A Holistic, Multidimensional Perception of Time: A Critique of the Modern Mechanistic Views and Capitalist Ethos of Education and a New Vision for Education

• In Event: A Holistic, Multidimensional Perception of Time: Connecting Our Inner and Outer World, and Connecting Education to the Earth and the Universe

Abstract

Author WQY and Author SK will provide a critique of the modern mechanistic views and capitalist ethos of education and provide a new vision on education. They will draw from their own experiences studying and teaching in the Chinese and American educational systems.
In our society today, because we lack the wisdom of the interrelationship of all things, our education has prioritized teaching about a mechanistic worldview and not teaching children about the dynamic interconnections among all things (Cohen & Bai, 2007). Hence, we are growing generations of people who do not know how we should conduct our life to be healthy and wise, and how we need to respect the force of nature and our interdependence with everything else in the world and even in the universe. We are witnessing devastating impacts of climate change. Sadly, educators and young people still have very low awareness about Mother Nature as a living being, that she breathes like us and that she has her life rhythm which we must respect, and that we need to master the ebb and flow of life to ground ourselves internally and externally (Brown & Miller, 2019). SK observes:
The many people in my hometown (in the U. S.) who have never been exposed to such ideas as nature being a living species with its own rhythm often crosses my mind when I reflect on perception of time. The generations of men and women have been exposed to a culture of working hard and using nature as your resource. When these people are often in modes of survival, I wonder how we can bring this awareness, knowledge, and solidarity by compassionately respecting the process of unlearning?
As I reflect more on the concept of time, I immediately think about the schools in the US focus their planning on the future and never on the present. We inherently structure our students to think about the immediate and long-term future which takes a toll on the mind, body, and spirit. My time teaching in the United States was mentally exhausting because of the lack of space to be present in our curriculums nor classrooms. I echo David Keiser (2013) who shares that contemporary education, both in the East and West, is shaped in large part by capitalist values such as speed, productivity, and measurable results. We are a future-oriented society with a hidden curriculum that places value on student and teacher productivity. That inherently harms our natural rhythms, creativity, and critical thinking. I believe embodying presence in education will help us foster peace, balance, and allow the natural flow of life to surround us.
We envision a new form of education that is reciprocal, following natural rhythms, that attends to our inner needs and that values all life and nature around us, with students learning organic knowledge about the working of the world with us playing an integral part in it.

Authors

• Wuqi Yu, University of Maryland

• Sarah Kistner, University of Maryland