As many viewers of the Oprah show, I have been drawn to the webcast discussions that focus on Eckhart Tolle’s book A New Earth. This webcast is watched every Monday night by over a million people from all over the world. Each week Oprah and Eckhart discuss a chapter from the book and the viewing public interacts via videos, telephone calls, and e-mails. We are given a set of discussion questions for each web class.
As an educator, I am very impressed with the way they have designed the curriculum for the internet course. The innovation and magic of technological resources used to reach so many students is a dream come true for any educator. Educational policy makers need to look closely at the possibilities this type of media can bring to our public schools. Of course the content that is used is pivotal to maintain the interest of students. The notion that we can create a new earth is certainly a provocative idea to help students develop critical thinking skills. During one of the webcasts, Oprah spoke with an eighth grader who was reading the book. The incredible thing is that this adolescent was getting Tolle’s message which is life changing, when you do get it.
Some people may dub Tolle’s book as new age or spiritual and maybe there is no place for this kind of thinking or reflection in our schools. However, some thing has to be done to ease the pain for many of our young people. Violence, drug abuse, and child abuse continues to plague our society. Obviously, values and morals are supposed to be learned at home. But, how do we deal with the reality of bullying, gang wars, school shootings, depression, and mental health issues that schools are expected to address via the curriculum.
Eckhart Tolle argues that we all have an “ego” that influences our actions and behaviors. The human ego has been a topic of intellectual discussion, and research in psychology for many decades. According Wikipedia, “the ego is often associated with mind and the sense of time, which compulsively thinks in order to be assured of its future existence, rather than simply knowing its own self and the present.” We are in search of inner peace in a world that does not guarantee us peace at all. More importantly, we expect others to fulfill our need for peace or inner peace. Some of us have become desensitized because of all the contaminated thinking that we have come to almost embrace as a norm.
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