In a recent post I referred to the fact that Gregory Bateson insisted that tertiary education should involve: “imparting the ability to disassemble and rearrange the prevailing cognitive frame or to dispose of it completely”. Three things have prompted me to return to that claim.

The first is that I’m currently reading Caroline Lucas’ wonderful book Another England: How to Reclaim Our National Story, in many respects itself an education offered at the intersection of first-hand political experience, historical knowledge, and a love and knowledge of a wide range of English literature. It seems to me exemplary in relation to what Bateson refers to.

The second is that I recently took part in a conversation with a small group of people brought together by the Welsh artist Gaia Redgrave to support her Rewilding the Artist project. As its web site says, this project sets out to: ‘imagine a process of discovery for artists, organisations, and collectives that facilitates real change, equity, and authenticity’. Perhaps unsurprisingly, given the current defects of British university education when it comes to facilitating an understanding of the necessity of real change, equity, and authenticity, our conversation turned to the need for alternatives to a system that is clearly failing both its teaching staff and its students.

Finally I came across a good, and highly topical, example of the type of thinking that I believe Bateson’s notion of a properly conducted education points towards. In this case it was articulated by Jeremy Lent and set out in his essay Honouring Multiple Truths: An Integrative Pathway to Peace in Israel/Palestine).