Working within the system

I continue to walk my personal process while also walking a path of experimentation of implementing or inputting change from within the education system.

How best to implement change from within? I guess it is a process of getting others to look outside the box, so to speak. In class, I present information of the current state of earth and humanity so to assist people to see and realize the problems. Then it is to connect the problems with the causes, and encourage students to consider and/or design solutions. In this way, we begin to take ownership of the problems by seeing our connections to them so to realize ourselves as the solutions.

I kind of wish I could present a systematic outline of a detailed plan. The thing is, I haven't got a systematic plan, only a goal to assist students – young people – to begin taking responsibility. I write “young people” because I continue to find older ones to be much more resistant to considering change and taking responsibility for anything but ourselves. I say “ourselves” because I see where the “older” ones are coming from and how easy it would be to simply fall into the program and let autopilot take over.

Here in/as this point of being in the system, maintaining my position within it while also pushing the boundaries (with relevant information) as far as I am able to without being attacked as a threat to the system is kind of a balancing act wherein with the information that I input I also explain the reward.

In terms of personally changing me, care continues be a point that I am determined to understand and live. Some time ago, I came to the realization that care is a doing, not an energetic experience. Interestingly, in determining to live care, I began pushing myself to do unto others what I imagined caring people would do. The result is that I now find myself increasingly caring as though others really do matter to me. An example of this is able to be seen in my relations to my students and even ones who are not in my classes. In the past, I would have related to and considered them only in the classroom. Nowadays however, I communicate with students inside the classrooms, outside the classrooms and on the Internet through FB and blogs. This isn't something I have to do for work; it's what I do to change the nature of me to one who takes responsibility, to one who cares.

One more point that I have recently come to realize is that I am only able to move or direct situations to the point that I have changed me. It's difficult to explain; kind of like I see or imagine the point or position wherein I'd like to place myself. The problem is that when I look at me in relation to that position, I see that I have not yet changed or processed me to get to or become that point. So, with this realization, I will once again focus more on the process of me.