Education is a primary function of the PHISOLAMA
FOUNDATION. It is understood from the inherent values of PHISOLAMA that a
society cannot be wholly free unless it has access to complete knowledge and
understanding -- in effect, "Ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall set ye
free." Every aspect of the FOUNDATION-- from health and economics to agriculture
and ecology to interactive communities -- depends ultimately upon empowered
individuals making wise choices.
Such individuals and aligned groups will, in turn, depend
upon their abilities to acquire knowledge and wisdom, understand implications,
discriminate between competing alternatives, and subsequently incorporate new
found knowledge into their lives. PHISOLAMA'S educational strategy is about
being mindful in all relationships, of being a light unto each other and always
acquiring new meanings and skills.
PHISOLAMA'S goal is supporting new and existing forms of
education that are in alignment with the needs and demands of our society, our
ecology, and of humanity in the present and future. This includes support for
projects, initiatives, and pilot programs in all aspects of education and
training at every level of society and for all age groups.
PHISOLAMA will also focus on the expansion of existing
curricula to encompass vital areas of information that are otherwise being
neglected, to actively encourage the worldwide free flow of information, and
ultimately, to support the dissemination of all forms of knowledge, inquiry, and
wisdom. PHISOLAMA envisions an educational paradigm of worldwide sharing of
knowledge, wisdom, creative thought, and new and old ideas -- including personal
exploration into the self and the place of the individual within the community
and planetary society. Diverse cultural differences and experiences are
specifically sought.
PHISOLAMA will support worldwide literacy programs and
on-line creativity stations in community centers and schools, provide free or
low cost educational opportunities worldwide, leverage the use of appropriate
educational technologies in the delivery of education and training, and provide
high quality free education over the Internet.
PHISOLAMA wishes to foster free and easy availability of
information without censorship or limitation by special interests, emphasizing
programs that teach individuals how to discriminate fact from fiction, truth
from deception. PHISOLAMA'S education and training strategies are to enable
individuals to think independently, understand themselves and the world around
them, allow considered and intelligent choices, prepare for productive lives,
and to otherwise enable each individual in the achievement of their highest
potential. In lieu of old paradigm values of surveillance, evaluation, reward
and competition, PHISOLAMA will emphasize uniqueness, equality, contribution,
and mutual cooperation.
One of PHISOLAMA'S essential functions is in developing and
implementing innovative and aligned educational methodologies. Such methods may
range from basic literacy programs to functional Internet techniques and
availability, from practicality based fundamentals to accelerated learning
techniques, and from the basics of learning how to learn to the ability to
critically analyze and make meaningful judgments about the credibility of
information or sources. That said PHISOLAMA believes that true intelligence
cannot be measured, but is the fruition of a heuristic learning that can be
attained only through relationship. Therefore, methodologies are encouraged
which do not encroach on the simple and innate human ability to learn from
relating to each other and to the world.
Also included are the restructuring of classrooms to
facilitate and encourage learning (eliminating, for example, the strictures of
specific "periods" and alarm bell reminders of when it's time to shift gears
from one subject to another, or any artificial construct which impedes the
investigative partnership between student and teacher), removal of the inherent
conflict of interest in a single individual being both teacher and tester, and
methods of better accessing the creativity and interests of students with
diverse backgrounds and unique cultural histories.
PHISOLAMA also intends to greatly expand the existing
curricula of traditional schooling and post-graduate education. This may include
an improved musical education, mathematics which include sacred geometry and
other traditionally esoteric topics, alternative health and nutrition, energy
and other sciences which may compete with but nevertheless have equal or greater
validity than mainstream thought, required comparative religion courses (which
are intended to teach tolerance and mutual understanding), and expansion of
traditionally regionalized history courses to full-bodied world history (and
herstory) courses. All such
subjects will include -- very specifically -- competing and contrary viewpoints
on controversial or debatable topics, as well as attempt to delve into
traditionally esoteric ("for the few") subjects and treat them as exoteric ("for
the many").
Of particular interest to PHISOLAMA is the potentiality of
education via the Internet. Accordingly, PHISOLAMA'S educational efforts may
include the support and encouragement of the creation of an Internet Accessed
Worldwide Information Database. This database will initially contain information
not easily available, but will rapidly be expanded to include all human
knowledge.
The greatly expanded web site(s) will be user friendly, will be constantly updated,
and available to any and everyone. Proprietary information will be accessed
(when possible) by links to other web sites, and as soon as possible by
inclusion in the main Database. The development of the database is expected to
include a Library, a University (providing for feedback and testing in specific
areas), and Museum ("seat of the Muses"). While the development of the database
may be centralized to a single PHISOLAMA community created for this purpose, an
enormous and possibly the majority of the work is expected to be done "off-site"
by an "adjunct faculty".