# 291: Learning like Royal Children
Story behind the Passage
Today was a remarkable day in many ways and the most remarkable thing was that I got to talk about education and my vision of it to three different people. All these conversations happened more or less unplanned. In-between these inspiring exchanges, I opened my browser and I saw an ad about the new biography of Prince Harry from the UK. And that was exactly the moment when the title of today’s post emerged which might be used for more than just my post today.
Actually, in German, my title sounds a bit more “revealing,” I think. It would be “Königskinder.” Maybe it is just my preference for my mother tongue in this case, even though the language that is connected to my heart is English. But it does not matter that much. It is more important to finally explain what “Royal Children” have to do with the education I promote. At first, the connection might not be obvious, especially given the fact that I am so outspoken against classism and mainstream alternative education trends — yes, the two can existing in combination, I think. But as I was talking about all this today and then saw the announcement about Prince Harry’s book, I saw the connection.
Whenever I talk about a wholistic liberal arts education, I mean exactly the kind of education that children of royal families go through. Well, I have not lived in a royal family, of course, I do not know any members of a royal family, and I know that this kind of life is not easy for most people. Still, what I know about children from royal families is that they get educated in many different fields that most “normal” children do not get to study anymore. Let me take Harry and his brother William as an example to explain what I mean, just because I know their story best. Here are the fields of learning that I know about when it comes to their education journey:
- Sports
- Hunting
- Agriculture/animals
- Military
- Foreign languages/culture
- Academia
- Arts
- Manners
- Religion and ethics
- Politics and diplomacy
- Business
- Social projects/charity
In the case of Harry and William, the latter part is obviously what Diana fostered extensively in forming their character. She wanted them to experience “real” life and as we all know, that was a tough thing to achieve. Still, she did what she felt she had to do. She took her kids to feed the poor, so they could see what the real world looks like. And Harry in particular always took this charitable cause to the developing world, particularly to Africa. Yes, you might say this was just for the press and publicity. But you can, just for a moment, if you will, just think of it in more neutral terms by not letting your possible stereotypes about members of the royalty and the upper classes get in the way. Just see them as human beings who are born into a situation in which they are forced to take responsibility— is that possible?
Now you might wonder what the hell all this has to do with the kind of education I envision for the average student/leader in Germany.
Answer: A lot.
Why? Because we need grown personalities in our leadership positions, not puppets.
The reason why royal children get this kind of education, I guess (I will research more about this, you bet, also in really Ancient societies), is not only mere tradition or some aristocratic bullshit. No, members of the royal family, at least traditionally and partly still today, had/have to be prepared to rule the country. If you think of the country as a huge corporation, you better make sure that the head of this organization is equipped with whatever it takes. And the answer what it takes is very simple if you then look at the practices I listed above: A leader needs all these skills and the knowledge related to it.
Why do we assume that leaders in business and other positions of power do not need all this anymore, that they instead need some narrow one-way education that turns them into nerds, even against their will?
When thinking about this simple finding that the royal education actually brilliantly represents what I envision, I also came to think of Abdullah II. I have not read many royal autobiographies but I read this one many years ago. There are several reasons for it and the most obvious one is that Jordan is very dear to me. Even though I do not remember too many details from the book, I remember the same education pattern in his CV that I found in many others, which is basically the one of Harry and William; including a military component, an international one, and diplomacy, above all. This also tells you that there is not much of a difference between “East” and “West” when it comes to these fundamental elements of leadership education.
But there are cultural differences in the minds of people when it comes to education and gender
This is something that I really also want to address with my personal project.
I will do so by sharing how many best practices Germany can learn from other countries which supposedly count as “backward”…
My Learnings
“Our modern, educated, successful professional women have more in common with the oppressed prisoners of Western imagination.” Before I continue: Remember he is talking about Jordan in this case and he is talking about his perspective. Yes, this does not apply to every Jordanian woman, neither does it apply to every woman from an Arab country, and neither does it mean that all Jordanian women have graduated from Harvard or MIT. I just want to make this very clear at the outset to take the wind out of the sail of potential critics who always, whater you talk about nowadays, come up with this more or less stupid argument that “this or that does not hold true for all”. No, it does not, but neither does this change the respective finding itself.
And my finding is that people in the “West” indeed make themselves prisoners of their own stereotypes. For me, the “prisons” really exist in the minds and hearts of people who think they are in the privileged position of the industrial world without ever having considered the possibility that other parts of the world might have solutions to problems which they do not even want to see. We continuously label and we limit our own intellectual capabilities to some small compartments which might suit our imagined need to become “experts” in this or that field because the supposedly developed and innovative West needs all this to succeed. The truth is: no, we do not! The “prison” is our way of thinking and how it limits our very definition of education.
This is why I wanted to bring in Abdullah because there is a reason why the East/West dichotomy is driving me crazy. That is because the comprehensive education that royal children still get, including especially the elements of arts and ethics/religion, is NOT only an invention and practice of the U.S. (Europe has already abandoned it), it is still part and parcel of many societies in the East. And when I say that, I mean those cultures who still practice education as a cultural value in daily life. Let me give you an example of what I mean:
When I tell people that I write about books, that I talk about books, that I help others write books — people from cultures in which the Quran is still being read on a daily basis have a completely different approach to things. For them, reading is part of daily life. And the prophet said: “Read” (Surah 96). The same applied to Christians but faith in our society is not part of daily life anymore. Now, I am not saying that we should go back to pre-Enlightenment times and abolish the division of state and church. What I am simply saying is that simple religious practices, for exmaple, have a strong cultural and thus also educational effect which is achieved without any expensive education reform or big marketing campaign. The same applies to teaching basic natural sciences or arts as part and parcel of any kind of education on any level.
Still, I do not want to get lost in the book and reading topic again, which is what I write a lot about anyways. I just want to use this example of books and reading to share how much education plays a role in societies outside of Europe, which is still being neglected by the arrogant West. It is exactly the same as the stereotype about women and Islam, which, just as a reminder, is exactly the opposite if you look t the role models in Islam. What I am thus saying is that we should for a moment look more at what education is really all about in other societies and which role gender plays in all this.
The same holds true for relating the topic of education with supposedly antiquated social practices and hierarchies. Just because not everybody will be king or queen, we should understand that what works for them should naturally also work for others who seek to count among the national “elite.” To a certain degree, it will work for all of us. This all confirms what Abdullah writes about Rania’s statement:
“We should judge women according to what’s going on in their heads rather than what’s on top of their heads.”
I suggest we do the same thing for our CEOs, politicians, and professors.
I just dearly hope that we end up finding something in their heads…
Reflection Questions
1) How do you think about monarchy in present-day society?
2) Which area of education did you not get any training in and you regret this?
3) What are three things you know about women in Jordan? Where did you learn about these things?