The educational approach selected by senior government education officials and various social and cultural organizations contributes in shaping the look (1) and perception (2) of the new generations.
Thus, through education, a Nation and a culture has the ability to direct the activities of a society and build the future. Education contributes to the development of a collective identity, which is not solely tied to the past of a people or a nation but also to the future.
The collective identity of a people is constantly evolving and adapting to meet the challenges of the future. There are always choices, selection, and freedom. Today, we cannot leave these choices in the hands of politicians, government officials, and economic leaders since their interests are primarily focused on the immediate and short term issues.
A people’s collective identity develops from time tracer images (3) and myths. These time tracer images transcend eras and civilizations. Over time, these images become a form of tropism (4). A nation’s tropism is like a sun. The tropism of a nation and a culture radiating a vital psychic energy to its members. Thus, the tropism of a people is built from social, political, artistic, cultural, mystical, technological and style of life proposals that are always directed toward the future. Per say, travelling to other worlds, searching for eternal life (transcendance), finding new vaccines, new methods or medicine to defeat diseases, freeing oneself from the void of nihilism of modern society, helping people to surpass suffering, taking care of people who are sick or are suffering, wanting to live in a better world, in a world without wars, etc.
Everyday these images mobilize the action of hundreds of millions of people and give meaning to their lives.
We know that by offering a repetitive education that emphasizes the development of competitive individualism, technocrats contribute further to the social crisis, the rise of neo-irrationalism, social and community fragmentation, and the rise of intolerance against minorities.
By offering an education based on competitive individualism, human beings increasingly distance themselves from their collective destiny, since individuals are encouraged to compete against one another rather than collaborate.
Competitive Individualism
Unfortunately today, a vast majority of educational approaches aim to develop individualism roles promoted by competitive individualism. Thus, instead of being focused on learning, students are engaged in a personal evaluation process and comparative argument (grades, exams, assignments, report cards, etc.).
These approaches have a negative impact on classroom management and on the learning process. Classroom management becomes a difficult task for teachers, as students learn from a young age to compete against one another.
In fact, classroom management is contributing an alarming level of stress among teachers. A recent Canadian study reveals that nearly 50% of teachers believe their profession negatively impacts their mental health. In Quebec alone, several thousand teachers have left the profession in recent years due to increasing tensions among students in the classroom.
Thus, during their personal development, learners will have few opportunities to be placed side-by-side and learn to cooperate with one another and to work on a collective project aimed to support the community.
Furthermore, educational approaches that emphasize on competitive roles do not allow learners to explore inner strengths in order to develop their human potential.
Consumer societies place a great value on individuals’ body image: height, skin color, hair color, and body weight. Young people and children are directly targeted by the marketing trends of the beauty and clothing brands.
Education throughout history
Through recent history, the meaning of learning and educating was lost. The rise of naturalistic perspectives (perspectives conditioned by the belief of the passivity of the human consciousness (5)) and the decline of the humanities studies affect education which has become increasingly utilitarian.
Today, with the advancement of technology, it’s the entire mission of education that is shaken. In the digital world, learners are reduced to a mere consumer of information. They have become passive spectators to fake news and often lack critical thinking.
By prioritizing corporate labor needs over the tropism of a people, the common good of the society as a whole was put aside. An education that focuses mainly on specialization may be interesting from the point of view of the job market, but in the long term, it will disrupt societies as a whole.
According to Statistics Canada, student enrolment in the humanities has been declining since 2008 as more and more students enroll in specialized training in STEM and trade (science, technology, engineering, and mathematics). For all postsecondary students, humanities enrolments have dropped by 50 percent over the past 30 years. However, this phenomenon is not isolated to Canada. According to various OECD data, the lack of interest in the humanities is a phenomenon spread across 24 countries in the world.
In his book Sensemaking: The Power of the Humanities in the Age of the Algorithm, Christian Madsbjerg identifies various competencies and skills cultivated in humanities such as communication, collaboration among pairs, intercultural awareness, learning to communicate point of view, and acquiring mental flexibility.
Today most programs are based on algorithms and formalize a way of thinking and learning, step by step.
Western countries participated in the suppression of various lines of thinking and the suppression of various important points of view on human activities. This tendency coupled with the increasingly rapid dissemination of destructured information and polarization of point of view may generate greater difficulties in the comprehension of complex social and cultural issues.
Since processes that take place in the individual consciousness also happen in large human groups.
This situation may generate difficulties as a whole, as a society, to advance and reflect on various processes and complex issues that demand human skills and a special sensibility. The future generations may be less able to apply ethical frameworks to advances in machine learning, biotechnology and nanomedicine.
On the other hand, we find some interesting pedagogical approaches, such as the socio-constructivist and humanist approaches, which attempt to counter current trends. However, these approaches remain based on a naturalistic and the passive conception of human consciousness.
