Learning Wisdom

           Imagine a world where children everywhere attend school because they look forward to learning their daily lessons, where people rely on books to gain knowledge instead of Wikipedia, and where a college education in the liberal arts is considered a timely investment rather than a luxury. A post-carbon world will not only require lower dependence on energy resources and the growth of the global economy to foster independent prosperity, it will also cultivate education of all people as a step toward community development and wisdom. Since education is one of the most significant factors in changing culture and behavior, post-carbon education’s foundation will be environmental limits, and recognizing how those limits coincide with human life and aspirations. This type of knowledge must become the basis of the transition from adolescence to adulthood, and from rashness to wisdom and maturity.

            Education in a post-carbon world will focus greatly on not only the information being learned, but also the process through which students gain knowledge. Ecology and the surrounding environment will be an integral part of the educational model. Since ecological concepts affects other disciplines so much, all students will need to have a rudimentary understanding of things like systems and their cycles, environmental limits and carrying capacity, and their relationship with the surrounding world. In this way, the environment will become a critical cultural factor of local communities, and environmental impacts will be considered for all activities and career paths.

This great shift the in purpose and approach to education will begin in primary schooling. Post-carbon education must require that students gain knowledge that they can not only apply to their lives, but that will enhance their understanding of themselves as individuals who are part of the larger world. Instead of having learning take place with hundreds of students locked indoors, classes will do much of their learning both in their surrounding environment and in their local communities. Students will learn about the ecosystems that appear around their school and develop a greater understanding of the cycle of systems and the factors that both directly and indirectly impact the ability of those systems to function. Moreover, students will have the opportunity to take their learning out into their surrounding community. They will volunteer in community centers and will analyze their surrounding community in order to find projects that will benefit those around them. By having such an integrated role in their communities, young pupils will gain a better understanding of themselves as part of the greater picture of society.

Young students will have the opportunity to learn information and skills that directly impact their lives. There will no longer be the ubiquitous question of why a certain strain of knowledge applies to student’s experiences. They will learn domestic tasks such as cooking, woodwork, and reparation, which they can take directly back to their homes to put to good use. They will learn about the history of their community and the people who live there in order to understand the importance of situational context. They will learn to appreciate the land on which they live, and will gain valuable skills in gardening and farming in environmentally sustainable and enjoyable ways. Due to the necessity of local focus in a post-carbon world, students will take time to learn about global philosophies, religions, and cultures so that they are able to better understand the global context of their communities, and to understand those who hold different beliefs than they do. Education will focus on sciences, the arts, and empowerment, and will ignore those subjects that limit students’ abilities to discover things for themselves.

The experience of specialized education for older students will also be very different. Universities, which will be among the most valued aspects of post-carbon society, will have three offered paths: occupational training, scientific training, or an education in liberal and fine arts. Occupational training and trade schools will greatly expand, and students will be able to become apprentices pursuing farming, carpentry, cooking, teaching, family business, and more. These will be the majority of the people in college and general society who make up the backbone of the way communities function. Students who choose to study liberal arts will become masters in fields like History, English, Classics, Latin, Art, Theatre, and many more. These students will be the thinkers of society, and those who write books for the rest of communities to gain knowledge of obscure, but important subjects. Conversely, those students who choose to go into science will be both the innovators of society, and will be the people looked to for policy and governance. Subjects like Ecology and Biomimicry will be of chief importance, and will govern how systems function in communities.

In the post-carbon world, college education will continue to be an important time period for youth. It will be a time when they discover both their ideas about their communities and societies, and their individual self-identities. Though community college will be a very important factor in the post-carbon world due to the reduced access to travel, students will still be encouraged to travel outside of their residential communities to attend college. They will get an opportunity to discover themselves outside of the perceptions that they have always held, and will get to meet other students who share altering worldviews. After college, they will be encouraged to return home with their newfound experiences, but will also be supported if they choose to lead a life in a different community.

The goal of learning, currently purposed toward taking tests to establish expertise outside of the real world, will shift to learning information to gain a understanding of important subjects and a way to apply knowledge to the overall betterment of the surrounding community. Learning and reading books will be done simply for the joy of it, rather than for the sheer necessity or expectation for it. In a post-carbon world, people will not just learn information; they will learn wisdom.