“I’m a post-modernist”, claimed the graduating high school student in his Theory of Knowledge paper, “and I believe that soon we will be able to teleport ourselves around the universe…and there is no God as science has proved this fact”.

It’s taken a scientist, a quantum physicist no less, not a philosopher, to provide the answer to Heidegger’s imponderable question ‘Why is there something rather than nothing. Stephen Hawking’s answer, outlined in his recent publication, The Grand Design, that spontaneous creation is the reason there is something rather than nothing.

Hawking made news around 12 months ago with his claim that given the projected size of the universe –around 100 billion galaxies-aliens exist, and that we should avoid contacting them. He, didn’t of course offer any explanation as to why they haven’t yet arrived to our distant lonely blue outpost in the universe by their millions, to claim us as their intergalactic slaves, or perhaps to liberate us from our own delusional belief in a Divine Creator. According to Hawking, earth isn’t the only planet to have life or where life has developed. Not surprisingly, he has absolutely no evidence for such a fantastical claim, and asserts simply speculative conjectural theories, based on dubious, obscure theoretical physics, which upon closer examination amount to no-more than sophistry; despite claims that the gigantic Hadron collider recently found the God particle (they’re still sifting through the data to see if it’s still there!)

According to some graduating high school students, life does exist on other planets in distant galaxies, and aliens also exist, and have visited earth many times, abducting people, and performing scientific experiments on them. Such claims are upheld by a significant number of educators around the world as fact too, as evidenced in the several thousand ToK and philosophy essays I have assessed over the last decade. Yet the claim Jesus rose from the dead and later ascended into heaven is met with outrageous contempt as superstition and simply impossible, with the late Christopher Hitchen’s derisively claiming it as a “Christian fantasy” (Hitchens, 2007), while he, along with Stephen Hawking and Richard Dawkins adhere to a fantastical world view which claims that the ideals and principles of truth, beauty, justice and goodness, emerged from some primeval slime pool.

I have just completed another assessment season of essays, on a variety of topics, including the nature of truth and the use of evidence in supporting ideas and beliefs. The dominant responses and themes to the set topics included claims like, religions have no evidence to substantiate their right to proclaim a faith, that science is correct and exact because it uses evidence, technology will provide for our future energy needs, including fixing solar panels around the perimeter of the moon to collect inter-galactic energy into laser guns and fire laser beams of energy to receiver stations on earth; life exists in abundance on other planets in other galaxies which we have to discover, because global warming will destroy the earth, (presumably before a laser beam of inter-galactic energy fired from the moon does), God doesn’t exist because science and the Discovery channel have proved it, there are no universal moral values and standards, because we perceive everything differently, and we cannot agree on anything because we are all different, and we have to follow our own subjective experiences, and that is where we will find truth.

These claims among others are made, without any serious understandings of their inherent assumptions. Moreover, they are made without any genuine investigation of the primary sources from which the original claims emerge and for the most part they are made on the basis of what has been taught through teacher opinion along with school based textbook learning. They are quasi-knowledge claims which are asserted with no evidence and are not critiqued in anyway. Yet, the reliability of the arguments and evidence of the grand narratives claiming certainty of belief in God, universal ethics, right and wrong, justice, goodness, truth and beauty are constantly ridiculed as being without foundation, and according to quite significant number of graduating students, the momentous achievements that are being made in science and technology today tell us so.

Terry Haywood, in his insightful, reflective and intelligent questioning of the potential and problems of religion and spirituality warns of the disservice we may do to our students by trivializing and ignoring their religious and spiritual traditions, along with their innate need to ascribe meaning to their lives (Haywood, 2011). I would assert that there’s plenty of evidence around now to indicate that the balance is weighted towards the rational and cognitive at the expense of the spiritual, emotional and intuitive side of their nature.

There are two of these gross distortions which I seek to address, namely the claim that Heidegger’s question has been answered through the theories postulated by Stephen Hawking and Leonard Mlodinow, and secondly, that the accrued achievements of science have contributed to a more balanced, rational understanding of our collective human history and this is evidenced through student learning.

The first distorted view I challenge begins with the idea that science and everything pertaining to it, whether it be in physics, biology, chemistry or any of their sub classes, makes a constant upward progress for the good of humankind, or as Mary Midgley so eloquently writes “we go from “gas to genius “and beyond into some super-human spiritual stratosphere” (Midgley, 1985). An informed layman’s view of the history of science tells us that this is simply not the case. Western general science, as we know claims its modernist beginnings with the birth of the Renaissance and the cultivated intellectual beauty of Copernicus. Yet, the story of Copernicus, a Roman Catholic cleric himself and his professional, political and personal relationship with Roman Catholicism and Christianity is somewhat misunderstood, and eschewed today in favor of an erroneous view, which argues that his ideas were rejected and quashed by the Catholic Church, and as a consequence he was branded a heretic. Many of the essays I have assessed commonly assert this view, along with the late Hitchen’s crude generalization that “religion poisons everything” (Hitchens, 2007).

Nothing could be farther from the truth. Professor Richard Pogge of Ohio State University in clarifying the religious objections to Copernicus, confirms the view that Pope Clement VII and several Cardinals showed an interest in the theories of Copernicus, and it was Protestantism in general, and Luther specifically, a contemporary of Copernicus, who were vehemently opposed to a heliocentric model of the universe (Pogge, 2005). Luther’s pejorative description of Copernicus as an astrologer, as well as his bitter account of him as “a fool who went against Holy Writ” (Pogge, 2005) illustrates the enmity he felt towards his peer. It is such historical details which are often misinterpreted, misrepresented, or conveniently overlooked in the re-telling of the achievements of science today. It is seldom mentioned that the views of Copernicus, were debated in both Catholic and Protestant universities throughout subsequent years, despite intense opposition, and attempts at suppression by the Catholic Church. It is also interesting to note that students are very quick to censure the Church’s condemnation of the heliocentric model, but conveniently fail to mention its imprimatur for The Dialogue Concerning the Two Chief World Systems published in 1632.

For many senior students it seems a far easier choice to click on the mouse, Google Copernicus, and without any critical appraisal of the source they’ve hit upon demonize the whole of Christianity, and Roman Catholicism from the 1st century A.D. up to the present day, discount its greatest thinkers and reformers, and its most compassionate men and women, and cast it as the demon of all western civilization’s ills which has led us down a descending pathway into ignorance and superstition (Hitchens, 2007). And unfortunately, this is the case with the majority of scientism’s claims in its clamor to usurp the veil of Belief and be crowned heirs to the metaphysical reality of an apparently already obsolete and discredited religious orthodoxy.

