{"id":757,"date":"2025-07-26T08:49:12","date_gmt":"2025-07-26T08:49:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/mariaortegagarcia.com\/?p=757"},"modified":"2025-07-26T08:53:35","modified_gmt":"2025-07-26T08:53:35","slug":"from-triangles-to-circles-reimagining-education-for-a-collective-future","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mariaortegagarcia.com\/es\/spanish-blog\/from-triangles-to-circles-reimagining-education-for-a-collective-future\/","title":{"rendered":"From triangles to circles: reimagining education for a collective future"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Modern education, shaped by industrial-age thinking and dominated by Western philosophical frameworks, has long followed hierarchical models that prioritize individual achievement, linear progress, and control. One of the most emblematic representations of this approach is Abraham Maslow\u2019s \u201cHierarchy of Needs,\u201d<\/a> a pyramid that places self-actualization at its peak and assumes a stepwise progression from physiological needs to spiritual fulfillment. However, recent revelations about the true origins of Maslow\u2019s thinking, rooted in the communal practices of the Blackfoot Nation, challenge the legitimacy and utility of such a model. When examined alongside Paulo Freire\u2019s critique of the \u201cbanking concept of education\u201d<\/a> and the Buddhist principle of innate Buddha-nature<\/a>, we are presented with a compelling opportunity to reimagine education not as a hierarchy but as a circle: an inclusive, relational, and co-creative process.<\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t

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The flaws of the triangle: Maslow, misappropriation and individualism<\/h2>\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t
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In \u201cThe Blackfoot Wisdom That Inspired Maslow\u2019s Hierarchy,\u201d the article<\/a> reveals how Maslow was deeply influenced by his time with the Blackfoot people, who embodied a holistic, communal worldview. Contrary to the linear progression of Maslow\u2019s pyramid, the Blackfoot model is cyclical and collective, emphasizing community actualization and responsibility to future generations over individual attainment. Maslow observed these values but ultimately reframed them through a Western lens, producing a pyramid that subtly reinforced capitalist ideals: self-fulfillment as a personal endpoint, success as solitary, and progress as upward mobility.<\/p>

This distortion has deeply influenced not only psychology but also educational systems. Schools, built around standardized testing, competitive grading, and compartmentalized knowledge, mirror Maslow\u2019s ladder. They nurture a belief that one must climb: first to survive, then to belong, then to excel, and only then can one become whole. In doing so, they isolate the learner from the community and promote personal achievement at the expense of collective growth.<\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t

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The banking model and the erasure of humanity<\/h2>\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t
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Paulo Freire\u2019s essay \u201cThe Banking Concept of Education<\/a>\u201d critiques this mechanistic model of learning, wherein students are treated as passive receptacles into which teachers deposit knowledge. This model, Freire argues, dehumanizes both students and teachers by denying their agency, creativity, and mutual interdependence. It mirrors the triangle\u2019s logic: top-down, hierarchical, and power-laden. Education becomes a tool of control rather than liberation, conditioning students to accept the status quo rather than question it.<\/p>

Freire advocates instead for a dialogical model of education; one rooted in conversation, co-creation, and mutual transformation. Knowledge is not transmitted but generated<\/strong>, not owned but shared. In this model, the classroom becomes a circle, where teacher and student sit together, exchange ideas, and co-develop understanding. This mirrors the Indigenous practice of council or circle dialogue, and it resonates deeply with the notion that wisdom is not a peak to be reached alone, but a well to be tended together.<\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t

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Buddha-Nature and the innate potential of all beings<\/h2>\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t
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The Buddhist concept of Buddha-nature further destabilizes the hierarchical model of education by asserting that every sentient being possesses the seed of enlightenment. Wisdom is not something acquired from above or earned through struggle; it is inherent and requires only the right conditions to bloom. This view encourages educators to approach learners<\/strong> not as empty vessels or broken beings needing repair, but as<\/strong> whole, luminous individuals whose potential is always present.<\/strong><\/p>

This aligns with both Freire\u2019s belief in the learner\u2019s agency and the Blackfoot model\u2019s focus on balance, community, and stewardship. It calls into question any pedagogy that presumes deficiency and instead invites practices that honor presence, interconnectedness, and responsibility.<\/strong><\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t

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Circles, not pyramids: the new paradigm for education<\/h2>\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t
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A future of education grounded in collective wisdom and innate potential must replace triangles with circles. Rather than progressing up a pyramid of needs, students can be seen as participating in a living system, a communal field where learning is regenerative, relational, and circular. In such a model:<\/p>