Reflections on Education

Lessons from Kmt (known as Ancient Kmt): Education and learning are not mere accumulations of knowledge; they are an awakening of consciousness which goes through successive stages of discovering yourself and the world around you. You are not here to merely gain knowledge of the world but to improve it.

Take seriously your life's purpose and the path toward its fulfillment. Your experiences, observations and objects of study offer opportunities to grow. Devote time each day to study issues adn subjects that have meaning and prepare you to fulfill your life's purpose. Write questions, answers and thoughts into a journal Take time to reflect on what you study and understand its meaning and implications.

While no learning is ever wasted, it is important to study with purpose. Put your attention on matters that move you forward on your path; but do not be so rigid that you cannot explor other things.

Take the lessons from what you learn and show through your actions that you have learned.

A Day in the Life of Timbuktu Academy

Our days are often very full, very busy as we carry out our work. From time to time it is rewarding to sit back and reflect on the beauty of watoto (children) in all the many ways they come. These images were mostly taken in one day, February 5, 2009. You will see them taking tests, learning their letters, standing in line, completing assignments and working on the computer. Not all the photos are pretty, polished and posed; we didn't want that. We wanted to capture a winter working day. Alot was missed, as I only walked around 1 time in the morning. Thus you wont see alot of projects taking place. This is us...in all of our working beauty!

A note on the music: the song is by a South African artist named Thandiswa (Album - Zabalaza, 2007).

February's monthly theme is Sankofa, which symbolizes the unity of the past, present and future. The Sankofa bird looks toward the back, while its body faces forward. Study the past, understand it, learn from it. Take what you learn about the past to understand the things that take place today and do what you can to correct the mistakes made in the past. Continue to learn the lessons from the past and present. Use all that you learn to define a future for you, your family, your community, your people that has you taking charge.

Our ancient ancestors in African Kmt (known as Ancient Egypt) studied everything for a long time before they made conclusions. At a certain period in their history, they did not guess, they did not speculate, they did not lie about what they knew (or didn’t know). Their world view and knowledge was unmatched in antiquity. They studied for eternity, they built for eternity. Our ancestors did not play around with things, they had to be perfect and did not accept mediocrity.

1. Investigate the present facts and past history of a problem
2. When you have investigated the problem thoroughly, you will know how to solve it
3. Draw conclusions after conducting an investigation

From studying our past – Kmt civilization – we learn that African people developed an entire civilization through scientific investigation, mathematical application (through engineering), and socio-cultural unification. We can learn that attempting to find a solution or evolve an idea without research cannot lead to any effective solution or any good idea; A person will arrive at a wrong solution and a wrong idea. Inquire into everything, and then you will be able to solve problems.