A question I received: How can we combine the new method of education with the students’ aspiration to earn good grades, which allow them to continue their education in a university? After all, our entire society is based on competition.

My Answer: To be successful in life a person needs to develop in a manner that is truly free. We are experiencing a crisis in science, education and culture precisely because we do not correctly mold the person.

Modern people can no longer make discoveries in Nature; they are not able to reveal anything because we have made them too narrow, having crammed them into strict boundaries. We have made every single person into a screw and nothing more. He knows what profession to choose to earn more money, the subjects to study in order to make it happen and that is his only goal. But this does not make him happy, only affluent.

The biggest problem is that we do not provide the child with an opportunity to develop on his own: he is not required to invent or imagine anything new. He is quickly crammed full of various knowledge to pass his tests, get good grades and to continue his higher education. By doing so, we destroy the child’s creativity. This becomes a problem – people turn into puppets.

We think that a child must be educated in distinct separate batches and within strict forms: classes, exams, formulas and so on. However, the reality is that our nature cannot stand this approach. And if we do not amend this erroneous system of education, our children themselves will reject it. We see that each new generation despises this system more and more, as we become more and more uncorrected, unable to find ourselves.

It is possible to study geography, history, math and every other subject in a very different manner – creatively. The approach to learning these subjects must be different, in a more social manner. After all, we always say that the world is “round”; similarly, a classroom must be “round” as well consisting of everything. And children must educate themselves in the form of discussions, questions and answers. The educator’s job is to assist them in transitioning from topic to topic.

It is precisely education by way of dialogue, discussion and argument that facilitates a person’s development. This is verified by thousands of years of experience amassed not only by the science of Kabbalah but by many ancient cultures.

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When people left the ancient city of Babel there arose a need for a consistent and systematic teaching in order to raise the new generation with the values of correct attitude amongst people. This originated from the science of Kabbalah. It was at this time that the notion of a school emerged. Children in that group were taught to read and write at the age of three. They learned to unite amongst themselves to attain the perception of the spiritual world. The learning process was in the form of discussions: experienced people shared their knowledge with others (including children) in groups where all could participate through questions, debate, and discussion.

The ancient Greeks, who received their philosophy and natural sciences from Kabbalah, also adopted its school format. Translated from ancient Greek the word “school” means “leisure” – a place where people spent their spare time. People came there precisely for that purpose.

It is obviously a far cry from the modern school. Today, a child is obligated to attend school to receive an education. However, a child needs to want to be in the atmosphere called school because otherwise he or she does not learn.

First and foremost, a child will develop and with the school’s help, a person is shaped. Not by dumping knowledge into his head, but by changing him, making him understand himself, Nature and human society. He has to know what to change inside himself in order to attain his life’s purpose. By changing himself, he will then understand what occurs in the world and in Nature. He needs to be assisted in that through exciting conversations.

When a group of equals gets together, age is not a factor. The teacher does not suppress or limit – he stays at the common level. The children teach other children, and the school as a whole becomes a place of communication, learning, conversations, and associations of children, where everyone can participate freely.

The science of Kabbalah teaches that a person is brought up by his environment. What we need in school is not walls, teachers or textbooks. We need to form a society in which every child would feel an obligation to be everyone’s friend and to support the society as best as he can. Such natural attributes as envy, competitiveness and ambition will help a child advance because he would be sensitive to the reaction within his environment.

If we teach one generation correctly, they will pass their experience on to their children. The descent of generations will stop, and the ascent will begin.

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A question I received: What is your opinion regarding the use of video games to teach and educate children?

My answer: I consider the use of games for the purpose of educating a person to be a positive thing, as the sole method of growth. Both children and adults learn only from games, from the simulation of the correct and desired future condition. Even the vegetative and animal kingdoms develop this way, by forming in themselves the future state according to a set of examples.

Games are a serious matter. They form the future of man. A child learns from games. He is drawn to the desire to know, to take apart, to break and to reassemble. A child sees the opportunity to learn about the world in every second in his life. We are mistaken in calling this undertaking a game. Children see these actions as an opportunity to learn about themselves and the world. Adults are the ones that waste their time in vain, not children!

This is why our task is to use all the modern means available to us to develop useful games. We invite everyone to take part in the realization of this method of education.

Anyone who feels he can develop games, write books or create anything else in the realm of education for the new generation should contact us. We have a dedicated center precisely for this and would be happy to work with all who want to take part.

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After being around for over 200 years, modern schools are experiencing a deep crisis which has been unfolding over the last few decades. Schools must become places where the environment is enjoyable as it was in the past. The word “school” translates from ancient Greek as “leisure,” which is a pleasant way to spend time.

A person cannot develop in an environment of oppression, as it causes a person to constrict and close himself off from others.  This is precisely the environment that schools present to students today. Freedom is necessary for a child to open himself up and find his own place and purpose in the world so that he is able to make these important choices and decisions in an independent manner.

This is why we have to help our children develop without any sort of limitations. Each one has to be completely free inwardly and educated by society. Children will naturally educate each other within the group to which they belong, and the group will take care of those that are its members.  The role of teachers is to organize the group.  Society will monitor the groups, since society creates order and will not allow any person or group to do whatever he pleases, as each and every one will want to be a member of that society.

According to the science of Kabbalah, this is the most favorable method of societal organization that is conducive to the correct human development. Under such conditions, the presence of parents, teachers and other adults should not be noticeable and should not be felt by the children. This method will give each child the best opportunity to develop himself to his own potential.