Adapting education to the new global and regional context
The current global and regional context are heading towards a phase of major disorientation and increasingly profound fragmentation and violence.
We believe that in this difficult social and cultural context, it is urgent to educate new generations to adopt a new look on reality, so that they do not see the world as a supposedly objective reality, but rather as an object of transformation upon which human beings can act, develop projects, and change the world.
This is why we believe it is important that education should not be solely driven by economic or technological perspectives.
We believe education must be directed towards the deepest aspirations of humankind and the tropism of a people. Education must constantly be forward-looking. In short, education must be based on a pedagogy that takes into account the activity of the human consciousness in the world.
Education for Active nonviolence
Traditional education for nonviolence is rooted in the belief that violence is learned behavior. It teaches students to resist injustice and resolve disputes through dialogue and active problem-solving, rather than through physical or structural harm.
While education for Active nonviolence is rooted in the pedagogy of intentionality(6) and on the activity of human consciousness in the world. This approach is proposing to rebuild the sense of community belonging that the competitive individualism lifestyle has destroyed for the last decades.
Education for Active Nonviolence offers a holistic approach that takes into account the coherent thinking and contact with the learner’s personal registers (7) of thinking, doing, and feeling. It is an education that puts direct communication(8) as a way for being in the world.
The ethical principles of education for Active nonviolence:
Learn to resist violence within oneself and in the world around us.
Learn to recognize the intentionality of consciousness in all human beings.
Learn to treat others as we want to be treated.
Learn to cultivate knowledge that leads to justice and reconciliation.
Learn to recognize the sacred within you and around you.
Furthermore, this approach advocates an education that fosters trust in human beings and their creativity. An education that can develop self-confident individuals without fostering contempt for others because they are different.
The approach is based on a new educational paradigm grounded on intentional learning that will enable the development of a diverse range of individuals with strong, energetic personalities, driven by action, who will transform the world. This approach contrasts with a mechanical education that produces individuals incapable of conceiving of the world other than as they perceive it.
Intentional learning inevitably implies that learners can deepen their inner selves, their meaningful and inspiring experiences. The learners are encouraged to explore new areas of the human mind in order to discover the profound meaning of the act of learning.
Revisiting the authenticity of the act of educating – exducere
Education for Active Nonviolence draws some of his inspiration from the root of education; from the etymological roots of the word, which describes education as the act of guiding out of oneself, exducere, meaning to emerge from oneself, to develop and flourish. Originally, the act of educating supported the emergence of new meanings.
The pedagogy of intentionality
The pedagogy of intentionality defines Education for Active Nonviolence practices. The Pedagogy of Intentionality was developed in Chile by Mario Aguilar and Rebeca Bize, and incorporates the progressive contributions of Vygotsky, Freyre, Maturana, neuroscience, phenomenology, existentialism, among others. It contributes to a theory and practice of intentional learning, and in the field, studies carried out by the Humanist Universalist Pedagogical Current (COPEHU) in Peru from 2012 onward.
COPEHU – Peru developed various interventions in schools with students and educators between 2013 and 2019 with the aim of validating the methodological approach in public schools. It was implemented through three types of intervention modalities: 1) the Integral approach; 2) the Human Development workshop for Tutoring; and 3) the transversal approach through the Teacher Training Program in the pedagogy of intentionality.
Today, the pedagogy of intentionality is becoming widespread in various countries in South America.
In fact today many researchers, without recognizing the activity of the consciousness, talk about the importance of the balance between the mind, the emotion and the body in the learning process.
Within the pedagogy of intentionality, we are taught that education is not only the transmission of information about the world, but must be an intellectual exercise which supports the development of a particular perspective and a careful practice of one’s own look. It is not simply about memorizing objects, but also about learning to recognize contact with one’s own registers (6) of thinking, evoking, observing, and experiencing, etc.
The pedagogy of intentionality explores the function of the image (9) in the act of learning and thinking through the shifts in the mechanism of attention (10).
The pedagogy proposes practices inspired by the approach of universalist humanism psychology. In these practices the image(9) and the contact with one’s own register of thought and with the body play an important role in the learning process. It proposes methods of mechanical learning (repetition, rapid recognition, automatism, and memorization) and intentional practices (attentive observational practices and observing the mechanism of the reversibility of consciousness (11); the act of thinking, etc).
The intentional methods explain how images mobilize sensory activity. Thus, for pedagogues of intentionality, consciousness is neither the product nor the reflection of the environment’s influence, as many pedagogical theories assume. They explain how human consciousness, starting from the conditions imposed by the environment, ultimately constructs a set of images(9) capable of mobilizing and modifying human action in the world.
They explain how an image is a structured and formalized representation of sensations or perceptions that originate or have originated from the senses (internal and external senses).
Thus, then we understand how this representation, which results precisely from the structuring performed by consciousness, cannot be considered a simple passive copy of sensations, as traditional psychology has believed until now.
