educational response paper

On the other hand, teachers use hierarchies all the time to measure student learning and development. A teacher’s job is to accept students where they are and take them as far as possible. Most teachers use hierarchies, for example, to measure intelligence or the severity of a disability. However, they do not tend to measure student maturation, although that is central to any kind of growth.

Many teachers believe in the tenets of constructionism, even though they might not use that term, and teachers tend to be effective in the classroom when they apply a constructivist approach (see Ornstein, Levine, Gutek, and Volke, 2014, p. 126). This includes the zone of proximal development, scaffolding, the role of a more knowledgeable other, discovery learning, the importance of context, peer collaboration, and so forth. Part of teaching must be the extent to which a student is mature, and how far the teacher can take that student’s maturation in the class. Maturation, then, is a core part of teaching and learning, even though it is often de-emphasized. We need to learn more about how students, teachers, classes, and societies, mature.

All the benchmark systems outlined below are reduced to their most salient features, in order to see each in a glance. That means important details might be lost. In addition, the benchmarks in the various hierarchies are all connected. One of our tasks, as teachers, is to communicate meaningfully with students in our classes and schools, to help them learn and grow. It takes millions of teachers in our country to serve children. Teachers in the local schools are especially interested in the lower range of maturation benchmarks. There is a range of benchmarks that might not be of use in the classroom. For example, maturation probably extends to cosmic consciousness, or to transcendence of all the problems that can be transcended. This part of the issue tends not to be relevant in primary, secondary, and adult schools. The meaning, the constraint of youth is, usually, that the young lack experience. This is important in ways that are not often discussed forthrightly because it is important. Immature people can vote; they can become chief executives of corporations; they can run for office; they can be judges, police chiefs, and so forth.

There are parts of education that do not serve children or the community. The emphasis on basic skills, testing and the prescribed texts that go with the texts, are usually the only things teachers are expected to use. Some of the higher or deeper levels of learning do not fit into what the public expects of the schools. This also applies in settings that are not normally considered part of public education, but are—in community colleges and universities, prisons and reentry programs, trade schools, adult education in its broadest sense, English as a second language, and so forth. The same applies to teacher preservice and inservice programs. They are all public education.

Many adults and children experience post-traumatic stress disorder, which exacerbates all problems. With adults this is often from serving their country during a war, or from drug abuse, incarceration, or being raped or abused in all the ways that abuse is possible. Student disability can interrupt learning. Some other things are situational and can affect maturation, such as a lack of parental care, usually because the parent(s) or caregiver is addicted, or is a thief or prostitute; or because they are living in a family that needs to reunite. Many are able to transcend the effects of victimization. If the teacher does not know about benchmarks of maturation, and how to communicate with students at various levels, it is the teacher’s job to find out.

Some children act more mature than others, at least in specific patterns of behavior, because they have been without family support, living on the streets or in juvenile detention facilities, etc. If they did not rise to the occasion, to mature in some ways, they would probably die quickly. Many attend continuation and alternative schools. It is the teacher’s job to be alert about how mature each student is, in order to take that person still further down the path.

We all have things to learn, ways in which we need to develop. Teachers should be students, as well. In addition to helping students learn and grow, we need to learn and grow ourselves, despite our different learning agenda. The mapmaker must be on the map. If students feel their teachers are students as well as teachers, they are more likely to be enthusiastic about learning, more engaged, than they would otherwise.

If a person has not had time to live through many experiences, and to interpret them, that person will be immature. The processes of maturation, and its benchmarks, are vaguely known by most—except for the work of Piaget—even though we typically think about, and discuss them. The problem is that we tend to discuss them in broad and often uninformed ways. Maturation should be discussed by teachers in more helpful, meaningful terms than are usually used. The “stage-model claim is simply that, in any developmental sequence, certain classes of behavior stably emerge only after certain other classes . . .” (Wilber, 1999, p. 54).

