TOWARDS APPLIED INTEGRAL EDUCATION

INTRODUCTION

This is an elaboration on many things as I have seen and experienced in education.?

It's about why and how education can and should be very different.

1. It explains the main fundamental problems.?
2. It offers new values and essences necessary for a thriving human future?
3. And finally offers some practical applications, as I worked with or saw applied by others.

These are the essential questions driving this article. What is going wrong, and why? What aspects do governments especially not understand? On what foundations should we better build education? How can we practically shape it??

This text is also a call to action. Who wants to try out and/or implement the mentioned aspects in their own school? Who wants to engage in the conversation? Additions and comments are also welcome.

My background is that of a business trainer and educational innovator who co-founded two alternative creative business schools, which both are gone now. The last one, Knowmads, however did influence a lot of minors in universities of applied science. Within my students and even experienced managers I trained, I ran into a lot of consequences of traditional education . Think of low social skills, preferring to please teachers/bosses with expected answers rather than being able to self direct their own curiosity and learn/think for themselves. Because of this I think perhaps especially those working (and suffering) in primary and secondary education should take note.?

I do realise that many education systems are already doing very well in one or more aspects I will mention. I think of Anthroposophic Approaches, Montessori, Dalton, Forest schools, Ecoversity, Agora and many inspired and engaged teachers in regular education. My hope is to strengthen such teachers, and hopefully give a voice to those suffering, stressing out and sensing systemic wrongs they feel need to be addressed. And I address managers and civil servants responsible for traditional education. Those running into obstacles they don’t know how to overcome within the current paradigms, should find lots of 'rethink everything' material here.?

Why Do We Need Fundamental Educational Innovation?

Why a completely new educational model? There is too much pain in the current system. Much research has been done and learned about the dysfunction of current education. The gut feeling of far too many people is, 'I don't want to work in education, or not in this way.' Too much is kept standing solely by habit, government, and businesses, selling outdated or more computer driven methods to schools. And finally, the dysfunction is prolonged by hardworking motivated teachers. Yes, they often fill in the gaps, persevere with the water up to their lips because they care. Motivated teachers and even happy students sometimes have too little knowledge and ideas about how radically different things could be or are not heard. So, where does the current system, in my opinion, go wrong?

A: OPTIMAL LEARNING WORKS DIFFERENTLY THAN STANDARD SCHOOLING.

Most education is organised around measuring learning progress, not optimal learning. Optimal learning mainly occurs when students teach others, work with it experientially (read play with it), and through the exchange of stories and experiences. Compare this to gaming, which allows players to experiment, immediately apply progress, and not punish failure but offer immediate retries. Many young people learn English faster through the necessity of application in untranslated games than through traditional methods in school. Play is how nature invented learning!

With a focus on being able to reproduce knowledge in tests we can expect education to spew out a lot of dysfunctional young people. Think of students with low social skills, students who don't know what they want and can do, young people with a strong desire for getting the right answers, without an understanding of what it means. And especially too many young people who think that doing well means doing what the teacher expects. I had to consciously learn how to learn for myself. And I only learned that in my applied sciences study. The fact that many young people only learn for grades, without interest in the subject or school, is a disaster. Accepting that as normal makes much of education a puppet show. And those who expect the build up of social skills by having a healthy social life, or good parenting outside of school are just admitting the lack of life in school.

B: THE EDUCATION SYSTEM OFTEN HARMS STUDENTS.

Too often, we pretend that our schools are 'normal.' But they are the result of industries' desires for obedient workers. It’s all actually based upon the 19th century Prussian education model, to create obedient soldiers. So education doesn’t seek to serve you, but industrial needs.

The high figures regarding behavioural problems and harm to students due to performance pressure are alarming. Teenage suicides worldwide surpass numbers that make war crimes pale in comparison. Added to that are depression, dropout rates, medication use, and a lack of motivation that also plague our country. The difficulty in finding enough staff also indicates systemic weaknesses. The desire for control over 'difficult teenagers' often has a counterproductive effect on these teenagers and only benefits 'the system.' Even good schools have to compete with all the modern fun things outside of school, such as social media and gaming. In interviews, children too often say that they like to see their friends, but they say too little that they are attracted to learning at school. Too many teachers persevere only because they care about their students. The fact that teachers are overwhelmed by workload, such as demands, protocols, and government and/or management distrust doesn't help. And do all these protocols make things better? Managers may be pleased they have a better overview, but the joy and soul of the real work disappear.