It is generally acknowledged that science has contributed enormously to the development and progress of humanity. And the contribution from the ancient world, including the Middle East, Greece, India and the whole Asian subcontinent has to be acknowledged in this accolade too, because the emerging myth in secondary school education is that modern science began with Darwin. A more erudite and accurate summary is that from the domestication of wheat to the development of writing, our species has developed some magnificent, yet quite imperfect civilizations (including our own). And, there’s clear evidence to argue that throughout the histories of these civilizations, empirical science and its use of evidence to support its claims of the day, hasn’t always been that successful. Science, like religion, Gould reminds us, is a “socially embedded activity, it progresses by hunch, vision and intuition” (Gould, 1984) Lewontin extends this view and it is worthwhile to share this in its entirety:

For an institution to explain the world so as to make the world legitimate

it must possess several features. First, the institution as a whole must appear

to derive from sources outside of ordinary human social struggle. It must

not seem to be the creation of political, economic, or social forces, but to

descend into society from a supra-human source. Second the ideas, pronouncements

rules, and results of the institution’s activity must have validity and a transcendent

truth that goes beyond any possibility of human compromise or human error. Its

explanations and pronouncements must seem true in an absolute sense and to derive

somehow from an absolute source. They must be true for all time and all place. And,

finally, the institution must have a certain mystical and veiled quality so that

its innermost operation is not completely transparent to everyone. It must have an

esoteric language, which needs to be explained to the ordinary person by those

who are especially knowledgeable and who can intervene between everyday life

and the mysterious source of understanding and knowledge….any revealed religion

fits these requirements…but this description also fits science and has made it

possible for science to replace religion as the chief legitimating source in modern

society. (Lewontin, 1991)

Science shares a flawed and fallible history with all religions, and its failures often outweigh its successes, especially in the fields of biology, physics and chemistry. Simple facts bear this out. We have had to wait tens of thousands of years to simply understand that washing of hands significantly decreases the risk of bacteria borne disease, yet hand borne bacterial infections still remains a primary source of illness today. Throughout their short histories as sciences, chemistry has given us poison gas which has killed millions of people from 1915 up to the present day, while physics has given us the atomic bomb, an equally pernicious weapon of mass destruction, which has killed millions of innocent people too. We have had some wonderful theories too, including Polygeny and Craniometry before Darwin’s theory, which argued that the more one’s head resembled a primate, the less human one was. Then there was the body measuring of the 19^th century which argued that the more apish our bodies were the closer to that species and the less human we were. And on the cognitive side we had the development of the IQ test, including Binet’s scale which asserted that intellectual superiority was “tied to cerebral volume” (Gould, 1984), these later spawned a number of theories linking social class with levels of intelligence, moral degeneracy and evil.

Today, biology has given us the human genome and the unraveling of the DNA structure of human beings. The unlocking of this code, it is argued, has enabled all sorts of possibilities, all sorts of miraculous cures to occur. These include spectacular claims such as paraplegics and quadriplegics will walk again, multiple sclerosis sufferers will be cured, and cancer will be eradicated. And let’s not forget the now infamous, South Korean veterinarian researcher, Dr. Hwang Woo Suk’s now widely discredited assertion that the human embryo had been cloned, creating the world’s first cloned human being.

Despite such fantastical claims and lies, science as a general academic discipline is viewed by educators, and a significant number of adults and Theory of Knowledge students, to be above society, and to be the holder of all truths. If it is critiqued in any way it is done so within the canons of its own writings and is held completely unaccountable until a scandal breaks, and then such scandals are for the most part ignored by mainstream media and educational institutions. The exception to date is climategate, and the fudging of figures on supposed global warming and climate change, but the attention this received in mainstream media and educational textbooks is miniscule compared to the adulation science receives in debunking religious world views.

The current euphoria being shown to Theology’s secular equivalent, cosmology, and theoretical physics, is not dissimilar to the glorification of biological determinism’s hoopla over the mapping of human DNA. Yet their claims to truth are as equally disturbing as they are flaky. Two deserve consideration here. The first one, leading from theoretical physics is that lead can be turned to gold. This was raised by one a student in his essay on the nature of truth in the natural sciences. He had found a source for this miraculous scientific claim on the internet. He cited Ann Marie Helmensteine, PhD, who claimed that particle accelerators like the hadron collider will change lead to gold. In fact she claims this had happened twice already in the 20^th century, once in 1951, by Glenn Seaborg, a Chemistry Laureate, and again in 1972, Soviet physicists achieved this monumental feat. (Helmenstine, 2011). She of course doesn’t offer any explanation as to why this failed to prevent the economic collapse of the former Soviet Union, or why today we aren’t all billionaires, with our own metallurgy forges in our sheds and garages, churning out gold bars from our now obsolete lead pencils.

Such truth-seeking insight is not lost on Stephen Hawking either. His very recent claim that he has found the answer to the philosophical conundrum of why there is something rather than nothing not only astounded the religious establishments, fellow scientists and many philosophers, it has literally bewitched senior high school science students. Hawking and Mlodinow claim that gravity alone has enabled the universe to come into existence. (Hawking & Mlodinow, 2010), what’s more not only is God dead, but so is philosophy. The whole Western philosophical and epistemological canon, including philosophy along with every major world religion has been annihilated and is no longer worthy of study, according to these two writers. Notwithstanding such naïve arrogance, neither has understood Heidegger’s question, and like Richard Dawkins and Christopher Hitchens, before them, Hawking and Mlodinow venture into the metaphysical areas of Philosophy and Theology of which they know nothing about and their ensuing arguments collapse to the point of the absurd. Theories like vibrating strings, two dimensional membranes and blobs are the work of script writers on the Dr. Who series, and are very poor examples of science fiction fantasy.

Hawking and Mlodinow fail to understand that Heidegger posited the metaphysical question, why is there something, rather than nothing? since he was aware that western philosophy (like western science today) had become so preoccupied with its own narcissistic assumptions about its a priori existence that it had failed to consider the very nature of being itself. Heidegger’s question called for a re-evaluation of western philosophy. His intent was to re-trace our philosophical routes and return to an understanding of being, one which wasn’t separate from the 15^th century philosopher and cleric Bishop Berkeley’s equally absurd and meaningless claim that matter doesn’t exist.