Since ascendance to the next benchmark always means greater complexity, it can also bring joy or grief, or both together. Imagine how difficult it must be for a child to walk for the first time without a caregiver holding a hand, without something to grasp to steady him. Walking means more capacity, which means greater complexity.

Maturity can help us to help others. Immaturity can obstruct an individual or group. Every aspect of maturation is in flux. Teachers should be watchful for evidence of these patterns in themselves as well as in students. There are situations we can expect in education, and others we cannot expect. Teaching can be a dramatic adventure, a mystery. Despite all our planning, it is never routine.

Most of this introduction, and especially the next few paragraphs, are based on Wilber’s approaches (1996, 1981). His work has been influential, in part, because he examined 126 benchmark systems, and presented them in understandable terms. The attachment is an attempt to use this same approach, though it attends only to a few, the ones that seem most relevant to student maturation.

Wilber’s approach includes a few rules that apply to all maturity benchmark systems. First, no one can skip steps. This means that no one can get to a more advanced benchmark, level, or stage without first moving through the lower ones, in sequence. We cannot go forward without going through. Therefore, one aspect of the teacher’s role in the community should be to protect persons who are not yet mature. They cannot get to the higher levels until they have passed through the lower, so it should be part of our work to protect learners so they are free to develop. “Learning experiences” in which students do not have opportunities to move past their mistakes, are a terrible disservice. Teachers should not create classrooms in which students cannot fail. If they do, people who go out in the world after graduation will expect to succeed all the time. Instead of facilitating learning, that would impede it.

Second, each person has a center of gravity. For example, the current author is good at history but not at financial planning. It would be a mistake to assume that any of the maturity benchmark systems represent anything but a part of a person’s capabilities. Third, Wilber wrote that, in addition to each individual, humanity as a whole has a collective center of gravity. He discussed this as the cultural center of gravity. As with individuals, humanity has been, and is still, maturing—despite the fact that some people believe there is nothing new under the sun. Unfortunately, the rate of maturation is usually not consistent with our aspirations.

People usually flock to their own, to others at a similar level of maturation. This applies to seating in the school cafeteria, for example, and even to geographical regions in a country.

Part of what teachers are paid to do is to care about students, whether they are young children, adolescents, or adults. Without a teacher’s care, a safe, secure, supportive environment cannot be attained. As we all know, a lack of caring produces even more difficulty than in already inherent in the maturation process.

Another important principle is again based on Wilber’s work. It is whether a person is a “quick study,” or a “late bloomer.” Each of these situations, or both, may exist in any individual. As a person matures, she or he acquires various opportunities to advance, or to retreat, through the maturation benchmarks. Since increased maturity always means greater complexity, it always means greater capability to succeed or to fail. This pattern means that maturation can be situational or temporary; it is not always permanent. At any one time, a person can be ready to learn from personal experiences, or from the experiences of others, or sometimes from just reading a book, or participating in professional development session. Many maturational experiences can happen in strange ways that cannot be easily explained, as through an epiphany, a problem, or a dream. Unfortunately, some persons get stuck at a level and cannot even learn from their own experiences.

All of us, sometimes mistakenly, make some assumptions that are not warranted. For example, teachers often expect more, or less, maturity that might be associated with age, grade level, or socio-economic-status. Assumptions like these can get in the way of teaching and learning. With regard to age, there are some children who are very mature, and some old people who act like fools. Just because a student is in, for example, the sixth grade, he or she might only be at the emotional level one would expect from a second grader. The point here is that learning based on the idea that maturation is prescribed by some set experience, like age, may not translate into what is actually going on. There are mature poor people, and rich immature people. This is a common feature of our relationships with each other, and how we relate to each other.

All these ideas and principles should be applied consistently, unless a student’s immaturity is expressed in a way that is dangerous to others in the classroom or school. If that is the case, teachers and school systems are obliged to use intrusive methods to protect others. Although protection of the routes from the lower to higher maturity levels are needed so a person can grow, that principle cannot extend to those who present life and death problems.

