If we do not educate spiritually we are not, then, developing all the capacities of the students, which is a mandate of the third constitutional article. We will only be partially educating, since the education of the Being is the center of good education.
The spirit of education
Today we are suffering the ravages of an education based on the mechanistic paradigm that was born three hundred years ago. We are experiencing a great revolution in everything, and education in general has remained stagnant, without integrating into this great paradigm shift, without adapting to the current needs of the individual and the planet. This situation is evident in schools in our country and around the world, and one of the fundamental problems is that it continues to support (education) in the limited and reductionist conceptions of the old science, and one of them is the concept of intelligence, which has undergone great transformations as a function of the evolution of the human being's understanding, and yet education continues to be based mainly on the concept of intelligence developed by Binet a century ago.
Today it is common to see in schools that teachers and parents focus their interest on the rational intelligence of children: everything seems to be going well if the student gets good grades in academic subjects, and pays little attention to other areas of learning and life. A teacher is usually considered a good teacher if his students learn the subjects well, and especially those that have to do with logical thinking and language: in the educational system of our country, mathematics and Spanish have a preferential interest. It is not so serious if the student falls behind in history or physical education, but it is very serious if he is in the fourth grade and has not learned to multiply or divide, or if he is in second grade and still cannot read. When this happens, "yes it is a major problem",and the help of special education and parents is sought.
The only antidote that we know against this aridity of education is the authentic spirituality, the experience of the transcendent, the work on the spiritual nature of the human being, and this leads us to the urgency that education fulfill its original mission of forming integral human beings.
Education cannot be integral unless we are based on an integral vision of life and of the human being; a vision that turns the school into a spiritual center that goes beyond the central objective of training instrumental rationality, and even, beyond the postmodern vision of educating from multiple intelligences, because this is not sufficient or complete. Integral education needs to integrate the new concept of Spiritual Intelligence, because only then will it be able to encompass the entire dimensions of the Human Being.
Our understanding of human intelligence has undergone two major revolutions in the last hundred years, which has taken us from an extremely limited conception of intelligence, centered on instrumental rationality and language, to spiritual intelligence, which it is the first comprehensive vision of intelligence.
This hundred-year-old intelligence model “nurtured a standardized educational model, focused on memory training, a closed and predetermined curriculum, oriented almost exclusively to technical and academic thinking. It is the concept of intelligence and school that still dominates education in our societies, although it has begun to collapse due to the enormous limitations it has ”(Ramón Gallegos Nava, Spiritual Intelligence”)
In 1900 Alfred Binet studied intelligence, and his work left us with the inheritance of the concept of Intellectual Coefficient (IQ), which basically measured logical-mathematical and language skills. It was suitable for a time when it was sought to support development in factories, industries and technology, the concept of intelligence was adapted to the needs of the time.
In 1967 Howard Gardner and a group of academics from Harvard University gave birth to a new concept of intelligence, which evolved from the uniformity of Binet's IQ to the plurality of "multiple intelligences". This theory recognizes at least eight modalities of intelligence (verbal, logical-mathematical, intrapersonal, interpersonal, naturalistic, linguistic, spatial, musical, corporal). This new conception of intelligence gives us a richer vision of the human being and his capacities, and makes us think of an education that pays more attention to individuality, to the particular qualities of one's intelligence and to different learning styles. of the students.This model ends the myth of “donkeys” (which are generally those in the school system that have the least developed logical, mathematical or linguistic skills). Who is not intelligent in something, surely his intelligence unfolds more in another area.
At the beginning of the 21st century there is a new revolution in the concept of intelligence: today we come to the concept of spiritual intelligence, which is the most comprehensive, it is a holistic intelligence, the only one capable of allowing us to understand the whole of life and to understand and order ourselves our interior, to be happy and live a creative and meaningful life, to be peaceful and helpful to others, to be happy and fair, to be loving and compassionate. They are natural spiritual qualities in every human being, but we do not always see them because they are covered by the shell of our conditioning, our egoism, our narcissism, our neurosis, our suffering. It is also the only one that can satisfy the requirements of education for the 21st century, of a new peaceful and sustainable planetary culture.UNESCO recognizes the urgency of working for a comprehensive transformation through education that promotes this type of education, and only holistic education is capable of accomplishing this great task.
