Five Pillars Final ISBN

8/8/2019 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

[email protected]

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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Five Pillars of Total Education

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

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