At this halfway point in the UK’s general election campaign we could maybe take stock and consider the bigger picture, particularly with regard to education and our values as a society.
“We will find neither national purpose nor personal satisfaction in a mere continuation of economic progress, in an endless amassing of worldly goods. We cannot measure national spirit by the Dow Jones. We will find neither national purpose nor personal satisfaction in a mere continuation of economic progress, in an endless amassing of worldly goods. We cannot measure national spirit by the Dow Jones Average, nor national achievement by the Gross National Product. For the Gross National Product includes air pollution, and ambulances to clear our highways from carnage. It counts special locks for our doors and jails for the people who break them. The Gross National Product includes the destruction of the redwoods and the death of Lake Superior. It grows with the production of napalm and missiles and nuclear warheads . . . It includes . . . the broadcasting of television programs which glorify violence to sell goods to our children. And if the Gross National Product includes all this, there is much that it does not comprehend . . . It does not allow for the health of our families, the quality of their education, or the joy of their play. It is indifferent to the decency of our factories and the safety of our streets. It does not include the beauty of our poetry, or the strength of our marriages, the intelligence of our public debate or the integrity of our public officials . . . The Gross National Product measures neither our wit nor our courage, neither our wisdom nor our learning, neither our compassion nor our devotion to our country. It measures everything, in short, except that which makes life worthwhile.”
Bobby Kennedy, the best President that America never had.
March 18, 1968
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From our archives: posts on national education frameworks for holistic education, individual wellbeing and a good society.
https://3diassociates.wordpress.com/2013/03/29/national-education-framework-in-bhutan-part-one/
https://3diassociates.wordpress.com/2013/04/02/national-education-framework-in-bhutan-part-two/
https://3diassociates.wordpress.com/2013/04/05/national-education-framework-in-bhutan-part-three/
https://3diassociates.wordpress.com/2013/04/06/custodians-of-knowledge-and-other-idiocies/
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