Making a good introduction is always hard to get right. In many cases, people will give up on doing this, and just awkwardly launch into their main point, hoping that the dialogue can progress far enough for the other person to become invested before they lose attention. I use this tactic very often in my conversations with people as well as in a lot of writing. But, when the stakes are much higher, when the dialogue that I am trying to have is much more important, I know I must do things properly. To you, a student who is considering joining one of our classes at Atlas, I know you are trying to find the right learning environment to commit to. While I cannot claim that we will be the right option for every student, I think it is very likely that if you are reading this, that there is something special that Atlas can provide you that sets us apart from any other educational institution. The high stakes that I must contend with in this dialogue, is to communicate this to you. If I fail, I will suffer the loss of a student who could have learnt a great deal in our classes. Of course, if I am able to successfully communicate what Atlas is to you, but you realise that we are not the right learning environment for you, then that is a success in its own way. I must start with the most important, essential, and central thing about Atlas, which is philosophy.
A philosophy is any systematic viewpoint, which can range in scope. You can have a life philosophy that encompasses everything in your life. You can have a philosophy towards one aspect of life, such as education, friendships, or social justice. Once you have a philosophy/systematic view towards something, you can then discover purpose. Purpose gives meaning and goals to our work. It does not exist merely as a theoretical concept but has practical implications. For example, leadership is the act of fostering cooperation to accomplish a task, and a key principle in leadership is the importance of communicating the purpose of a task to others. We do not lead by commanding others, but by showing them that taking action is in congruence with their philosophy and purpose. Philosophy is a system, which leads to purpose, which directs action. Action, that is taken in order to fulfil purpose (as opposed to action that arises from coercion), takes on a special characteristic. This is what we call passion.
I was dealing with a great struggle as a student and saw my closest friends go through the same struggle. I mention this to reassure you that what I am about to say is not meant in an accusatory manner, but in empathetic solidarity:
Most students do not have a philosophy or purpose, and lacking both, also have no passion in life. A grave failure of the education system (I would argue its most fundamental failure) is refusing to create a learning environment in which students can develop this. Of course, these things cannot simply be told to a student, “Here is your purpose in life…” But the way school is run, creates a most oppressive barrier to any student attempting to find their purpose, which I believe the students reading this are most likely to feel a connection to.
There is a dialectical relationship between the purpose of students and their learning institution. This means that one thing affects another, while the other also affects the first thing. ‘A’ affects ‘B,’ and ‘B’ affects ‘A.’ If school has no substantive purpose, then the students will not develop any purpose. What has been our experience so far? Through the years of passionate work that we (the whole Atlas team) have contributed, we have found purpose through witnessing the transformative power of a real education. We are still so early in our journey, but the things we have seen happen at Atlas, we believe no other tutoring centre can do. Our students have gone on to reach levels of academic rigour that they did not believe themselves capable of, but also develop their character to become more conscientious, better communicators and stubbornly resilient.
Before I get to the conclusion, I would like to make one additional, but not frivolous clarification about purpose. I need to clarify what makes a good purpose. A philosophy/purpose is the starting point from which other goals and motivations derive from. This means that the more a purpose can stands above other considerations, the broader it is, the better it becomes. A purpose that is confined to a narrow domain, is poor, and risks missing the big picture, and leading to artificial action that does not help the true purpose. Consider a heavily confined purpose such as “getting a good exam mark in the next assessment.” What actions does this purpose motivate? What to do does not appear to be obvious. Should you cheat? Should you rote learn information without understanding? This is why it is important for Atlas to not be confined to the narrow targets of exam results.
Here is a starting point for finding purpose, that every student can progress and modify to truly make it their own, throughout the journey of life. For students/people, the purpose of life (general philosophy) is the discovery of passions and the taking of actions throughout life that is fuelled by these passions. The purpose of education is the necessary development of skills, knowledge and consciousness that students require to achieve the prior purpose. The purpose of Atlas is to provide a real education to students that adheres to this principle. This purpose is good because it gives our organisation guidance and stands above all else. If we do something that empowers our students, even if it appears to be non-academic, then it still counts as education. If we do something that stifles the potential of our students, then no matter how much it superficially appears to improve their school marks, it is not education.
If this speaks to you, then we cannot wait to teach you so much about everything.
Welcome to Atlas,
Anto, Co-founder of Atlas Academia
Appendix: The full dialectical analysis of purpose and the education system
1. School (A) has no purpose, students do not develop purpose (B)
2. Anto and Wayne (A) rebel and attempt to find purpose, they create Atlas (B), which is an education institution that has a purpose
3. Atlas (A) has a purpose, the students (B) of Atlas are encouraged to find purpose
4. When enough students and teachers (A) of the entire education system have a purpose, then the education system (B) gains purpose and becomes a force for good
