Boxed below
is an excerpt from an email I sent to an emeritus professor and relates to the writings I sent you
earlier (that is, sent by email to world academics).
The excerpt
will shed further light on the reasons for sending my writings in which I
suggested the partial solution of incorporating the methodology of effective
communication and the associated psychology at all levels of education systems
aimed at countering the multitude of societal/global problems that result from
their lack, which those writings elaborate in some detail.
At all levels because on the one hand an “attitude
to communicate with empathy,” like other such attitudes, can be formed only while
we are small children but at which stage we are not geared to understand
theory, and on the other hand, teaching theory when we are older will not be
effective since without the correct attitudes instilled in us to begin with,
what we study will be compartmentalized in a corner in our brains and will have
questionable impact on our behaviour. Both
approaches in isolation – either to only instil attitude without the scope for
theory or to teach theory without instilling the right attitude – will defeat
the purpose.
The dilemma I was faced with is that while I
have some basic theoretical knowledge about these issues, I do not have the in-depth
knowledge about the relevant areas – education, philosophy, psychology,
sociology, political science, and communication – to be able to come up with a
viable solution. Thus my writings were meant to
be a wake-up call for world academics and to create awareness about the
immensity of the global problem and the devastating impacts arising thereof so
that they can discuss the problem among themselves and come up with a viable,
practical solution. But since none of
those specialized in any one area are likely to have a command of the
comprehensive subject matter to be able to singly come up with such a solution,
I sent the writings to the academics in all areas, hoping that the emeriti and the
older among them (being the most
experienced and thus the most likely to grasp the full significance of what I'm
talking about) would generate the necessary leadership to
propel the process in the right direction, towards an effective solution. Hence the many urgings (in "Introduction") to discuss the problem among
themselves both locally and internationally.
The
writings reflect the outcomes of my endeavours over the past 30 years of
interactions with politicians and colleagues with college degrees in the
Maldives, particularly since my efforts over the past 15 years to discuss our
problem with them have come to nought, which in turn led me to become increasingly
aware that much of societal problems globally are of a psychological nature, as
the writings I sent you earlier will attest.
The concurrent PDF page labelled “Further Illumination” provides a more
comprehensive picture of how the root causes of this psychological side arise
in the first place.
It should be abundantly clear now that in order to make the efforts to improve the human condition, which is the ultimate goal of education, more effective than it is the case currently worldwide, we have to take into account the multi-faceted nature of this psychological side, which is sadly not the case at present. It would be a safe bet to say that most educators globally are not even aware that there is such a psychological side, let alone take account of it – they just go about their usual business of “teaching” and don’t pay much attention to purpose and thus effectiveness.
It should be abundantly clear now that in order to make the efforts to improve the human condition, which is the ultimate goal of education, more effective than it is the case currently worldwide, we have to take into account the multi-faceted nature of this psychological side, which is sadly not the case at present. It would be a safe bet to say that most educators globally are not even aware that there is such a psychological side, let alone take account of it – they just go about their usual business of “teaching” and don’t pay much attention to purpose and thus effectiveness.
