An Argument For An ARSP Educational Focus by Paul Kirsch

For as long as I can remember (and probably before!) I have been interested in wonder and by that I mean, the extraordinary. I believe all, or at least most, religions are based on wonder and it is wonder that has the capability to unite people of diverse backgrounds and value systems. Even an atheistic perspective has wonder for what humans can do. I have ardently sought wonder throughout my life, exploring the mystical traditions of various cultures, including Tibetan Buddhism and those of various indigenous groups. School had nothing to offer in support of that interest, and so felt less important and exciting for me. It was as though the real thing, the experience of our short life in a vast cosmos was left out. It was as though school was missing the point. I played along to keep from getting punished. Some people are born filtering out the big questions. I was not. 

When I explored other traditions, I experienced the natural world in a different way. For instance, a grasshopper landing in the center of my car windshield and staying there while I rode at high speed down a highway seemed meaningful in ways I couldn’t describe. I also understood at an experiential level that the dream state was far more than what I was being told it was by our scientific elite. These things aren’t discussed in school.

It is a time to take risks. We are now faced with challenges to our survival on a global scale. Some people think there are technological answers. I think the answers are in a change of perspective. We have a world rich with varied cultural and ontological perspectives. Why not learn something about these different perspectives? It would serve the direct purpose of less violence against other people and nature and it may just show us some wonderful things.

Recent events at the University of Virginia have made it clear that there are significant gaps in cultural sensitivity, understanding and awareness between groups and that a focus on these issues in education may help mitigate this condition. Rather than place subjects such as anthropology, religious studies (as multicultural awareness and not advocating a specific doctrine), and philosophy at the bottom (or off the map) of the school pedagogical hierarchy I argue it should be placed at the top.

To that end, I am interested in floating a new meme and acronym in education, ARSP. Instead of the ubiquitous STEM (Science Technology, Engineering Math) focused education that is the dominant cultural value and is surely motivated by short-term economic interests, why not focus on Anthropology, Religious Studies and Philosophy, which I condense to the acronym ARSP. I aspire to float the meme ARSP as a direct challenge to STEM. When I mention ARSP focused education (after explaining what the acronym means), to those involved in academics, I almost uniformly get blank stares and rejection. I gather from the deafening silence that I am being dismissed as a fringe thinker or idealist. But then I point to the fact that we live with enormous cultural misunderstandings and these misunderstandings in values result in catastrophic outcomes in terms of war, terrorism, violence of all kinds, class resentment, oppression, social isolation, alienation from the body-sense, climate change denial, loss of indigenous wisdom/knowledge and environmental degradation (to name just some), the idea becomes more clear. 

These factors cost us plenty in the present and will cost us plenty more in to the future. I believe that reforms and broad ontological shifts in focus can be brought to the ivory towers and beyond. There is more to this world than cool, but shallow, technology or more efficient business practices and schools are the place to start. In particular, global warming and the havoc it may wreak on society including famines and mass migrations may be the wake up call that more technology education is not the answer. And I don’t think I am totally alone here among the cognoscenti, see for instance, Daniel Pinchbeck’s How Soon is Now?.

Let's look at the pillars of pedagogical thought. Essentialism is the name of an approach to education that focuses on essential skills that students should learn in schools so that they will do well in society. In its present form, Essentialism seems focused on developing the new literacies, namely, the use of the internet. I recently completed prerequisite classes in a teacher-training program that required observing schools. In the schools I visited, I was amazed by the fact that there has been a consistent one-to-one correspondence of computer tablets to students. Things have changed a lot since I was in school. The educators have succeeded in their objective. But were their fundamental assumptions twisted? Could ARSP based education also address Essentialist arguments and avoid destructive sequelae? What if students were taught a different relationship to the earth than that which our capitalist paradigm and education system provide? That is, teachers could not simply discuss environmental awareness and conservation, but a deep sense of connectedness to the earth that extends to the way we treat lawns and landfills. What if students were enabled to explore the roots of the value systems that motivate different cultures? I believe the cause of so much violence in this world is a lack of knowledge of different cultural values. What do any of us know of cultures different than that which we grew up in, besides a superficial understanding?

