Reflections on Unlearning Escape to Humanity -- Escape to "belonging"

"Unlearning," "deschooling," "deculturing," and even "learning" all have the same goal, to help people think out-of-the-box. To help us transcend those beliefs that we don't even recognize we have because they are taken for granted in our cultures. Particularly in the dominant EuroAmerican cultures those beliefs are centered around materialism and the social/economy of measuring a person's worth by material ownership.

The personal stories in the pamphlet, "Paths of Unlearning," are from seven young people who have transcended this cultural pattern in both word and lifestyle. They are about an American graduate of Harvard on the verge of a $100,000 law career who chose to go to India, her ancestral home, to live among and be one of the poor; a privileged upper-class native of Uganda who chose to forgo success in the industrial world to create his own "vision of realty" fromthe history and culture of his African tribe and serve the youth of his country; a proclaimed American "geek," hooked on the forefront of computer hacking, who sees the spread of free software bringing civilization out of the dark hole of secretive competition for material greed; a young oil company executive who witnessed the major Esson/Valdez oil spill and changed sides to work toward a pollution free sustainable world; a London born product of the industrial school system who broke from the "upward" climb to express his inner thoughts in writing and in action with "Pioneers for Change