Heidegger’s vision, although not realized, was analogous to the Eastern paradoxical notion of Nothingness, or as Mathew Fox calls it the Via Negativa (Fox, 1983) in which self and ego are diminished to the extent that our true nature is revealed. Hawking and Mlodinow, in arrogantly claiming to have answered Heidegger’s question, completely misunderstand and misconstrue it. Their assertion that spontaneous creation is why there is something rather than nothing is the ultimate trick in the illusionists arsenal of make believe and is akin to the alchemist’s claim of being able to turn lead into gold. But, then is this surprising coming from a once eminent scientist who has dedicated a greater part of his life to theoretical fantasies? There is  no clear, concrete evidence for black holes, quarks, dark matter and other suggested matter, including neutron degenerated stars as postulated by the theories of quantum physics and cosmology. There is quite frankly more sound reasoning in St Thomas Aquinas’s five proofs for the existence of God than there are in all the theories of quantum physics and cosmology. Yet, it is Aquinas, and not Hawking and Mlodinow, who is cast as the myth maker, and whose ideas it is asserted belong in the realm of superstitious fantasy.

Notwithstanding its commitment to critical thinking and rational enquiry, it seems to be the case that there is no room in the debates and arguments of international education for faith and belief, along with the sound reasoning and arguments of religious world views. Rather, it is more acceptable to promote scientific theories which invoke a fantastical world occupied and haunted by aliens, two dimensional blobs and membranes, string theory out of a can, and interstellar cloud bursts of spontaneous creation from which soar blood sucking vampires, werewolves, Harry Potter impersonators, and personal avatar gods created through the equally flaky notion of virtual reality.

Where in amongst this phantasm of fairytales and horror stories masquerading as reality, are the arguments for a civilized, sound, rational world view?

Dewey asserts that despite living in social groups like families and communities, we are not by any means civilized. We are, at a base level using each other to fulfill primary and secondary needs. He explains that the relations between parents and their children, teachers and their students, employers and their employees are not civil, if they remain in an imperative mode of simply actions and results. The formulation of real, genuine relationships of knowledge and understanding, leading to a civil society, needs to take place formally and in an educational setting based on sound principles of inclusiveness of ideas and beliefs, justice and goodness, the application of sound reasoning, the promotion and development of empathy, and compassion for one another, and a vision of shared values, and common ethical frameworks. (Dewey, 1916). It is these integral aspects of the grand narratives of western civilization which have been under attack for decades. Epistemology, along with critical thinking entails a measured, balanced assessment of all arguments and evidence, before drawing conclusions. Such an approach is noticeably lacking in a majority of the essays I have assessed and despite the warning signs, no-one, above all in the scientific community, and in international education in general, seems to be understanding that humans as “organisms do not find the world in which they develop, they make it” (Lewontin, 1991)

Bibliography

Dewey, J. (1916). Democracy and Education: An Introduction to the Philosophy of Education. New York: Simon and Schuster.

Fox, M. (1983). Original Blessing. Santa Fe: Bear & Company.

Gould, S. J. (1984). The Mismeasure of Man. New York: Penguin.

Hawking, S., & Mlodinow, L. (2010). The Grand Design. New York: Bantam Books.

Helmenstine, A. M. (2011, January 1). About.com: Chemistry. Retrieved April 22, 2011, from About.com: http://chemistry.about.com/cs/generalchemistry/a/aa050601a.htm

Hitchens, C. (2007). God is Not Great. New York: Atlantic Books.

Lewontin, R. (1991). The Doctrine of DNA: Biology as Ideology. London: Penguin.

Midgley, M. (1985). Evolution as Religion. London: Routledge.

Pogge, R. (2005, January 2). A Brief Note on Religious Objections to Copernicus. Retrieved April 21, 2011, from Ohio State University: http://www.astronomy.ohio-state.edu/~pogge/Ast161/Unit3/response.html

 In his definitive novel about a quest for meaning from within the Arab World, Naguib Mahfouz (Mahfouz, 1992) chronicles the journey of Ibn Fattouma (Qindil Muhammad al-Innabi) as he leaves his home on a search for an understanding on the differences which exist between a society’s ideals, principles and values, and how they are lived out on a day-to day basis. Throughout his ensuing journey, Ibn Fattouma undergoes many struggles, both on an existential and intellectual level, as he attempts to determine the meaning of life in relation to who he is.

 The story is inconclusive, insofar as the outcome of Ibn Fattouma’s journey isn’t revealed to the reader.  It’s a poignantly clever twist by Mahfouz, because one is thrown back on their personal existential struggles, and forced to confront their unknown future, perhaps with renewed commitment; at least that was the case for me when I read the novel some years ago.  I was so inspired by the novel, and Mahfouz’s gift as a story teller, that I placed a number of his texts on a senior reading list, which had hitherto been dominated by Latin American, North American and English poets, novelists and playwrights, while I was teaching at an international school in Jeddah.

International schools are in a unique position to make significant contributions to the development of education in the Arab World. However, the caveat is a question. How much are international schools willing to balance claims to their exclusive cultural affiliation and heritage, or an overt entrepreneurial profit making venture, and accommodate the culture and faith of their host country?

  Despite their varied and contestable heritage, all international schools share a common element in that they are social environments. Groups of people, inclusive of children through to mature adults, representing a variety of social groups and cultures, come together in the name of education. Each person in the international school is a “being connected with other beings and cannot perform his or her activities without taking the activities of others into account” (Geertz, 1973) The interdependence of each member of a school is an extension of their relationship in the wider culture of a society. And schools, like the wider cultural site from whence they emanate affirm ideas of what reality is, and how one is to behave and act within any cultural system. (Geertz, 1973) International schools, no matter where they are located, are a microcosm of the human condition and experience.

 I have been fortunate to hold key positions in 2 international schools in the Middle East, and each one has been characterised by its particular, exclusive cultural affiliation and heritage. The schools operate in conservative Islamic societies, and notwithstanding their co-educational status, for the most part, acknowledge the distinctive culture of their host country. They are specifically western in both name and character, incorporating the name of the country which most closely symbolises the school’s raison d’être, and uphold a mission statement with very clearly defined western values and ideals, closely linked to the international curriculum offered to the student body. Both schools required their students to wear a uniform based on the kind of uniform worn by western students in a private and public school setting in the United Kingdom or Europe. At the same time, both schools are required to offer important components of the national curriculum of their host country, which includes the Arabic language, and Arab and Islamic history.

  The most striking difference for me while teaching in these two schools, was how they acknowledged, supported and cared about the host country’s culture, religion and associated values. One school had a mosque for Muslim students, who constituted the majority of the school’s population, and they were able to pray at the appropriate time, and felt that while they were benefiting from an international education, they were also able to integrate into their daily teaching and learning experience, their unique cultural and religious heritage, which outside of the school setting, underpinned the key values and experiences of their family and social life. During the holy month of Ramadan, the school day and lesson times were shortened, the canteen remained closed.

