Five Pillars Final ISBN
Transcript of Five Pillars Final ISBN
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Five Pillars of
Total Education
VICENTE R. HAO CHIN,JR.
Theosophical Society in the Philippines
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Copyright 2010 Issued by the Theosophical Society in the
Philippines
1 Iba Street, Quezon City, Philippines
Phone: (63-2) 741-5740
http://theosophy.ph
ISBN 971-616-111-5
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Table of Contents
1. Health . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1
2. Emotional Maturity . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3
3. Intelligence . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4
4. Competency . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6
5. Character . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7
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When you send your children to school, try to remember that
almost no school gives your children total education that
will prepare them for living. Schools mainly prepare
students for academic competency in order that they will be more
qualified for whatever career they may pursue in their life. But
financial security is but a part of life. There are other aspects
which are as important, if not more important, such as fulfilment
and happiness. What is the point of having a lot of money if youdo not feel fulfilled or happy?
Schools spend up to 14 years systematically teaching students
how to master mathematics. Yet do they even spend two weeks
systematically teaching young people how to handle stress? Or
the art and science of happiness? Or how to have effective
relationships? Do they teach students how to handle their anger?Or how to be honest and to practice integrity?
As parents, we must fill in the gaps in our childrens
education that the school cannot provide. The home therefore is
an important school. It is at home where young minds learn the
skills of living. Every day, when you interact with your children,
when you have dinner with them, when you speak to them, you
are conveying important life lessons to your children. Suchlessons must be planned. We must remember too that a crucial
element in such life education is modeling you demonstrate
how it is done.
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There are five important aspects in total education. Schools
teach only a few of them.
1. Health
The first pillar of total education is to teach young people how
to be healthy. When health breaks down, all the dreams and
visions of a life can fade and disappear. Many families lose their
entire life savings in just one major surgery, and they often incurlarge debts that they have to pay for many years. Poor health is
often accompanied by low or unpredictable energy levels.
Winston Churchill once said that the secret of his success was his
energy.
Physical Education in schools
very often does not teach theelements of good health. They
teach sports; they teach exercises.
But these are not enough for one to
be healthy. The most important
element of health is diet what we
eat and many teachers are
noncommittal when it comes to
diet because they themselvescannot restrain themselves from the wrong kinds of food and
drinks, such as meat and soft drinks.
Do you know what ethnic groups have the longest lifespan in
the world? They are the Okinawans of Japan, the Hunzas of
Northern Pakistan, the Vilcacambas of Peru and the Abkhasians
of the Ural Mountains of Russia. They have the highestconcentration of centenarians who are still healthy and active in
society. What do these four groups have in common? They are
mostly vegetarian in their diet.
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There are fiveimportant aspects in
total education.
Schools teach only a
few of them.
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The largest study of health and
nutrition ever made is the 20-yearresearch now known as the China
Study which was done by Cornell
University, Oxford University and
the Chinese Academy of
Preventive Medicine. The head of
the study, Dr Colin Campbell,
summarized his findings as
follows:
People who ate the most animal-based foods got the most chronic
diseases. . . . People who ate the most plant-based foods were the
healthiest and tended to avoid chronic diseases. These results could
not be ignored.
Do you know which ethnic groups have the shortest lifespan
in the world? They are the Eskimos, the Laplanders and theGreenlanders. They live in the Arctic circle where there are no
plants since the land is covered with ice and snow practically all
the time. Their diet is exclusively based on meat and fish. Their
average lifespan is only 35-45 years old.
Teach your children then the foundations of a healthy life,
starting with diet. The other important aspects of good health are
exercise, avoidance of harmful vices and a wholesomephilosophy of life.
2. Emotional Maturity
The second pillar of total education is emotional maturity that
brings about equanimity and cheerfulness. How little ourchildren learn about this in school! In fact, school life is often a
source of stress, depression, frustration, fear, anger and hurt.
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When health breaksdown, all the dreams
and visions of a life
can fade and disappear.
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Emotional habits such as
fear, anger, depression andresentment are learned as
children grow up. While
there are instinctive roots to
these reaction patterns, the
inborn factor is insignificant
when compared with the
learned part. Babies for
example have only twoinstinctive fears: fear of loud
sounds and fear of falling. In
time these two disappear, but
as they grow up they learn a
mountain of new fears from
their elders and from society:
fear of authority, rejection, public speaking, criticism, snakes,cockroaches, confrontation, blood, dentists, accidents, death,
etc. Fear distorts perceptions and clouds judgement, resulting in
unwise reactions and decisions.
Anger is another example of a habit that can be very harmful.
People who have uncontrolled tempers often are avoided by
others and become ineffective in their relationships and in their
work. In your workplace, look around you and try to identify thepeople whom you think are worthy of promotion as managers or
leaders. I am almost certain that these people are not slaves to
their temper and anger. They do not lash out indiscriminately at
others when they are in a foul mood. They handle their emotions
well. Daniel Goleman in his best-selling book Emotional
Intelligence wrote:
IQ gets you a job, but EQ [emotional quotient] gets you promoted.
