‘You never change things by fighting the existing reality. To change something, build a new model that makes the existing model obsolete.’

– Buckminster Fuller

The Six Dimension Model

Around ten months ago I had a profound and very sudden awakening brought on by the realization that humanity was on a collision course with itself. It was at this point that I decided I was going to dedicate my life to changing the education system. Like Fuller, I thought it was much more pragmatic to wipe the slate clean and start over than to try and patch up the leaks of the old system, so I came up with what I call The Six Dimension Model.

In no particular order, these six dimensions are Self-Discovery, Inquiry, Sustainability, Innovation, Communication, and Empathy.

Self-Discovery

The first of the six dimensions focuses on the internal and personal growth of the individual child. Children will have access to all the avenues of discovery they desire, from artistic and aesthetic practices to sports, outdoor activities and everything else in between.

Creative play will be a part of every day, and students will be given free reign over a wide range of creative tools and resources with which to draw, build, invent, compose, design, imagine, and experiment to their heart’s content. Teachers will take the time to get to know each child on a personal level, and will make every effort to nurture and unearth each child’s natural abilities, passions and interests.

Children of all ages will take part in meditation and mindfulness practices to help them align with the essence of who they are and assist them in finding the path they wish to take with their lives. This will not be a mandatory practice, but instead will be something the school system highly encourages as a tool for self-discovery.

Inquiry

This dimension is all about providing learners with the tools and resources to be completely independent critical thinkers, and to discern information through an investigative approach. The role of the teacher will shift from an information dictator to a facilitator of open dialogue. Traditional teaching methods will make way for more Socratic-style mentoring, which involves probing and challenging students through a process of open-ended questioning. Socratic mentoring is named after the Athenian philosopher, Socrates, who wisely said, ‘I cannot teach anybody anything – I can only make them think.’

Schools will not teach a single version of history. Instead, children will investigate the evidence from a number of different perspectives, and alternative accounts of history will not be dismissed or overlooked. They will then collate and weigh that evidence before reaching their own conclusions. Differences in opinion will be encouraged and will be a necessary departure from the Orwellian groupthink mentality of the herd. Philosophy will also be taught as part of this dimension, giving students the ability to challenge their own rigid belief systems and open themselves up to different viewpoints and perspectives. The classroom will be a place where children truly feel like they are able to question everything and have their views respected, no matter what those views may be.

Religious doctrines will be abolished as they have no place in the education system. Open discussion of religion within a philosophical context will be encouraged however, as such discourse is highly valuable.

Sustainability

At present, the education system does not take our environmental reality seriously enough. Sustainability must be a primary focus in any new system. With the catastrophic deforestation of the Amazon, the plastic junkyards in our oceans, the pollution in our atmosphere, the displacement and destruction of our ecosystems, the threat of nuclear radiation, and now the plundering and pillaging of the Arctic regions, it is paramount that our children are not sheltered from the truth of our real and lasting impact on the environment.

Students will learn all about intelligent and effective resource/waste management, will interact with new energy technology in all its forms, and will be empowered to become problem-solvers with regard to the environmental crises facing our planet. Immersion in nature will be an integral part of this model, as it is crucial for us to regain our connection with the earth and with all life on it. The aim will be to get children out of the traditional classroom setting as much as possible and into a diverse range of environments that suit the learning context.

Children will also be equipped with the skills to become self-sustainable. This means being taught how to grow their own food, how to provide their own energy supply, how to build a house that can withstand the elements, and all other real useful life skills that allow them full autonomy over their own lives. The aim is to give young people the freedom of not having to rely on any system to do everything for them. They will be shown how to make sound choices for their health and wellbeing, through good nutrition, regular exercise and meditation. Again, it will be the responsibility of the children to look after their own vitality, and none of this will be forced on them.

Innovation

Humanity’s greatest feats of creativity and progress have always been born out of unconventional ideas. Out of the box thinking will be deeply ingrained in the philosophy of a new education system. Schools will place a great deal of emphasis on divergent thinking, that is, thinking that does not require a clear right or wrong answer to any given problem. Divergent thinking strategies allow children to sharpen their natural creative intelligence so that they may reach their highest potential as innovators of the future.

