Pathfinder Educational Model
The Pathfinder Educational Model (PEM)TM is a transformative, planet-centered approach to education designed to replace outdated industrial-era systems of education with a modern, scaleable, equitable, socially and culturally contextualized, globally scoped, locally implemented, future-oriented, planet-centered approach to education capable of raising a generation empowered to transform the planet. Rooted in the Pathfinder Pedagogical Framework, emphasizing Post-Capitalist Skills, and leaning heavily on parents, teachers, local community organizations, and a specially trained Pathfinder AI, it prioritizes critical thinking, adaptability, collaboration, and holistic human development. Unlike traditional education models that emphasize standardization, obedience, and rote memorization, PEM fosters empowerment, agency, and self-actualization.
Educational Models
The Pathfinder Educational Model
Pathfinder Educational Model > Four Pillars of Pathfinder Grading, Pathfinder AI, Pathfinder Network, Pathfinder Pedagogical Framework, SpiritWiki
Related LP Terms
Pathfinder Educational Model > Assembly Line Grading, Assembly Line Model, Harmonic Social Structure, Pathfinder Archetypes, Post-Capitalist Skills, The Lightning Path
Non-LP Related Terms
Pathfinder Educational Model > Conscientização, Culture of Silence, Dialogic Method, Generative Themes, John Taylor Gatto, Love, Empathy, and Hope, Praxis, Problem-Posing Education, Seven Components of Human Development
Notes
Read all about the model in [https://spiritwiki.lightningpath.org/index.php/Pathfinder_Educational_Model this PathfinderTMarticle series.
The Pathfinder Educational Model (PEM) is not designed to prepare students for survival within a collapsing system—it is designed to equip them with the skills needed to build a new world. Traditional education trains students for obedience, competition, and economic survival within a capitalist framework, but Pathfinder pedagogy recognizes that capitalism is unsustainable and that humanity must transition toward new social, economic, and ecological paradigms.
Readings and Resources
Blum, Susan D. 2020. Ungrading. Morgantown: West Virginia University Press.
Clark, David, and Robert Talbert. 2023. Grading For Growth. Routledge.
Gatto, John Taylor. 2006. Dumbing Us Down: The Hidden Curriculum of Compulsory Schooling. New Society Publishers.
Gray, Peter. 2015. Free to Learn: Why Unleashing the Instinct to Play Will Make Our Children Happier, More Self-Reliant, and Better Students for Life. Basic Books.
Holt, John. 1995. How Children Fail. Balanced.
———. 2017. How Children Learn. Balanced.
Kohn, Alfie. 1986. No Contest: The Case Against Competition. Boston: Houghton Mifflin. https://amzn.to/2X8g70l.
RSA, dir. 2010a. Changing Education Paradigms. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zDZFcDGpL4U.
———, dir. 2010b. Drive: The Surprising Truth about What Motivates Us. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_mG-hhWL_ug.
Related LP Content and Courses
Patreon Units
Lightning Path (2024). Parent/Teacher Training. LP 4.7. https://www.patreon.com/collection/640726