The Guilds:
A New Curriculum for Education and Internet Reform
By George Gorman
I am a poet (and not an experienced teacher) who would like to propose a skill-based
educational program that could acquaint kids with the full spectrum of human life paths
from the beginning of schooling.
The existing educational system does not give kids a chance to become familiar with the
variety of learning paths open to them. They are trained to sit in desks doing analytical
exercises for most of the day, emphasizing only a few specialized skills while other equally
valuable skills are minimized or ignored. At the same time, kids are overwhelmed by the
exploding number of highly specialized career options, while they are provided no general
categories for simplifying their understanding of the learning spectrum.
Most significant learning still happens today as it always has - through apprenticeship. The
initiative to learn is most often activated in people who deeply want to become more like
someone they admire. No beloved role models usually means little real learning. So the main job
of schools should be to facilitate more direct contact with potential real-life role models of
every kind. Every community is composed of people who have mastered some aspect of
each of the 16 basic skill-types or styles of experience that I have identified. If only a
small percentage of these people could volunteer some of their time each year, the
schools could begin to facilitate real apprenticeship learning.
But first we need a method for parcelling up school time more equitably between all the
significant types of learning. The following set of categories is a first stab at developing
such a method. It involves a comprehensive typology of human social behavior that can
be thought of as The Guilds. These 16 categories could provide the design for a new kind
of education geared toward giving kids an in-depth experience of every type of career
path before they reach university age. This system could also foster more apprenticeship
learning, more community involvement in education and more personal confidence and
decisiveness.
The alternative outlined here is a radical departure from existing methods of education.
Though it is closest in spirit to programs that emphasize hands-on learning in a diversity
of skills, it differs from these by being based on a new theory of social roles and mental
faculties which organizes the existing styles of human activity and education as follows:
Role Faculty Guild
The
Initiative Guild of Survival Arts
Adventurer
The Athlete Desire Guild of Athletic Arts
The Expression Guild of Musical and
Performer Performing Arts
The
Interpretation Guild of Language Arts
Storyteller
The Friend Empathy Guild of Partnership Arts
Guild of Counseling Arts
The Counselor Intuition
& Law
The Leader Decision Guild of Political Arts
The Protector Conscience Guild of Protective Arts
Guild of Culinary Arts &
The Cook Pleasure
Agriculture
Guild of Constructive
The Builder Logic
Arts & Engineering
Guild of Cultural
The Teacher Memory
Traditions
Guild of Healing Arts and
The Doctor Vitality
Sciences
The Trader Cunning Guild of Business Arts
The Guild of Investigative
Attention
Investigator Arts & Sciences
The Genius Imagination Guild of Imaginative Arts
Guild of Mystical &
The Mystic Wisdom Theoretical Arts &
Sciences
These 16 categories of skilled behavior form the general curriculum each child would be
familiarized with from kindergarten through high school. Each Guild is further divided
into 4 Schools, as follows:
1)Survival Arts:
I.)Plant Lore & Wilderness Skills, II.)Fishing & Maritime Skills, III.)Hunting, Trapping
& Animal Products, IV.)Travel & Recreation
2)Athletics:
I.)Individual Sports, II.)Team Sports, III.)Fitness & Yoga, IV.)Extreme Sports
3)Music & Performing Arts:
I.)Music, II.)Dance, III.)Theater, IV.)Film
4)Language Arts:
I.)Comedy & Storytelling, II.)Reading & Literature, III.)Foreign Languages & Linguistics
(incl. Computer Programming), IV.)Creative Writing
5)Partnership Arts:
I.)Games(Charades, Chess, Bridge, etc.), II.)Emotional Intelligence, III.)Bodywork,
IV.)Partnership & Sexuality
6)Protective Arts:
I.)Self-defense, II.)Emergency Services & Armed Services, III.)Childcare & Parenting,
IV.)Parks & Conservation
7)Political Arts:
I.)Speech & Debate, II.)Politics & Organizing, III.)Legislation, IV.)Diplomacy & Warfare
8)Counseling Arts:
I.)Counseling, II.)Psychic Arts, III.)Law, IV.)Psychology & Sociology
9)Culinary Arts & Agriculture:
I.)Cooking, II.)Gardening & Farming, III.)Herding & Animal Care, IV.)Kitchen
Chemistry
10)Constructive Arts & Sciences:
I.)General Labor & Services, II.)Building Arts, III.) Useful Crafts, IV.) Mining,
Engineering & Electronics
11)Cultural Traditions:
I.)Local Culture, II.)Religion, III.)Education, IV.)History & Archives
12)Healing Arts & Sciences:
I.)General Medicine & Nursing, II.)Alternative Medicine, III.)Surgery, IV.)Biochemical
Research & Pharmacology
13)Business Arts:
I.)Geography & Cartography, II.)Financial & Business Skills, III.)Business Management,
IV.)Economics, Banking & Trading
14)Investigative Arts & Sciences:
I.)Investigative Arts(Journalism, Sleuthing), II.)Field Sciences, III.)Lab Sciences,
IV.)Sea & Space Exploration
15)Imaginative Arts:
I.)Graphic & Plastic Arts, II.)Fabrics & Fashion, III.)Architecture & Geomancy,
IV.)Innovative Design
16)Mystical & Theoretical Arts & Sciences:
I.)Mystical Arts, II.)Mathematics, III.)Philosophy, IV.)Theoretical Sciences
Each of these 64 Schools can be further divided, when necessary, into even more specific
fields. (Hair Styling, for example, can go in the School of Fabrics & Fashion, Truck
Driving in General Labor.) Each of the 64 Schools would be given equal emphasis and
equal time, so that students are exposed to hands-on experience of the full spectrum of
legal skilled activities (including recreational activities).
