Labeling our Era
Education is a subject of academic study. If one has attended a school, then one is essentially a guinea pig in a number of hypotheses on, among other things, how to educate (school structure) and what to educate (curriculum).
Schools serve as microcosms of culture, however flawed, for the minimum 12 year window between infancy and legal adulthood. In those years, members of society gain their understandings of the world. It is an undeniably crucial time which crystallizes one’s views or at the very least creates a strong foundation for them.
Though we initially assume that ‘school’ lasts until the end of our academic studies, we come to notice that the ‘school of life’ continues; we continue learning throughout our lives. When we graduate from academic schools, we often become acquainted with the studies of relationships, love, responsibilities, decision-making, civil duties, and so on and so forth.
The study of self-love, self-confidence and how to generally take good care of ourselves is one that often, sadly, gets overlooked. It is crucial that healthy habits and the study of health begin as early as possible, both from physical & mental developmental perspectives. By not teaching about health and healthy habits in our schools, we are inadvertently teaching that these things are not critically important. But they are! Our own bodies’ long-term health is one of the most significant things we will ever have control over.
So where do we learn about food these days? Rarely do we city folk learn how to plant seeds or how to tend gardens. Nor do learn how to herd flocks or even how to boil an egg or cook. We are unfamiliar with medicinal or culinary uses of wild plants in our midsts. We fear nature and ultimately pride ourselves in what we perceive as our dominion over it. We learn from advertisements. We learn from what the people around us are purchasing and eating. We take note of what is made convenient and visible to us. Many communities seek certain symbols such as a kosher certification, and simply prescribe to anything that has that stamp, without much further thought. We learn that food comes from supermarkets. We learn that if we are sick, we go to the doctor and we get whatever medicine he or she prescribes. We learn that western medicine is the only real medicine.
Things are changing, but it’s up to us to help things along. We must begin educating ourselves and our loved ones about preventative medicine, organic food, ecological sustainability, herbal medicine, recycling and so on. It doesn’t matter if you’re politically left or right, secular or orthodox. The topic of conversation is health; Holistic Health. Holistic as in Whole; Whole (Shalem) as in Shalom (Peace). Furthermore, while it’s easier to discuss our own health than the health of the earth, these two are inherently interconnected. According to some, they are all but indistinguishable.
It may not be the most convenient thing to be what’s become known as a ‘conscious consumer.’ No longer can we simply pick up the brightest packaging and obliviously relish in the delicious flavors or smells cradled within. We look at the ingredients and at the nutritional value. We look at the company and at the origin country. We check for seals like ‘Sustainably Sourced’, ‘Non-GMO’, ‘Organic’, ‘Not Tested on Animals’. It’s a new era. We are remembering that all products have sources in nature itself, no matter how far they may have fallen from their respective trees. Even more significantly, we are remembering that nature itself is not our enemy, but our ally. This is especially true on the path towards health and healing.
I propose that we need to blur the lines just a bit more between the ‘school of life’ and the schools of academia. The study of health, healthy eating, healthy habits, healthy mindsets, healthy methods of expression - these studies are no less important than arithmetic.
And of course, education begins at home:
My herbal medicine teacher, Baruch Shapiro, taught that most children grow up avoiding eating bitters, for example, because when they’re little and they try something a bit bitter, they automatically make a face. Then, he explained, the parent apologetically says, ‘Oh, you don’t like it?! Okay, nevermind that, no problem…’ Baruch, on the other hand, would take that moment in his children’s development to teach by introducing a concept with great enthusiasm; ‘Ohh, is it BITTER? Did you know that bitters are GREAT for the Digestive System!?’