culture
New Culture
"The now dying culture was founded on the premise that human beings are ferocious feral beasts that need to be socialized, i.e. de-clawed and un-teethed. The now culture knows that exactly the reverse is true, that the “mass of men” are fragile, easily discouraged, and even walled off from their own deep desires."
New Work seeks to build a network of New Work Communities, each complete with fully equipped community centers, housing developments, village-wide infrastructures, community, self-providing activities, and decentralized manufacturing centers.
New Work can also organize small groups to band together to employ high tech self-providing techniques while organizing a co-operative business venture based on New Work Technologies.
New Work provides the conceptual framework needed so that that a comprehensive strategic approach is able to achieve economically independent communities.
Education for a New Generation
"The heart of the New Work Curriculum is a dedication to freedom and personal fulfillment that does not depend solely on the old job market. More than finding employment the curriculum wants young people to find themselves and take charge of their lives as workers, consumers, and providers. The object is not just a job but full possession and ownership of one's life."
The New Work Curriculum seeks first of all to help students gain an understanding of the work revolution. Telling the truth about what is happening to jobs, the bad news as well as the good, will do far more for the credibility of career education than repeating the same old promises and exhortations, which too many students no longer believe. For young people, greater understanding is a form of empowerment, the beginning of an interest in realistic personal strategies for success in the present economic environment.
The best way to teach students about the work revolution is not to present a body of pre-digested information to be studied and memorized like names and dates in a history textbook. Instead, we recommend involving students in a process of investigation and discovery in which they explore the effects of revolution on people in their family and neighborhood and draw their own conclusions about what is happening to work.
Best Practices
(Compiled and edited by Frithjof Bergmann. Not to be cited without explicit permission from the author.)
- Diversify formats of learning, allow all to be used over the course of a day allowing students to specialize in the ones they are most attuned to: lectures, discussion, projects, apprenticing, simulations, mentoring and being mentored, computer assisted instruction.
2. Allow students sufficient time to seriously pursue intellectually or practically exciting projects on their own (stay out of their way when they are energized). Relate the more classical learning to conditions for doing these projects well. (Think of this as “just in time” learning). Thus teach basics of Math, English, Science, Social Science, and the Humanities when they become relevant to projects that the students want to complete. Do not dismiss or disregard knowledge of the basics; but teach them in a more effective manner.
What Does New Work Do?
New Work is comprised of a worldwide network of government and business leaders, scientists, engineers, computer experts, inventors, professionals, academics, and artists.
New Work:
Recent blog posts
"I have tried to evolve an organically integrated set of policy proposals that would have the power not only to stop the appalling deterioration of our country – her accelerating descent into a pit of cynicism, passivity, violence and despair – but that, instead, would define a step by step process leading us back to the path of our original mission: to becoming the greatest force on the globe in the struggle for a more humane, a more intelligent and a more life-giving culture."
- Frithjof Bergmann