C: EDUCATION MUST PREPARE FOR THE COMING WORLD, OR BETTER YET, THE ONE WE WANT.

As Sir Ken Robinson pointed out, education should prepare us for future we don't know yet, and, even better, contribute to it. But, no, education is far too focused on helping students succeed in the current system. A system that is harmful to the planet and ignores the costs of environmental damage.?

Education should, therefore, teach students how to contribute to issues they care about.

Even in work, I often asked managers to name the five most important aspects of their work. What you learn in education barely comes up. Knowledge is at best in fifth place. Before that, they mention things like social skills, courage, people skills, creativity, meaning, entrepreneurship, networking, and more. Even when you ask people about the most important conditions for a major project, research shows that the top three are always: people, people, people! The passion, teamwork, and curiosity of people make the difference in the end. So, the question arises, why aren't these human aspects central in education?

That is what the practice demands of people. Trainers and coaches become rich from updating 'professionals' with essential lacking skills. Businesses need to buy such training. Stuff like lack of communication skills costs each country millions in projects gone wrong due to misunderstandings. And children being raised glued to little screens may even be much worse at this. A disaster in the making. And with all the upcoming accelerated changes due to weather, the threat of war, AI job displacement, we do need different skills. Flexibility, humanity, care for nature and social skills will become ever more essential, especially in jobs that involve working with people.

D: EDUCATION MUST WORK WITH OUR DEEPER NATURAL TENDENCIES.

Too many people think that children are empty vessels that need to be pumped full of knowledge before they can do anything. All too often, deviating talents that don't fit well into 'the system' are suppressed, punished, and/or excluded. This results in too many children being educated to be too much the same on the one hand. And on the other a huge loss of talent, added trauma, and young people not being able to express their uniqueness and being able to tie this to a gift or talent the world needs.

New insights into human development, the interaction between biology and psychology, should be considered. There are very natural differences in the pace of learning among students. Something that Maria Montessori knew, and we can now read about in "A Thousand Rivers" by Carol Black . There can be huge differences in natural gifts. Rather than suppress those that don’t fit school, we should, together with the student, discover where such a gift might shine. Like I know of an ADHD gifted kid who became a sound engineer. He loves to tweak a thousand controls in a studio. I myself also earned serious money with things I got scolded for in class. My playful attitude, imagination, love of fantasy and games, critical attitude and ADD all helped my career fit who I was.

Another great critic of current 'Western capitalist' education is Alice Chappelle .

CORE PRINCIPLES FOR LIFELONG AND WORLDLY EDUCATION.

Here are 10 clear starting points for 21st-century education for all levels and types of learning. These ten roots help the world to flourish, and people feel like they're soaring.

NOTE: Many corporations ignored, or even blocked, much needed?adaptations to protect our environment or died because of lack of innovation and staying with the times. Many once giants are gone now. Corporations don't need more obedient workers, they need real learners and critical thinkers to influence where we all are headed. They'll need them to adapt in time and in ways fit the future.

1. WEB OF LIFE

"Man did not weave the web of life; he is merely a strand in it. What he does to the web, he does to himself." ~ Chief Seattle

Too many people produce and transport polluting products in a polluting manner or buy them. But in economic matters, we focus too much on numbers alone and not on the consequences. This is due to a lack of comprehensive education and a holistic vision. Otherwise, for instance, we wouldn't still be importing disposable plastic products from China.

Everything affects everything. Initially, understanding and comprehending this interconnectedness is essential for our future. Think of global systems, such as the impact of the economy on nature and its consequences for our local context. Consider indigenous wisdom combined with science. Understanding, rethinking, let alone questioning our society, monetary system, politics, global issues, and local impact are all part of this.

2. NATURE

"Nature is not a place to visit. It is home." ~ Gary Snyder

Our entire existence depends on nature. Not only as a source of life but also because we are built to be in nature. However, we realise this too little in our urban bubbles. Too many people lack inner peace, don't know how to calm themselves, become depressed, or burn out, finding nature too devoid of activities.