In modern times we had a uniform vision of intelligence through the concept of logical, mathematical and verbal intelligence; Whoever was intelligent was because he possessed those qualities, and whoever did not possess them could not be considered intelligent. Later, in the postmodern era, intelligence becomes pluralized and accepts many ways of being intelligent; very much in the way of the times, we understood that everyone has their intelligence of some kind, that there are not very intelligent human beings and not at all intelligent, but intelligent in different ways.
In the new transmodern age that we are living, the vision of multiple intelligences has been surpassed, and we cannot understand this mechanistically, saying that multiple intelligences and the mathematical logician are out of fashion "because the best is spiritual intelligence " The holistic vision of education and spiritual intelligence see the whole and integrate the best of the above, so that the spiritual intelligence is superior but includes the previous ones, giving a hierarchical order to each of the intelligences, in it is the spiritual the highest and most inclusive.
Many have spoken of spiritual intelligence throughout history, even this intelligence, which is the newest, is at the same time the oldest conception of intelligence: we can find it, for example, in the teachings of the Buddha, when he speaks of discernment and the clear vision, when he speaks of Vipassana. Since then we have a broad and precise explanation of what is that quality of the eye of the spirit, unique that allows us to understand the whole. But even if it is the oldest, the advances of the current culture have allowed us to understand it based on our knowledge and our current needs, and Dr. Ramón Gallegos Nava has given order to this concept in a way that has not been done before.
One of the great limitations of mathematical logical intelligence and multiple intelligences is that they do not include an ethical component. Gardner defines intelligence as the ability to solve problems and generate products that are valuable to a given community, considering efficiency as a key point. The great insufficiency of this concept is that it omits the ethical part, because a terrorist, a kidnapper, a drug cartel, etc. they can meet the criteria that Gardner mentions, and from this point of view they would be smart, because they would be subjects that generate products valued by that community (money, power, etc.), solve problems such as killing without being apprehended, washing dirty money without suffering legal prosecution, etc. They are effective in their own,and "they are intelligent" if we consider them from the intelligence of Gardner or from the intelligence of Binet. But if we consider these human beings from spiritual intelligence, they are not really intelligent beings, because someone who does not respect life, someone who is violent, who suffers and causes suffering to others, is not intelligent. This can only be fully understood when we can discern it with spiritual intelligence.
Spiritual intelligence is not something that one learns to teach it in the manner of academic affairs, it is not something that is transmitted with good pedagogy and now, it is not something that depends on the good academic level of the teacher, or the years of teaching experience. The holistic educator first needs a high level of spiritual intelligence; It is not enough that you know about holistic education, but you must be a human being who lives with spiritual intelligence, who has displayed that quality and lives it daily, only in this way can he be a guide to awakening the intelligence of the students. The starting point to be a holistic educator is work on inner spirituality, hard work for the expansion of consciousness, to dismantle the ego and dissolve the fallacies that move our lives.Only a complete human being, with spiritual wealth, can be a holistic educator, because you cannot be a guide in the process of developing spiritual intelligence, if there is no deep experience of this reality. The teacher's being is the main instrument of the holistic educator, not the techniques or the academic learning or its psychological qualities such as emotional intelligence, leadership, assertiveness… and all those paths that are so celebrated and so hollow.not the techniques or academic learning or its psychological qualities such as emotional intelligence, leadership, assertiveness… and all those paths that are so celebrated and so hollow.not the techniques or academic learning or its psychological qualities such as emotional intelligence, leadership, assertiveness… and all those paths that are so celebrated and so hollow.
To understand this path of inner self-realization and to be more accurate on this path of unfolding spiritual intelligence, we have to refer to perennial philosophy, to the wisdom of great traditions such as original Buddhism, because in this wisdom of the great masters of humanity is the guide to the other, to the transcendent. It is a subject that cannot be understood by psychology, nor western philosophy, science, religion, or esotericism. We will have to trust awakened beings and their teachings, perhaps go further as the Buddha advised, and not stick to anyone, not the Buddha himself, but stick only to our hard dedication in inner work aimed at discovering our true nature.. That alone can lead us to individual salvation (from suffering,of deceit, lies, lack of understanding…) and to fulfill the kosmic imperative that points us towards the evolution of consciousness.
