Julia Griffin - author Home About Writings Contact us
28th June 2025
To Amol Rajan and the Radicle Team Podcast.
I have just listened to the first podcast on Radicle about AI and Sexism, which I found very interesting but also shocking. Can I offer a subject for a future podcast that I believe could help with the problems discussed, as well as help with other areas of difficulty, such as violence and the judiciary?
I have been a student at The Erasmus Foundation for more than 40 years, attending meetings and seminars on a wide range of subjects. The Foundation is a spiritual teaching and healing centre, not a religion, sect or any kind of cult, but a group of like minds with a belief in a natural law that is being severely tested by the behaviour of people, resulting in chaos and imbalance in many areas of life and in the planet as a whole. We see the consequences of the actions of all ages in the tragic headlines worldwide, and hear the growing fear and disquiet that something is not right.
One of the proposals we have been putting forward in recent years is for a revolution in children’s education. The current situation of testing and forced learning is causing stress, anxiety and various mental problems that seem to be on the increase, not helped of course by some of the things you mentioned in your podcast. There is also an increasing level of violence, abuse and young people finding themselves out of the school system, very often locked up in some form of detention, both at a young age and then later in adulthood. Their self-esteem, if they ever had any, has been thrashed. This is causing immense pressure and increasing cost both in the NHS and in our prisons, not to mention upheaval and heartache amongst the families and communities involved, with the job of a teacher almost impossible. Is this really how we want our world to continue? Something fundamental is wrong, not working and going against what I would call the logic of how we should be living and learning together.
Our proposal for a revolution in children’s education is grounded in our belief that children are individual and should not be forced to learn subjects that do not interest them during their years at primary school. The Erasmus Foundation’s core belief is that we are all Spirit as well as a physical body, with a purpose in every life we take that gives us a rich experience of knowledge, and perhaps a little wisdom, that we retain in our mind forever; so all learning is of value, and is really why we are all here. Our brain is like a computer, which, if the mind - our spirit – was not suffocated by the noise of our physical and material world then a child would have the opportunity to think more using their mind which can give peace, strength and clarity to what is happening around them and allow them to get to know themselves well in truth. More teachers in a class would be required to get to know children individually, so that their interests can be encouraged, and their desire to attend school would then be commonplace. They could be taught basic spiritual values, such as the importance of truth and graciousness in all their communications, in a peaceful, stress-free setting, preferably spending most of their time out in nature, where so much joy and learning can take place, and where children naturally want to be. They should be encouraged and helped to get to know themselves well to give them self-confidence and a sound knowledge of their individual structure (that they are Spirit within a physical body, here to learn and progress spiritually), including their strengths and weaknesses. This would help them to understand what they would like to study, or learn in a more practical way, later on when they are, say, 12 years old and have the confidence and ability to choose their path and their future. Children, from a young age, would also learn to understand others, and appreciate the value of every individual, however they are and whatever they want to do with their lives.
If you would like to know any more about the Erasmus Foundation, please see www.erasmus-foundation.org , or I have my own website with writings formed by my learning and experience in the Foundation at www.thestrangerwithin.co.uk . I also attach a PDF of ‘The Erasmus Foundation Treatise on Education’, which gives more information on our proposal for education in the future.
I would be happy to answer any questions or offer any contribution to a future podcast. Thank you for your time and I wish you well in your future discussions.