We need to go beyond 'the science of nature,' learn through deep connections with nature, and explore guiding principles to keep it healthy. Think of aspects like Regenerative Design and other global 'restoration' movements, essential for our collective future. Also, shinrin-yoku (Japanese for forest bathing), immersing oneself in nature, is part of this. Because what we have a connection with, we care about. So, more nature outings during school, from petting zoos and forest walks to lessons in a park or forest. Also, because it promotes mental health.

3. IKIGAI

"Everyone is a special kind of artist, with a special gift to offer the world." ~ Satish Kumar

It's best for yourself when you work in a field that you're passionate about, as it holds meaning and pays the bills. If everyone could work like that, it would also bring so much more strength to organisations and society as a whole. Not organising for meaning, having too many people feel numb or burned out, costs vitality for both individuals and organisations.

Where do my personal talents, passions, societal needs, and financial sustainability come together in my most suitable profession? Where and how can I fulfil that best? This also involves looking at personal (multiple) intelligences and gifts, especially those that traditional schools may not recognize as such. These lessons are about finding and defining your own Ikigai. Meaning has two sides in this, a practical one and a foundation.

4. GIVING MEANING

"Those who have a 'why' to live for can bear almost any 'how'." ~ Viktor Frankl

Why do you do what you do? In interviews with children on the Dutch youth news, they often say they go to school mainly for their friends. How is it possible that they don't understand that they are learning for themselves? How shallow is the material if you only do it for grades?

On a practical level, giving meaning therefore means teaching creative thinking (imagination), critical thinking (reasoning, logic), and intuitive perception (awareness, intuition, flow). This includes training in media, reading and writing, conducting research, seeing through manipulations, and developing your own stories. On a deeper level, this is about asking, what are you personally learning for/interested in? What do you want to contribute to later? Or even what major issue do you want to help solve? What are you already contributing to now? And how can you become much better at it? This can provide a foundation for life.

5. UBUNTU

"Whatever the problem, community is the answer." ~ Margaret Wheatley.

We can only address societal problems through a sense of community. Anyone who operates purely self-centred can get in the way. The American belief that "if everyone optimally pursues their own gain, then we all win" has proven to be a lie. It has led to the deliberate stripping of people, massive pollution, and a lack of community spirit to solve issues together.

I am because we are. How can we collectively bring about what is needed? How do we work together? From campfire conversations to social skills, cooperation, and decision-making processes. It's about learning to be a contributing part of your society, understanding how it works, and accepting yourself and other people in their diversity of perspectives, being, and contributions.

So, also learn social skills on a practical level. I once gave a series of lessons called 'Everything you should have had in school but never got,' with lessons like (the value of) learning from failure, learning to listen to your intuition, self-reflection, finding your place in the group or society, naming your talent, the art of living, and more. See the next point as well:

6. ART / EXPRESSION

"Imagination is more important than knowledge." ~ Einstein.

Knowledge can be tested with questions about facts. But knowing and being able to do are different things. In practising art, we learn how to use our bodies to do more. A society without art is like a Soviet apartment block, a bare building without inspiration. This is reflected in, among other things, damage in the business world due to poor communication and societal aggression due to pent-up anger.

Expressing thoughts, emotions, and imagination through physical and artistic expression is fundamental to humanity. Think also about Heart, Mind, and Hands, and the Courage to act. And the ability to create, repair, clean, and cook. Being in touch with your body and expressing yourself through it is essential for mental health. See also life lesson 3 in 'Living Without Regret.' There is also a growing body of evidence that decisions made based on intuition are better than purely rational decisions. Our entire body system knows more and feels more than our conscious awareness. Hence the emphasis on the power of play. In play, we learn with our whole system. And in art and expression, we often practise making the subconscious conscious.

7. LIVING WITHOUT REGRET

"Life Lesson 1: I wish I had been true to myself.

Life Lesson 2: I wish I had made more time for my loved ones.

Life Lesson 3: I wish I had the courage to express my feelings." ~ Top 3 regrets of the dying as perceived by Bronnie Ware, Australian Hospice Nurse.

Schools mainly focus on becoming a professional who meets the demands of a job. But life is much more than work. If school only pushes you to perform or choose a suitable profession, it falls short on the human side. Many people learn these lessons much later or too late. Why not change this?

Here come the lessons from the dying. What is essential at the end? Teach students to take responsibility for their choices and which choices are considered most important in the end. Choices like being my true self and expressing it, deepening connections with friends and family, striving for more meaningful actions, being more connected to nature, and so on. And, above all, teach them to act on those insights or see their own life lessons as essential.

