These past centuries should give us great lessons and should lead us to the point of thinking about what kind of principles, values and belief systems we hold as true and what today’s society holds as true (have faith in).

History and Culture is the sum total of the thought life of all humans. The thought life of each human being is unique and determines his or her decisions and actions. That is also true for the value system and the creative occupations.

The results of man’s thinking, be it exactly defined or not, flows through his fingers, his tongue, a chisel (Michelangelo), the pen of a writer or the sword of a dictator, into the outer world to materialize his inner world. Every work that is done, especially following that high calling of being a teacher, must be an elementary component of a lifelong process within the individual, where principles and values develop, and are then expressed through his experiences, in art, literature etc.

It is written in Proverbs 23/7 “As a man thinks in his heart, so is he”. Also, in the gospel of Matthew 6/21 “For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also”. These are in reality profound truths. That truth is very important to recognize when it comes to teaching children. Education is never value-neutral. Every one of us has a certain and distinct condition of how we think, and in general life is influenced through these more than one wants to believe or accept.

Every individual has a special worldview through which he sees and judges the world he knows. We look at each other, while standing on the stage of life, and judge each other’s performance and actions but forget that the true agent lives within us. Our inward thoughts determine our outward actions. When we read stories to our children we must also give them the principles that these people lived by in order to better understand the ground on which they stood, but even more importantly, if we want to follow them in order to become like them.

All of history shows the impact of different worldviews on art, literature, science, music, cinema, education, government, psychology, sociology, law, medicine, business and the results that emerged out of the thought structure they were standing on. Environmentalists, Middle Eastern terrorists, Journalists, Politicians, Teachers and People that follow a Judeo-Christian culture have certainly very different worldviews.

Worldviews create a frame of reference for every decision and activity. Faith leads to assumptions, which produce a philosophy of life. But again it is certain doctrines that stand behind a worldview. Culture is something that is learned and not inherited or genetic in nature.

Suche