I'm sure we all know how important education is, but what about our societies? and What is the Education of the Heart?.
We have schools, institutes and universities full of children, youth and adults "educating".
We have a growing population of graduates, graduates of the best universities in the world.
Our governments incorporate education among their priority strategic lines and demand large sums of money in investment to improve this sector.
We have new technologies and we live in the age of communication, in a globalized world, where we can have the latest information and research available in real time. So why do our societies seem to be increasingly submerged in that scourge that we have called "Social Decomposition"?
What are we missing?
It seems; that we have only dealt with training individuals to produce and satisfy personal or material needs, individuals to occupy jobs, which by the way, are increasingly difficult to obtain.
Is it that we only train employees?
Much of our lives, we spend studying and accumulating knowledge or rather information, which then. not necessarily, it is reflected in an exponentially positive change for our societies.
How are we applying this information?
How do we digest that knowledge?
Where is our vision of a globalized world, which requires not only economic but also human development, with an education of the heart?
Where is the reflection of those human beings?
Do we really live in a welfare state or have we lost it?
Today we see entire societies submerged in poverty, hunger, inequality, the rates of violence are increasingly alarming.
I particularly think that we lack what we could call "The Education of the Heart", that which is concerned with forming human beings who first of all learn to value life itself, human beings committed to their happiness and to the happiness of others.
I firmly believe that it is precisely the development of human skills such as: Empathy, tolerance, kindness, generosity, respect, responsibility (seen from our actions as generators of realities) that we are lacking.
But, how and where can we Cultivate the Education of the Heart?
This seems like a simple answer at first glance, some would think immediately, in schools, others perhaps, go a little further and think that in effect educational centers are the ideal ideals for such an important task, but logically supported by the education of home, that which we obtain first hand from our parents or most immediate caregivers.
When we put the pupil to the subject, we realize that in reality the answer is not so simple, nor so simplistic, because certainly, logic tells us, at least in theory, that there is no father on the planet who does not want a a better world for their children, and indeed with their resources, they do everything in their power to make their children the best human beings they can form and enter this beautiful adventure, without even knowing how and why if that were not enough, in our current societies, without often having the time that is required for it.
I have even heard of school for parents, but the reality is that our own survival clothes us and the best intentions, in general, are going to ruin.
Every teacher with a true vocation wants exactly that for his students, to train as if he were a father, to train upright individuals capable of building a better world.
Surely, what we lack is a structural reform of our systems in general, of our societies, to give a new order and a new meaning, to why and why we do things, for what we want to achieve this or that goal, what is the purpose of our governments, of our institutions.
It is thinking and reflecting, for example, when we decide to start a home and have children. What is my purpose in joining this person and what are my conditions for having a large family? or when I go to an educational center, ask ourselves: What do I look for from these studies, finally, do they aim to train me to be who I want to be? We choose a ruler, what do we aspire to from that person and why is he or she the ideal one for that position? As a society, is this the system of government that will lead us to be the society we want? But what society do we want to be? Is? What measures to take and when are we going to change? To change What?
Seen in this way, the Cultivation of the Education of the Heart, as a project could be titanic, but not impossible, when we ourselves are the citizens of this planet who promote and promote that structural change to which I refer, that day we will be able to see what The place to cultivate this type of education to which I refer, is anywhere, at any time and at every step, that is, everything begins with myself and everything finally returns to myself.
And although it seems utopian, even if we want results for yesterday, the world is thousands of years old and every day it reinvents itself, it is not from one day to the next that we will see the results of this type of Education, this is something that is cultivated every moment, and that begins from the reflection of each individual and multiplies until it touches the heart of the one next to you, be it your son or your neighbor, but we are ourselves, it is there within our own heart, where we must initiate change and not in another place, or in another time.
If so, the day will come when it spreads to the point that instead of watching violent movies, we are able, without complaint, to turn off the television and find a book or a pleasant conversation with someone else.
In his work "The Little Prince", the French writer Antoine de Saint - Exupéry said: "You can only see well with your heart"; The essential is invisible to the eyes". I think, exactly, as The Little Prince expressed and conclude then by affirming, that it is right there, where we must focus, in cultivating an education of the heart.