8. CO-CREATION

"An individual cannot create everything entirely on their own. All our dreams come true through collaboration and co-creation with other souls." ~ Hina Hashmi

This section expands on the point of 'Ubuntu' with collective action. Collaboration is more essential than competition. Kaospilots in Denmark says, "You get hired based on your grades but fired due to your lack of social skills." Competition is mostly when you're seeking employment; once you're in, it's about cooperation. The organisations we work in are cooperation systems. Our bodies, cells, and bacteria work together to form a human being. Even our country is a collaborative entity. We collectively create society and our organisations through collaboration. If all volunteers in the Netherlands didn't help for a day, the damage to society as a whole is probably greater than with any profession. Collaborating is also essential to tackle large projects together, like keeping the Netherlands dry. Our consensus culture is based on this.

Therefore, being able to create together is essential. How to practise this? Ensure that students learn to participate in the design and implementation of their education. They will then deeply understand the relationship between rules, interests, and choices. This can be done very effectively through guided processes and methods. Just as the government is shifting more from regulation to facilitation, teachers will have to do the same. Involvement will also increase motivation, the number of innovations, and, through iterations, produce empowered individuals, which, in turn, helps reduce polarisation in society.

9. EXPLORING SOLUTIONS

"Education is discovering your full potential and turning it into service for humanity." ~ Amit Ray

Our society is increasingly facing large-scale problems. Yet, too many people think it's not their responsibility to do something about them, or they don't believe they could. Education should repeatedly ask students, "Which problem do you want to help solve?" and then embark on a quest with the learner to acquire the necessary knowledge and skills. For me, this includes everyday professions like baking bread, gardening, parenting, and more.

What keeps us individually and collectively healthy? What keeps our society healthy? What solutions have we encountered, and which ones fit us (each of us)? On which (major) problem do I want to focus to help solve it? Can we physically explore them in our school and/or community? Let's test the gift economy, vertical gardening, democratic school meetings, and so on. Interest in the so-called 'blue zones' in the world also plays a role here: how do you stay healthy and live a long time? Factors such as food quality, social bonds, role in the group, a healthy lifestyle, and more play a role in this.

10. FUNDAMENTAL LEARNING PRINCIPLES

"Play is the highest form of research." ~ Einstein

I know adults who believe that children only become someone when they have enough knowledge. These are the people who also say, "First, get your diploma." Often when they themselves have no answer. If we primarily view education as the transmission of knowledge, we are making a big mistake. Teachers then have to work much harder to make room for these underlying forms of learning. Intrinsic motivation about real questions helps you embark on a quest. So, let's start with what drives you to learn the most, and what makes you learn about all the preceding principles.

For me, the most essential forms of learning are PLAY, WONDER, LOVE, WISDOM, FREEDOM, COMMUNITY, SERVICE, & NATURE. Work with these as teaching methods and essential principles.

PLAY is how nature invented learning. Give more room for play. More physical activity, sports, climbing trees help establish healthy neurological connections, keep your body healthy, and intuitively feel more. Free play with your whole being active makes you know more than just consciously cognitive. No one cycles or walks through cognitive understanding alone. And that's the case with many more things. Through playing a lot, you develop these skills. Play also stimulates healthy hormones and trains flexibility, which will be much needed given rapid changes in the future.

Play Example. In one school for new students I’d offer a ‘Play Day’. Here I’d do all kinds of exercises to make them play with each other and play with concepts about what this school might be for them. I’d seek to break through patterns of how they expected school to be (see the freedom exercise), challenge their concepts and offer fun and surprise instead. The lesson underneath being, learn to play and have fun together. Dare to challenge your own concepts of school and iterate, iterate until you all feel it works for you as a group, or tribe.

WONDER is daring to ask and pursue your deepest questions. This increases intrinsic motivation and helps you find your Ikigai. Wonder boosts curiosity, and or includes fascinations of students.?

Wonder Example. How to get people to wonder? How to get them to ask their own questions? One example. Once as a student I had to go stand somewhere in a field, on the spot ‘where the wind gives you a name’ and wait until I got one. In such a situation where the mind cannot understand, yet things happen of value, wondering starts. How does this work? What is the 'wind' telling me?

