Article #5 >>>>> >Journal of the K-12 Revolution: Essays and Research from Minneapolis, Minnesota, Volume VIII, Number 3, September 3031

 Article #5

 

Excellent K-12 Education as the Hope for Humankind

 

Life is a Gift, everywhere wasted.

 

A quarter of the 196 nations of the world have GDP per capita less than $5,000, while those very few wealthy nations at the top feature GDP per capita of $40,000, $50,000, $60,000, rising to $125,000.

 

Most of the very poor nations are particularly wretchedly governed, with populations that live miserably and have life expectancies clustered beteen 42 and 58 years of age.

 

Wealthy nations, defined by populations of middle class circumstances or above, nevertheless contain people mired in poverty at the urban core and in numerous rural areas.  For these populations, the great potential of Life is seldom grasped or even envisioned as one step goes insecurely before another in the struggle to get through each day.

 

And most indicative of the lost potential of Life, neither middle class nor the wealthy people in prosperous nations live happily.

 

Happiness is living full of love for all human beings.  

 

Abetting Happiness is an appreciation for quality literature, visual art, and music;  for the Great Gift of the natural world;  for the scientific principles that undergird Nature;  for the human body, physical movement, and nutritious, thoughtfully prepared and eaten food;  for exalted ethics and morality.

 

But widely prevalent is the phenomenon of the wealthy athlete, entertainer, businessperson, and professional dwelling in abandonment to drugs, alcohol, and philistine pursuits in which universal Love, Nature, and broad Knowledge are scantly observed.

 

This will change when upon an epiphany a vanguard but then with rapid momentum an expanding segment of the populace grasps the determinants of behavior in genetics, biological development, and environment---  and realizes that Hope and Happiness are to be found only in the design of the most physically, intellectually, culturally, and ethically sustaining environment possible;  that societal Good is individual Good;  and that universal Love is the guiding principle. 

 

Upon this epiphany as to the nature of Existence, the nature of the design of knowledge-intensive, skill-replete, ethically nurturing education across the liberal, technological, and vocational arts becomes clear.  

 

For Existence and Education are an identity, the pathway to Happiness on this one earthly sojourn.