Temperamental people are hard to deal with; they are often
unreasonable not only at work but at home. Thus their marital
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Emotional maturity is socrucial in the education of
young people that the school
must assiduously teach this
day by day, year by year.
But the problem is that
most teachers themselvesare not emotionally mature.
They use anger and fear in
handling students.
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lives are often on the rocks. Such temperamental people are in
fact frequent candidates for termination from their jobs, andsome of them land in jail for assault or murder due to
uncontrolled rage.
Emotional maturity is so crucial in the education of young
people that the school must assiduously teach this day by day,
year by year. But the problem is that most teachers themselves
are not emotionally mature. They use anger and fear in handling
students.
Can emotional maturity be
learned? Yes, definitely, it can
be taught and learned. It is no
accident that some people
seem to be calm but effective
in dealing with difficult
situations, while others fly out
in rage at the slightest
provocation. They each
learned these modes of
reaction from their elders.
An important foundation of emotional maturity is learning
how to handle tension and stress in daily life. It is well-knownthat there are already time-tested techniques in dealing with
daily stress, and yet how many schools teach these in their
classrooms? How can teachers teach these when they themselves
are stressed?
3. Intelligence
Intelligence is the capacity to understand things and to apply
such understanding in various life situations. Whats the point of
learning algebra if they cannot at all be used in life or train us in a
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Intelligence is the capacity
to understand things and
to apply such
understanding in variouslife situations.
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higher order of thinking? Schools are supposed to be good in
developing this aspect, but unfortunately there are many schoolswhich fail seriously in the nurturing of intelligence in children.
Teachers and administrators often worry too much about grades,
exams and the completion of the assigned syllabus so that they
dont have time to assess whether the students have intelligently
absorbed the lessons or whether they have just memorized the
answers.
A part of the problemis due to the emphasis on
grading systems and
competitive honors in
schools. Students begin to
equate achievement with
grades and honours rather
with true intelligence.Most teachers are aware
that grades and written
examinations are not true
measurements of the
genuine capability of
students, and yet they are forced by the system to use them as if
they are the best ways of assessing learning. I have talked to
many teachers who admit that they tend to rush to finish thecoverage of a textbook simply because it is mandated by the
syllabus of the course, even if the students have not really
understood the lessons in an insightful, intelligent and critical
manner. To many of them, the dominant criterion of being a
successful teacher from the point of view of the prevailing
system is when the students pass the exams, especially national
exams. If we reflect on it, we will realize that the time spent onmemorizing the right answers is not only wasted but also
psychologically harmful because the students begin to think that
in life they will be measured by examinations, that is, the
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A part of the problem is due to
the emphasis on grading
systems and competitive
honors in schools. Students
begin to equate achievementwith grades and honours
rather with true intelligence.
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external assessments of
other people, rather than bygenuine competence.
Intelligence is nurtured
by an environment of
curiosity, encouragement,
puzzle solving, creative
games, critical thinking,
investigation, freedom,conceptual understanding,
practice in actual
applications in problem
solving, developing the
capacity for insight and
lateral thinking, etc. It is
hard to put numerical grades to such abilities because they aremultifaceted. Howard Gardner of Harvard has identified nine
kinds of intelligence, and IQ tests measure only one or two of
them.
4. Competency
An intelligent person is not necessarily a competent person.Competence is a capacity difficult to measure but quite easily
recognized when seen. When a person is assigned a task, he or
she can be relied upon to accomplish it with minimal
supervision.
Competency covers a broad spectrum of capabilities that
include self-confidence, intelligence, self-discipline, timemanagement, effectiveness in dealing with people,
resourcefulness, creativity, stick-to-it-iveness, perseverance,
etc.
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An intelligent person is notnecessarily a competent
person. Competence is a
capacity difficult to measure
but quite easily recognized
when seen. When a person
is assigned a task, he or shecan be relied upon to
accomplish it with minimal
supervision.
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High academic achievements do not necessarily translate into
competency. In certain ways, wrong schooling can damagecompetency, such as when teachers inflict fear on the students
instead of developing self-confidence, or when schools
over-emphasize grades instead of comprehension.
Competence develops from
the constant practice of ones
intelligence, self-discipline and
similar qualities in facing asituation or a problem. Small
triumphs increase ones
self-confidence in being
competent. Repeated failures
decrease the feeling of
competency. Thus, parents and
teachers must give repeatedopportunities to young people
to apply their intelligence and
skills in complex situations
such that they feel encouraged
through bite-size achievements and being praised or appreciated.
The development of competency is not a hit-and-miss thing.
