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What is a successful education?

Classification

We qualify an education as successful if it produces autonomous and responsible citizens.

To be clearer, let us specify what we mean by autonomous and responsible.
For autonomous, it is quite simple: an individual capable of providing for their needs within their social environment.
For responsible, it is much less obvious. It must be understood in the sense of Kantian morality, namely that if all individuals behaved this way, the world would be well. Yet the world, at the beginning of the 21st century, is not well: The two major questions How to satisfy the ecological constraint?and 'How to halt the slow degradation of the social fabric, leading to civil war?' find no satisfactory answer. And for good reason, as seen in the question 'Why are small gestures for the planet dangerous?', many individuals consider themselves responsible, while not being so in the Kantian sense of responsibility. Responsible is therefore much more demanding than it appears at first glance, and presupposes mastery of a set of acquired skills that we will specify a bit further on in this text.

We now qualify an education as conventional if it produces citizens who are autonomous, but collectively irresponsible. Why choose the word conventional, instead of incomplete, partial, or insufficient? Because what characterizes conventional education is, on the one hand, its tolerance of the non-take into account of facts in favor of the sole game of alliances, or even its encouragement, and on the other hand, its ignorance of the effects of cognitive dissonance. This can lead to all kinds of abuses: there is no serious safety net, which shows history. Yet current Western education resolutely meets these criteria, as does the vast majority, if not the entirety, of educations throughout the world and through the centuries. Education, like politics, philosophy, and psychology, suffers from not having started by correctly defining its subject by precisely and factually answering the question: What is a human?

Finally, we qualify an education as dysfunctional if it harms, or even destroys, the individual, through mistreatment or major emotional neglect.

Nothing changes

Following the May 1968 episode, one might think that education has fundamentally changed: the use of corporal punishment is over. But in fact, on the core level, nothing has changed: conventional education remains structured bygeneralized nepotism :
First of all, the goal of education remains to enable the new generation to access the best possible social status (us, the family, against them, the rest of society).
Ensuite, à l'intérieur de la famille, le but des parents reste de conserver leur autorité (nous les parents contre eux les enfants). Simplement au lieu d'exercer un autoritarisme patriarcal explicite, ils utilisent maintenant - sans même en avoir conscience du fait qu'ils aiment leurs enfants - quelque chose qui se rapproche plus de ce que Eric Berne appelait Jeux psychologiques. Ce peut être des menaces non explicites comme le pratiquent les gouvernements totalitaires pour activer l'auto censure (exemple : « je te fais confiance »), le recours à la culpabilisation (exemple : « je n'en peut plus »), etc.
In fact, the shift from explicit coercion to implicit coercion at the educational level, combined with the abandonment of political struggles in favor of self-development, has led to a considerable increase in psychological stress among young people, especially mildly autistic.

Indicators

Never forget that in terms of education, example takes precedence over discourse. Indeed, very early on, children master the concept of lying, so when confronted with a contradictory discourse and behavior, they interpret the discourse as a lie, even if for emotional reasons this is not always conscious, or even if the contradiction is not noticed.
Corollary: the very possibility of 'training' teachers is therefore largely an illusion.

Education is successful if, when asked 'How to succeed in life?', the young person resolutely orients themselves towards 'succeeding in life' as opposed to 'succeeding in life'. Indeed, this means that the young person has adopted through culture a philosophy allowing them to transcend the simple genetic heritage of the human species. This is a complete reversal of Jean-Jacques Rousseau's vision.
In the rest of this document, we will use the term transcended education instead of successful education.

Characterization

Let us return to the three levels of education we have just defined, and try to specify what composes them.

Dysfunctional education:

Conventional education is composed of the following elements:

Transcended education comprises the following acquired skills, which will allow the child to become a fully adult in the end:

Conventional education therefore corresponds very largely to the recommendations of Emile Durkheim. Let us recap and synthesize what we have just discussed:
Conventional education produces mostly individuals who get along well in society, while remaining collectively irresponsible, that is to say incapable of collectively resolving the two major problems of our time: satisfying the ecological constraint, and halting the slow degradation of the social fabric. Indeed, this education leads to prioritizing social conventions over facts.
Furthermore, conventional education molds a nepotistic affective structure, which produces a high level of social violence, including within families.
Finally, conventional education can turn out to be dysfunctional for individuals not presenting a standard psychological profile.

Now that we better grasp the limits and dangers of conventional education, let us try to better understand the relatively long list of points to ensure to obtain a transcended education.

Let us first note that it contains on one side techniques (problem-solving), on the other values (search for collective happiness), but also mixed elements that could be termed savoir-vivre or qualities (accepting frustration), and finally consequences (ability to establish sincere relationships).

Let us note next and especially in this list the presence of a main technique, the keystone of the whole:

With two techniques whose acquisition is necessary for its proper practice:

A practical method to access a transcended education is proposed, in the form of 4 key points, in the article Transcending Education.

Finally, let us note that the other techniques and savoir-vivre elements proposed in the list defining a transcended education can be seen as other useful tools for the proper practice of problem-solving. And above all, let us recall that the credibility of the educator rests primarily on their exemplarity, that is to say the fact that their actions are consistent with their discourse.

The exercise of authority

Authority must be exercised within the framework of problem-solving.
When a more experienced person (parent, teacher, specialist) practices problem-solving with a less experienced person (child, adolescent, less experienced adult), after a phase of complete analysis that has allowed transmitting a lot of information concerning the subject, the solution proposed by the less experienced person may not be the one the more experienced person would have retained. In this case, the more experienced person can validate this solution in order to encourage the less experienced person to become autonomous, have confidence in themselves, and gain experience. They can also take back the reins and impose their solution by explaining the risk they have identified and refuse to take. In this last hypothesis, it is the complete work done at the analysis level, and the confidence in the problem-solving process practiced commonly, that allow the less experienced person to accept the solution imposed on them without feeling it as tyrannical.
Let us note that the lack of confidence in the more experienced person will generally lead them to impose their solution more often than is reasonable. This will be perceived by the less experienced person as a sign of mistrust towards them. If they internalize this state of affairs, it will produce a degraded image of themselves, and induce a lack of self-confidence. If they reject it, this will lead them to perceive the more experienced person as tyrannical, and eventually seek to escape their control.
Being right is not enough to justify authority, let alone thinking one is right. One imposes all the better that one imposes little, and within a relationship modeled by well-conducted problem-solving.

Becoming proficient in problem-solving

Once it is made explicit that the central point of a transcended education is problem-solving, one can still enrich the list of qualities that education can cultivate, which will allow practicing it more effectively:

Other remarks

Establishing a truly sincere relationship presupposes overcoming a double difficulty. The first difficulty is the temptation of conscious lying. Renouncing this presupposes transcending the simple nepotistic relationship, in which one seeks to use the other for one's own benefit. The second difficulty, much more formidable, is self-deception. Renouncing this presupposes being ready to question one's beliefs, that is to say accepting to take into account facts that are disturbing, which constitutes the basis of morality.

Effort and the search for minimality are what allow one to acquire margin so as to subsequently bear the loss linked to moral choices, as opposed to an opportunistic attitude.

Deepening

An educational manual is proposed in the article Transcending Education.

Complete the response to this question with the answer to the question 'What is the perversion of the school system?'

Then refer to the following questions:
Why do humans reason so massively wrongly?
What are the conditions to meet to produce serious reasoning?
What is an adult?
What must one do to be a good person?
What is the purpose of life?
How to succeed in life?