Series: Responding to a Fractured World: Re-think, Re-act, Re-create

Topic: As We Think, We Live: Critical Challenges for Educational Systems and Teachers

Presenter(s): Chris Hughes, Dean of Cobb Institute Certificate Program

Public education serves the needs of a country, but what happens when those needs become too narrowly articulated, even partisan, and the deep learning of young people is forgotten? Deep learning shifts thinking towards the big stage of speculative philosophy and open horizons. Narrow learning pushes a selected set of possibilities.

PROcess is a seven-session course for young people. Why do we need it? The world is on a dangerous trajectory. It is young minds that carry the thoughts for tomorrow’s actions. Students breathe in not only the subjects they are taught but also how these subjects are framed by their teachers. Subject and frame together create transformative learning. Subjects and frames are fragmented in our schools today. At the heart of Whitehead’s thinking is a healing unity. For many people a first encounter with Whitehead’s vision is a romance, a felt sense in the body, a shift in the ground under their feet.  Whitehead himself saw romance as the first, and necessary, stage of deep learning. I think we can spark such a romance in young people. PROcess is a first attempt in this direction. This session explores both the need and the how of this attempt.

About the Presenter(s)

Chris Hughes is the current Dean of the Certificate in Process Thought and Practice at the Cobb Institute. He came to Canada from the UK in 1975 after earning a BA in Psychology from Durham University. In 1986 he earned a B.Ed with a major in Science from the University of Calgary. Along the way he picked up courses and skills in experimental psychology from the University of McMaster and in philosophy from the University of Calgary. Prior to 1986 when he started a 30+ year High School teaching streak (Maths and Physics), he worked with young people who were “at risk” or who had custodial sentences. Towards the end of his teaching career, he trained as a Mindfulness Instructor with the British Mindfulness in Schools Project and taught Mindfulness to both students and teachers. He lives in Calgary, Alberta. During his teaching career he received the Prime Minister’s Award for Teaching Excellence and the APEGGA Teaching Award. (The Association of Professional Engineers, Geologists and Geophysicists of Alberta).

If you experience any difficulty with the RSVP, please send an email to events@cobb.institute. If you would like to receive regular announcements and updates about activities and events at the Cobb Institute, please join our list of Friends. Can’t make it to the live session? Click here to access our recordings archive.