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The Four Premises

The premises of the World Core Curriculum are that each child is born with a special purpose; bears the seed of innovation, creativity, and ethics in the sense of fantasy; requires choices that resonate with inner prompting toward self-development; and thrives in the rhythms and cycles of a well ordered society. The four premises are so perfectly enmeshed that the omission of any one of them seriously weakens the structure. When education provides a synergy of these four premises, each aspect strengthens the other three.

1. The Sense of Fantasy - Modern education, diligently manning the knowledge dissemination machine, sternly excludes the sense of fantasy from the child workplace. The machine duly spits out future parents, teachers, principals, superintendents, and curriculum designers who are oblivious of the stupendous importance of the imagination in intelligence and evolution. Their stunted imaginations simply cannot comprehend the crucial role of the sense of fantasy in the practical advancement of humankind. No one has impressed their brains with one of the most important facts of all-if it were not for the imagination, humanity would have remained little more than brutes. If it were not for daydreams, explorers would not have ventured into new frontiers. If it were not for the sense of fantasy, we would not have discerned the benefits of fire and carried it into the future in the form of fuel, electricity, and lasers.

The encouragement of the sense of fantasy is equally vital for scientific, creative, and ethical intelligences. In Education For The New Age, by Alice Bailey, we read, "The sense of fantasy brings the creative imagination into play, thus providing the emotional nature with constructive outlets; this should be balanced and motivated by the recognition of the power of right choice and the significance of higher values. These, in turn, can be developed selflessly by a due recognition of the environing whole in which the individual has to play his part, whilst the entire range of actions are increasingly subordinated to the understanding of the ordered purpose which is working out in the world."

2. The Sense of Choice - The sense of choice holds the key to an interesting paradox. Even as it allows the individual her sacred right to respond to key inner promptings, these singular preferences open multiple doors of learning. Entrance to knowledge through the proclivity closest to the heart leads to a wide range of academic thresholds. For instance, the key to many a young entomologist, herpetologist, geologist, and inventor gaining proficiency in reading is abundant, compelling experiences enhanced with intriguing books and CDs pertaining to her area of interest. The young researcher may first begin to read the titles, progress to captions, and then move to paragraphs in the main body of the book.

Only ignorance of the child nature assumes to foster individual greatness through mass compulsion through regimented curricula. The sense of choice is the voice of the soul seeking to achieve expression of its full potential. To override this urge with our bigness, our power, and our preconceived notions is tantamount to psychological abuse. Who really wants to assign a fellow human to forty years of vague discontent and debilitating depression until he casts off the chains of "ought-to" and at last embraces the long buried occupation closest to his nature? If national measurement and scoring devices tested for joy and enthusiasm, and acted to remedy low scores in these indices, within a mere fifteen years the world would see an unprecedented influx of professionals on fire with life-celebrating missions.

3. The Sense of Order - The sense of order refers to more than the sequence and arrangement of curriculum. The sense of order is the formula for expressing beauty. The sense of order understands space usage in harmonious arrangements, goods consumption without waste, the systematizing of information for easy comprehension, and the appreciation of one's simultaneous role as teacher and student in the hierarchy of life. The sense of order is the self-impelled unfolding of beauty in geometric progressions. Reinforced with laws and principles, it is organic rather than rigid; life-affirming rather than life-restricting.

Nature is the greatest teacher of a sense of order. Enlightened mentors and teachers help students comprehend subtle processes governed by principles that transcend time and space. Each organism exists as not only for itself but in a reciprocal relationship with the surrounding biome. In general, scientists have learned that the more diverse the biome, the more resistant it is to environmental stresses. Immersed in nature, children learn that for every physical law that nature obeys, there is a corresponding principle of ethical life.

The sense of order includes appreciation of subtle realms. How else is the student to comprehend cause and effect relationships that govern apparent events? For the sense of order to be both comprehensive and balanced, it must include the ecological and the technological. It must incorporate the feminine and masculine aspects of any sphere of study in the universe. The youthful sojourner, who has internalized natural law, realizes that the counter force that results from arrogantly overriding spiritual laws is as inescapable as the crash that results from irresponsible physical momentum.

Together, the teacher and student are at best a mutual and reciprocal check and balance system. In the interest of group harmony and growth, the teacher is sometimes the leader into new domains of knowledge. Other times, she is the responsive facilitator of her charges' spontaneous interests.

4. The Sense of Purpose - Our task, even as we manage the daily demands of a learning community, is to keep the vision of future possibilities for the broader whole. We seek to bring the world to the child and stimulate the proclivities that are very likely linked to her individual life work. When the available tasks strike an inner chord and connect practically with the surrounding society, a sense of purpose inspires her work. We cannot admonish a sense of purpose into the child. Instead, we offer adequate models of constructively engaged adults and examples of challenging, purposeful projects, knowing that these serve as triggers for the child's consciousness. Our duty is also to provide sufficient mechanical, artistic, and electronic tools to satisfy her urge to work within her individual interests.

We gather around our children in the interdependent relationships of a village. It is in many ways a prototype of the global village that will be their future work environment. At the turn of the century, the majority of parents mainly desire that competitive, corporate schools prepare their children for survival in competitive, corporate societies. At the same time, new, more enlightened paradigms are being born in politics, business, healing and teaching. We must inform these anxious parents that to the extent that a universal paradigm shift occurs, familiar models of schooling will not prepare students for future realities. We feel the urgency of elders reconnecting with nature and the inner child as a community of supportive mentors so that the child experiences a meaningful link between embryonic abilities and his life purpose.