Robert Mitchell

Transforming human consciousness from the deficient mode of mental consciousness to a new efficient mode of integral consciousness is not just a theoretical possibility. It is a responsibility. Gebser says, ”This new spiritual reality is without question our only security…Its realization alone seems able to guarantee man’s continuing existence in the face of the powers of technology, rationality, and chaotic emotion…each one of us have been given a grave responsibility, not merely to survey but to actually traverse the path opening before us” (EPO, p. 5). The responsibility of our generation is to teach that path to young people in the K-12 educational system. “By returning to the very sources of human development as we observe the structures of consciousness [unfold] … we can not only discover the past … but also gain a view into the future which reveals the traits of a new reality amidst the decline of our age” (EPO, p. 2).

            In 2001, cultural historian William Irwin Thompson and mathematician Ralph Abraham wrote a K–12 cultural education curriculum (Transforming History, 2009), which has been adopted by the Ross School on Long Island, New York. Their Gebserian curriculum, however, does not give proper credit to the Jungian concept of Developmental Individuation. In my work, I coordinate both Jung and Gebser. In 2005, I published my own outline for a K–12 cultural education curriculum. Both curriculums provide invaluable insights into creating a comprehensive K-12 curriculum that leads future generations to Individuation-Integrality. This paper will compare and contrast the two curriculums.