Download PDF

Change is very much part of our lives, but there seem to be more abrupt and fundamental changes as we approach the new century and the new millennium. One of these changes is perspective. Our “global village” is increasingly complex, pluralistic, and ambiguous. Yet many of us are still captives of a mode of thinking which is derived from a bipolar world order, a gender-divided society, and a Eurocentric classificatory system. How to educate our students to embrace plurality and ambiguity, and how to articulate a philosophy of change which allows our students to see change as an opportunity for growth, are the two most pressing questions for educators today. In this essay, I suggest ways of teaching the Book of Changes (the I Ching or Yijing)¹ that would help to prepare our students for the twenty-first century.