In holistic education one works with an integral vision, and the work is the base that must be complemented with an equally arduous work on an integral theory. These two elements would be like the ying-yang of the holistic educator, the integral theory and the integral practice.
Integral practice is a yoga, a path of union (yug = union); it is about uniting what modernity separated in its fever of fragmentation, and also uniting what has never been united. This comprehensive Ramón Gallegos practice summarizes it in three elements or yogas, which are Gnana, Karma and Bhakti, or wisdom, compassion and devotion, or as we know them in the West: wisdom, love and devotion. This is the integral yoga for the 21st century, in which wisdom is essential, because we will gain nothing with much compassion and devotion if there is no wisdom, if there is no discernment, understanding. This triple path does not lead us to become something that we are not yet, but is a spiritual practice that leads us to the understanding of what we have always been.
Education can only be holistic and spiritual if it integrates perennial philosophy, because its heart is a spiritual practice, and it also contains a deep philosophy and metaphysics to help us along the way. Like no one else, perennial philosophy has the way to fulfill its great goal of ending the suffering of all beings. The 21st century educator will have to be a great perennial philosopher, a great pedagogue and a great connoisseur of integral theory. He will be more like the Guru ("darkness sink") than a car mechanic (who knows how to repair objects).
“The most important human need is love. Without love we cannot live healthy. (…) We would lose the meaning of existence. We would die. This also happens with children. A child who is not loved is a child whose spirit is not being nurtured. Beyond the idea of knowledge, in academic terms, the fundamental and most important need of a child, of a human being, is to be loved. However, many children are growing up without feeling loved and that is generating serious pathologies in them. ” (Ramón Gallegos Nava, The Spirit of Education).
Reading the latest books by Dr. Ramón Gallegos and writing this work have reminded me a lot of this great truth that Dr. is expressing in his work, and has reminded me of some of my experiences that have left important marks on my life. interior throughout my work in the primary schools of Jerez.
Without spirituality education has no future. Ramón Gallegos Nava.
Spiritual Intelligence is for everything. Ramón Gallegos Nava.
Bibliography
- Gallegos Nava Ramón (2000) The spirit of education. Integrity and importance in holistic education. International Foundation for Holistic Education, Guadalajara.Gallegos Nava Ramón (2001) The education of the heart. Twelve principles for holistic schools. International Foundation for Holistic Education, Guadalajara.Gallegos Nava Ramón (2001) Holistic education. Pedagogy of universal love. International Foundation for Holistic Education, Guadalajara.Gallegos Nava Ramón (2001) A comprehensive vision of education. The heart of holistic education. International Foundation for Holistic Education, Guadalajara, Gallegos Nava Ramón (2001) Holistic dialogues. Holistic education and perennial philosophy I. International Foundation for Holistic Education, Guadalajara.Gallegos Nava Ramón (2003) Learning to be.The birth of a new spiritual awareness. International Foundation for Holistic Education, Guadalajara.Gallegos Nava Ramón (2003) Learning communities. Transforming schools into learning communities. International Foundation for Holistic Education, Guadalajara, Gallegos Nava Ramón (2003) Pedagogy of universal love. A holistic view of the world. International Foundation for Holistic Education, Guadalajara, Gallegos Nava Ramón (2004) Wisdom, love and compassion. Holistic education and perennial philosophy II. International Foundation for Holistic Education, Guadalajara, Gallegos Nava Ramón (2004) The Path of Perennial Philosophy. Holistic education and perennial philosophy III. International Foundation for Holistic Education, Guadalajara.Gallegos Nava Ramón (2005) Education and spirituality. Education as a spiritual practice.International Foundation for Holistic Education, Guadalajara.Gallegos Nava Ramón (2007) Spiritual intelligence. Beyond the multiple and emotional intelligence. International Foundation for Holistic Education, Guadalajara.
