A short step across from self-development is learning more widely. While self-development implies learning about oneself, learning in general, and as generally done with institutions of learning, is learning knowledge and skills about the world, life, etc., and particularly about what is needed to play a part in society.

As there is so much so-called education provided institutionally, what is missing? The learning about oneself I have addressed with family life, co-living and self-development, so I won't go over that again.

The point about learning in general, including training, is that we all need to undertake some learning in order to have the knowledge and skills needed to be effective in whatever regenerative activities are ours to do. For professions, it is immediately obvious. But also for many other things. Maybe we are impressed by the need for food production to be better, for us and for our natural ecosystems. To contribute effectively to this we would need to learn about permaculture, perhaps (an example I used in my knowledge commons piece of 2023-09-09, or syntropic farming or just organic agriculture more generally.

So, what difference could RegenCHOICE make to learning? I want to cover this briefly in sections: finding peer learners; finding teachers/tutors/coaches; setting out learning pathways via levels of achievement.

I'm sure that many people find it more motivating to learn in a peer group than learning alone. RegenCHOICE needs development to support this, in terms of creating the enquiry categories and the relevant questions, but when that is done, there is nothing stopping people seeking people interested in learning about the same topics. If someone has special characteristics or needs, variant abilities or identifies as neurodivergent, again I expect RegenCHOICE to evolve to allow people to search for someone with similar characteristics. The challenge, naturally, is that the more specific the search, the more people we will need using the system to make it likely to find someone with matching needs or wants.

A straightforward extension of this is to look for someone with similar interests, but with more experience (if you want to be coached) or less experience (if you want to coach someone). This would be dealt with in a way similar to any individual helping or wanting help in other areas.

Having reliable learning pathways clearly set out enables people to learn in their own preferred ways, either alone or in groups. But in order to mark these paths, we need to describe the milestones along the way. I see these as RegenCHOICE questions that emerge, gradually, from people's desire to know where others stand in terms of what they know, what they can do, etc. An example of a self-assessment scale I often refer to as a good example is the CEFR self-assessment grid.

The challenge of the present moment is that the learning opportunities that are currently provided are still designed to fit in with the current economic system. While there are sometimes learning resources available for knowledge and skills related to regeneration, they are most often either not readily available, or are expensive, or both.

When people can effectively and easily learn about the global issues that need regeneration, and then affordably learn the skills needed to engage and contribute, then the way is open for far more people to engage in the good work of regeneration and genuine ecosystemic development, as opposed to the currently supposed “development” tied to unsustainable economic growth.