Consequently, the learner is modified by the action they perform, since this action provides continuous feedback and highlights a subject-consciousness-world structure (12), rather than two separate terms interacting occasionally, as dualistic approaches consider.
Artificial intelligence (AI) and Education for Active Nonviolence
AI will transform the role of teachers. Today, teachers spend a large part of their time on administrative tasks, correcting school assignments, and developing teaching tools.
Artificial intelligence will allow teachers to save time, personalize learning, and automate certain repetitive tasks. Above all, teachers will be able to spend more time with learners in order to guide them in the exploration of self-knowledge and in their learning process.
Since students have different learning levels and varied needs, AI will be able to facilitate differentiated instruction. AI will facilitate differentiated instruction by adapting content to each learner’s reading level, skills, and interests.
Given that AI can quickly access thousands of information sources, teachers will rapidly produce a variety of materials: presentations, lesson plans, infographics, interactive activities, and simulations.
Education for Active Nonviolence a powerful tool to organise human activity towards the development of the tropism and inspiration of a civilization
Education for Active Nonviolence aims to train new generations for the world to come. This educational approach was developed through the training activities of the Universalist Humanist pedagogical movement, which finds its origins in the paradoxes and imbalances of the present moment.
Education for Active Nonviolence encourages ideas and cultural reflections oriented toward the future.
Education for Active Nonviolence will help the future generations to build their own destiny by converging with the destinies of others generations toward a collective future.
The human beings of the future will build new organizations of civic life, they will invent new practices, new technologies, new knowledge, lifestyles, and new ways of being in the world.
The future human beings will be able to recognize the sacred within himself and in others and pave the way to humankind toward the Universal Human Nation (13) and to a multi-planetary civilization (14).
__________________________________________________________
Glossary:
Look: operates from the interest of consciousness, beliefs, and the state of consciousness. It is this configuration of reality that corresponds to the perception of internal and external senses, weighted by memory data and the intentional degree of consciousness, which varies according to the state of sleep, wakefulness, emotion, and interest. In a given social situation, the look is configured with images that are articulated as beliefs and myths.
Perception: a) A simple register of sensory data; b) data that reaches a sense is registered as a variation in the working tone of that sense. It is configured and structured by that sense. Therefore, perception is the register of the data to which is added the activity of the sense, which is in motion. It is a structure formed by the data and the activity of the sense that abstracts and structures; c) structuring of sensations carried out by one or more senses and by the activity of memory and/or by consciousness with one or more senses and with memory.
Time tracer images: These images guide human activity in time in a particular direction; they are images with a strong charge of psychic energy. Once put into motion they liberated the human being from ancestral tensions deeply rooted in the human mind and psychophysic.
Tropism: the reaction of a living organism that orients itself towards an external source of stimulation. For example, the sunflower’s tropism towards the sun. The sun’s power is immense, so sunflowers do not have to compete with each other for light; they simply need to turn their flowers towards the sun. Tropism corresponds to personal inspirations, but at the same time, it propels large groups towards a collective destiny, such as Martin Luther King’s “I Have a Dream” speech delivered on August 28, 1963; the Universal Human Nation project, which will pave the way for a multi-planetary civilization.
Consciousness: we define consciousness as 1) the recording made by the apparatus that coordinates and structures, by working with sensations, images, and memories. This apparatus must have a constitution that gives it unity, despite its mobility, because the activities it records are also mobile. This apparatus is not constituted at birth, but it seems to take shape as the body’s sensations are constructed. This apparatus of registers of sensations, images, and memories is located in the body and, in turn, is linked to bodily sensations. This apparatus sometimes identifies with the self, and this identification occurs as bodily sensations are added and modified in the field of memory. 2) We define consciousness as the system of coordination and recording carried out by the human psyche. We refer to the same device, by virtue of the different functions it performs: if it coordinates, we call it a coordinator,if it records, we call it a “recording device”.
Intentionality: the fundamental mechanism of consciousness, by means of which it maintains its structure by linking actions to objects. This link is not permanent, and this is what allows for the dynamism of consciousness, since actions are always in search of objects. This intentionality, always directed toward the future, is registered as a searching tension.
tegister: means the learner’s lived experience. The register is a structure accompanied by a memory or an imaginary element. The register is activated by impulses that originate from the internal and external senses of the psychophysical structure.
Direct communication: communication remains the only tool we have to resolve disagreements. Direct communication involves emotions and intentional communication. Intentional communication involves observing one’s own look and the mechanism of the reversibility of consciousness during conversations.