All unnecessary competition in the classroom will be replaced by collaborative teaching and learning practices. Our human potential is far greater when we work together than when we work individually or at odds with each other. We must raise our children in an environment centred on collaborative and community-oriented principles so that they may grow to help create a better world and a fairer reality for the whole species.

Mathematics will be an optional pathway beyond elementary/primary level. Math will become a meaningful and highly relevant study with regard to its real world application. Students will also discover how sacred geometrical principles relate to nature, to the building of ancient civilizations, and to the framework of the universe itself.

Science education will see a shift away from reductionist materialism and into non-physical and quantum phenomena. This is not to say that the education system will abandon material science, but instead will extend its reach above and beyond traditional boundaries to include a study of that which we cannot perceive ordinarily with the five senses. All such exploration will occur through experimental and investigative inquiry by applying the scientific method.

Communication

This education model aims at retaining our native languages and recognises that cultural diversity is necessary in a thriving world. That said, English will also be taught across the board as that will enable all races, cultures and peoples to connect easily via written and spoken language.

Literacy and language acquisition will remain a cornerstone of the education system at elementary level, but will be voluntary at secondary level. Once a child can read fluently and get their message across effectively, it is no longer an absolute necessity for them to pursue further advancement of these abilities unless they choose a path that requires these skills. The engineers, nurses and dancers of the world would most likely prefer to use that time to develop skills in other areas.

Media literacy will be taught from around the age of ten. Children will be exposed to all kinds of media and will learn to think critically about the persuasive techniques being used. They will be able to read subtext, recognize manipulative language, and dissect political propaganda in all its forms. These skills are essential if we are to raise our children to maintain dominion over their own minds.

Students will also learn to recognize emotions and body language, and will apply that understanding to the management of social relationships and their own personal growth. By becoming conscious of their emotions, they will be able to minimize conflict, both internally and externally.

Empathy

The last of the six dimensions, Empathy, is all about bringing real human connection into schools. It is so important that the future generations learn to value all life on the planet, so that our species does not continue to perpetuate the vicious cycle of war, oppression and conflict that has caused an unconscionable degree of pain and suffering.

In order to evolve, we must unite all colours and creeds and remove all barriers of separation. Nationalist fervour will be eliminated. There will be no pledge of allegiance. There will be no ethnocentric pedagogies. The education system will take a holistic, planetary approach, and will work on the foundational philosophy that we are all one.

Schools will function as real communities instead of the institutions they are now. Children will be valued, respected, and trusted with important roles of responsibility in the school. They will also be encouraged to engage in random acts of kindness in and out of the classroom, and to act with compassion and human decency in all that they say and do. Kids will learn strategies to empathise with others who are experiencing psychological, physical or emotional turmoil, which could be as simple as sitting silently by them and sharing their pain, or a heartfelt hug. Teachers will have the freedom and flexibility to establish a human connection with every child under their wing. Children will no longer feel alienated by their school system, but loved, understood, and empowered.

The Six Dimension Model will bring much-needed balance back to our education system, and will give both left-brain learners and right-brain learners the same opportunities to reach their highest potential. There is much more to this blueprint, including the structure and implementation, that I have written about in great detail in my book, Education Revolution, but this article should give you a clear idea of the scope of this vision. If this is the kind of education system you want to see for the future generations, then let’s hit the reset button together!

About the Author

Will Stanton is a writer and activist who has devoted his life to changing the education system. He has just launched his book, Education Revolution, which proposes an entirely new global education model for humanity called The Six Dimension Model. The book is available in paperback format on Amazon, Barnes & Noble, and other online retailers.

You can follow Will’s Facebook author page here:

https://www.facebook.com/thesixdimensionmodel

This article is free and open-source. The author grants permission for anyone to republish it.

