The story as told in Genesis, arguably one of the oldest of all written records, suggests that all life is about competition – if the Jews were to inhabit Israel, first they would have had to get rid of Jericho.  Archaeological evidence from these early civilisations shows that these were very harsh places.  Thomas Hobbs, the 16^th century English philosopher, claimed that “the life of man [is] solitary, poor, nasty, brutish and short.”  Later Thomas Huxley, known as “Darwin’s bulldog,” was largely responsible for over-emphasising Darwin’s conclusion that life was about “the survival of the fittest.”   Meanwhile Darwin, with very many other biologists through to this day, has shown that it is not the most powerful that survive, but those “most adaptable to change” by giving sustenance to mere aberrations and replacing the old status quo before dying off like the Dodo.

And it is not just the economists who believe that humans are an unequivocally competitive species.  Freudian psychology also stressed the competitive, harsh nature of life epitomised by the (supposed) universal reaction to challenge as being ‘fight or flight’ – you have to go all out to win an issue, or admit defeat before sustaining damage.  “But that”, said an Australian psychologist recently, “could only have been proposed by male psychologists, for women have the more subtle response of ‘bend or befriend.”  Meanwhile Behavioural psychologists and evolutionary scientists are beginning to note that there are very few entirely ‘male’, or ‘female’ brains.  Most of us appear to be somewhere on a spectrum.  In terms of our deepest instinctive reactions, it is not just women who think in terms of ‘bend or befriend’ or men who are limited to ‘fight or flight.’

In her fascinating book published last year, Mothers and Others; the evolutionary origins of mutual understanding, Sarah Blaffer Hrdy shows that the great evolutionary achievement of our species is the development of empathy.  Empathy is the ability to put yourself in another person’s position, and – critically – see yourself from the outside.  Hrdy writes “without the capacity to put ourselves cognitively and emotionally in someone else’s shoes, to feel what they feel, to be interested in their fears and motives, longings, griefs, vanities, and other details of their existence, without this mixture of curiosity about, and emotional identification with others, homo sapiens would never have evolved at all.”  The ability to learn from each other flows from enhanced mindreading and this has led to unprecedented advances in the realm of culture. This, with cumulative cultural knowledge in technology, has put our species on a totally different track.

In an even more recent book, The Empathic Civilisation, Jeremy Rifkin shows how recent discoveries in brain science and child development are forcing us to rethink the long-held belief that human beings are, by nature, aggressive, materialistic, utilitarian and self-interested.  The dawning realisation that we are a fundamentally empathic species has the most profound and far-reaching consequences for society.  In a celebrated review published in 2007 evolutionary psychologists summarised this as meaning “selfishness beats altruism within groups; altruistic groups beat selfish groups every time.”

Those learning structures that are moving towards a new empathic approach to education show a marked improvement in mindfulness, communication skills, and critical thinking as youngsters become more inwardly looking, emotionally attuned and cognitively adept at comprehending and responding intelligently and compassionately to others.  Civilisation increasingly depends upon mutual understanding; the world is too small a place for alpha males (and females) to ‘strut their stuff.’  That is the challenge to all of us, especially as we educate children for the world that is hurtling towards us.

Related posts:

1. Review: How Hardwired is Human Behavior?

The BBC series Yes Minister was some of the finest political satire ever seen on television.  Hacker (Paul Eddington) infuriated his Permanent Secretary (Nigel Hawthorne) by his ability to pick up what seemed the right issues, and then confuse these with his need to win votes.  In one particular episode Hacker, as Minister of Administrative Affairs, is given the additional responsibility of sorting out local government.  Interviewing him on The World at One the redoubtable Ludovic Kennedy says, “You have, Mr. Hacker, an ever increasing empire; it has been said that you are now Mr. Town Hall as well as Mr. Whitehall!”

Not quite appreciating the irony of the comment, Hacker grins broadly, “Well, it’s awfully flattering for you to put it that way…”  Then comes Kennedy’s shattering response.  “It wasn’t me who put it that way Mr. Hacker, it was The Daily Mirror.  I was merely seeking confirmation that you are now this country’s chief bureaucrat…”

Michael Gove, as Shadow Secretary for Education, is an able politician set upon an important mission to relieve education of its suffocating bureaucracy.  Infinitely more savvy than the fictitious Hacker, Gove’s earlier experience as a leader writer for The Times ensures that he gives his former colleagues just the lines which they like, and leaves few banana skins behind him.  An ardent Tory, he stands for a modernised yet traditional approach to the curriculum, and wants schools to be run by parents and commercial sponsors, not by elected members of the community.  Gove praises the City Technology Colleges which, as Kenneth Baker explained to me as he established these in 1988, “would enable us to break up the powers of the LEAs.”  Twenty-one years ago potential sponsors such as BP, British Gas and IBM (as well as academics like myself) rejected the idea, not because we were in any way against the development of technology and scientific education (which Gove suggested in a recent speech), far from it, but because we believed that the running of schools – however difficult this might be – was the prime responsibility of democratically elected local councillors.

That was a generation ago, a time when next year’s politicians were still in short trousers, with or without blazers and ties.  Since then that social cohesion for which England now yearns, and for which Gove’s Shadow Cabinet colleague Iain Duncan Smith is such a powerful advocate, has left us struggling in 2009 with ‘Breakdown Britain.’  Gove places his faith in Academies.  Academies are just  like any other school except that they are released from many of the regulations that central government has imposed on all state schools, and are administered not by locally elected representatives, but by private sponsors.  An Academy is in effect master of its own destiny, concerned entirely for itself.  Under the old local authorities if a school down the road was in trouble, resources were diverted from other parts of the system to improve it.  Now, if that school down the road goes to the wall, it creates an opportunity for an Academy to swallow up its pupils, and itself grow bigger.

‘Survival of the fittest’, business people argue, is the only way to go.  But Darwin knew that human life was more complicated than that; species evolve when they can build on opportunities created by others, as do today’s evolutionary psychologists who note “selfishness beats altruism within groups; [but] altruistic groups beat selfish groups every time.”  By sweeping away all the local authority arrangements for creating a fair balance of resources, Michael Gove could find himself having to sort out the endless contentions that will inevitably arise between all the warring factions.  With so much at stake they will appeal to natural justice, not to the laws of economic survival.  Even Solomon, in all his wisdom, wouldn’t want to do that job.

Gove in his crusade to enable schools to think for themselves must not destroy all the middlemen (locally elected officials) or else he will be driven crazy by some 20,000 headteachers banging on his door, all at the same time, pleading that they are special cases.  The last thing he wants (or we need) is for him to be Chief Bureaucrat.

See entire Briefing Paper

Related posts:

1. Dr. Keith Robinson, Chief Executive of the Wiltshire County Council and Chairman of the Association of County Chief Executives