Acting on a personal recommendation, I have started reading Ayn Rand’s “Atlas Shrugged”.  I confess that I have many hundreds of pages still to read!  Almost unknown in Hong Kong at the moment, this 1957 book is enjoying a huge revival elsewhere, especially in the United States where many people sense a parallel between contemporary events and the fictional situation (or, as some would argue, the prophetic situation) described in the book.

In the book’s introduction, the American objectivist philosopher Leonard Peikoff (who is also the founder of the Ayn Rand Institute and the legal heir to Ayn Rand's estate) quotes Ayn Rand saying that art is a “re-creation of reality according to an artist’s metaphysical value-judgements”.

If that is so for art, then I would assert that education is a re-creation of reality according to the teacher’s metaphysical value-judgements.  To state the obvious, teachers are in a position with immense influence, great responsibility and extensive power to shape the next generation of society’s leaders.  Perhaps it is this potential to influence others that explains the attraction of teaching to the idealists that the profession seems to seduce into its ranks.

To state another truism, the profession of teaching is currently undergoing huge change.  These changes, and more particularly the changes that ought to be occurring, were brilliantly articulated in a recent TED Talk by Sir Ken Robinson – with similar thoughts being helpfully echoed this week  (though somewhat controversially) by the Director-General of the International Baccalaureate, Jeffrey Beard.

Contrary to the trends that Robinson advocates, education seems becoming universally more political in most parts of the world, and depending on one’s location, often more utilitarian and perhaps oriented towards the self-serving goals of governments.  Offering a preferable and viable alternative to pressures such as these is one of the (many) great contributions that the IB makes to education today in my view.

As Deputy Director-General of the IB, Ian Hill, is quoted as saying in an interview at http://johncatt.wordpress.com/2010/09/08/deputy-director-general-my-history-of-the-ib/, it is “remarkable that the original profile of the diploma program – breadth, with some specialisation, community service, critical thinking skills, educating the whole person, learning how to learn, research skills – has stood the test of time” for over 40 years.  In contrast to many national curricula, the IB has always encouraged diversity of opinions, debate and the contention of competing ideas.  As an educationalist, I see these characteristics as the marks of authentic education (as practised in the IB), differentiating it from the indoctrination that characterises many national curricula.

In his 1936 collection of essays called ‘The Crack-Up’, the American author F. Scott Fitzgerald said “The test of a first-rate intelligence is the ability to hold two opposing ideas in mind at the same time.”

However, this comment by F. Scott Fitzgerald is much less commonly quoted in its full extent, which is I think a much deeper and richer concept:  “The test of a first-rate intelligence is the ability to hold two opposing ideas in mind at the same time and still retain the ability to function.  One should, for example, be able to see that things are hopeless and yet be determined to make them otherwise. “

To me, this is an important part of the essence of an authentic purpose-driven education.

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All that I said above is a woefully long preamble to make a fairly simple point.  In an authentic educational environment, where there is a contention of ideas that are debated, explored and negotiated, it is essential that discussions and arguments are based on facts (insofar as they can be ascertained) rather than raw prejudice and preconceptions.

This week, I have found myself contributing even more than usual to several such discussions.  For example, on Monday I sent the students who had accompanied me to North Korea last month some important websites to update their knowledge.  I felt that the (then) most recent articles at http://www.nkeconwatch.com were really fascinating and well worth a read, with the one about the German entrepreneur who lives in Pyongyang being especially interesting.  Furthermore, http://nkleadershipwatch.wordpress.com tried to explain why the big conference that was supposed to announce the Young General (Kim Jong Un) as Kim Jong Il's successor had been mysteriously postponed (this has since been updated).  While I was in North Korea with the students, we heard many references to “The Young General”, and as reported at http://www.dailynk.com/english/read.php?cataId=nk01500&num=6817, photos of the Young General are now starting to be circulated officially within North Korea.

I suggested to the students that if they were interested in this issue (as they should be!), they could access the article at http://www.smh.com.au/environment/climate-change/psychology-provides-insight-into-why-people-doubt-climate-change-20100919-15hy4.html, and that if they were deeply interested in the issue (as I hoped they would be), they should take the time to read the original article that is described in the SMH article (see attached pdf file through the image link to the left). 

Then, as a follow up to last week’s GIF (Global Issues Forum) on the relationship between democracy and development, I shared an article that my son, Andrew, had brought to my attention.  The paper looked at this relationship from a very detailed and thorough perspective, examining the ‘stickiness of democracy’, drawing upon extensive statistical information (up to the mid-1990s).  The paper, which can be accessed at  http://web.rollins.edu/~dboniface/classes/pol100/Przeworski.pdf, found (among other things) that:

1 - A country's GDP per capita needs to be above 6,000 USD per capita for its democratic system to be, in effect, impregnable and for it to be expected to last for more than 100 years.  If GDP per capita is below USD1,000 USD, then a democracy can be expected to survive (on average) for about 8.5 years.

3 - If inflation goes above 30%, the democracy won't be expected to last longer than 16 years.

Whereas the discussion at GIF tended to focus on whether democracy promotes development, this article sees the cause-and-effect in the opposite direction, arguing that economic development makes stable democracy more likely.

Finally, at this week’s GIF, the topic being discussed was Taiwan and cross-strait relations.  The discussion quickly broadened, however, to embrace a discussion on the nature of the nation-state – what is it, how did it come about, and is it the best way to organise cultures and political entities?

In my latest book, ‘Planet Geography’ (6th edition), I devote a short chapter to this precise topic.  If you are interested, please click the image link above right and (hopefully) enjoy the reading.