  The other school, while offering a similar highly valued international credential from primary through to secondary, as well as aspects of the national curriculum of the host country, as mentioned above, did not have a mosque, or any indoor area set aside for students to reflect and/or pray. Pray mats were made available on the balcony of an upstairs room, which during the heat of the months leading up to summer was unbearable to most of the Muslim students, who comprised of over 85% of the school population. During the holy month of Ramadan, the daily timetable remained the same, lesson times were unchanged, the  canteen remained open, and those students who were not fasting (around 15%) bought their food, and were required to eat it at the back of the school building, at first having to walk past all those students fasting.  Such insensitivities were not lost on the student body, and did not help to engender tolerance and understanding of some key cultural values in relation to the intellectual heritage of both the international school, and that of its host country.  It seemed to me, at the time, that this was such a lost opportunity to bring together the intellectual and cultural traditions, and the religious heritage of the host country. At the same time, it denied the non-Arabs in the school, an opportunity to experience and understand in real terms, key aspects of another culture. It also denied the significantly large Arab student population an opportunity to associate their own intellectual and spiritual tradition more fully; with the one which underpinned the curriculum they were being taught. The school administrations argument for such a polarising position was that all students should be treated the same, to avoid inequalities developing.  Once again, I was reminded of Ibn Fattouma’s journey through Aman, where justice is the highest value; yet it only generated suspicion and intolerance. (Mahfouz, 1992).

One of the most sought after a secondary school credentials is the International Baccalaureate Diploma, a two year academically, and intellectually challenging, liberal arts programme of study. The Diploma programme is the 3^rd credential in a tripartite programme of study, offered by the International Baccalaureate, which begins in primary school, continues through middle school, and culminates in the final two years of high school with the diploma programme.

  The ideals and principles of the IB, while discrete, are also to be found in a number of global organisations which promote inter-cultural understanding, as well as basic human rights, equality, compassion and justice regardless of race, religion, nationality, gender, sexual orientation, creed and social class, to name a few. These are values and principles which grew out of the League of Nations, founded in 1919, following the Treaty of Versailles, and which were elaborated on in the international charter of human rights in 1948, which in turn, were a response to the horrendous consequences from the Second World War, which ended in 1945.

So, in essence, the IB curricula are more than just tracks of learning to educate the world’s children and youth. Embedded in the  organisation’s mission statement  and in their programmes of study  are very explicit ethical frameworks and associated ideals, designed to nurture and promote particular values and attitudes,  and inculcate these into the personal and professional behaviour, and lives,  of all those who undertake their programmes of study:

The International Baccalaureate aims to develop inquiring, knowledgeable and caring young people who help to create a better and more peaceful world through intercultural understanding and respect.

To this end the organization works with schools, governments and international organizations to develop challenging programmes of international education and rigorous assessment.

These programmes encourage students across the world to become active, compassionate and lifelong learners who understand that other people, with their differences, can also be right. (IBO, 2005-2011)

 At the time of writing, there were 2,306 schools throughout the world offering the IB’s senior Diploma Programme. Only 68 are located across the Gulf Arab States, Occupied Palestine, Saudi Arabia, Syria and Egypt. (IBO, Find an IB World School, 2005-2011):

 According to a 2008 report in the online Middle East business magazine and forum, AMEINFO, the IB is targeting the region for growth in its tripartite programmes of study.  They quote the current Director General, Dr. Jeffery Beard as aiming for a target of 400 schools across the region by 2020. (Florian, 2008). While this may signify a shift by local educational authorities in the region, to indicate an interest to integrate a western liberal arts educational programme with its innate ethics and cultural world view into the national systems of their respective countries, it is extremely difficult to predict to what extent the IB diploma programme will lead to positive educational and social transformation in the countries cited above.

 There’s no doubt that the diploma contributes towards a successful education, and entry into tertiary studies and the world of work. Universities throughout the world acknowledge the ability of IB graduates to adjust and successfully pursue degrees at tertiary level. The world of work acknowledges the ability of IB graduates to cope more efficiently and successfully in the early years of their careers. But, most importantly the vast majority of IB graduates acknowledge that their success was in great part due to undertaking the IB diploma programme.  These assertions are supported through an extensive 2010 study into the IB’s three programmes, undertaken by the Hannover Research group in the United States of America. (HanoverResearch, 2010). It is interesting to note, that this report only dealt with indicators of success which were of an academic and intellectual nature.   In 2001, Judy Hinrich of City University, Washington DC published a comparative study on whether students undertaking the IB’s diploma program fulfilled the underlying principles and ideals of the mission statement. The research compared levels of international understanding among students of the IB’s diploma programme, and Advanced Placement programmes in the United States of America. Hinrich found that IB Diploma students “on the whole did not score significantly higher than did AP students.” (Hinrich, 2002) She went on to further argue that “while education has a profound effect on world perspectives, we also know that the value systems of the underlying ideology of a society have tremendous influence on the attitudes and behaviors of its members. It may take years for that underlying ideology to shift substantively enough to allow a program such as the International Baccalaureate program to exert its full effect.” (Hinrich, 2002) In a response to the Hinrich study, George Walker, the then Director General of the IB argued that the organization should not become complacent, even though it “holds a number of defensive cards in this debate. Its mission statement is so general, as to be very hard to measure. The aims and objectives of its strategic plan are so obviously worthwhile that anyone with a sense of vision will be persuaded by them.” (Walker, 2002).  To date, little further research has been undertaken to attempt to measure the success of the integration of the inherent ethical frameworks, and associated values, which are embedded in the IB diploma programme curriculum, into the personal lives of individual graduates and their graduating class. To what extent are IB diploma graduates, in a state of becoming more caring, compassionate, understanding and tolerant global citizens? 

In terms of the kinds of social transformation which Dewey regarded as essential for the development of a civilized society, and its ability to change for the better, (Dewey, 1916), there’s not a lot of evidence, as yet,  to suggest that the importation of a European curriculum, into the Middle East, or any other non-Western country for that matter,  will have any great influence on the host country’s culture and traditions and how it perceives itself and the wider world.  Presently, in terms of measuring the extent to which the IB diploma program may shift hardened cultural and moral prejudices, the kind of which are bred through fear, suspicion, decades of conflict, religious intolerance and just plain bigotry is extremely difficult to measure.  Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab, a graduate of an IB World school, The British School of Lome, is a case in point. This young man, coming from a very privileged background and an education in one of the top private schools in West Africa became a Jihadist suicide bomber and attempted to blow up a US bound airliner on 25^th of December, 2009. Another instance from my own professional experience as an educator is Jeremy Strohmeyer.  I taught this young man while he was a first year IB student in an international school in Singapore. Jeremy is serving a life sentence in the United States, for the murder of a 7 year old girl, in Nevada, in 1997. While these are isolated incidents, they do suggest the inherent complexities in assessing the overall long and short term efficacy of a value based educational curriculum, such as the IB’s high school diploma programme, no matter where it is located.

