Those who place their trust in the “inner power” of human nature are
willing to shake up a society’s assumptions and prejudices when these hinder the
discovery of new insight. Among the best examples of this attitude is the Religious
Society of Friends—the Quakers—whose faith in the “Inner Light” has inspired them
to be among the leaders of movements for social reform, justice and peacemaking for
over three centuries. Quaker educators have expressed this faith in describing their
unconventional approach to teaching.
It is important to note that our Quaker experience of education is different
from education
understood as the transmission of the group’s inherited wisdom. . . .
Every moment bears
in it the dynamic of new truth, a life-changing insight, a hitherto
unexplored perspective
often coming through unexpected and unlikely channels (Brown, 1982, pp.
9-10).
This radical openness to revelatory insight through “unexpected and unlikely” sources
reflects a deep respect for “that of God” in all human beings, even the young. Again,
this is conventional religious language, but holistic education embraces the principle
without necessarily endorsing the theology. Indeed, the most influential contemporary
writer on education to come out of the Quaker tradition, Parker Palmer, has expressed a
profound child-honoring perspective in his work that transcends specific religious
belief. “If we try to keep our children within safe boundaries,” he once declared, “we
prevent them from undertaking any great experiment with Truth” (Palmer, 1978, pp. 9-
10). Imagine that—education conceived as encouraging young people to experiment
with Truth! Who knows where their explorations might lead? If we believe that they are
animated by life-giving impulses, whether or not we understand these energies to be of
divine origin, then we share the Quakers’—and Montessori’s, and all holistic
educators’—faith that the “release of human potentialities” will lead to “salvation,” or
at the very least, to social and cultural renewal.
Those who place their trust in the “inner power” of human nature are
willing to shake up a society’s assumptions and prejudices when these hinder the
discovery of new insight. Among the best examples of this attitude is the Religious
Society of Friends—the Quakers—whose faith in the “Inner Light” has inspired them
to be among the leaders of movements for social reform, justice and peacemaking for
over three centuries. Quaker educators have expressed this faith in describing their
unconventional approach to teaching.
It is important to note that our Quaker experience of education is different
from education
understood as the transmission of the group’s inherited wisdom. . . .
Every moment bears
in it the dynamic of new truth, a life-changing insight, a hitherto
unexplored perspective
often coming through unexpected and unlikely channels (Brown, 1982, pp.
9-10).
This radical openness to revelatory insight through “unexpected and unlikely” sources
reflects a deep respect for “that of God” in all human beings, even the young. Again,
this is conventional religious language, but holistic education embraces the principle
without necessarily endorsing the theology. Indeed, the most influential contemporary
writer on education to come out of the Quaker tradition, Parker Palmer, has expressed a
profound child-honoring perspective in his work that transcends specific religious
belief. “If we try to keep our children within safe boundaries,” he once declared, “we
prevent them from undertaking any great experiment with Truth” (Palmer, 1978, pp. 9-
10). Imagine that—education conceived as encouraging young people to experiment
with Truth! Who knows where their explorations might lead? If we believe that they are
animated by life-giving impulses, whether or not we understand these energies to be of
divine origin, then we share the Quakers’—and Montessori’s, and all holistic
educators’—faith that the “release of human potentialities” will lead to “salvation,” or
at the very least, to social and cultural renewal.
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