Maturity should be a central aspect of education, but basic and marketable skills usually take up everyone’s attention. Perhaps that is why maturity benchmark systems are usually not emphasized. Sometimes we are only vaguely aware of the issue, and then only in the most dramatic contrasts—for example, when we read about one person who helped craft the United Nations Declaration of Human rights, and another who treasures the Confederate battle flag. In summary, almost everyone believes that the schools should be focused on the acquisition of knowledge, skills, and attitudes, in that order. We do not mention maturation, although maturity might be a subset of attitudes.

Benchmark Systems About Student Learning and Growth

Kohlberg (1981) on the Sequence of Male Cognitive-Moral Maturation

Kohlberg’s sequence depicts cognition and its relation to morality. In some studies with sample sizes of several thousand, he systematically eliminated all the females, reporting that they muddied the waters. His findings have been found to be useful; his methodology severely criticized. Kohlberg found that cognitive-moral development focuses on justice, as reflected in issues of legal or political rights. He was the recognized leader in this area. He found that, when moral development is experienced, cognitive development is also experienced. However, when cognitive development is experienced, there is not always moral development. Morality can help drive cognition, but cognition does is not always associated with morality. Kohlberg wrote that there are three ways to acquire cognitive-moral growth: working to solve moral dilemmas (such as Should Schultz let his wife die or steal to pay for the expensive medication?), immersion in a just (democratic) community, or through role modeling. Kohlberg sometimes discussed a hypothetical stage seven, based on faith. (See Garvey, A. [no date]).

Kohlberg’s Levels and Stages of Cognitive-Moral Development

(Taha, 2015, p. 19). Based on Kohlberg (1981).

Kohlberg . . . , cont’d

The levels discussed in Kohlberg’s system can be illustrated in a single, public life, that of Malcolm X. His example is known to many people. Malcolm X had three careers that correspond to the cognitive-moral levels. His first career was as an ego-centered criminal, Malcolm Little. The boundary of an ego-centered person is very narrow; it does

not extend beyond the self. Everyone else is seen, but more like a cardboard cut-out than as a real person. When he was incarcerated and became a militant member of the Nation of Islam, he changed his name to Malcolm X. During this militant career he continued to have an ego, but the center of his concern shifted, from his own needs only, to those who he perceived as his people. His boundary expanded, with a wider horizon. After Malcolm X’s pilgrimage to Mecca, this same personality embarked on a third career, marked by new concerns for all humans, regardless of their situation. His boundary expanded again, with a horizon as far as could be seen. Having arrived at this level, Malcolm X had a healthy ego; he was concerned about his people, and he moved to the third level, commonly called universal or global citizenship. There was talk about what might happen if or when Malcolm X and Martin Luther King compared notes and strategies—whether they would find common cause.

Gehring’s Summary of Kohlberg’s Sequence, as Applied to the Life of Malcolm X

Gehring, (2012, pp. 277-278).

Repeatedly, philosophers have recognized the importance of the universal perspective, and of our need to appreciate it. For example, The Roman philosopher-king Marcus Aurelius declared “As Aurelius I have Rome for my country; as a man, the world” (in Durrant, 1944, p. 445). Helping students (and ourselves, as teachers) to move toward the postconventional level should be central in our classroom activities. If we are serious about it, the result will improve school and community. Part of our job should be to promote student maturation, and our own.

Gilligan (199) on the Sequence of Female Cognitive-Moral Maturation

Kohlberg and Gilligan sometimes taught in adjacent classrooms at Harvard. They were on good terms, but Gilligan realized that something had to be done to correct Kohlberg’s research methods and perhaps his findings. That period of her research agenda was directed to feminine cognitive-moral maturation. (A few years later, when her son was a teenager, Gilligan shifted to the cognitive-moral aspects of male adolescents, and after that to other areas of study [Gilligan, 1999].) Regarding the characteristics of her samples, where Kohlberg reported on the centrality of justice and legal rights, Gilligan found that nurture and care were central from the female point of view. She became the recognized leader in this area of study. Despite these differences, the overall patterns of maturation or cognitive-moral development have been found to apply universally to males and females, in the same sequence of levels. The difference is the “glue” that holds the respective systems together. A summary of Gilligan’s findings appears below.