  Yet, despite the overall pessimistic appraisal of general educational trends in the Arab world, and the ongoing social and political instability in the region, there is good cause for hope and optimism that with change comes progress. Early in 2011, the World Bank published a very upbeat report on education reform in the region citing a 2010 meeting in Qatar attended by a number of Arab countries. The report asserts that the next 5 years will be critical for positive reform of the regions educational sectors. A memorandum from this meeting endorsed reports from UNESCO, UNICEF and the UN calling for quality, and opportunity in education across the region. Moreover, the Arab League’s Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation is working on an educational framework which will facilitate coherency of learning along with curriculum reform and to align disparate educational systems in the region with Global expectations. (WorldBank, 2011) It is to be hoped in doing so, the rich intellectual and spiritual traditions of the Middle East will form the very foundations of curriculum reform and implementation.

Nonetheless, these are vast expectations and are akin to Ibn Fattouma’s journey as he prepares to reach his ultimate goal, the land of Gebel, which is to be found on the summit of a mountain. This mythical land is where peace, solidarity, tolerance, learning, understanding and happiness are located. As the novel ends, we find Ibn Fattouma, along with fellow pilgrims standing at the base of this very intimidating mountain, whose peaks reaching way up into the sky are almost invisible. Will they reach their goal?

References:

Akrawi, M., & Matthews, R. (1949). Education in Arab Countries of the Near East. Washington, D.C.: American Council on Education.

Akrawi, M., & Matthews, R. (1949). Education of Arab Countries of the Near East. Washington, D.C.: American Council of Education.

Al-Azzawi, S. (2011). Decline Of Iraqi Women Empowerment through Education under American Occupation 2003-2011. Belgium: http://www.brussellstribunal.org/pdf/IraqiWomen_Azzawi_100311.pdf.

Department, U. S. (2011, March 18). Background Notes-Syria. Retrieved July 19, 2011, from US State Department: http://www.state.gov/r/pa/ei/bgn/3580.htm

Dewey, J. (1916). Democracy and Education. New York: Macmillan.

El Baz, F. (2007, February 12th). Reform in Arab Countries-Role of Education. Retrieved July 19th, 2011, from Inclusive World Forum: http://www.strategicforesight.com/iwforum/farouk.htm

Florian, J. (2008, November 25th). IB programme Targets Middle East. Retrieved July 24th, 2011, from AME info.com: http://www.ameinfo.com/176898.html

Geertz, G. (1973). The Interpretation of Cultures-Selecetd Essays. New York: Basic Boooks.

HanoverResearch. (2010). Current Trends in International Baccalaureate Programmes. Washington D.C.: Hanover Research.

Hinrich, J. (2002). The Effect of the International Baccalaureate Programme on International Understanding. IB Research Notes , 3-9.

IBO. (2005-2011). Find an IB World School. Retrieved July 24th, 2011, from International Baccalaurreate Organisation: http://www.ibo.org/school/search/index.cfm?programmes=DIPLOMA&country=&region=&find_schools=Find

IBO. (2005-2011). Mission & Strategy. Retrieved July 24th, 2011, from International Baccalaureate Organisation: http://www.ibo.org/mission/

Jeddah Educational Administration, 2. (2011). Denial of Philosophy. In E. Morozov, The Net Delusion: The Dark Side of Internet Freedom (pp. 103-104). New York: Public Affairs.

Mahfouz, N. (1992). The Journey of Ibn Fattouma. Cairo: The American University of Cairo Press.

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In the 1980s film Dead Poets Society an English teacher John Keating (Robin Williams), inspires his students to change their lives of conformity and become spontaneous, creative individuals who should seize the day (carpe diem). It’s a stirring film and still resonates with me today as an educator, through its powerful portrayal of conflicting pedagogical views: conformity versus spontaneity and improvisation. There’s a telling scene in the film where Keating has his students improvise marching to music; as well as listening to music prior to kicking a football to encourage them to get in touch with their own individuality and creativity. These are inspiring examples of spontaneity and improvisation.  But, over 20 years have passed since Peter Weir’s film and there’s been a kind of conservative restoration in most western societies, and in all fields of education over the last two decades. A preoccupation with teacher as technician, rather than teacher as a facilitator of teaching and learning has become de rigur in a vast number of educational training programs, institutions-primary, secondary, tertiary, including institutions and academies which specialize in ESL/EFL/EAL teaching and learning. This is evidenced through increasing educational bureaucracies, overprescribed curricula with repetitive skill development, a preoccupation with testing, and a possessiveness with administrative tasks which can tie up teachers for endless hours of work which could be better spent with their students.  Notwithstanding the generalized nature of my assertions, there would be many colleagues who would be very happy to have the time, energy and motivation to improvise in their classrooms. The caveat is that there needs to be a ‘safe space’ within the institution’s rasion d’être which would allow this to take place. An institution’s culture can either stifle or promote and encourage spontaneity, improvisation and creativity in teaching and learning. Also, some educational institutions are so prescriptive in their dictates on what is to be taught in the classroom, that a lesson plan must be strictly adhered too!

However, leaving aside the analysis, I love spontaneity and improvisation in the classroom. It’s comes naturally and can make teaching and learning fun. Also, it is often the catalyst to authentic learning and guarantees successful students outcomes. I’m not talking about that superficial notion of the ‘wow’ factor, borrowed from corporate self-help books and imposed on teachers by a few over-zealous and retired educators looking to make a quick buck on the ‘key-note address’ circuit.  Rather, I’m suggesting the concept of resonance with learners, which evokes in us a natural spontaneity, whereby we build and improvise on what is happening in our classrooms at any given moment. It does mean that circumstances require us to digress from a work plan, but the results can be nothing short of outstanding.

How can teachers develop a resonance with their learners? What I term here as resonance is the ability of a teacher to have empathy and understanding of what it is to be a learner.

