The word has been linked in this new discourse with desire, the individual's need to have their desire filled. To succeed in the face of such opposition really requires an epistemic break that places power beyond the word and redifines desire within a much broader holistic environment where Truth, and our pursuit of it, become the relevant motives for education. In making such a break we move from the utilitarian view of the human as a cog in the economy, beyond the humanist sense of the human as potent individual to a Neo-humanist view of the human being as an interactive agent embedded in a world of mystery and power. This sense of individuality is very potent as it draws on our interconnectedness for power rather than on our ability to dominate and control. This means a lot when we start thinking about education.
Teachers are practical idealists.
They always ask about implementation and have often discounted a good idea because it doesn't fit with their concept of what it means to teach. This shift of epistemes to Neo-Humanism of course greatly expands the frontier of a teacher's responsibility. It will certainly intimidate the most hardy and adventurous teacher. But it also shifts the responsibility away from just teachers, the utilitarian and humanist episteme by promoting the individual would of course not do this, but the holistic nature of Neo-Humanist education will break down such a false separation and allow teachers to work in ways undreamt of. This must happen because for us to redefine what it means to educate really requires us to totally reconceptualise what it means to teach and to learn.