The immaturity and mediocrity of our society as an invisible educational context

Abstract

All sciences deal with the surface of things and the phenomena they study. Pedagogy and General Didactics are no exceptions. The problem is that, by the nature of their objects of study, both should distinguish themselves by prioritizing inquiry, from the meditative interiorization of those who deal with them. Five processes guarantee the epistemological simplicity, vulgarity and recurrence of any science, including those of Pedagogy and General Didactics: the lack of vision, the attachment to the external (existential), the normalization of duality, the phobia of interiorization and the essential, and the radical difficulty to evolve from ego to consciousness. The above contextual educational conditions tend to apply to all his constructs and objects of study. An example is the notion of ‘educational context’. The construct ‘educational context’ is studied as something external to the person, of a social nature, situated and linked to the environment and circumstances. And the interior, the permanent, the non-local, the universal, where is the perennial? Since they were born, Pedagogy and General Didactics and their fields of study -education, teaching, educational innovation, teacher development, curriculum, etc.- are letting pass before them, both genuinely and radically educational and formative, as well as the most serious conditioning factors and burdens of humanity that prevent it from growing and evolving. One of these serious neglected or excluded challenges is the ‘immaturity-mediocrity’ binomial of our society, which saturates a large part of its adults, both from a personal and social perspective. For some researchers, it is hardly a valid intuition, however, as the content of a coffee or a get-together. We wonder if it has something to do with the real results of our education. That is, with a society of egocentrism or immaturity; with the fact that, socially and personally, the human being evolves interiorly or educationally so little, if it is admitted that he does so; with the fact that the interior and the essential are neglected; with the external imbalances, inequality and injustices; with the fact that the human being can almost be considered a candidate for ‘failed species’, etc. The aim of the study is to give some answers to the following question: how is it possible that our education and teaching, guided by Pedagogy and General Didactics, systematically neglect or exclude fundamental issues and areas such as immaturity and mediocrity in our society? The methodology to respond to this radical challenge is a pedagogical essay with a dialectical oneternary or one-trine basis. The results are generated throughout the paper. The conclusions point out that, if the generalized social immaturity and the personal and social mediocrity of our society are not recognized and incorporated into pedagogical research and educational practice (family, school, social, etc.) with sufficient foundation and lucidity, radically, that is, starting with our own, we will be able to ‘develop’, we will be able to ‘progress’, but it will not be possible to evolve internally or educationally. And when a biological species does not evolve, it may face extinction. “Attention! This is a warning to travelers on the Titanic: icebergs have been spotted on the navigation route. Remember that most icebergs are submerged underwater; this makes them difficult to spot. Please be extremely observant and aware. Take care of your own ice blocks first. Thank you!”.