Resonance assumes a perceptive intuitiveness on behalf of the teacher, about the kinds of qualities and attributes that learners bring with them to the classroom to help them be successful. For example, they are for the most part (leaving aside any learning disabilities) fluent in their mother tongue, intelligent, and generally speaking have more than a superficial understanding of their culture, and through this will hold particular assumptions about others, including their teachers, fellow students and the institution as a whole. Furthermore, they will bring to the classroom, a unique identity, for the most part, forged within a family construct of which both the language and content based teacher may know very little. Moreover, each student will be dealing with particular personal issues of which only they are privy, but that nevertheless will impact on their ability to integrate course content into their intellectual understanding.

All teachers are well able to tap into this and get to know their students as individuals. For example, through a 10 minute group activity, either at the beginning or end of a lesson, where teacher and students sit in a circle together, with the teacher facilitating, a wealth of important information can be garnished to assist both the teacher and student about the teaching and learning process within their classroom. This will include essential curriculum issues with a language focus, but at the same time it will reveal elements of the hidden curriculum present in all formal learning situations. Eisner (1989, 97) argued that

“…we are well advised to consider not only the explicit and implicit curricula of institutions, but also what they do not teach. It is my thesis that what institutions do not teach may be as important as what they do teach…” [1]

So, it is important we consider these powerful determiners of students’ success or lack thereof in their language and content courses; because, they are always there, simmering beneath the surface. Consequently, some of the issues which may emerge from this group activity will include, but not be limited to:

• Language learning needs and issues
• Content learning needs and issues
• Progress in the course
• Social/behavioral issues
• Teacher/student expectations
• Clarification of cultural understandings/misunderstandings
• Worldview of your students beyond the classroom and organization
• An understanding of previous educational experiences
• Development of a trusted teacher/student relationship

These learning circles can be conducted regularly by any teacher. They are easy to run and provide an alternative teaching modality from the intensity of teacher centered instruction as the complexity of the linguistic and content components progresses. The activity in itself is a valuable provider of cross curricula shared information on students’ achievement levels and abilities. I use them myself and find them advantageous for students and teacher, and they are successful. I have measured the success of this activity in several ways. Firstly, empirically, through observing how learners participate and the kinds of information they share. Secondly, a simple online survey was conducted seeking learners’ personal opinion of the activity. Finally through teacher intuition, that important, but often overlooked skill that seasoned teachers acquire – the innate knowledge that the activity worked well. There was harmony in the group, everyone participated and the group asked to be able to repeat the activity in another lesson. If the focus in the learning circle remains on fluency over accuracy, it will become apparent that EAL students have already managed to develop skills in the learning processes, which enables them to navigate conceptually from their first language to their newly acquired second language.

The learning circle opens up a dialogue with students which highlights particular assumptions and needs in essential skill development within any academic program.  One assumption which all teachers make is that their students are literate and able to read. Is this a valid assumption to make given that specific issues about reading will inevitably arise when the process of reading is not fully acknowledged and/or understood? I think not because the processes leading to any learner being able to read are complex, seldom linear in their progression and is inextricably linked to other aspects of the foundations of literacy as well as a person’s psycho-cognitive development. For example, we read from a very early age, the shared signs and symbols that underpin the uniquely personal world to which we adhere. Infants and small children learn to read the cues, symbols and codes of their immediate social environment often before they can articulate language utterances, or construct a string of words together. It is widely accepted today that the approving and/or disapproving adult responses very young children get to their reading of the world does impact on their ability to learn as they grow into themselves. It is called self confidence and it emanates from these very early childhood experiences. It is this self confidence or lack of it, which they bring into our classrooms and in turn affects their capacity to learn and to read well.  Having gathered this understanding in the field of teaching and learning over two decades, I feel there’s an important place for spontaneity, improvisation and creativity in the classroom, and I am reminded of the words of Pablo Casals: Every second we live is a new and unique moment of the universe, a moment that never was before and never will be again. And what do we teach our children in school? We teach them that two and two make four and that Paris is the capital of France. We should say to each of them, “Do you know who you are? You are a marvel. You are unique. In the millions of years that have passed, there has never been another child like you.”[2]

“Reasoning and education, though we are willing to put our trust in them, can hardly be powerful enough to lead us to action, unless besides we exercise and form our soul by experience to the way we want it to go; otherwise when it comes to the time of action, it will undoubtedly find itself at a loss” Montaigne

If education is to be liberating, then it must begin with liberating the self.

There is a case to be argued for the inclusion and recognition of the significant influence religion; culture and spirituality have in the world today. I would argue for a paradigmatic view of religion rather than a traditional interpretation limited to religions said to have been spawned from the time of the prophet Abraham. Furthermore I would argue for a definition of spirituality in its broadest sense too, as the unique ability of individual human beings to transcend the rational and acknowledge the experience and understanding of the non-rational in their lives. These two concepts of knowing and understanding the world of the ‘visible and invisible’, are inextricably linked to, but not necessarily limited by, or beholden to, the concept ofculture. International schools by definition are inextricably linked to a variety of cultures.

The eminent ethnologist, anthropologist and academic, Clifford Geertz’s definition of culture is significant here, because of its reliance on a simple truth that human beings give significance to their actions which in turn creates meaning in their lives. Moreover, these actions become the means by which we attempt to understand ourselves and others, and communicate our experiences to one another.

Some years ago, while teaching at an international school in Papua New Guinea, I viewed original footage of the first contact between Europeans and the Papua New Guineans who had lived and worked in the Highlands of their country for millennia without encountering other humans. They had evolved a complex and highly developed cultural system, incorporating several hundred different language groups.  In their first encounters with the Europeans the indigenous people sought out common signs to attest to their understanding of who these strangers were and where they had come from- clothing, bodily waste, and human emotion and actions became the measure by which the Europeans were defined eventually as fellow human beings. David Attenborough explores this further in his fascinating and inimical documentary series ‘Life on Earth. In the specific program entitled ‘The Compulsive Communicators’ (BBC, 1984) he and his crew meet with a group of Papua New Guineans in the Highlands, who do not speak English – they communicate with one another using signs and gestures, but what is most fascinating, and reassuring is the lack of aggression in the encounters, and the attempts by both groups of people to disarm one another fears and apprehensions about who the other party is by smiling and laughing, thereby establishing common ground, in an attempt to understand one another. It is as Geertz so eloquently puts it a case of us humans being suspended in our own “webs of significance.”  Geertz also delivers a cautionary message; he argues that culture is “public, because meanings are necessarily the collective property of a group. When we say we do not understand the actions of people from a culture other than our own, we are acknowledging our “lack of what is familiar with the imaginative universe within which their actions are signs to us.” (Geertz, 1989) We are in a sense demonstrating an ignorance which is partly of our own making, and ironically a residue of culture, a sort of cultural dissonance if you like, founded on what we want and choose to acknowledge, rather than seeking an understanding what there is to be understood.

