Growing up, conversations about education were steeped in a rebellious undertone. The system, as it was often called, was viewed as rigid and outdated—a relic that stifled creativity and individuality. Around the dinner table, in classrooms, and even in popular culture, the mantra of “breaking the system” echoed.
This narrative painted learning institutions as institutions that churned out conformity rather than fostering innovation or critical thinking. And society reflected this sentiment in its art and storytelling. Movies like Dead Poets Society captured the tension between tradition and rebellion, as students inspired by their unconventional teacher dared to “seize the day” and think for themselves. In The Wall by Pink Floyd, the famous refrain “We don’t need no education” became an anthem of frustration with a system that felt dehumanizing. Books like The Catcher in the Rye spoke to generations of young people who saw themselves in Holden Caulfield’s rejection of societal expectations.
This cultural attitude wasn’t just personal; it was societal. From the pop-punk ethos of songs like Green Day’s Boulevard of Broken Dreams, to stories of young wizards in Harry Potter questioning the authority of their magical world, these narratives celebrated individuality and defiance against an inflexible structure.
And for good reason. The education systems of the past were often modeled on factory-like structures: standardized, hierarchical, and focused on measurable outcomes. The role of the student was to absorb information, reproduce it accurately, and follow a predetermined path. For many, this felt suffocating. The world was changing. The dream was to step outside these boundaries, to learn differently, and to be different.
But was “breaking the system really the answer”?
While these cultural narratives of rebellion unfolded in popular media, another idea was quietly growing and gathering momentum. This was the notion that we shouldn’t strive to “break the system” at all but instead do the opposite—understand it deeply and in a more holistic way.
A pivotal figure in this growing perspective was Bert Hellinger, whose systemic approach reshaped how we think about interconnectedness within systems. Hellinger’s work, particularly in family constellations, demonstrated that systems—whether families, organizations, or educational structures—are built on relationships and dynamics that influence outcomes in profound ways. His methods revealed how unresolved tensions within systems could create patterns of dysfunction, and more importantly, how understanding these dynamics could lead to healing and growth. Applied to education, Hellinger’s systemic lens emphasizes the importance of seeing the whole picture: students, teachers, communities, and even the historical and cultural contexts that shape them. This approach shifts the focus from breaking or resisting the system to fostering harmony and balance within it, encouraging a deeper awareness of how individual actions can ripple through the larger structure.
A key concept of the systemic approach is inclusion. The system naturally finds a way to include all its elements. If an element is excluded, this creates stuckness and disbalance in the system.
A lot of the troubles of the “system” were that it was blind to key elements of the educational process such as: the roles of our different communities in our development; our cultural belonging and differences; our connections to nature and our immediate environment; the importance of the body in learning; power dynamics and oppressions within the system.
Systemic education is grounded in the understanding that learning does not occur in isolation but is shaped by the interplay of relationships, environments, and cultural contexts. Its core principles include
- wholeness, which views the student as part of interconnected systems (family, community, and society);
- inclusion, recognizing and valuing diverse perspectives and experiences;
- context-awareness, ensuring that teaching methods are relevant to the learner’s cultural, historical, and social background;
- relational dynamics, which emphasizes the quality of interactions between educators, learners, and their broader networks
Our educational systems are transitioning to more sustainable models and we have great examples for wholistic learning and engaging communities in the educational process.
If you want to be part of that transition and improve the quality of education and growth in your own local community, you can read the following articles in our blog. There we will share valuable resources, models, tools and ready-made forms that you can use in your own practice.
Don’t hesitate to contact us if you have any questions 🙂
This article is issued as a part of our project “Soil and Soul” and aims to support educators and youth workers.
Photos:
- Photo by Zulmaury Saavedra on Unsplash
- Photo by Pinterest – Amrit
- Photo of Pink Floyd Cover
- Photo of Bert Hellinger
- Photos from our projects