Shaker Heaven

I am greatly impressed by Shaker teachers who sought to engineer successes for their mediocre students. The goal wasn’t to get into elite universities and high-paying jobs. They were not trying to get rich (they received no salaries). They were trying to get them, and more importantly, themselves, into Heaven.

In capitalism schools, agency is not celebrated. Capitalism needs people who obey, pay, pray, and stay. But the Shakers had no profit motive, no motive for gaining social standing in a world they rejected. Their motivation was getting into Heaven — and they thought the door could open at any moment. One gets into Heaven by being good at it, and that means practice.

Any student could have a special talent by virtue of practice and the lack of competition. For example, if a student practiced hours per day at a lathe, he could become the community expert at wood-turning, just because other people are doing other things. Everyone can be the community expert at some thing as long as the community is small enough. Everyone may perfect his attention.

In a Shaker community, being untalented was not a problem. Such a member was not going to get less food or experience precarity because of it. But being inattentive was a problem. How the Shaker society was so opposite to ours, and in this most zen way!