Lene Rachel Anderson, about 'The Nordic Secret' and expanding your worldview

As part of the 'A Narrative of Love project', Dr Scherto Gill hosted a series of conversations with thinkers and spiritual teachers on their understanding of love, and how they see the significance of love in our personal and political lives. This series was in preparation for the 5th Spirit of Humanity Forum, June 2021.

In this conversation Dr. Scherto Gill talks with Lene Rachel Andersen, author, economist, futurist and philosopher about the Nordic model of education, the Folk High School approach, and how it had played a significant part in transforming countries such as Denmark, Sweden, Norway, and to some extent also Finland. This is the background to the book ‘The Nordic Secret’ which she co-authored with Tomas Björkman.

She shares how education in the Nordic countries supported inner transformation, empowerment, self-awareness and self-authority in young people to build strong democracies and welfare societies. The Nordic Secret.

Chapters
0:00 Intro
4:00 (approx) Lene on love in her upbringing.
11:05 Lene explaining the Folk High School.
12:50 The importance of listening to young people.
18:37 The importance of beauty in education and how we it has been abandoned in our education system today.
20:54 How singing played a role in education; communal singing.
23:42 We can learn so much of the Folk High School.
26:47 The static hero and the ethic hero, the path of transformation.
30:04 Empowerment, the spiritual connection went hand in hand with practical knowledge.
33:04 We-ness of Folk High School provided basis for welfare-societies.
36:06 How can we integrate the examples of the Folk High School into our education system today? How to make education support transformative processes.
36:57 Beauty has been taken out of the equation and left is the money; that is poverty. [note 1]
37:35 Lene describing a few changes she would like to see in our educational system.
44:12 Which narratives can help us towards a global wellbeing; which choices do leaders need to make to bring people together in embarking on new hero journies? [note 2]
44:20 Everyone needs to have a change, this is about empowerment.
45:15 My narrative would be: We have come such a long way, our species has been on an amazing journey, we are now reconnecting.
47:14 We have to change the narrative [Note 3]

Quotes from the dialogue
“If we have an educational system that is so focused on science and technology in order for people to get an education so they can go out and be producers and consumers – they will lose all the meaning giving, the purpose giving parts of education and it is just going to be meaningless data and we are going to have angry, frustrated and anxious young people that don’t know why they are learning what they are learning and I think that is what we are seeing.”

“The one big lesson I have learned from the Nordic history is the importance of lifting from the bottom. Everybody needs to have a fair chance and has access to the skills, understanding and meaning making that allows them to thrive and make the most out of their lives for themselves and for others. So this is about empowerment – it is the key. In empowerment is the idea that things can be different, that there is hope but also skills, social skills and collaboration and respecting the individual".

“The choices we can focus on are live, breath and the spirit – and how as species we can enjoy and appreciate all the cultural and biological diversity and the richness that is around this amazing globe that we inherited… nature is so rich and we are exploiting it because we have failed economic structure, system, idea, narrative – and we have to change that narrative”

Listen to these honest, insightful and real conversations with prominent leaders from different fields sharing from their own experience. More to come.

[SDCertification]

Great and insightful conversation! Though Lene sounds a bit allergic to the color coding from Spiral Dynamics she's thinking from the second tier on the dynamic Spiral (of ever-changing and emerging human value systems) according to my understanding and feel :)