A truly good school is good in developing competency. If thesubject, for example, is business administration, then the
teachers actually guide the students while the latter get involved
in such activities as actual entrepreneurial ventures. Competency
is not simply cognitive understanding. It trains ones entire being
(physical, emotional, mental and moral aspects) in an integrated
manner. A good parent or a good school plans activities and
opportunities for the development of such capabilities. It canstart at a very young age, such as when a parent asks his
5-year-old son to buy tickets to a ride, or to buy food from a stall.
Or when children are systematically trained to practice time
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The fifth pillar of totaleducation is character.
Without this quality, no
one can truly be
successful in life because
character is the
foundation of fulfilment
and happiness.
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management at home and in school. Resourcefulness,
problem-solving, self-confidence, optimism, self-mastery,perseverance these are some examples of the qualities that
should be developed in young people to help them become
competent.
5. Character
The fifth pillar of totaleducation is character.
Without this quality, no one
can truly be successful in life
because character is the
foundation of fulfilment and
happiness.
Character is that
collection of qualities that
enable one to see what is right
and wrong, and the moral
courage to do the right thing;
to forego present pleasure
and gratification in favour of
a higher value or future goal;to be capable of loving and
being compassionate; to be selfless while attending to ones own
legitimate needs; to be a part of the solution of the world rather
than a part of the problem. The highest degree of character is
what is called spirituality, which is not the same as religiosity.
Spirituality is the capacity to see deeper levels of reality and the
larger unity which transcend our egocentric nature.Egocentricity is the root cause of unhappiness and insecurity.
True character formation is an unfolding process rather than a
conditioning process. It is the emergence of our deepest nature.
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Character has to be
systematically nurtured
with as much perseverance
as when we teach children
mathematics. Parents and
teachers must be constantly
on the lookout for windows
of opportunity in
developing character in
young people.
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Theodore Roosevelt, one of the great American presidents,
wrote an essay called Character and Success in 1900. Hestated:
In the long run, in the great battle of life, no brilliancy of intellect, no
perfection of bodily development, will count when weighed against
that assemblage of virtues, of moral qualities, under the name of
character; and if between any two contestants, the difference in
character on the right side is as great as the difference of intellect or
strength the other way, it is the character side that will win.
Character has to be systematically nurtured with as much
perseverance as when we teach children mathematics. Parents
and teachers must be constantly on the lookout for windows of
opportunity in developing character in young people. These
windows open almost daily in small things like sibling conflict,
conversations about national leaders and news items, adversities
encountered by them, opportunities for kindness or service, etc.
Teaching character, however, differs from the way we teach
mathematics or computing in one important respect. Character
involves an outlook and a way of life, not simply a skill or
technique. While you can demonstrate the multiplication process
on a sheet of paper, you can only demonstrate character in the
way one lives. In teaching character, then, we must keep in mind
the advice of Dr Albert Schweitzer, the Nobel Prize winner forpeace:
Example is not the main thing in influencing others. It is the only
thing.
Character is the ingredient that makes an individual a valued
citizen of the society and of the world. A person of character is a
part of the solution to human society, not part of the problem.They do not create more violence, division, hatred, injury and
injustice. They are part of the silent global team of healers of the
psychological wounds that they world suffers from.
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In summary, these then are the five pillars of total education:
1. Health
2. Emotional maturity
3. Intelligence
4. Competence
5. Character
Develop these qualities in your children, and you would not
need to leave with them riches or fame. They will rise up to
excellence in their own fields, and, what is more important, they
will live a fulfilled and happy life.
Vicente R. Hao Chin, Jr. is the National President of the
Theosophical Society in the Philippines and the Past President of the
Indo-Pacific Federation of the TS. He is the President of Golden Link
College in Caloocan City, Philippines and Chairman of several other
schools. He edits the Theosophical Digestand Peace Ideas, and has
published several books such as The Process of
Self-Transformation and Why Meditate?He has been conducting
the Self-Transformation Seminar in many countries in the world.
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Theosophy is not a religion. The term has been used as an
expression of the ageless wisdom of life that has existed since
time immemorial and which may be found in the great
spiritual traditions in the world. Its worldview is founded on
universal oneness amidst apparent diversity, the reality of
inner planes and inner laws of nature, and the existence of the
path to self-realization and the attainment of eachindividuals highest spiritual potentials. As a way of life, it
promotes understanding, unity, respect for all religious
The Theosophical Society
The Theosophical So ciety was formed at New York on
Novem ber 17, 1875, and incor porated in Chennai (Madras),
In dia, on April 3, 1905.
Its three declared Objects are:
To form a nucleus of the Universal Brotherhood of Humanity,
without distinction of race, creed, sex, caste or color.
To encourage the study of Comparative Religion,
Philosophy and Science.
To investigate unexplained laws of Nature and the powers
latent in man.
Theosophy is the shoreless ocean of uni ver sal truth, love andwisdom reflecting its radiance on the earth, while the
Theosophical Society is only a visible bubble on that reflection.
Theosophy is divine nature, visible and invisible, and its Society
human nature trying to as cend to its divine par ent.
H. P. BLAVATSKY