Living Deeply: The Art and Science of Transformation

WORLDVIEW LITERACY PROGRAM

We offer a learning experience through which students are introduced to an expanded view of reality that empowers them as intentional learners, equipped with: the ability to question their assumptions and to make choices with greater discernment, an enhanced capacity for inner listening, an awareness of multiple ways of knowing and multiple worldviews, a sense of our shared responsibility as global citizens, and the freedom for full self-expression.

Below is a preview video of some of the topics that are addressed in the Worldview Literacy course. There is more updated information available - which will be posted when our new IONS website launches in late May, 2010.

The Worldview Literacy course was initially piloted in some classrooms in the Fall of 2009 - and the pilot is now continuing in several Oakland, California schools. For more information, or to sign up for our weekend teacher training program in August, 2010, you can email: lmiller@noetic.org and/or kfreeman@noetic.org.

As our world becomes increasingly global through trade, travel, migration, and information technology, different cultures and lifestyles come into regular contact. What skills do people need to thrive in a multicultural society with numerous, sometimes dramatically different worldviews?  How can we learn to appreciate and respect one another when faced with increasing diversity of expectations, values, and goals?  What will help us to communicate and work together successfully? These are hard questions confronting our global community and they are the focus of this proposed participatory learning program on “worldview literacy.”

Worldview literacy helps people to recognize that beliefs are embedded within personal and cultural frames of reference, that other people hold different worldviews, and there are skills and capacities that can be cultivated to deal with the complexities of divergent worldviews. Such skills, including critical thinking, self-reflection, emotional and social intelligence, cultural appreciation, and non-violent communication, offer young people powerful new tools that are good for them and good for the world. 

Our worldviews or models of reality are often unconscious. They can be brought to awareness through reading or discussion, but it is more effective to personally encounter situations that highlight those assumptions. Just as travel in exotic lands can open our eyes to new points of view, this project provides worldview scenarios that teach through experience and focused encounters with other kids and their life experiences.