An interest in soft things, things that are associated with the humanities, like a different philosophical approach to the earth or different cultural values are in realms unknown to Essentialist perspectives. But educators have long recognized that there are other methods of approach and purposes for education. If Essentialism were the only reality in education, literature would not be taught at all. (In some cases things are going in that radical direction: in Australia the study of history and geography is being abandoned in favor of coding). The view that education has a purpose beyond teaching essential skills leads to what educators have identified as another approach to education, namely Romanticism. The immediate resonance that the word Romanticism calls forth is something shallow, mundane or irrelevant. It is far from that. An ARSP focused education motivated by the Romanticist approach is shocking and hits directly at our ontological foundations. When our ontological assumptions change, one can be sure that our technology will change. I think this observation is missing in those who endeavor to continue the work of Steve Jobs with his idea that computers are the bicycle of the mind; Virtual reality goggles, which are said to be growing in popularity and are certainly growing in terms of research dollars may present some opportunities here, but I am thinking in even more radical directions.

Romanticism, as exemplified by Rousseau is the view that a student should pursue his education based on what he or she is motivated to learn. An aspect of this is that the mentor presents things that the student can choose from. In my opinion, with all the access to technology, communication and the internet, a whole deeper level of understanding is absent or has not been explored. It is possible that technology will never bridge this divide. Here again I believe that an ARSP based curriculum could present things that the dominant culture almost completely ignores and dismisses, that is, ontological and epistemological issues. I have experienced myself people who have had astonishing and vastly different understandings of human potential and human capabilities than those with a traditional Cartesian paradigm would allow or acknowledge. I believe that human consciousness can achieve things like telepathy (to name just one) and that some day science will better understand this. (The idea of entangled states in physics may provide explanations here.) So I am saying that indigenous wisdom, where these capabilities are far more common, could be a part of education. Some introduction to African and Native American writers could be a start. I went to numerous English classes in my observations of schools and was disappointed by the lack of imagination in what literature was given to the students. It was all Brave New World and To Kill a Mocking Bird. 

At one time these were provocative texts that challenged dominant viewpoints. That time has long passed. These neoliberal progressive ideals are just so 20th century. This cultural reality is reminiscent of the role rock music played in challenging the establishment. It is now passé; even worse it has been co-opted by the establishment. It is not hot for young students either. Truly provocative and fairly accessible texts that present alternate viewpoints such as those by Patrice Malidoma Some (Ritual, Power and Community) and Sergio Magana (The Toltec Secret: Dreaming Practices of the Ancient Mexicans) are, in my opinion, completely beyond the radar of current educators. Most have never heard of these authors. The ideas presented in these books may threaten people. I acknowledge some of the ideas threaten me. But that is why I think there is a need for more ambassadors to bridge and unite people with different cultural perspectives and vastly different knowledge bases. Different writings styles as presented in African Literature (for instance, the African writer Amos Tuotola) are rarely introduced until the college level. The focus is highly Euro-centric– ask any person of Native American, Asian or African American heritage. A cultural bias has thwarted the recognition of foreign voices. I believe an ARSP based education opens the door to further exploration of novel styles of expression.

Lastly, although educators proudly decree that our country has its political foundations in ancient Greece (and by the way, the Iroquois Confederacy) the public education system, from its origin and continuing today completely ignores the questions and methods of inquiry exemplified by the philosophers of ancient Greece. Or indeed their intellectual forebearers, the ancient Arabic peoples. What high school ever makes talk of the soul or our place in the cosmos?

It may be an impossible fight, but I think subjects like Anthropology, Religious Studies, and Philosophy (ARSP) should start at the earliest levels. I expect opposition and only hope that if I float this meme it may some day find mooring in receptive territories.