Community Literacy by Charles Eisenstein

The principal goal of education is to create [people] who are capable of doing new things, not simply of repeating what other generations have done. —Jean Piaget

I

f school is preparation for life, we must ask ourselves “For what kind of life are we preparing our children?” Is it to be a life internally motivated, or a life where money is

the main object of our labors? Since many jobs in the world today are not things people would do except for the money, we might think the latter objective to be more practical. Unfortunately, the kinds of jobs that people do only for the money—fracking for natural gas, for example, or promoting consumption for the sake of consumption—are also the kinds of jobs that are contributing to the destruction of the planet. Meanwhile, the impor- tant work the planet and society desperately need today typically doesn't offer large finan- cial rewards. People don't become social activists, whistle-blowers, environmentalists, or reformers to get rich.

On the Verge of Change

There is an economic explanation for this. Our money system, in which money is cre- ated as interest-bearing debt, directs money toward those activities that expand the realm of goods and services (exchanged for money). Money flows toward anything that turns nature into product and relationships into services. To the extent that school is aligned with money interests, it too serves as an instrument to make children grow up to be willing laborers and consumers. But as the present financial crisis portends, our money system may be on the verge of a transformation, perhaps toward an economic system embodying our emerging values of community and ecology. Maybe the politicians have been wrong when they envision a future of intensifying

competition in the “global marketplace,” for which we must make our children more “competitive.” If the future is not to be a mere intensification of the present, then tradi- tional education in financial literacy may not serve students' future even in a practical sense. Obsolete as well would be the habit of doing work only for the money, or more generally, only for the external reward. Paying students for academic performance inculcates this habit. (The same might be said about grades—but that’s another topic.)

What Is the Motivation?

Sharing ideas: Human beings are social animals, and our motivations, even our identity, are socially constructed.

PAGE 12 • Connect

If we see school as a means to create a bet- ter society—or a livable planet—then we must empower children to listen to inner authority, to act from love, generosity, and compassion, to do things they really care about. After all, the things we really care about coincide with the things that are

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