Here are a few ideas about how such an educational process could unfold. (These are
just suggestions and other ideas are welcomed.) Each of the Schools could be intensively
studied for two 3-week "blocks" during the first 8 years of schooling. First grade, for
example, could begin with three weeks of the first School of Survival Arts: Plant Lore
and Wilderness Skills. The next three weeks could focus on Individual Sports, the next
on Music and so on through all the first Schools of the 16 Guilds. (This program would
proceed at a rate of 16 blocks per year.) After completing the full cycle in fourth grade,
there could be a different sequencing for the second four years: focusing first on the four
Schools of The Survival Arts, each for 3 weeks at a time, then on the four Schools of The
Athletic Arts and so on.
When reading and math are not the main focus, they would still be studied in various
contexts throughout the program. Teachers and/or computer programs could
coordinate with volunteer mentors in these varied fields (many of whom might be
skilled retirees). Field trips to different types of real work areas would be essential.
When students reach the "high school" level of study they could be asked to pick only
one of the 4 Schools in each of the 16 Guilds to focus on for even longer periods of time
(possibly 6 weeks per block for the first two years and 3 months per block for the final
two years). I also have a proposal for how to stagger this process so that there are kids
studying every Guild at any one time.
This approach would tend to make students well-grounded in at least one aspect of each
of the Guilds. It would also give them a chance to exercise significant choice in
developing preferred skills to a high level of competence. Far from promoting a "do-
anything-you-like" brand of education, this program combines freedom of choice with
well-defined parameters as in many adult work situations. With this approach some
individuals could go straight from high school to a working apprenticeship in a chosen
field.
For those who need more education or time to pick a career, college would be about
even greater diversity and opportunities for specialized studies. The conventional
rationale for college - to give kids a well-rounded education - would no longer apply.
They would have already had that. Those with a real calling to become generalists could
still focus on various aspects of history, philosophy, arts, sciences, etc. But such
individuals are not common. For most students college should be even more of an
apprenticeship experience, as medical schools, business schools and technical schools
already are. It's not that the idea of a liberal education is a bad one. It's just that for most
people such well-roundedness should come at the beginning rather than at the end of
the educational experience.
This program could be tested at first by homeschoolers using the Web or by anyone
interested in creating an experimental model school. Web-based Guild associations
could be developed that would help with apprenticeship-learning and volunteer
mentoring. These 16 categories could also be used to reorganize information on the
Internet and encourage global communication and cooperation. Imagine that you access
the Internet and up pop 16 familiar Guild icons that categorize all information and
interactional opportunities on the Web. (A 17th Web category would surely arise to
contain anomalous and censored data.)
If you wanted to find out something about music or other performing arts, you would
click on, perhaps, a Songbird icon. Then you could narrow your search from there. This
approach could transform the Internet from a maze of individual diversity into a
functional global forum. It could become an important tool for helping young
apprentices connect up with potential mentors. And it could facilitate the Guilds
becoming significant forces for democratic communication and organization in adult
affairs, as well.
The Guilds could gradually become a new kind of global community not dependent on
local economic, political, racial or religious motivations. Such alliances might help
counter the modern tendency toward increasingly splintered factionalism, evolving
innovative channels of communicational power. The Guilds would have no formal social
powers except for:
1)the responsibility to help provide volunteer mentors for the schools,
2)the responsibility to set educational guidelines in those fields that do not already have
such guidelines,
3)the responsibility to guarantee the correctness of information in its Internet zone and
possibly to develop other media and publishing channels, and
4)the responsibility to put on a worldwide festival in celebration of that particular style
of experience once a year.
Imagine a cycle of 16 Guild-oriented holidays recurring throughout each year. This
would give each Guild a chance to be in the spotlight, to celebrate its accomplishments
and to air its plans and aspirations. These holidays could have local, national and global
levels of participation and staging. Such events would not need to assimilate already
existing events like the Olympics or the Oscars. Their purpose would be more to
encourage participation than spectatorship, a chance to entertain the world with that
style of value fulfillment. If the whole world could agree to celebrate together in such a
focused way, this could foster a sense of world citizenship and global awareness more
quickly than anything else we have on the table at the moment.
Our transformative civilization is hungering for an equally transformative program for
realizing the opportunities of democracy. This requires learning to work with the
pluralistic spectrum of values, just as biological organisms and ecosystems do. Without
some means of recognizing and enhancing human variety our democracies cannot resist
the centralizing and homogenizing tendencies of reason and commerce. The Guild
approach to education is clearly not an idea that can be fully developed and
implemented by a few people. So I'm asking for feedback from anyone who is interested,
especially regarding skills I may have overlooked, other critical comments and how to
develop this as a Web-project or a model school. I'm also looking for professional
educators and/or publishers who might be interested in looking at the manuscript I
have written in which I more fully develop the theory of the faculties, describe the 64
Schools, respond to some of the arguments against this proposal and consider other
potentials of the communicative approach to social ecology.
Analysis:
As a student, the sympathy the author feels towards the students has touched my heart. I am one
of those students who resent the mechanical ways that happens in schools. The usual activities
and methods that are very traditional that hinder the students from expanding their horizons.
As a lover of the internet, I view this proposal as highly favorable. This proposal for a model
school in education with the use of the internet is highly commendable. The 16 guild guide for
students may really help in developing the skills in the students without them being bored and
feel uninterested. With this proposal, the students can hone their innate skills and talents or learn
new things without really sacrificing much time. Further, the use of the internet also is an added
bonus; students will not only learn new skills but also learn the use of the internet. Utilizing
one’s time is also recommended in this program. The same time that students go to school,
studying through the internet is also being done.
In conclusion, I can vouch that this program will help in maximizing students’ time and
potential; lessening educator’s efforts in teaching students and encouraging more and more
young people and even matured ones to study and learn.
