Before I continue, I want to make a clarifying distinction between enlightenment and Enlightenment. I'm in favor of both, because I think they are both grades on the scale of consciousness, and if you know anything about my world-view, the whole cosmos is just grades of Consciousness with matter being very slow vibrations and Spirit being the highest. As a general orientation, that should suffice.
Now, back to the business of raising consciousness as an educational end and system.
One of the basic premises that I've built this philosophy around is that the broader a child's range of experiences, the sooner they will be confronted with cognitive dissonance, or paradox. This is when a previously held notion meets an experience or idea that directly clashes with our current sense of reality and calls for a deep (re) evaluation of both. It may also cause the child to have to redefine the very identity they hold central.
At a certain point, this identity will be transcended (if the child can grow to embrace both sides of the paradox) and a true taste of Reality, free from conventional concepts, will "Enlighten" the child. Of course, as we know from the works of depth psychologists like Ken Wilber, a truly mystical awakening is typically fleeting and will be interpreted from the level of consciousness that the child is "anchored" at. So, the process of awakening is merely a glimpse, and while it informs the consciousness with Consciousness, mentoring and guidance is best prescribed to help the child come to terms with the ecstatic truths revealed by such an experience - a revelation.
The original question, of course, is how to help the child have such an experience in the first place. And that's a tough one. It's sort of like asking how to help a child fall in love. You can't. You can't even predict it. What you can do is help put certain elements into place that will make the occurrence more likely. Certainly, it would be hard to fall in love without someone else to fall in love with. So, putting the child in an environment with lots of exposure to other kids, and opportunities to get to know the other children in ways that could lead to a deep liking, even an experience of falling in love, would be a good way to start.
The same is true of Enlightenment. The best way to start bringing about such an occurrence with any consistency and predictability (as in an educational system) is to bring about enlightenment in a more mundane sense. This can be easily done by exposing the child to a variety of experiences through travel, service to those in need, mentoring in any and every line of development (from academic and kinesthetic to interpersonal and technological), and one of the most enlightening practices of all - asking good questions.
Incidentally, one of my favorite techniques for handling a child's persistent questioning (because we all know it can wear a parent out) is to simply respond, "That's a great question!" and simply leave it at that. If the child persists, encourage them to google it. Sit with them if possible and guide that research. Ideally, have the child teach what they just learned - blogging is a great way to share.
By enlightening the child to the realities of our human condition - the beauty and the treachery - they will accelerate the process of Enlightenment. Simply expanding the mind and heart is a sure recipe for asking bigger and deeper questions, and as long as we don't shut that natural process of inquiry down, as long as we encourage research and service to satisfy the child's absorbent mind and open heart, Enlightenment is inevitable. Like a caterpillar weaving a cocoon... the imaginal cells (ref: Chopra) can simply do their job and transform the child into a beautiful butterfly.
Now, how do we structure a system of enlightenment for our children, and begin to weave the fabric of an educational system of Enlightenment for all humanity?
More on that in the next post ;-)
Craig
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