Gilligan’s Sequence of Cognitive-Moral Maturation

(Wilber 1999, vol. 4). Based on Gilligan (1982). See also Benack, for a cognitive view of ethical development (1988, pp. 216-232).

One way to characterize the differences between the findings of Kohlberg and Gilligan is that Kohlberg emphasized the self and its relationship with others, and Gilligan emphasized the relationship with others and the self. Unfortunately, these differences represent historic, cultural biases toward men and women. Men have been expected to go out and work and fulfill their leadership obligations; women have been expected to stay home to take care of the children—and of their spouse’s needs. Wilber reported that Gilligan’s findings were “widely misinterpreted as implying that only males go through hierarchical stages; the idea that women do not go through hierarchical development . . . [is] one of [the most] influential cultural myths of the last two decades.” (Wilber, 1999, vol. 4, p. 277).

Dewey (1899; 1938) and Kohlberg (1981): A Comparison

O Sullivan, S., and Pecorino, p. 2002, p. 4; based on Dewey, (2009/1899; 1998/1938) and Kohlberg, (1981).

One could make the case that Dewey and Gilligan addressed three levels, and Kohlberg six. Below, another example could be made for the work of Piaget and Arlin. The point of departure in the current display, of course, is that each of the three (Kohlberg, Gilligan, and Dewey) found a different glue that holds it all together. Kohlberg’s glue was is called agency (the capacity of the self to do), Gilligan’s was communion, (the capacity to care and nurture; to work with others), and Dewey’s was the focus of attention on the self/others relationship from a more altruistic perspective. In some ways all their findings can be reduced to the number of levels. However, close attention also reveals other, perhaps more important, differences.

Bloom (1956) on the Sequence of Cognitive Growth

Piaget (1952/1936) on Growth of Cognitive Schemas

Piaget was a psychologist, but most educators report that his findings align with student learning needs. This section is longer than the other material, more detailed, because it provides many practical ideas for classroom activities.

Piaget discovered that children construct their concepts about

reality by actively exploring their environment. According to Piaget,

intelligence develops through a series of stages, characterized by the

child’s set of mental structures and operations at a particular age. With

each new stage, children develop new mental abilities that enable them to

reconstruct the concepts they constructed at an earlier stage into a more

complex cognitive map of the world. Based on his stage-learning theory

of development, Piaget identified four qualitatively [observationally]

distinct but interrelated periods of cognitive growth[.] (Ornstein, et al.,

2014, p. 124).

Faculty at North Carolina State University, Raleigh reported that, as students mature through the stages, their egocentrism decreases and their problem solving capability increases (NCSU, 2015, p. 2). Knefel (2015, p. 24) found that, as student problem solving expands, disciplinary issues in the classroom, and in the school, diminish. (Teachers should be aware that the chronological age of a student is not

always a good measure of maturation. Some people develop disciplined minds early

in their lives; others are slow to use their capacities.)

Piaget’s Cognitive Development Stages

This page is based on O’Donnell, D’Amico, Schmid, Reeve, and Smith (2008). The next three pages are based on Piaget (1952/1936).

Piaget . . . , cont’d.

Teaching the Preoperational Child (Toddler and Early Childhood)

Piaget . . . , cont’d.

Teaching the Concrete Operational Child (Middle Childhood)

Piaget . . . , cont’d.