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In the News (from The Washington Post): “46 States, D.C. Plan to Draft Common Education Standards” Forty-six states and the District of Columbia today will announce an effort to craft a single vision for what children should learn each year from kindergarten through high school graduation, an unprecedented step toward a uniform definition of success in American schools…The push for common reading and math standards marks a turning point in a movement to judge U.S. children using one yardstick that reflects expectations set for students in countries around the world at a time of global competition…The benchmarks would be “internationally competitive.”

My Comment: This program might, in the end, completely stifle a child’s ingenuity. Why are our schools so unsuccessful?

With the emergence of mass in-line production at the turn of the 19th century, wherein man and machine supplemented and replaced one another, its creator, American engineer Frederick Taylor, placed the organization of machine and human labor on the same footing.
The factory workers necessarily became replaceable machine parts.

After the invention of the conveyor belt by Henry Ford, there arose a need to train factory workers faster, as though on a human conveyor belt.
This need fueled the formation of the modern school system: separate stages called “grades,” where children are grouped strictly by age. The children are expected to climb from grade to grade in the allotted time. Every class has an overseer, a “teacher,” precise divisions in time, bells, breaks, and so on.

The result are schools that are isolated from life, created with the purpose of churning out factory workers akin to the interchangeable soldiers for the army of Friedrich the Great. The principle of education has remained the same to this day. School provides very little knowledge (graduates leave school retaining only about 5% of what they had been taught), but in no way does it make a child into a person.

This is the core of all of society’s problems: the upbringing we give our children determines the society we create.

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A question I received: Today’s school children are also taught to share and to contribute, but once they go out into the world, they come under the influence of a different set of values. What should we add to the existing educational system, in order to form a person, and not a professional?

My Answer: An ordinary modern school cannot raise a person, nor instill in him or her the correct attitude towards others. The only way to do this is with the help of the right environment (society), which we first need to create around students.

None of the schools that currently exist in the world set such a goal for themselves. Children all around the world are taught to succeed in passing formal tests, winning in competitive struggles, and stepping over others. Their compass is set to make them succeed, to acquire a profession for the greatest profit.

This used to work in the times of a competitive society. However, we now find ourselves in an integral society that functions according to the law: “the strongest does not prevail (above others); rather, the one who is united with the rest wins (together with all).” Therefore, there is a need to form a different kind of man: not everyone’s adversary, but everyone’s friend.

Forming such a person is against our egoistic nature. Therefore, what is needed is a special method (the Science of Kabbalah) and the means (the Correcting Force). Otherwise, people will once again pervert the idea of unity and start calling for the “Proletarians of all countries, unite!”; they will once again start building socialism or kibbutzim. Our egoism cannot come up with anything better than that.

Therefore, the proper upbringing is society’s number one problem. If it is not resolved,  society will not be able to reform itself as Nature demands. Such reform can only be achieved by applying Kabbalistic principles.

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If the G20 Summit, which was held at the beginning of April, had reached a decision aimed at unification, or even partial unity, if the G20 had accepted the need for a global education and for creating a strong global system that would explain the cause and the solution to the crisis – then just by doing this, they would have begun to correct the world. This has to be done gradually, using the mass media, in order to change people’s relationships with each other, amend the legislation, and so on.

All the changes should happen by people’s concept, and they should come with elaborate explanations for the masses. For example, why are all the programs that propagate animosity and coercion being taken off the air? The connection between us requires us to eliminate all the things that bring about detachment, separation, hatred, and distancing between everyone. This is what we mean by education.

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In the News: (from Sky News): “Union Condemns Six Month Teacher Training” Prime Minister of Great Britain Gordon Brown proposed establishing courses of accelerated retraining to enable individuals to change their professions and become school teachers within a half a year. However, the acting general secretary of the National Union of Teachers, Christine Blower, said that six months’ training was “very, very far from being enough.”

My Comment: We have to establish global education courses for everyone without exception – the employed and the unemployed both. We have to teach everyone how to exist in a global, integrally-connected world. People have to learn where their freedom of will lies and what kind of behavior Nature demands from us in regard to ourselves, our families, close ones, and strangers, and on all levels: economic, political, cultural, religious, and so on. Just as we educate children in order to prepare them for life in the world, so everyone must now learn to live in the new world.

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The more we repeat the phrase, “love your neighbor as yourself,” the less we understand it. It is written that this is the general rule, the law of all reality, and we must act according to it. And whoever thinks that individual parts of the universe do not observe it, is mistaken.

We observe this law because we have no other choice, since we live in one dimension, in one sphere. This law affects us, but we observe it unwillingly. The suffering we perceive is precisely this absence of desire to observe this law. This is how we feel the difference between the present state and the more advanced state.

If we pay attention to this, we will be able to discern the most important thing: that this law is mandatory for us. It affects us and we purposefully exist in a state that’s opposite to it, where we don’t want it. This is done in order for us to realize its importance, splendor and universality. We will then observe it willingly, with our free choice.

The fact is, we all serve the Creator (or Nature). However, some of us do it unwillingly, while others do it willingly and consciously.

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In the News (from TimesOnline): “Schools hiring bouncers to ensure pupils behave, teachers say” An education recruitment agency posted an advert online saying: “Hard core cover supervisors needed now! You might be an ex-Marine, prison officer, bouncer, policeman, fireman, sportsman…”

My Comment: This would be funny if it wasn’t actually happening. What will come out of these students, who grow up with “hard core supervisors” and examples of force? What will the society of the future be like? Will it be a society of powerful, obedient robots, with deep psychological problems?

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