New Planetary Learners
February 6, 2018 Kosmos Community News


My Unlearning Journey: An Interview with Manish Jain

By Claude Alvares, via Shikshantar.org

“After working with Wall Street, I started to see that most of the horrible crimes against people and the planet were being committed by the so-called ‘Ivy League educated’ people, not by the ‘uneducated’ people. The crazy thing was that these ‘criminals’ were actually not bad guys. Many of them were my friends and we were really nice, caring fellows. Many were doing things that they did not even personally really believe in. They had to follow the orders or they would not get paid. I started to understand how ‘institutionalization’ really works and the role modern education plays in disconnecting us from our inner conscience.” – Manish Jain


Education is the Kindling of a Flame: How to Reinvent the 21st-Century University

By Otto Scharmer, via Huffington Post

“Education is the kindling of a flame, not the filling of a vessel.” This quote from Plutarch is as true today as it was two thousand years ago. Still, the misconception of education as a vessel-filling activity remains. In this column, I outline an idea that could reshape our universities while also prototyping new ways of addressing urgent societal challenges. The kindling of the flame that Plutarch talked about has never been more relevant than now.


book excerpt | The Soul of Education

By Rachael Kessler
In the new edition of Kosmos Journal

“Educators are beginning to refer to a ‘spiritual problem’ in our culture. Scholars analyzing school violence speak of ‘spiritual emptiness,’ and members of Congress struggling for solutions lament the ‘spiritual darkness’ that afflicts the young. A consensus is emerging that some kind of spiritual void exists for youth—and we must address it.”


Preparing Our Youth for an Inclusive and Sustainable World

By QS Asia News Network

Students today live in a dynamic and globalized world, therefore they will need to cultivate a global and intercultural outlook that education can shape. Globally competent individuals can examine local, global and intercultural issues, comprehend and cherish different perspectives and worldviews, connect successfully with others and take responsible actions towards sustainability and collective well-being.


VIDEO | Futureproof Education with Peter Merry

Peter Merry on the state of the world and the kind of education needed to respond adequately.

“If there is anything humanity needs now, it is for people, in particular our young people, to dream of the future they want and make it happen. At a time where crises seem to follow one another non-stop, it must be hard to stay optimistic if your whole future is still in front of you.”


Unleashing the Learner: Massive Open Online Courses and the Decolonization of Education

By Rhonda Fabian
In Kosmos Journal

“There is a sea change under way in higher education, and it’s not in the ways that traditional universities think about themselves or do business. It’s not in the admissions requirements or policies of the elite universities. And you won’t find it spelled out in any new theory of learning.”


Reader’s Essay | The Unfolding Rhythm of Life

By Judy Norman

“As Einstein has been variously quoted, ‘a new type of thinking is essential if mankind is to survive and move toward higher levels.’ Perhaps our most astonishingly powerful creation is the Internet. It reflects our subtle interconnection, facilitates transcendence over time and place, and brings instantly to hand past knowledge and current happenings anywhere in the world.”