Education for Life:Preparing Children to Meet the Challenges

by J. Donald Walters

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Education for Life: Preparing Children to Meet Today's Challenges, by J. Donald Walters (Swami Kriyananda) — *(Click to enlarge.)*

Here at last is a book that provides real direction for constructive change in our schools. The need for such change is unquestionable. The statistics — drug abuse, violence, illiteracy — speak for themselves. J. Donald Walters traces the roots of the problem to our educational system’s indifference to human values. Young people, though overwhelmed with facts, are left dangling with the advice: “Figure out for yourselves what it all means.” Small wonder that so many strike out in bewilderment and anger.

Education for Life presents a revolutionary system that teaches children, and adults as well, how to flower into full maturity as human beings, and not merely how to function competently in a technological age.

The author offers a workable combination of idealism and practicality: a visionary overview brought to a focus with specific directions for what to teach, when to teach it, how to teach it, and why.

From the author’s preface…

“Primarily, my purpose has been to recommend a system of education that will prepare children for meeting life’s challenges, and not only fit them for employment or for intellectual pursuits. I have also wanted, however, to help the reader to see the whole of life, beyond the years spent in school, as education·the true goal of the education we receive during our school years must be to help prepare us for that lifelong learning process.

“Why don’t our schools teach not only how to be successful materially, but successful also as people? · skills more clearly focused on human needs and interests, such as how to get along well with others, and, even more importantly, how to get along with oneself? · how to live healthfully? · how to concentrate? · how to develop one’s latent abilities? · how to be a good employee, or a good boss? · how to find a suitable mate? · how to have a harmonious home life? · how to acquire balance in one’s life?

“This tendency to confuse knowledge with wisdom becomes a habit for the rest of most people’s lives. Seldom has there been a more fact-gathering society than ours is today. And seldom has simple, down-to-earth wisdom been held in lower esteem. One’s most casual utterances must be backed by a wealth of statistics, and supported by as many quotations as possible from the words and opinions of others, for one’s own utterances to receive a hearing.”

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