LOVE. As a motivated teacher, I love being in front of the class. I love my students and see the best in them. And I aim to bring that out. To do that, I can stimulate, ask, let go, surprise to discover what resonates best with someone. Love for things like nature often disappears in high school. That's odd. How can we develop children's loves, like for animals or their sense of justice, in a healthy way, also in service to a healthy society? In that purity lies contributing to society, more than in performance pressure and cynicism about the 'adult' world.

Love Example: To want your students to succeed in who they are, to make their gifts shine is love. To model yourself to what best helps your students best to get it out is love. Thus I will (try to) see the best in each student and seek what helps their special gifts come out. Not to the norms of society, not even the demands of a school, but where they start to shine. And to find this I'll have to find out, what works best with each student? Some need kindness and trust, others nudges, pushes, or even demands.

Also, can they love themselves as they are? Our students would work towards a final presentation that, at best, would feel like a sort of coming out. Here they’d publicly show, in a personal way, what they would love to offer to the world, mostly with shiny eyes. Like for example the girl who described her own talent as 'I'm the one who listens to those who don't say anything'. So many places need that talent. For me, that is love at work.

WISDOM. Facts become knowledge. We test knowledge. Then comes insight. And only practical experience with insight becomes wisdom. Too often, we don't strive for that level, even for children. But they see and know more than we realise, they see through our bullshit, even when they can't frame it exactly. Our reaction to that, control or listening, results either in the trauma of "I better keep my mouth shut" or "I have a voice that deserves to be heard."

Wisdom Example. One start-up school I was co-founding had no curriculum. Then we would ask those interested to study at this school to share their dream projects. A few would dare. We’d ask everybody else to make sub-groups around them and list everything needed to make that dream project come true, and help this person with their next step. After, in the larger group, we'd harvest all the lists (often including things like guts, social skills, networking, find supporters, find meaning, etc) And then we'd say, “This is the curriculum for our school: everything you need to succeed in your dream projects.” This also helped them see that they already knew a lot of what was needed, and could help each other learn it. And we made clear we offer many things most schools don’t touch or even think about.

FREEDOM. Freedom is taking responsibility. It's daring to do or say what's needed, even if it feels strange or scary. Giving freedom means learning to practise taking responsibility and understanding consequences.

Freedom example. For new entrepreneurial students I have a lesson that starts with “Everybody ready?” When they agree, I say, “And we've started!” And then I do nothing and just observe. Confusion in class. Often a younger student will ask, “What's the meaning of this?” meaning, “What's expected of me, so I can please the teacher?” I will repeat with “We’ve started!” and give no clues. More riddled faces. Then I wait until they discover it, or, in a very few cases, I'd have to explain after a few hours. If you want to be free (as an entrepreneur) you have to be capable of making your own time valuable without outside direction. In one group, the students had after 1 hour self organised a program for the following days. Without knowing it, it was almost exactly what the staff had planned.

COMMUNITY. Learning in and with the group helps you become a full and conscious part of society. Bumping against and within groups is already a lot of learning, without everything having to be understood or tested.

Community Example. In one school, we said the whole school was a community, for which the students were co-responsible. They’d clean, do dishes, deliver presentations to guests, even had some budgets. All the fuzz to make school as a whole work was part of the education. We called our students the most important guest teachers for each other. And we taught them Deep Democracy as a way to make decisions with consensus that would support and include them all.

Once a German student who wondered what he'd learned from that. Later he went to work in Brazil in slums with an international organisation. Here he found all the community fuzz in school had been the most valuable. He was able to guide processes, see through patterns, discuss and mediate in conflicts and more. He had learned by doing, without realising it.

SERVICE. What do you care about? What do you want to contribute to? As mentioned with love, we should encourage the purity of children about themes and help them acquire skills to do something about it. Because feeling that you contribute makes you less likely to become depressed, more mentally resilient, more motivated, and adds more value to the whole. Statements like "You can only participate with a diploma" do injustice to legitimate feelings of discomfort about things, even if they're not yet understood. So, experiment more together, and in this way, discover that your role on the sidelines of the group or as a lonely explorer further down the path is perfectly fine.

Service Example. Give students assignments with real world clients, with real questions. By putting them to work on real projects they find the nuanced reality of expectations and delivery, rather than the seemingly clear marks for a test. More importantly they feel they have value. They can make a difference. And they can feel satisfaction when they make others happy with what they have to offer.

