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Afterword

America is suffering from a crisis in meaning, in which few people are able to explain the significance of their lives or their work. Although this is a phenomena that is widespread, the predicament it creates for education is particularly acute, because knowledge and meaning are so deeply wedded.

Meaning is the thread that binds fragments of raw data into strands of information. Meaning is the thread that weaves strands of information into a web of knowledge. Without meaning, there is no knowledge. Without meaning, there can only be worthless collections of facts. This is the truth which underlies the strangest paradox of modern times, that people know more and more, and understand less and less.

The schools have made many brave efforts to address this problem with programs that reintroduce meaning to the curriculum --either by presenting information in interrelated chunks, or by placing it in a context familiar to the student. These efforts, although laudable, are often meet with failure, because the problem is not establishing the meaning of an individual lesson. The problem is deeper, and more fundamental: establishing the meaning of an individual’s life.

Although the Watatu islanders are fictitious, their school and society represent a genuine attempt to respond to a real dilemma of everyday life: How can we face the pressures and demands of existence, yet somehow remain true to ourselves, true to our common humanity, and true to the larger purposes of the universe? This book contains, not an answer, but a place to start: We must (like the Watatu) map out a destiny for ourselves, the human race, as a whole, a future that demands our best, not one that entails our obsolescence.

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