Teaching Students Who Are Beginning to Use Formal Operations (Adolescence)

Vygotsky’s work is valued by teachers because they find it especially applicable in the classroom. He advocated concepts such as scaffolding, the zone of proximal

development, the role of a more knowledgeable other, and a number of other constructivist approaches to teaching, which would otherwise be less accessible. However, Vygotsky’s systems are not addressed in this material because he did not emphasize stage or benchmark measures of maturation. See below.

Piaget . . . , cont’d.

Comparison of Approaches to Children’s Cognitive Development

(Shantrock, 1998). See also Blake and Pope (2008).

This is an international story. Piaget’s work is culture-specific. In the U.S., there was a good fit between the psychological work of Piaget and the educational work of Dewey. Both focused on the individual. In the Soviet Union, however, there was a collectivist focus, as in the goal of developing “the new Soviet man” through education (Edwards, 1991, p. 19). In that nation there was a similar good fit between the psychological work of Vygotsky and the educational work of Makarenko “the John Dewey of the Soviet Union”—but Stalin intervened and condemned Vygotsky’s work (Doherty, 2002. P. 1). Even though the Bolshevik Party was originally pro-Dewey, Makarenko was anti-Deweyist—but Stalin intervened and supported Makarenko (Bowen, 1965, p. 148). Dewey and Makarenko were friends. Dewey wrote positively about his Soviet colleague (Dewey, 1929; Dykhuizen, 1973, p. 236), and visited several of his schools (Martin, 2002, p. 356). Dewey wrote and narrated the introduction to a Soviet film on Makarenko’s career, The Road to Life (Bowen, 1965, p. 4). Dewey also headed up a legal commission to help Trotsky, who had previously worked with Stalin, while he was an exile in Mexico and it was clear that Stalin was preparing to have him killed (Dewey and Glotzer 1937).

Arlin (1993, 1999) on Piaget’s Sequence of Developmental Growth

Arlin studied under Piaget for a year in Geneva. Later she became known for her work on the attributes of wise teachers. Arlin served as dean of the California State University, San Bernardino College of Education during the late 1990s and early 2000s. The material immediately below is from Wilber (1999, vol. 4, p. 632). It includes the same terms that Piaget used for his benchmarks, but arranged differently than the material in the previous entry. Arlin’s contribution is best known because she took Piaget’s general benchmark system to a higher or deeper level.

Sensiormotor

Preoperational,

Low concrete,

High concrete,

Low formal,

High formal,

Postformal, and

High Postformal (dialectical).

For our current purpose, dialectical means attention to see the unity of opposites—the necessity to approach teaching and learning in a flexible way. Some summary quotes from Arlin’s work on the attributes of wise teachers appear below.

Sense of uncertainty (an open mind): “They are not . . . sure that what they try . . . will result in student learning” (Arlin, 1999, pp. 14, 16).

Content expertise: They have a “repertoire of teaching strategies” (however, this attribute may also be present in experts who have not yet acquired wisdom) (pp. 14, 16).

Sense of context (“. . . a strong sense of their discipline”) (pp. 14-15).

Wilber wrote that relativism and flexibility are prominent in Arlin’s (1999, 1993) benchmark system: “several people can have different . . . understandings . . . [there is] no absolute way of guaranteeing that one person is right” (Wilber, [1993, pp. 14-15], in Gehring, 2012, p. 10). Based on (Arlin, 1999, pp. 12-17).

Overstreet (1949) on Maturation, as Portrayed by Knowles, (1970, p. 26)

Overstreet’s groundbreaking work on The Mature Mind is, by virtue of his intention, closely associated with education. Knowles’ summary is entirely consistent with that view; it has become almost exclusively associated with adult education. There are many subfields of educational delivery, such as local elementary or secondary education, adult education, continuation or alternative education, prison education, vocational education, special education, and so forth. Professionals who identify professionally with one of them tend to focus on how the systems diverge. However, they also converge, and teachers should be alert to their relationships. Many make the mistake of thinking that education is only the particular field in which one works. The Overstreet/Knowles system is especially helpful—it is generally applicable and shows the subfields’ convergence.

