EQUITAS

From time to time, against all apparent rationality & in the face of entirely reasonable pessimism, the steady, measured, dogged, focussed, undistracted efforts of the democrat will bring about the demise of the martinet.  The seeds of the martinet's own destruction are planted within those first arrogant, impatient, violent initiatives for instant change & all the democrat needs to do is to wait.

But to wait actively. Every opening that presents itself for practical resistance must be taken, however small & localised. At some point vigilant patience will be rewarded by a clear & manifest opportunity for empowerment & the democrat will recognise its significance before it passes.

There are recent events, tied in with longer term issues, about which I can’t write securely at present.  Until I can, here are some statements that consider the nature of authentic education.   

If we value independence, if we are disturbed by the growing conformity of knowledge, of values, of attitudes, which our present system induces, then we may wish to set up conditions of learning which make for uniqueness, for self-direction, and for self-initiated learning.
Carl Rogers

I believe that education is the fundamental method of social progress and reform. All reforms which rest simply upon the law, or the threatening of certain penalties, or upon changes in mechanical or outward arrangements, are transitory and futile.... But through education society can formulate its own purposes, can organize its own means and resources, and thus shape itself with definiteness and economy in the direction in which it wishes to move... Education thus conceived marks the most perfect and intimate union of science and art conceivable in human experience.
John Dewey

Education either functions as an instrument which is used to facilitate integration of the younger generation into the logic of the present system and bring about conformity or it becomes the practice of freedom, the means by which men and women deal critically and creatively with reality and discover how to participate in the transformation of their world.
Paulo Freire

Education is not the filling of a pail, but the lighting of a fire.
W.B. Yeats