Humanity has lost its connection with the Earth. As a species, we too easily distance ourselves from the war being waged on the environment. Most of us are opposed to the destruction of the Amazon rainforest and the oil pollution in our oceans, yet we continue to let it all happen. We care, but we don’t care enough to put a stop to all the madness. Why? Because we have lost touch with nature. Sadly, we do not feel the planet’s hurt. Her cries of protest are falling on deaf ears. For the most part, we have become anaesthetised by modern society and the trappings of economic pragmatism.

We have a responsibility to the future generations to make sure they do not make the same mistake that we have made in severing our connection to the land. Our children must learn to empathise with the natural world if our species is going to reverse the damage we have done. The youth are the future caretakers and custodians of the planet, and the Earth’s fate will one day rest in their hands. The only way for our children to experience a real connection with nature is to immerse them in nature. Education cannot be confined to the classroom. We cannot teach our children about plants, animals, rocks and streams through textbooks and computers. They need to experience these things for themselves in the real world. They need to get out of the classroom as much as possible and learn through direct exposure to the natural environment.

Children need to be given the freedom to explore and discover the world around them. I’m not talking about excursions or field trips that happen once every year or two, or even the occasional school camp… I’m talking about a revolution in education where children regularly spend time learning outside the traditional classroom. One of the big problems with the education system is that we think that in order for children to learn they have to intellectualise everything. We think that they don’t gain any important lessons unless they can put pen to paper and demonstrate they have acquired the concepts set out in the curriculum. What our schools keep failing to understand is that life experience imparts a far greater wisdom than any teacher could. The rivers and the mountains and the songbirds have much to teach us, but as pupils we make no attempt to understand the language they are speaking. If we only learned to attune to that language, we would defend and protect the natural world at any cost.

Schools should be introducing children to the marvels of plant consciousness. At the Federation of Damanhur in Piedmont, Italy, plants have been taught to express themselves through song. By hooking up an electrode to the leaf of a plant and then connecting it to a MIDI-synthesizer, plants are able to create their own music. The plant controls both pitch and rhythm entirely by itself, only the instrument is predetermined by the synthesizer. You can see a video of this phenomenon HERE.

Experiments carried out in the 1970s by Cleve Backster, a former CIA polygraph specialist, showed that plants are capable of telepathy. Backster hooked up a common houseplant to a polygraph machine to gauge its reaction to various stimuli. After establishing a baseline reading, he dipped one of the leaves in a mug of hot coffee and the polygraph needle did not move. He figured that the plant would be more likely to react if he burned one of its leaves with a match. Immediately on the intention entering his mind to burn the plant, the polygraph needle jumped across the page. Backster had not moved from his seat. He had not physically reached for his matches. Somehow, the plant picked up on his intentions to cause it harm. He repeated the experiment and found that the plant did not react when he merely pretended to burn it, but only reacted when he fully intended to burn the leaves.  

Fascinated by this, Backster continued his research on plant telepathy. He set up another experiment by placing brine shrimp in a dish suspended above a pot of boiling water. He configured the apparatus to tip the brine shrimp into the pot after a random interval of time more than a few hours. In a separate enclosed room, well away from the apparatus, but in the same building, he hooked up a houseplant to a polygraph machine and established his baseline reading. Backster then left the building and drove hours away from the lab. When he returned to check the reading on the plant, he found a huge spike in activity at the precise moment that the brine shrimp fell to their death in boiling water. Sadly, much of Backster’s work has been scoffed at by the mainstream scientific community and this area of research still remains largely underground. For more on plant consciousness, see the documentary The Secret Life of Plants.

There is much about our natural world that still remains a mystery. One thing is for sure – these experiments give great credence to the notion that we are all bound together by the fabric of consciousness that makes up the entire universe. It is absolutely crucial that children are able to establish a conscious connection with nature if they are to learn to respond to environmental injustice with action instead of indifference. We need to completely change the way we educate our kids so that we can sustain life on our planet for many years to come…

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Will Stanton is a writer and activist who has dedicated his life to changing the education system. He is about to release his book, Education Revolution, which looks at the current paradigm of education and proposes solutions to its many problems. In the book, he offers an entirely new model for global education which he calls The Six Dimension Model.

Follow Will’s Author page to stay updated on the book and future projects:

https://www.facebook.com/thesixdimensionmodel

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