Psychological Benchmark Systems Aligned with Teaching and Learning Needs

Luria (1976) on Development

Part (a) Developmental Model of Self-Regulation and Self-Control

STAGE ONE

The speech of others regulates the child's behavior.

STAGE TWO

Overt speech to oneself acts as self-command, reinforcer, or aids to mark the rhythm of an action.

STAGE THREE

Covert inner speech regulates behavior, assists in understanding the nature and demands of an assignment, produces effective strategies, monitors use and effectiveness of the strategies.

Part (b) Training Children to Self-Regulate

COGNITIVE MODELING

An adult models/performs a task while talking to himself out loud.

OVERT, EXTERNAL GUIDANCE

The child performs the same task under the direction of the model's instruction.

OVERT, SELF-GUIDANCE

The child performs task while instructing him/herself out loud.

FADED, OVERT SELF-GUIDANCE

The child whispers the instructions to self as task is performed.

COVERT SELF-INSTRUCTION

Child performs task while guiding his performance via inaudible or private speech or nonverbal self-direction. (Wright, 2004/2003, p. 1).

Luria, a Soviet, worked at the same time as Vygotsky and Makarenko. See above.

Erikson (1959) on the Stages of Human Development

According to Erikson, the ego develops as it . . . resolves crises that are

distinctly social in nature . . . . [He] proposed a lifespan model of

development, taking in five stages up to the age of 18 years and three

further stages . . . well into adulthood. Erikson suggest[ed] that there is

still plenty of room for continued growth and development throughout

one’s life. . . [He emphasized the . . . adolescent period . . . [as] a crucial

stage for developing a person’s identity. The outcome of this ‘maturation

timetable’ is a wide and integrated set of life skills and abilities that

function together within the autonomous individual. (McLeod, 2013,

p. 1).

Some Dimensions of Human Crises,

and the Virtues by Which They Can be Overcome

McLeod (2013, p. 2). Based on Erikson (1959).

Loevinger (1976) on Ego Development

“ . . . Loevinger’s impressive research focused specifically on ego

development . . .it brought a great deal of precision to the field and

sparked an explosion of further developmental studies . . . . Her

research has been repeated in several different cultures now, and

continues to garner wide support.” (Wilber, 1999, p. 474).

Though at different times she postulated different numbers of levels—from four to 12—applying different terms, the following list is the one usually cited. The construct-aware level is approximately the same as Bloom’s creating level.

Ego Development

1. Impulsive,

2. Conformist,

3. Self-Conscious,

4. Conscientious,

5. Individualist,

6. Autonomous,

7. Construct-Aware, and

8. Unitive.

Biorklund and Bee (2008); based on Loevinger (1976).

Sullivan (1953) on Interpersonal Stages of Child Development

Educators are often attracted to Sullivan’s advocacy of personalized development, expressed most concisely in the “move in the direction of your fears” principle. It is consistent with, and helps explain, the difficulties we all have when we reflect on our maturation as we navigate through the various stages. Sullivan’s 1953 classic, The Interpersonal Theory of Psychiatry, was published posthumously.

He wrote, in part, that humans have three major aspects: the good me, the bad me, and the not me. The good me and the bad me are based on how one is perceived in the community, and how that person is perceived by the social part of oneself. These two aspects accrue through our interpersonal and intrapersonal experiences and observations, and they are always in conflict. The not me, on the other hand, is repressed and not shown or even acknowledged. The chart below shows why Sullivan’s findings, even though he was not an educator in the usual sense of the word, are useful for teachers.

Stages of Human Development

Patidar (2013, p. 1); based on Sullivan (1953). See also Wynne (1996, p. 15).