NATURE. See above. Nature should not only be subject matter but also a learning tool.

Nature Example. We’d take our students on a nature quest, of seven to nine days in nature, with 2 to 3 solo days, where they’d sit with a deep personal question in nature. These Nature Quests were often deeply transformative and a breakpoint in our education. It helped our students on a much deeper level realise what they’d want to do next, or even what their mission in life was.

I've see these essences at work in a lot of places for example, at children's camps, in volunteering, in therapy, kindergarten. I've see a lot of teachers bringing one or more of these to school. Sadly it's such a pity they often lack a structural and healthy place in education, that just aims at getting targets. So consider how to insert these in your context? Be not afraid of your students, all criticism is help for you to become better.

• NOTE: I don't talk much about the AI revolution and scientific progress here. Yes, they are going to change our world an awful lot. However, I mainly focus on the choices of each individual for themselves and for the world. Also as more and more is taken over by AI, our human capabilities will become more and more essential in work no computer can do. You will also notice that I don't say how or what students should believe or even have to agree with.?

Towards a Shared Future

"Children must be taught how to think, not what to think." ~ Margaret Mead.?

Our generation cannot claim to know what the next generation should focus on. However, we can help them understand essential universal principles as we see and experience them now while being open to new insights or rediscovered ancient wisdom or scientific progress. Understanding technological developments and learning to work with them are essential in this. This includes critical thinking to recognize and discuss hidden advertisements, manipulation, propaganda, or abuse. And all traditional subjects like language, mathematics, etc., have their place. But they should support the above, not the other way around. We should stop conditioning children to keep them engaged in lessons they don't see the point of. That's making a systematic error. And I would like to prevent that.

With this model, I emphasise the yellow and red aspects of learning. There's more than enough attention and defence for green and blue!

Red being the attention for natural gifts of students, regardless whether these gifts fit in regular education or not. I found my workshop "Make money with your weaknesses" can play a significant role in this.

Yellow represents the Chinese word Wu-Wei, meaning not-doing, meaning not enforcing, but acting playfully. Rather than forcing students to get somewhere, teach them how to be more fluid and flexible to get things done according to universal laws. In short, let them play to find out what works best for them. Knowledge of gravity doesn't stop you from falling during sports. It is the pain of falling that helps your body to learn that deeper and faster.

PRACTICAL APPLICATION OF INTEGRAL EDUCATION

Here's my initial proposal for a new type of primary and secondary school, let alone new types of lessons as an addition to traditional classes. All aspects have been tested separately, in my experience, but rarely in conjunction. Many aspects are also present to some extent in regular education, unfortunately too little. The closest, for me, was the creative Knowmads Business School, which I co-founded in Amsterdam and, unfortunately, ceased to exist due to, among other things, the Corona pandemic. Here, I developed a significant part of the curriculum. Aspects of that are reflected below.

1. SELF-DISCOVERY: At Knowmads, we worked based on four questions. Who are you (and what suits you)? What kind of world do you want to live in? How can you help bring that world here? How can you make a profession or business out of it? In a secondary school, you could call this Ikigai orientation. Through group processes, various assignments within and outside school, you discover your qualities and preferences. Through global orientation and in various subjects, you discover interests and where you might fit.

"Study hard what interests you the most in the most undisciplined, irreverent, and original manner possible." ~ Richard Feynman.

2. PLAYSPACE: Provide much more space for play, experience, and gamified lessons. Ensure that the laboratory has room for experiments. Provide play materials, construction materials. Create group assignments with subtasks that together yield a significant result. Build a car with the class, for example. Send students who want to calculate something to math or physics. Make your own fuel, chemistry. What kind of fuel? Environmental questions. If you stick with a subject because you enjoy it, that's fine. That's how you discover your place.

3. GAMIFICATION: Gamified lessons also mean playful forms of rewards for achievements. Think of, for example, students being able to reward each other for positive behavior and giving feedback to the teacher. I have learned a lot from student feedback. I see criticism as help to improve, not as an attack on my authority. After all, the teacher is there for the students, not the other way around.

