have a much better chance of changing the world for the better.
The quest for your Element is really a two-way journey. It is an inward journey to explore what lies within you; it is an outward journey to explore opportunities in the world around you.
Classical education was based on the seven liberal arts or sciences: grammar, the formal structures of language; rhetoric, composition and presentation of argument; dialectic, formal logic; arithmetic; geometry; music; astronomy.14 For centuries, the classics dominated the very idea of being educated and attempts at reform were resisted.
Nobody, I always say, can be anybody without somebody being around.
Education is not a linear process of preparation for the future: it is about cultivating the talents and sensibilities through which we can live our best lives in the present and create the best futures for us all.
All around the world, there are many great schools, wonderful teachers, and inspiring leaders who are working creatively to provide students with the kinds of personalized, compassionate, and community-oriented education they need.
All technologies are neutral. What counts is who uses them and what they use them for. Any material, any tool in the hands of an artist, can result in a work of art.
The problem is that too often, and in too many ways, current systems of mass education are a catastrophe in themselves. Far from looking to the future, too often they are facing stubbornly towards the past.
The point is not to be the best, but to be the best you can be.
The revolution I’m advocating is based on different principles from those of the standards movement. It is based on a belief in the value of the individual, the right to self-determination, our potential to evolve and live a fulfilled life, and the importance of civic responsibility and respect for others.
I say, follow your bliss and don’t be afraid, and doors will open where you didn’t know they were going to be.
When you add the noise of the external world to all the roles you take in it, it is easy to lose sight of who you really are. To find your Element, you need to regain that perspective. One way is to create time and space to be alone with yourself, to experience who you are when no one else wants anything from you and the noise has stopped. One method is to meditate.
Many of the jobs that current systems of education were designed for are fast disappearing.
Cultural identities are always evolving, but education is one of the ways in which communities try to control the rate of change. This is why there’s always such heat generated around the content of education.
As humanity becomes more numerous and interwoven, living respectfully with diversity is not just an ethical choice, it is a practical imperative. There.