In 1972-73, I attended a ten-month residential course designed by the English philosopher/physicist, J.G. Bennett. His school allowed about one hundred students, including me, to experience his educational philosophy and learn first-hand by living it how it differed from the education most of us had growing up.
According to Bennett, there are two ineffective prevailing types of education in Western culture. In the first, life is treated as just a world of facts. By this he means we are taught to look only at the material world and treat it as a collection of resources for humankind to use in any way we wish, with no overriding values to control greed, destruction, or sustainability. Power and money rule the whole process. On the other side of this same coin is an activism that is meant to counter this lack of values. The intent is to create organizations and laws that attempt to force humanity into more ethical behavior.
In Bennett’s description of a second type of education, spirituality and inner work prevail. However, in this variety of instruction the world is often seen as an evil place where the human goal is to remain at a distance from active worldly life. Monastic life is the extreme example. The other side of this second coin is the practice of a kind of inner psychological work, where the only goals are personal happiness and comfort, again without relating personal growth to the outer world.
Bennett traveled extensively in the East in the 20th century and sought contact with many different spiritual leaders unknown in the West. What he came to see as an ideal education was the need to do specific kinds of inner work, neither remaining aloof from the world, nor being lost in activism that attempted to change or control others.
The critical goal of education as Bennett saw it was to change oneself into the kind of human being who is able to do things in the world with intention. Humans educated in this way would truly know themselves, and therefore be able to make decisions and carry them out in a principled manner. Ultimately this person would be capable of taking action for the sake of the common good, not only for personal gain.
Bennett’s residential course in England was designed to educate the students with skills that would help them become able to observe and then significantly modify their own nature. He did this through an emphasis on several techniques: Self-Observation, Practical Work, Decision, and Meditation.
In Part II, I will tell a little about the activities comprising these techniques. For more about this course, see my book, Sunny Side Up at Amazon or in digital version at Smashwords.