We assume that everyone learns at a very different pace and has different preferences. Learning objectives are hidden in assignments, and completing an assignment prepares you for the next level. If you make a mistake, you replay the level. If you complete the level, you move on to the next one. This way, you avoid exams. If a level has to be repeated, it is adjusted to the abilities and preferences of the participants or the group. Failure becomes part of the game, and redoing is like dying in games. And if you get stuck, you can develop other skills much more than in traditional education before overcoming your obstacle.

4. PRIMAL CHARACTER TRAITS: Develop talent based on our primal talents. These are often pure talents that we also see in apes and tribes. They always revolve around contributing to the group. These talents still exist today: the leader, the mediator, the guardian, the friendly one, the explorer, the hunter, the caregiver, the follower. All these roles could potentially lead to multiple professions. The explorer becomes a traveller, a scientist, an inventor, or more. A caregiver becomes a doctor, a nurse, a community worker, or more. And so on.

5. MAKE ROOM FOR DIFFERENCES: Allow students to experiment with these roles and talents. Drama classes and teamwork assignments are very suitable for this. Work with the tension between predisposition and flexible space. Ask yourself where and how seemingly challenging talents such as ADHD or high sensitivity come to their right. Stop suppressing challenging individuality in the interest of peace in the rest of the class. Ask the question: where and how can school help them express themselves, so they can flourish?

6. APPLIED INTEGRAL EDUCATION: In this regard, always provide assignments with levels and significance in which knowledge must be applied. Examples:

1. Create a personal box for your learning materials with predetermined dimensions and calculate the volume in litres and square centimetres. Find materials with the correct dimensions or cut them to size.
2. Collect litter in a street in your neighbourhood and calculate how many man-hours it would take and approximately how much weight in waste it would yield.
3. Prepare lunch with a group for your class. Or, once with your class for the entire school, including budgeting, choosing recipes, and serving. If it works well, prepare a restaurant for a parent evening.

Carry out an assignment for a charity or volunteer organisation, including receiving the task, devising a plan, and executing it.

7. CRITICAL THINKING: Students can bring in their own questions and themes. Teachers look for bridges to connect these themes with each other and with government requirements, for example, using a question tree. Create assignments and steps that help students progress on such a path. Teachers can ask critical questions and involve other students in such a conversation. This can lead to questioning a desire to make TikTok videos (or whatever the current trend is). It may lead to a student abandoning it, refining the theme, or the teacher learning more about a new trend.

8. SELF-DIRECTED LEARNING: The teacher facilitates processes in which students shape their own and their collective journey. Shared responsibility of students leads to more room for intrinsic motivation.

9. SKILLS TREE: Just like in computer games, students can develop in multiple directions. We shape this in a tree, as in skill trees in games. They indicate where they are now. Goals are recorded on the outside, where you might want to go, and links to any additional requirements. For example, a nurse should also be able to write a report with findings for colleagues. Students maintain their own tree. This visually represents what they are learning and makes them more aware of what is still needed to get somewhere. Government requirements such as reading and arithmetic skills are also included, but always in conjunction with direct applications, meaningful assignments, and experiences.

10. ENTHUSIASTIC TEACHERS: To be precise, passionate teachers who can play with their role, from teacher to facilitator, from mentor to playmate. Enthusiastic teachers always see the potential in someone and respond to it. In short, all criticism is seen as help by such a teacher, not as an attack on their authority.

How to package all of this into a manageable and transferable teaching package, how to incorporate it into a curriculum, are still big questions? This requires research and experimentation. But given the current state of education and the big questions that many others have no answers to or are deliberately ignoring, research for and with students to see what this could mean for them is of great significance.

Finally, in our schools, we had no exams, not even final exams. This is what makes the Finnish system currently so often ranked the number one educational system in the world! I think the most valuable forward-looking perspective, to measure success, is one that looks a several years ahead. I still have contact with various former students. It seems that the (half) year at Knowmads (a private creative business school that sadly didn't survive Covid) helped them all find direction, add value, and sometimes even have a greater impact than expected. There's an ex-student who taught refugees to give music lessons in refugee camps, an ex-student who co-founded Climate Farmers with farmers, and a high number who facilitate training or processes in business or education.

So, I don't promise immediate visible results, but I do promise a dynamic environment and a growing enthusiasm for school. I see a place where people inspire each other with new ideas and questions. Or, to paraphrase Thomas Heide, one of the originators of KaosPilots, Denmark ,"We must give young geniuses a home, and if we do that, everything will turn out fine."