“Ninety-nine percent of who you are is invisible and untouchable.” -Buckminster Fuller.
Thanks, David Novak, for visiting Rainbow today (seen here with Nitarra, one of the fabulous 8th grade scholars). David, who is a Buckminster Fuller expert (and plays Bucky in plays around the world), centered with the 7/8th grade and pondered the above quote. They talked about pattern integrity, atoms, dendrites, and the meaning of life.
![By Peripitus (Own work) [GFDL (http://www.gnu.org/copyleft/fdl.html) or CC BY-SA 4.0-3.0-2.5-2.0-1.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0-3.0-2.5-2.0-1.0)], via Wikimedia Commons](https://rainbowcommunityschool.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/03/lotus-flower-300x219.jpg)
Peripitus, [CC BY-SA 4.0-3.0-2.5-2.0-1.0], via Wikimedia Commons
Why?
For each person it would be a different reason. The short answer is that is enriches our spirit in fellowship with others.
For the teachers and students, they participate in centering — a spiritual practice — every day.
We support one another — whenever someone is ill or a life tragedy strikes, they are supported in many ways, including financially and with food, etc.
We promote internal and external peace.
We have fun together.
But one thing we don’t do is promote any sort of dogma or associate ourselves with one religion. In fact, we don’t even expect people who are “members” to consider themselves part of a spiritual community.
The only thing we all have in common is that learning is considered the core of what we do. Of course, as a school, learning is the bottom line — we are literally measured by how well we learn while at Rainbow. However, we go one giant step further into a whole different realm — I believe that “to learn” is what we, as humans, are put on earth to do. It is the core of our being. Learning is sacred.
From the post I recently wrote on Buckminster Fuller: “I work at a school that was founded by Sufis, by mystics. Rainbow was founded with the belief that there is much more to life than what we can see and prove in the material realm. Learning is far more than a fact that can be quantifiably recorded with testing data. Material data can barely scrap the surface of what goes on internally.
When I say we can’t actually see learning, understand that we can see artifacts of learning – student work on walls, presentations, and of course test score data, but the actual act of learning is invisible. Thus, metaphysical. There is something magical about learning.
At Rainbow, learning has always been recognized as a sacred activity. It stirs our soul because we can’t actually see it — yet we can we can feel it, we can enhance it, and best of all–we can share it. It provides fellowship and brings together our whole community. Learning provides passion and purpose in our lives. Many wise people have claimed that the whole purpose of life is to learn.”
What better purpose for a community to come together? No wonder we are a spiritual community without dogma. Dogma, by it’s very definition is limiting; but learning is infinite.
If you want to read the whole blog entry from the above quote, see Learning is a Metaphysical Activity
I attended a lecture by Buckminster Fuller last night. Of course, Bucky passed on many years ago, so it was an actor giving the lecture, but it was very real. Enlightening and enlivening.
We traveled through notions of time and space, which amounted to infinite cycles and angles. We engaged in a scientific theory that innovation, combined with compassion, can build a world where everyone has their needs met, making war obsolete.
As an educator, the most powerful “ah ha” concept of the whole evening was actually a validation: Learning is a metaphysical activity. You may ask what makes learning a metaphysical activity? Bucky would retort, “Can you see it?”
Why do I call this a “validation?” Because I work at a school that was founded by sufis, by mystics. Rainbow was founded with the belief that there is much more to life than what we can see and prove in the material realm. Learning is far more than a fact that can be quantifiably recorded with testing data. Material data can barely scrape the surface of what goes on internally. When I say we can’t actually see learning, understand that we can see artifacts of learning — student work on walls, presentations, and of course test score data, but the actual act of learning is invisible. Thus, metaphysical. There is something magical about learning.
At Rainbow, learning has always been recognized as a sacred activity. It stirs our soul because we can’t actually see it — yet we can we can feel it, we can enhance it, and best of all — we can share it. It provides fellowship and brings together our whole community. Learning provides passion and purpose in our lives. Many wise people have claimed that the whole purpose of life is to learn.
If life is infinite, then learning if infinite. The very concept of Pi could be seen as simple proof that infinity exists — it has no end, which is precisely why it is round and goes on forever. If we try to concretely quantify Pi — if we cut off Pi at 3.14– it is no longer truly round or infinite. If learning really is infinite, neither a school, nor a teacher, nor a politician, should ever box it up, or limit it: The act of quantifying learning can certainly be useful and necessary, but it quickly runs into diminishing returns. Bucky’s legacy motto is: “Do more with less.” So rather than spending more time and more precious resources on testing, let’s DO MORE.
~Thank you to Black Mountain College Museum for hosting the inspiring play R. Buckminister Fuller: The History and Mystery of the Universe, by D.W. Jacobs, and brilliantly acted by David Novak.
“Every child has an enormous drive to demonstrate competence. If humans are not required to earn a living to be provided survival needs, many are going to want very much to be productive, but not at those tasks they did not choose to do but were forced to accept in order to earn money. Instead, humans will spontaneously take upon themselves those tasks that world society really needs to have done.” ~R. Buckminster Fuller.
For more great Fuller quotes, http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Buckminster_Fuller
Come by for a tour today!
