There are a variety of spiritual traditions that attempt to answer this question. However, the intention of this text is not to address spiritual traditions or religions, merely to state that the goal of learning must be directly linked to the purpose for being alive, or it makes no sense. In many traditions, the answer to this question relates to the purpose of growing in spirit through experience, reflection, and choice. In fact, I would go as far as to say that most belief systems would agree with this assessment of purpose as a large-scale overview of the human experience, so let’s not get too caught up in the details for now. If this is the purpose of human existence, then wouldn’t it be logical for the purpose of learning to be a direct reflection of this overall purpose?

Reflect on Your Philosophy of Learning

What is your philosophy of learning? This question has been asked by thousands of professors, hiring boards, and teacher professional development specialists. It’s common for teachers to spend the time and effort to write up an answer, usually including buzzwords like student-centered, engaging, social learning, cognitivism, and other terms that have become synonymous with effective teaching. I’ll be the first to say that none of this is incorrect. It is just not the whole picture. There is a kernel of truth in all these buzzwords. That is why they work and why we hold to them.

This question connects directly to the purpose of education. Why do we teach? Why are students asked to learn? What are the desired outcomes? These questions are typically answered when the responses are more specific or mission statement-like, but the outcome is the same. The purpose of our current educational system is to prepare students to continue with our current society and organizations in much the same way we have for decades. I’ll reiterate that this isn’t bad per se; it is just short-sighted and limiting.

Please don’t misunderstand. I believe in the power of learning, skill development, and good teaching. I believe every student should have a chance to become whatever he or she wishes to be and that sometimes they don’t know what that is until they see it. In short, I believe in the power of education. However, the current model fails to recognize what students need, the impact of teachers, or the overall reason for the effort.

I’m not just talking about public schools. Private schools have the same problem, and homeschooling in the current model often leads to the same result. This is because we are failing to address the root cause of the problem. Instead, we focus on controlling the symptoms instead of being brave enough to reflect on the actual root cause.

Determine the Root Cause

The root cause is our perception of learning. If we are to move forward with any real integrity, we must be willing to address the metaphorical elephant in the room. There is a traditional story of three blind men interacting with an elephant. Each man is located near a different part of the elephant. The one near the trunk describes it as a snake-like creature. The one near the legs says it is stout like a tree, and the one near the ears thinks it’s large and flat. All of the men are correct, yet all of the men are incorrect. The problem is the lens of perspective.

In the same way, all of the philosophies described are both correct and incorrect, effective and ineffective. This statement in itself, if it baffles you, and it may well do so, is an illustration of the root cause of the issue. In education, we think in dichotomies. An answer is right or wrong, a technique is effective or ineffective, a behavior is good or bad, a lesson is well sequenced or it’s not, and a learning objective is aligned or not. There may be more than one right way, but there is definitely a right way.

Before you head to the other extreme in thinking, the opposite version doesn’t work either. We can’t say that everything is right or good and all answers are equal. This results in a complete lack of purpose or intention and forces the question of why we are putting forth the effort at all.

If your brain doesn’t itch yet, it will, and that is the point. Learning, real authentic learning, doesn’t fit neatly into little boxes. It can’t be tracked with checklists or rubrics. It’s elusive, yet you definitely know it when you see it. It’s a combination of logic and emotion that changes your very being.

Real learning is being comfortable with the uncomfortable. It’s understanding that we, as humans, are beings of emotion and that emotion guides our very essence. Real learning is balance, experience, and reflection mixed with a little courage. It’s differentiated on a level that can’t be outlined in step-by-step lists.

So, what do we do now? We start by adjusting our mindsets. Change starts with yourself, and that’s where we are starting. If we are going to shift to an authentic learning experience, we have to start by becoming an initiative educator who sees the idea of learning in a completely different way than any of us were taught.

Where Does This Leave Education?

You might be thinking that this leaves education unnecessary. After all, that’s just what we do every day while alive. How does that account for learning to read, write, and solve math problems? You would be right. In our current thinking, this idea makes education irrelevant. If the purpose of life is to grow in spirit, then there is no reason we need to know what one plus one equals.

But what if we have confined the power of learning and education for too long, making it less than what it should be by delegating it to a collection of standards and content topics that may or may not be relevant and certainly have little to do with growing in spirit?

What if education is and should be a mechanism for experience, reflection, and choice that aligns directly with the purpose of human existence in a larger sense?

Take a moment to think about that. The purpose of education is to provide an experience that allows people to reflect and make choices that ultimately determine the essence of who they become in a spiritual sense.

Traditional teachers provided an opportunity for people to reflect and grow. Throughout the world’s spiritual traditions, there is a focus on the teacher as a guide, confidant, and facilitator of reflection. From Jesus to Buddha to Mohammed, there are even records of these individuals being called teachers. What a distinguished company we, as educators, come from! Are we living up to the legacy they established for the profession with our insistence on learning objectives, standardized lesson plans, and separated content topics?

What is your expertise?

What would happen if we redefined knowledge completely? Instead of seeing it as a collection of specialties, we viewed it as descriptions of the overall human experience. This adaptation to our frame of reference does not mean there is no such thing as expertise. Quite the contrary. The existence of expertise is now defined as a deep understanding of one small part of the larger whole, including how the small part interacts with the larger flow of existence.

As teachers, we are considered experts in the learning process and a particular content area. If we reframe this idea of knowledge as a description of the overall experience, do we, as teachers, have to be experts in all areas of the human experience?

Absolutely not! In life, we don’t learn everything from one person. If we think this is possible, we are often considered sheltered or naive. Why should we assume that one second-grade teacher, for example, can teach us everything we need to know for an entire year?

What if we switched the framework and teachers became experts in creating environments that guided our natural learning? What if they were masters of resource collection, questioning, observation, and self-development?

Instead of being experts in content and learning, teachers could be prime examples of what it looks like to be a self-developed learner. They would know a lot of things but also have transparency about what they don’t yet know about (notice the “yet” in this statement).  

Suffice it to say that redefining knowledge doesn’t eliminate teacher expertise or the need for teachers. In fact, it makes them more important, more relevant, and vital to the learning experience. It requires mastery far beyond the standards and checklist-style requirements that fill the current educational world. It requires them to rise to the level of the great teachers of history.