Maslow (1987/1954) on the Hierarchy of Needs

Maslow’s system is especially relevant to education for at least three reasons. First, according to the hierarchy of needs, self-actualization is only attainable when basic needs are met—when a person feels secure that there will be food on the table tomorrow, that one will not be interrupted from sleeping because they will be beaten or raped again, loved, and so forth. (Even this fundamental finding is situational, however. Each year there are homeless university students, sometimes at the graduate level, who complete their degrees.)

Second, self-actualization requires some amount of leisure time, which is unavailable to many. Third, in addition to its obvious alignment with student (and teacher) needs, the hierarchy of needs can be interpreted in a spiritual light. This supports the view that things spiritual need not only represent the higher or deeper. All aspirations, perceptions, and indicators of Maslow’s benchmarks, or probably of any maturity benchmark system, can have spiritual dimensions. This suggests there may be several ways to perceive opportunities and problems: they may be situational or universal, superficial or profound, direct or mysterious, mundane or intense, and so forth.

Benchmark Systems About Classroom Learning Experiences

Gehring (1988, p. 67) on Cognitive Functions

in Democratic Classrooms

Gehring (2015) on Shared Responsibility

Some Attributes of Shared Responsibility and What Leads to It

(Gehring, 2015, pp.128-129).

This chart displays conditions relevant to both individuals and groups. However, the current discussion will be at the group (class) level. If respect, care, and trust are present, a class is in Gordon’s (2003) no problem zone, where shared responsibility can occur. If attained, shared responsibility can mean different things at different maturity levels. For example, appropriately facilitated by a caregiver, a group or shared gestalt can occur (S + O + I + G → R), sometimes quickly. Shared responsibility in the classroom is when students take some responsibility for part of their own education. In the lower grades it may mean that students pick up their materials and begin learning on their own until the teacher can get to them. In the middle grades it could mean that they can select the sequence of the topics they will learn that day. In the upper grades, it might mean that students have some choices about the topics for their papers and speaking assignments.

Benchmark Systems About the Cultural and Community Contexts of Education

Beck and Cowan (2005) on Growth

Throughout Wilber’s 3rd and 4th volumes (1995 and 1999), he associated aspects of Beck and Cowan’s Spiral Dynamics beige and purple levels with families. In addition to families, the purple level is also associated with gangs. Beck and Cowan’s red level represents a first opportunity for an individual to break with a gang. Wilber associated blue with punishment and reward, and orange with patriotism. Green is often seen as in alignment with Kohlberg’s stage six.

Teachers are usually alert to the way student personal patterns of identification interact with cultural patterns, for example, when gang behaviors are particularly relevant in the classroom. However, this is not just a student problem. At some schools, regardless of how the issue is discussed, teachers have organized themselves into gangs that express their particular interests. These may include those who take a stand against the principal for some reason that is not related to education, those who are intent on leaving precisely when the work day is supposed to end, or those who are so opposed to the people who populate the neighborhood their school serves, or are such advocates of them, that they refuse to attend to some student learning needs. Regardless of maturity level, cultural views and education are closely connected.

Gehring on Technology and Cultural Maturation (2012, p. 26)

Rembrandt and Mao Tse Tung on Peace and Adversity

Learning and growth are related to everything in our lives. The chart below acknowledges connections that might otherwise not be considered. It brings together the theories of an artist Rembrandt (in his approach to artistic creations) and a warrior politician Mao Tse Tung (in his approach to resolving divisive adversity).

Moving from the ideal, through our individual ideas, and then back to the ideal—or from unity through adversity, and back to unity—requires a level of maturity that is often beyond reach of students and teachers alike. It is the attainment of the highest stage in Kohlberg’s, and in Sullivan’s, systems, analogous in this treatment only to Arlin’s high postformal or dialectical level. It is the experience of transformation: taking the risk to navigate beyond vengeance, away from the same us and them logic that is such a difficult problem in our lives. In the South Bantu language, pelindaba means “we don’t talk about that anymore,” or “the past is gone; it can no longer serve” (Swift, 2004). Being able to forgive is a high, and necessary, aim.

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