COULD YOU BE THAT STRAW?

R. Buckminster Fuller received forty-seven honorary degrees, held twenty-eight patents, was awarded the Medal of Freedom, and was the author of twenty-nine books.

Critical Path, his masterpiece, contains almost 400 pages of original insights, obscure but   wildly vital information, prescriptive wisdom and instructions for what mankind must do if we’re to survive.  It is very readable, extremely interesting and deeply thought-provoking, providing a history of the world unlike anything you ever learned in school.

The outside cover of my edition (printed around 1994) states:

* “The masterwork of one of the finest minds and most significant thinkers of the modern age.”

* “As urgent and relevant today as it was upon its initial publication.”

* “One of the truly original thinkers of the twentieth century.”

* “Brilliant insights …Fuller is still ahead of the parade.”

I found myself wishing everyone I know would read this book and that the “people in charge” around the world  would quit playing brinksmanship games with politics and religion so that we can get on with creating life scenarios that work for all.

I hope you will read it and that you will recommend it to your friends.

I wrote about Fuller in my August 30th blog.  I will probably be writing about him again —and again.

Consider this powerful challenge from the text of his great book:

“At the present cosmic moment, muscle, cunning, fear, and selfishness are in powerful control of human affairs….You could be ‘the straw that breaks the camel’s back’ …that straw of intellect, initiative, unselfishness, comprehensive integrity, competence and love [that]… saves us…On personal integrity hangs humanity’s fate.” – R. Buckminster Fuller

 

TRAGIC BUT FASCINATING

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From time to time I encounter stories of feral children.  Although tragic, they are also fascinating because they let us glimpse important truths about how humans learn and possible hidden potentials.

There is a history that goes back thousands of years, of hundreds of children raised by animals such as goats, dogs, wolves and monkeys.  The stories tell of strange abilities in the children such as the catching of birds and rabbits with bare hands, lapping food from the ground, communicating with hisses, howling and barks, panting like a dog, drinking milk from female animals, running on all fours, scavenging constantly and eating raw and even rotten meat. Many such stories have been dismissed as myths but modern technology is beginning to document such cases.

In 2010, a young Ukrainian girl, Oxana, who was found living with wild dogs, was actually filmed and studied in depth once rescued.  Unlike many such children, she was finally able to be somewhat “re-humanized,” learn human language and walk on two feet.

Shinichi Suzuki, the world famous founder of Suzuki music education, after studying feral children, said “To survive, man instinctively adapts himself to his surroundings.  A tremendous and sublime life force works to grasp the components of our environment.  I am filled with awe at the thought of this power.”

I share not only his awe, but a huge sense of responsibility as I work to design a learning environment equal to this potential for learning ( and a future that is, at this time, unknowable.)  Realizing that the child will adapt to the surroundings, it is a serious business indeed, calling for all the deepest insights and love that can be brought to the task. If you are inclined to help and advise, you are most sincerely invited to do so.

YOUR OWN GREAT IDEAS

Recently I have been working quite feverishly to complete patents.  It is a very intense sort of labor:  one of exactitude, adherence to rules, adaptation of forms, and trying to finally pin down what started as a mental picture into what can actually be constructed in three dimensions and found workable. Nothing in my “education” ever prepared me for this task.

What a fine thing it will be when very young children can begin to acquire these skills  early and use them throughout life, applying them to the practical and challenging  problems they will face in everyday living:  a bit of  instruction along the way in tools of drafting, mechanical engineering,  graphic design, lettering  – –  skills to so greatly help them with their ideas, projects and passions so that they could begin early to bring life to the tiny seed in their minds.

The new  learning center will offer this kind of help daily (and so much more) from caring mentors in a setting of appropriate tools, equipment and furnishings. Children will come to treasure their originality and take their own great ideas seriously.

In the meantime, it is possible to encounter much good help “online.”  For example, did you ever need to draw a big oval?   I was stumped one day, needing one larger than my template and found quick and easy help;  something that would be fun for kids to master.