I am often surprised, when I participate in discussions on education, by the lack of contemporary vision regarding the formative — or transformative — potential of education. Education, as I understand it, is the process by which our developmental potential can be realized. It occurs in the home, the school, and the community. It has intellectual, social, and spiritual dimensions. It is concerned not merely with our individual advancement but with our collective well-being. It is the catalyst for our social and spiritual evolution as a species.

In this regard, consider the intensifying social and ecological challenges facing humanity at this moment in history. These problems will never be solved through some fortuitous convergence of political developments, economic adjustments, and scientific or technological innovations. They will be solved only when we learn how to systematically foster the development of caring, compassionate, informed and thoughtful souls who are capable of regulating the instincts and appetites of their animal nature and bending their intelligence and energies toward the collective prosperity and well-being of the entire human family. At this critical juncture in history, how can we afford to settle for a lesser vision of education?

The latin root of the word education – educare – literally means to draw out of, or lead out of. What we need, at this moment in history, is education that draws us out of the immature patterns of our collective adolescence and leads us into a mature age of just and sustainable co-existence. The question before us, in this regard, is how do we best align the education that occurs in our homes, our schools, and our communities, with this transformative goal? And, in the process, how do we bring coherence to the intellectual, social, and spiritual dimensions of these educational processes?