Education – ElPropósito3 min de lectura

What knowledge do we already carry?

Photo by Joanna Kosinska on Unsplash

"Education is an operation on the soul" (Agustín Laje, La generación idiota, 2023). This week my signed copy of Agustín Laje’s latest book arrived. I was thrilled, and I also felt a real responsibility to understand where we stand today and where we’re heading as human beings, as organizations and in the responsibilities each of us carries. I found the line that opens this post in one of its chapters. It hit me hard and made me ask: what knowledge do we carry deep inside, and how can we draw it out?

I pair that line with one from Socrates: "I cannot teach anybody anything. I can only help you search within yourselves, which is far better than passing on my meager wisdom." That raises two big questions for me. First, how do you teach, if I can’t teach anything? Second, how do you walk with someone as they unlearn and then learn again? What’s clear to me is that whatever I pass on to someone, or partner with them to uncover, goes straight to their soul. That’s a huge responsibility for those of us who educate, whether we’re passing on knowledge or partnering with others as they discover it themselves.

Following that "Socratic instruction," if I may call it that, of passing nothing on, I also conclude that drawing out the knowledge people already carry is a powerful technique with a remarkably enriching effect. Starting from the premise that others already hold tacit knowledge, and that all I can do is bring it to the surface with them, puts us in a very interesting position toward others and the world. Above all, it’s a position that builds responsibility in others. Perhaps that’s one of freedom’s greatest challenges: being aware of our actions and their results within the freedom we must fight so hard to keep.

Whenever we interfere with someone’s learning through shortcuts or one-size-fits-all ways of behaving and thinking, all we achieve is less freedom and less responsibility for that person. Empowerment starts within each of us. If what lives within is a wealth of knowledge, anyone who knows it should simply walk alongside others as they discover, on their own, everything they want to achieve.

Within us lies all the knowledge we need to live in freedom. Interference blocks the release of our potential, and with it, new ways to seize the endless opportunities life offers. There’s no single way to do things, just as there’s no single way to see life. What we have are many ways to draw out the great capacity we carry inside as human beings. "Unlike other species, human beings need much more time to learn everything they need to survive" (Agustín Laje, La generación idiota, 2023).

Warm regards and all the best,

Rodrigo Baccaro

Author: Rodrigo Baccaro

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