Foreword

“If you are not thinking, you’re not learning new things.  If you’re not learning, you’re not growing – and over time becoming irrelevant in your work.” – Glenn Llopis

                It’s funny how the more research you do for a book, the more things you find to add to it, and the more your plans change.  While I went into this with a fairly clear idea of what I wanted to achieve, my research and  experiences have resulted in an unexpected divergence from my original concept.  In addition, this effort has helped me with my own life; thus, I hope it will help you with yours, too.

                This book is for three groups of people, primarily:  parents, novice teachers, and classical (traditional) teachers who are searching for a better way to teach.  This book will probably also be useful for school board members and policy makers, among others: those people who make decisions about education but do not necessarily know much about it (a disturbing trend in many countries – putting those who know less in charge of those who know more). The information here is not advanced – I have tried to keep it accessible to whomever chooses to read it – so there will be a second book aimed at experienced educators if there is demand.  This book is written with the intention of giving basic but critical knowledge regarding education so that you, my dear reader, will be able to understand education better, make informed decisions regarding educational legislation, evaluate the quality of a school and help you to make sure that children get the best possible education.  For the past 300 years, except for certain private schools, education has been dominated by the classical education system which, while it may help a small proportion of students excel, and give benefits to many others, there are other systems, strategies, methods, and approaches that are far superior for a much greater number of students.  With the proper educational system, the vast majority of students will be able to excel, and the number who benefit will be small, while the number who fail will be far less than now.

                Such a system, if implemented correctly worldwide will affect not just learners and educators, but will also affect parents and others who will directly benefit through programs for them, increase employment, revolutionize humanity and help to usher in a golden age of enlightenment, vastly improved welfare for almost everyone, and contain advancements that will make previous golden ages look mundane in comparison.  Why make such a vainglorious claim?  Because most students will be able to develop their fullest potential, in combination with the rise of computer technology and robots, and there will be major changes in the way our societies, businesses and governments function.  I truly believe that a superior educational system available to all will correct most of the problems we currently face, although it will take time for the students who have benefited from it to start making changes in the world.  If the system is not corrupted by those seeking personal gain, it stands an excellent chance of saving the world.

I can guarantee you that, after having worked in education since 2001, being involved in training before and after that, and in combination with my research, what I have written in this book is valuable.  I had the great good fortune to meet an educator in Indonesia, Mrs. Siti Wachidah, PhD Ed., a professor at Jakarta National University, who helped to develop the 2013 curriculum here and, while listening to her speak and talking to her, I discovered that although we both researched education over the same period of time completely independently of each other, we both came to almost identical conclusions.  I believe that is a good sign.

This book is based on my own experiences and observations, plus several experiences in the US doing individual and group training at companies.  It is also based on the books, magazines, articles and websites I’ve read, audio tracks I’ve listened to and videos that I’ve watched for much of my life in a variety of fields, including english (ESL/ESOL/EFL, writing, grammar, vocabulary, pronunciation, etc.), mathematics, psychology and its derivative fields (including NLP, cognitive neuroscience and cognitive neuroeducation), other sciences, creativity, emotional and social capability (EQ), intelligence (IQ), education (Western, Confucian, Montessori, Waldorf, Whole Brain Teaching, progressive, transformational, etc.), sign language, and many other areas that, in one way or another, impact education in this day and age.  I am a person who strongly believes that life is for learning and when one stops learning one is about the same as a zombie – just going through the motions with no hope for the future.

There is an admonition in many schools in Indonesia: “I come here to learn.”  While it may be true that some students attend school to learn, there are certainly a good number who give up on learning or don’t want to attend school, and many others who attend physically but wish they were elsewhere for a variety of reasons, some of which I will touch on in this book.  Traditional teaching is slowly being replaced, but it still predominates – the stiff, formal teacher who is extremely strict and rules by fear, passing on his or her version of knowledge in a one-directional style, feeling that because the class sizes are so big (30 to 60 students), there isn’t any other way to do things.  These teachers often got into the avocation of education not because they wanted to change the world, or to improve the lives of their students, but because they needed a job, they liked the idea of the prestige and status associated with being a teacher, their parents pushed them into it or any of a number of other reasons that provide little motivation – let alone inspiration – for them to become exceptional or even just good.  Excited young teachers tend to find themselves forced to choose – fit in with the older teachers (who do the minimum necessary to get to retirement) so as not to make waves, or follow their passion and risk any number of possible problems.  Even in the US, there are teachers who have had their passion squelched by traditionalists who fear that they’ll be exposed as the lackluster frauds that they feel they are.  Excited young students, who want to become teachers in their first year in university, quickly lose their enthusiasm as it is drowned by a series of lecturers and professors who are as interesting, motivating and exciting as a highly detailed book on how to dig the perfect grave.

I am very pleased to report that I am not alone in this effort.  There are people doing seminars and workshops (as I have done) about fun teaching, and there are teachers who – for one reason or another – are taking on the challenge of becoming fun, interesting, exciting, motivational, patient, inspirational, friendly, caring, respectful and so much more.  Amongst them are Mr. Yuli Eko Parwono of National Junior High School 19 in Purworejo, Mrs. Myra Safar of Baturraden Nature School, and several other educators I have met or heard about.  Once, I had the great challenge of having to completely revise a speech on the spot which I had created about transformational education when I realized that the audience was not a group of teachers who knew nothing but classical education!  In fact, delight is what I felt when I realized what they already knew while they were listening to the speaker before me!  It gave me hope for the future, and I hope that this book will give you hope, too, and much more!

                The world has always been plagued by numerous problems that stem from homo sapiens; our tendencies to label and to differentiate negatively, to seek dominance of one kind or another, to ignore our commonalities and how diversity enriches our societies, to arrange things to the benefit of the few at the expense of the many, to damage and poison the environment for short-term benefits despite the fact that the need for a healthy environment is an eternal requirement, and to resort to gross violence for reasons that, in the end, most often boil down to selfishness and greed.  In my own opinion, education holds the keys to changing these things which repeat over and over again on the micro and macro scale.  There is no simple solution and education is not the entirety of the solution – just one part of it – but this book does not pretend to offer an overarching solution to every issue, nor does it attempt to explain what and how other efforts must be made in concert with education being revolutionized.  Education, because of its real spirit (as opposed to training, which has a completely different meaning), provides a very potent vehicle for improving the human condition and, as a byproduct, the world.  This has been proven in country after country that has instituted public education, and in countries that have worked to improve education the most significant changes can be observed – more females and minorities are educated, average family sizes are lower, health and healthcare are better, there are more facilities for the public, there is more involvement by regular citizens in both society and government, and so on.

I am not trying to reform classical education – there is too much that is wrong with it for reform to work.  Obviously, different types of education produce different results and, in this book, I will briefly describe what standard public education does to its students and, thus, the general populace.  A comparison of all of the different types of excellent branches of education is beyond the scope of this book, but I can safely say that some offer a great deal but often come at a premium price (not always for a justifiable reason aside from financial economics).  Unfortunately, the diaspora that is humanity is far too diverse to be dealt with effectively by one educational system, but the information I provide in this book – much of which has been available for hundreds or even thousands of years – if used well, can help far more learners than classical education ever will.

                I hope that this book will help parents and others forge a better path around the world.  I hope that this book will provide sufficient food for thought.  It is my sincere wish that this book will become a resource that will help humanity leap forward to a much more lucid and enlightened state on a global scale.  Education can and must save the world.