Attention: is the consciousness ability that allows us to observe internal and external phenomena. When a stimulus exceeds a certain threshold, it awakens conscious interest, remaining within a central field toward which attention is directed. Attention functions through motivation, through something that, in a certain way, impresses consciousness and provides a record. The stimulus that awakens interest can remain in the central field of attention, which we call the field of presence and which is related to perception. Everything that does not seem strictly linked to the central object is diluted in attention, accompanying the presence of the object through associative relationships with other objects that are not present but are related to it. This phenomenon of attention is called the field of co-presence and is related to memory. Self-observation: A good disposition for learning consists of maintaining good memory and being consistent in what one intends to do. In fact, to achieve consistency, we must learn to observe the shifting of attention across objects and observe the reversibility of consciousness. We offer educators a very simple exercise to support the improvement of attentional observation.
Image: Representation of sensations or perceptions structured and formalized by consciousness. Sensations or perceptions originate or have originated (memory) from the external or internal environment, via the senses (see sensation). This is why images are visual, tactile, olfactory, auditory, gustatory, cenesthetic, and kinesthetic (see form). The image integrates the impulse transformation system, so that when an impulse reaches consciousness, it is transformed into an image. This image is then the sum of the impulses that consciousness sends to the centers to mobilize responses.
Reversibility of consciousness: is a fundamental mechanism of consciousness. The faculty of consciousness to direct itself, by means of attention, towards its sources of information. In the case of the senses, we have apperception (see apperception) and in the case of memory, evocation (see evocation). Apperception can also exist within evocation. Its functioning is directly linked to the level of conscious processing. Thus, when the level rises, the conscious processing capacity increases, and vice versa. However, there are phenomena of blockage in reversibility, or even a fragmentation of it, even in full wakefulness.
Structure subject-world-consciousness: The complex relationship between social groups and the accumulated social and historical experience creates an environment, a situation, in which the internal transformation of the human being becomes necessary. The complex relationship between social groups and the accumulated social and historical experience creates an environment, a situation, in which the internal transformation of the human being becomes necessary. The function of the psychism of human being consists of coordinating all the operations that compensate a living being’s instability with its environment. The psychism arises as the coordinator of the structure “living being-environment”—that is, of the structure we called suject-consciousness-world.
Universal Human Nation: In a globalized world, it is necessary to consider a form of collective identity that unites peoples, cultures, and civilizations. An identity open to the diversity of human beliefs, ideas, and lifestyles. The Universal Human Nation brings together all human beings, cultures, and religions. It is a proposal that comes from the depths of time and aims to propel humanity beyond the boundaries of time, mind, and the space.
Multi-planet civilization: Becoming a multiplanetary species will extend the future of the Universal Human Nation into others worlds. Ever since Homo sapiens first looked up at the stars, he has dreamed of traveling and exploring the stars.
References Works
Amman, Luis, Self-Liberation, Éditions Références,Paris, 2003.
Bize, Rebecca, Mario Aguilar, Pedagogy of Intentionality: Educating for an Active Consciousness, Buenos Aires, 2011. (Spanish only)
Anne Farrell, Un sens de la vie qui défie la fatalité de l’extinction massive, Henri Oscar Communication, Montréal, 2024, 277p.
Anne Farrell. Dialogue et Éducation à la Nonviolence Active, contrer l’intimidation 2nd Henri Oscar Communication, Pincourt, 2016, 170p.
Anne Farrell, The Study of the Register of Present and Immersion Among Young People Who Interact with the Functionalities of Virtual Space to Socialize, 2008, UQAM, Montreal, 250 p.
Christian Madsbjerg, Sensemaking: The Power of the Humanities in the Age of the Algorithm, 2017, 240 pages.
Contrer l’intimidation, dialogue et Non-violence Active : mémoire présenté à la Commission de la culture et de l’éducation dans le cadre des consultations et des auditions publiques sur le projet de loi n. 56, Loi visant à lutter contre l’intimidation et la violence à l’école / Réseau international humaniste. 2012
Convention on the Rights of the Child, United Nations.
Pescio, Juan Jose and Patricia Nagy, Towards a Culture of Solidarity and Non-violence, Argentina, 2008.
Puledda, Salvatore, Interpretation of Humanism, Éditions Références, Paris, 2000.
Review of the Roots of Youth Violence, commissioned by the Government of Ontario in 2008.
Sadovink, Cookson & Semel, Violence in Schools, World Health Organization report, New York, 2001.
Silo, Letters to My Friends, Éditions Références, Paris, 1993.
Silo, Notes of Psychology, Éditions Références, Paris, 2012.
Silo Speaks, a collection of opinions, commentaries, and lectures, 1969–1995, Éditions Références, Paris, 1996.
Swinden, Sylvia, From Monkey Sapiens to Homo Intentional: The Phenomenon of the Non-violent Revolution, 2006.
World Center for Humanistic Studies, Some Frequent Terms of Humanism, Éditions Références, 1995, Paris.
Article
The decline of humanities studies around the world is a risk for humankind, Pressenza, 2025, Anne Farrell.
