Education in a Time Between Worlds: Essays on the Future of Schools, Technology, and Society

by Zachary Stein

Our world is currently undergoing major transformations, from climate change and politics to agriculture and economics. The world we have known is disappearing and a new world is being born. The subjects taught in schools and universities today are becoming irrelevant at faster and faster rates. Not only are we facing complex challenges of unprecedented size and scope, we’re also facing a learning and capacity deficit that threatens the future of civilization. Education in a Time Between Worlds seeks to reframe this historical moment as an opportunity to create a global society of educational abundance. Educational systems must be transformed beyond recognition if humanity is to survive the planetary crises currently underway. Human development and learning must be understood as the Earth's most valuable resources, with human potential serving as the open frontier into which energy and hope can begin to flow. The expansive essays within this book cover a diverse array of topics, including social justice, the neuroscience of learning, deschooling, educational technology, standardized testing, the future of spirituality, basic income guarantees, and integral meta-theory. As an invitation to re-vision the future of schools, technology, and society, Education in a Time Between Worlds replaces apathy and despair with agency, transformation, and hope.

Genres: Education, Philosophy, Nonfiction

354 pages, Paperback

Published March 1, 2019

Reviews

[Lauren Wylder · Rating 5 out of 5]

‘Education in a Time Between Worlds’ is a ground-breaking work of thought which looks at education as fundamental to the global meta-crisis we face today. Zachery Stein looks at the education crisis as the bedrock upon which all other crisis- from climate, to health, to economic- can be resolved. Stein argues that a re-imagining of human potential, along with the value we place in it, is needed to make the phase-shift into a sustainable planetary society.
Zach Stein works from the model of Integral Theory, developed primarily by Ken Wilbur, which attempts to integrate and include as much of reality as possible within it’s lens of understanding. “Integral consciousness is motivated to always learn, grow, and develop.” This book explores how a paradigm of Integral Education would be radically democratic, decentralized, and would support the emergent actualization of each Unique Self and their flourishing. He contrasts this with the current education system and it’s basis on human capital theory which seeks to assess the success of the system by measuring the economic out-put of the individual. He explores deeply the intrinsic injustice of the current education system which emphasises a certain system of values that often exclude the unique, interior experience.
Zach Stein places the failings of our education system in the broader context of the meritocracy our world operates in. He proposes ‘13 Social Miracles’ to solve the planetary meta-crisis and create educational abundance. These miracles include world-wide debt forgiveness, universal basic income, and renewable, inexhaustible energy. His vision seems impossibly utopian, and the details of how these miracles could be brought about are only sketched in broad strokes, but his argument that this time of planetary crisis calls for “concrete utopian thinking’ is compelling. The book is an inspirational call for this kind of transformational thinking and a reorienting of our path on this planet.

[Matt Richards · Rating 5 out of 5]

Excellent synopsis of our unique moment in time but I would love more background about why he chose some of the specific solutions he chose at the end.

[James Kite · Rating 5 out of 5]

A beautifully envisioned future for humanity

[John Prescott · Rating 4 out of 5]

I really liked this book, but it was basically a collection of 6 essays that were written separately (for purposes other than the book). That made it seem a little all over the place, but if you could follow the thread it was a rewarding read. I want to give it a 5 because it was so rich, but I'm giving it a 4 because it could have been distilled and organized a bit better. A lot of great ideas in here on education - from a practical, future-thinking standpoint, while also dipping pretty deeply into the philosophical, spiritual, and religious. A lot of the ideas seem to be rooted in Stein's study of Ken Wilber's Integral Theory, so I would recommend doing a bit of background research on Wilber before reading.

Simply put, some of the main questions this book asks are,

1. What is wrong with our current approach to education?
2. What is education for?
3. What should/could education look like in a hard-to-envision, complex, and chaotic future?
4. How does our unhealthy obsession with measurement affect society and education?
5. How can we make learning and development more socially valued than wealth or power?

There are dozens more, really. The book covered a lot of ground. Here are some quotes:

"There have been cultures in which the young were educated into a form of life known by their parents and grandparents. And there have been cultures in which adults prepared children for new forms of life, which they did not know but could envision and understand. We live today in a culture in which we must prepare children for forms of life we cannot anticipate. Elders can no longer claim to fully understand the experiences their children are having and will have. Education must not be what it has been. Our children are tomorrow's already. We must educate them openly, in the world, without pretension of profession. Their world will not be the one we have known; we must teach the teachers not to instill yesterday's knowledge, but to create spaces in which tomorrow's problems become visible."

"A true 'learning society' would not just find opportunities for learning within existing systems of law, culture, and labor markets, but create whole new systems guided by the idea of maximizing education opportunities for lifelong learning. This is the vision I am offering here: educational abundance resulting from the repositioning of learning and human development as a dominant social value. To put it quite simply: most of our major social structures, such as labor markets and legal systems, are designed to promote economic growth — period. What if they were designed to promote human development and learning instead? What if the goal of society - as encoded in its very legal structures - was not endless accumulation of wealth but the endless actualization of human potential?"

"You are an ecosystem of co-evolving skills and ideas, each developing at a different rate, with complex symbiotic and competitive relations emerging among them over time. You are not simply smart or dumb, having either a fast or slow information processing unit between your ears. Instead, you are an ever-changing, context sensitive, ecosystem in process, with no central tendency or summary statistic."

[Evan Kostelka · Rating 3 out of 5]

The author puts together essays on various topics all having to do with the future of education. This is an inclusive education of not just traditional schooling but also religious and general social education.

On schooling, he makes a great point about how terrible the mind as a computer metaphor has become. Human minds are not at all like computers. Among the biggest differences are that humans have emotions, are unique from each other, and don't store data concretely. Mind as a living organism, an ecosystem, is a better metaphor he argues.
He gives very broad strokes about the future of schooling, but his view is that it will be more like a combination library/museum/computer lab/child care/ co-working center. Kind of reminds me of the type of schooling in The Giver.
Lastly, he argues against schooling as a job training focus. He prefers using education to 'develop ... capabilities and personalities that are able to transform local culture and community."

He also touches on test measurements and drugs for academic performance (ADHD), both of which he argues needs a new paradigm.

He then has a section about society as a whole with 13 Social Miracles that he briefly discusses.

His last section is on religion and the need to transcend the old 'guru' models for a more integrated view where everyone doesn't need to fit a mold. Our unique circumstances and gifts should be used as a basis of religious growth.

[Joshua Lawson · Rating 4 out of 5]

"Contemporary policy and ideology consider the function of the educational system as merely to supply our vast global economy with human capital, educating entrepreneurial global citizens or building skills for the global work force. But what if we turned this on its head? What if we understood the economy as merely an infrastructure enabling a vast educational system, with all of our entrepreneurial efforts channeled toward the betterment of human understanding and experience?... The greatest benefit of reversing the relation between the educational system and the structure of the broader economy would be the resulting liberation of human potential." - Zachary Stein

I would love to give Education in a Time Between Worlds five stars. The depth of thought that shines through Zachary Stein's vision for the future is stunning and worthy of all respect. Alas, however, I suspect his academic style of writing will render this collection of essays mostly inaccessible to the general public. Nevertheless, I share his conviction that neoliberal and neoconservative political agendas are standing in the way of humanity's progress and must be undone if we are to solve the most urgent social and ecological crises facing our species at this time. Here's to hoping that his work finds the audience it deserves.

[Joe McCluney · Rating 5 out of 5]

Excellent set of essays that imagines the future of cultural knowledge and how we can use/advance education in order to usher it in meaningfully. It was a pleasure to read if only to see a brilliant mind at work.

[Sheryl]

Terrific!