2 roads

Two roads diverged, two approaches apart.

Education could learn a thing or two from religion.

In the process of educating people in a faith, religion infuses singing, ceremony, symbolism, ambiance, and candles. Structures to house this process call our eyes upwards with ceilings as high as mountains. Ten minutes of sermon and you're up and singing again. Sit down, then stand up again. Benches so hard no way you're dozing off. People sit together. Lights drop. Candlels flicker. Voices sing notes familiar. Echoing bells send people along their way into a cold, frosty New England night...

The last time I sang a song in a academia? Learning the alphabet. Candles in class? Negative, fire hazard. Ceilings? Keep'em low to maximize space. Walls? Try 30 year old pastel cement blocks. Stained-glass windows? Who needs windows at all? Lighting? How about we stick to eye-straining fluorescents to save a buck, ok?

Two questions...

1) How did we allow ourselves to build prisons for our children and cathedrals for our gods?

2) Since when has inspiration of our minds been any less vital than the exultation of our souls?

Centuries into the process of institutionalizing education and we're still believing that we can inspire youth with chalk and brick? Command and control?

Two roads diverged in a yellow wood...