Culture, Religion and Spirituality, are three of the most significant, yet problematic concepts humans have devised for themselves and their fuller inclusion in international education and would support a greater realization of our goal to assist young people to become compassionate thinkers and participants in an increasingly interdependent cultural world community.

My argument is predicated on the proposition that thinking and being are a form of prayer. This is not an original idea, in fact I heard it on television, being somewhat distracted by what was happening in the program, but conscious enough to jot it down on a ‘post it’ note. It has a very strong resonance with me, because it says that we do not need to compartmentalize our lives in order to acknowledge spirituality, practice a faith or understand our own and other’s cultural expectations on life, religion and spirituality. When I was 10 years old, myself, along with my brothers and sisters had to change schools. We were withdrawn from a local Catholic primary school, and placed into a local state primary school. We took it in our stride, nothing traumatic in it at all. It was, I think, one of my earliest experiences of discovering the impermanence of everything. But one aspect of this change still resonates with me – each week we had a lesson in “religious education”. I remember the first lesson well, a very kind elderly woman came in, and spoke to us about scripture, and recalled a biblical story – and it ended with a quiet but gentle admonishment on the importance of being good for the remainder of the week. I recalled the experience that evening, at home, where upon it was pointed out to me that I didn’t have to attend these classes because I was Catholic. At 10 years old it wasn’t my first introduction to religious difference through dogma and doctrine; but it was the awareness of the experience of this difference for the first time, something I hadn’t been aware of before- I want to emphasize here awareness, because it is a quite distinct area of knowing – it is the merging of the intuitive with the rational to create a deeper understanding. This awareness informed me of the divisive nature of the experience – it wasn’t so much a celebration of difference, it was a difference founded upon a religious and cultural worldview which claimed the moral high ground of certainty for a select group. I recall this without rancor and condemnation of others – it is just the way it was then, and at 10 years old my protestations were considered insignificant – even to myself.

Some 40 years later it can be argued that circumstances have changed – or have they?  In a pre September 11^th world, I may have been bold enough to claim that cultural plurality, difference through unity in diversity, along with ecumenism were shaping our world, and the world of secondary and post secondary education, but regrettably in a post Sept 11^th world the converse is true. While some have argued that a ‘Post September the 11^th world’ has been with us for a long time – that extremism has always been around-we are today living in an age of unprecedented polarities – culturally, philosophically, economically, socially, and politically – the grand narratives of our own collective histories have fragmented, and a cultural dissonance seems to vibrate throughout the world. Such a timeforces debate and discussion upon us, and seeks from us a time to pause and reflect upon our own“webs of significance”. George S Counts, an American Educator from the mid twentieth century argues  that: “we must abandon completely the naïve faith, that schools, and education generally automatically liberates the mind and serves the cause of human progress”, he argues that “we know that it may serve tyranny as well as freedom, ignorance as well as enlightenment, falsehood as well as truth, war as well as peace, death as well as life…”(Counts, 1962) As educators there’d not be many of us who’d disagree with his assertions, and those of us who teach within the curricula offered through the International Baccalaureate Organization are aware of the significance of this organization’s efforts to serve the “cause of human freedom”, and how its curricula are “designed for that purpose”. The question to ask now is: given the challenges that face us as human beings on this planet – exponential global population growth; dwindling natural resources, global warming; resurgence in religious nationalism; widening gap between rich and poor; to name a few – is it enough? In focusing on international education two further questions arise:

1. How do we realize the human quality of compassion through our curricula?
2. How can we promote ‘reflection’ through our curricula?

Educators and academics who have a longer and more personal standing with the IB and the Diploma program are not new to these questions; in fact the late Alex Peterson provided a partial answer when he argued that IB students should be “aiming to recognize all persons are of equal value, they should develop skills to empathize, acquire the knowledge to understand the emotions, and motivation of oneself and others; gain awareness of the seriousness of moral situations, and form a commitment to generate an autonomously accepted set of moral principles and act upon them.” (Peterson, 1987) These are a commendable part of the Kantian ethic to uphold; but, these ideals, even when realized are exclusive to a humanist tradition, which has often found the spiritual and religious dimension of human history either antiquated, and no longer relevant to academia, or too fraught with a history of controversy, that silence is preferred over debate, disagreement, and perhaps inevitable divisions.

Kant’s vision of a civil ethic to guide humanity through the trials of existence has produced the foundation for a just society; but his belief and vision that the individual would develop his/her own moral sense given the right conditions, we know, from historical experience, has had only a moderate success. It is nothing less that a lament for humanity that there are too many examples to draw from to support my assertion, but  one that moves me on a deep emotional and spiritual level is Dr. Pascal Ngoga,-the Ambassador for Rwanda to Ethiopia- account to an IB regional conference on the genocide in his country. “Who” he pleads, ‘in international education will speak with passion and conviction for the refugees, the famine stricken, the illiterate and the genocide survivors if not the IB?” (Ngoga, 2002) What are we to do? In essence we find ourselves revisiting our religious paradigms, and their respective positions on what constitutes a good education, a just society, and a humane world.

In his Peterson Lecture of May 2002, to the IB Annual General Meeting, His Excellency Ahmad Jalali, the President of the General Conference of UNESCO summarizes four different positions on the role of religion and spirituality in education.     Firstly, he argues they can be used as a source of social and political power, the effects being freedom, liberation, social harmony or oppression and tyranny. Secondly, they are distinct and separate from secular powers, thus religious and spiritual knowledge can be ‘taught’ in schools to those who want to learn. Thirdly, nothing is taught in schools except that the history and philosophy of religions is taught as a subject among others; and to some how know “the other” as one knows “oneself” The fourth option he suggests is to follow none of the above. Moreover he argues that we ought to consider the importance of understanding ethics and spirituality within an ecumenical framework, and that such a paradigm would not eschew the humanist tradition from which we have drawn so much of our ethics throughout the modern period, but develop it to suit the times.  I agree with him. (Jalali, 2002).  Our challenge he argues is to “create an atmosphere of dialogue among different religions with the aim of codifying the common core between them, to be introduced in our educational curricula, thus providing a basis for the wider acceptance of the IB diploma programme in the eyes of different partners” (Jalali, 2002)

He offers us part of the answer through suggesting that religious dogmas and doctrines be spurned in favor of teaching religious paradigms of understanding, and their respective traditions. This could include autobiographical accounts of the great men and women who have inspired tens of millions of people throughout the course of human history in matters of the spirit.

