Systems Thinking and Biomimicry : Rays of Hope for Education

It's been more than a year that RIPeducation blog has been launched and as mentioned in the objective of this blog - it is about finding loopholes and problems in our current education system while also looking for fundamental,  feasible and effective answers to the problems

For more than a year now, I've been exploring solutions to Education. I've visited several alternative schools and I must admit that I've found rays of hope in many of them.

Many alternative schools are doing great job, but they are working on a very small group and focussing on small sets of problems. For e.g. A school I visited in South India is really doing great job by having environment friendly lifestyle and education. Another institution in Rajasthan is working closely with local community to get the local wisdom and restore the cultural values.

Such attempts at smaller levels to transform education have been made since many decades all across the world. Many people in their own capacity have experimented and offered better ways of learning. Many of them are inspiring and worth studying. However, when it comes to solutions that are scalable and widely applicable, we run out of ideas.

[caption id="attachment_291" align="alignleft" width="300" caption="New hope for education : Systems Thinking and Biomimicry"][/caption]

While its true that there cannot be ONE solution to all our problems in education, I see "Systems thinking" and "Biomimicry" as two very strong rays of hope which can guide us and help us formulate several solutions to our problems in education and problem of education.

Why do I say so ?

Systems thinking and Biomimicry are not methods or direct solution. These are a way of thinking, learning and living.

Systems thinking if simplified simply means :-
1.) Looking at the bigger picture
2.) Striving for fundamental solution instead of symptomatic fixes (short term, quick fixes)
3.) Creating individuals and organizations that continously learn and evolve.

Biomimicry (or as I prefer to call it "Naturics" )  on the other had simply means :-
1.) Having a natural, nature friendly life syle.
2.) Learning and getting inspired from nature.
3.) Co-existing as "one" of several species on this planet.
4.) Aligning our processes and organizations to nature and natural ways.

Although above is a simplification of both, but I think these two discipline can provide the foundation of creating the paradigm shift in education.

If our schools are considered as living organisms with each student and teacher as an important member of the system and all the processes that we follow in schools are re-thought to be more natural (hence human friendly). Don't you think we'll have the batter if not the recipe of a better education ?