I want to briefly return to my point that thinking and being are a form of prayer and contextualize it through an experience I had during my appointment to an IB school in Saudi Arabia. In a somewhat cynical aside, an IB graduate in his valedictorian address made the point that he felt cheated if he had to wait another 5 years or more to gain benefit from what he described as “two horrendous years of study”. It would be easy to dismiss his point as just another example of modern youth seeking instant gratification – but I knew this young man, and only a few months earlier, as he was attempting to complete course work, an extended essay, CAS requirements, prepare for his trial exams, and complete several vitally important University applications he broke down, and in a moment of vulnerability and near defeat said “ it is just too much – what if at the end of it all I fail or I don’t get in to College?” Now, there was no way that this young man was going to fail – his human qualities would not let him down, and we explored this very point for sometime in the moment. It is my view that what he hadn’t allowed himself to do was take time out to think and reflect on what he was doing, and why he was doing it.  In his defense it wasn’t just a matter of him being more organized, sacrificing his social life, staying on top of the program – he was organized, he didn’t socialize during term time, and he was never late with any aspect of his studies. He was like many other young men and woman in the final phase of their secondary schooling, and perhaps like the tens of thousands of IB candidate throughout the world who are so consumed by their opportunity in it, and their commitment to complete it successfully, they seldom take the time to “think and reflect” on what they are doing. Yet, my experience over a decade as an international educator in the Middle East, Europe, South East Asia and South America suggests that there is time during the day to do so. It seems to me the time is there, but perhaps we need to create the right conditions.

The modernist international educational curriculum offers subjects within a sphere of influence that has a causal historical link to the early grand Universities of Europe. These in turn evolved from the Monastic, scholastic institutions of some of the great Monasteries of early Christendom. The intellectual traditions of the Orient are also strongly connected to their respective religious cultures and traditions. H.E Ahamad Jalali upholds the view that his own religious tradition of Islam cannot be delineated from an intellectual tradition either. This point was illustrated beautifully for me in a recent Theory of Knowledge Class. After giving a brief summary of how Christendom developed its secular tradition one of the young men in the class rather perplexed by this separation of the sacred and the secular explained how Islam is his life. “My scholastic tradition” he said, “is founded upon the Prophet Mohammed and the Holy Koran”.

Clearly for this young man ‘thinking and being are a form of prayer’. It is the case that a great majority of religious world views are founded upon an intellectual tradition, which is not separated from the day-to-day activities of life. So, I think the challenge for the IBO, and for educators and curriculum writers, is to create the right conditions whereby our young people are less incline to compartmentalize their lives, and are able to integrate their lives at school with their lives in the wider communities and societies from which they emanate; however I am not suggesting that we begin a crusade of sorts legitimizing the concept of a religious education. Quite the opposite.

Rudolf Otto, in his seminal text ‘The Idea of the Holy’ argues that before “religion became “morality touched with emotion” it was emotion itself, or a group of emotions, and still is…” (Otto, 1950) He argues that the feeling of the ‘uncanny’, the thrill of awe or reverence, the sense of dependence, of impotence when confronted with immense, indescribable power, or of nothingness, or again the feeling of mystical rapture and exaltation – are called the non – rational feelings, the sense of the tremendous, the awful, the mysterious, or in a word in which he sums up all of these extraordinary aspects of the human experience the ‘numinous’. (Otto, 1950) It is somewhat to our detriment as educators that the non-rational more often called the intuitive no longer holds its rightful place in our sphere of learning and education. He cautions us that we cannot experience this if the conditions are not there-for some individuals they may never experience this, for others they will. The experience cannot be extracted through dogmas or doctrines of any kind, but rather is a unique individual calling to discover from within the dependency of a “creature on his/her creator.”

We are all dependent – notwithstanding the importance of interdependency, we seem a little ashamed to admit any kind of dependency, yet everyday in our lives we are dependent on someone- from a person we know, and love, to a complete stranger. Some people fly regularly, now there is an example of complete dependency. But more to the point, children and young people in our schools are dependent on us to create the ‘right’ conditions for them to grow and develop into whole persons.  A couple of years ago, while on an assignment at an English Medium comprehensive school in Kuwait, I noted that on the school campus there was a mosque, which the Muslim students use regularly for prayer. There wasn’t another ‘space’ for non- Muslims to use, so a few ventured into the Mosque, but most didn’t bother.

Recently, while in transit at an airport in Thailand, , I noted their international prayer room, with its simple instructions for peoples of all religious denominations. It is a spacious room, painted in soft hues of pastel shades, heavily carpeted, with a few cushions and prayer mats-nothing else. I was struck by the ecumenism shown in a devoutly Buddhist country. It occurred to me that such a ‘significant space’ for ‘thinking and being’ could be set aside for students in international schools. I envisage this ‘space’ becoming a sacred place where the fruits of our intellectual tradition can merge with the innate spiritual qualities of our youth and children, and that the whole person can be recognized in the educative process. Such a space would be non-denominational, and in its silence on religious specificity, would speak of ecumenism, cooperation, tolerance, understanding and compassion. It would be a sacred space where young people can fulfill their faith requirements, and find strength of purpose through reflection on all that takes place in their lives as participants in the
post-modern world of international education. This will only contribute in a positive way to their holistic development, and in the fulfillment of our responsibilities to see the aims and objectives of our particular school philosophies and mission statements realized earlier in the lives of our students. All we have to do is create the right conditions-the rest will take care of itself.

So, a final question becomes what of the spiritual, and its vexed relationship within our own intellectual tradition within the post modern period? How can we readdress this balance in a subtle, non- intrusive way whereby we are educating the whole person?  It is my argument that intellectual traditions are imbued with innate spiritual values – whether opposing (rather ironically) or arguing for their existence. Through invigorating international curricula with knowledge, skills and sustainable values, including religious and spiritual ones, we can reaffirm our status as ‘knowers’ in the truest sense of the concept, and claim that the reflected life is well worth living. This will rekindle hope and the quest for open-mindedness, understanding and compassion for future generations of students in international education

Acknowledgements:

Attenborough, D ‘The Compulsive Communicators’ in Life on Earth, BBC

Productions, 1984

Counts, S.G Education and the Foundations of Freedom, Pittsburgh, University

Of Pittsburgh Press, 1962.

Geertz, C, The Interpretations of Cultures, Routledge, Great Britain, 1989.

Jalali, A, Religion and the Education of Young People: Address to the IBO Annual

Meeting, Geneva, Switzerland, 2002.

Ngoga, P, A Case for Genocide in the Curriculum of International Schools. Address

To IBO Europe and Middle East Conference, 2002.

Peterson, A, Schools Across Frontiers, Open Court, Chicago, 2003.

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