Ideally, culture is the paramount identity of a typical Igboman, but unfortunately, for quite sometimes now we have been experiencing the falling standard of optimum application of Igbo culture in our institutions of higher learning and among our youths, especially in the urban areas. Students have blamed this on a lot of factors for defense. But, no matter what the cause might be, it is evident that our cultural standard has depreciated within the academic community.

I have once told the story of how I was forced to pay a fine for daring to speak Igbo language in the school premises. This, though, was a way of encouraging students to learn and master the English language faster, yet it helped in killing the Igbo language and helping to wipe it completely out of our school curriculum. It should be noted that unless effective effort is made to revamp this dire situation, the entire Igbo Community will suffer its menace. Analysts have pinned the cardinal cause of this to parents in the urban areas who in an attempt to inculcate sophistication into their children, rub them of their inalienable rights to belong and be integrated fully to the traditional Igbo community. This negative attitude of parents, who instead of teaching their children their mother tongue when they are small, but go ahead in teaching them a borrowed language (English or any other international language) which is not the primary language and which could be obtained in the school, is actually a major contributor to the problem facing the Igbo language and culture.

However, the adverse effect of this is that these children end up not knowing how to speak Igbo language which they know could be obtained in the school. As result, children end up not knowing how to speak Igbo language which is their heritage. When parents refuse to take up their responsibilities in the home, the children will completely tend to follow them through to error. Infant, quite a number of Igbo children do not know the names of their home towns. This is because they are kept away from home for a long time.

It is very clear that such children can ever find it impossible in embracing the Igbo culture. In the higher institutions, such children separate themselves from Igbo associations because, they do not find their activities interesting, hence they are not culturally oriented. Children of Igbo extraction, who are born and brought up in other areas outside Igboland, are quite different from the Igbo people themselves because they have integrated themselves with the cultures and traditions of the areas of their residence. The worst thing is that so many of them can deny being Igbo when confronted openly. The problem here is the result of the rejection which the Igbo man is facing as a result of the civil war. To prove themselves worthy of acceptance by other ethnic groups, and to avoid being labeled tribalistic, the Igbo man now moves in fear. He finds it difficult to relate with his Igbo people so as to avoid being accused of planning secession again. How long will the Igbo people continue to live in prison? They can not make headway in promoting their cultural heritage, if this attitude continues. Igbo parents should learn to impart culture to their children in order to appropriate and re-orient them as proper Igbo people.

More so, foreign culture and unrestricted entry of foreign films, videos, advertisement, technological gadgets, pornographic publications, etc., account a lot for the distortion on our valued culture. As a result of these, sophisticated methods of crime have been learned at a supersonic speed from these foreign elements. Extreme violence is portrayed daily. Consequently, deviant behaviours abound everywhere. These materials increase the awareness of western culture in our youths at the detriment of indigenous culture. The incessant quest for the acquisition of this western culture by our youths has resulted to a high level of immorality among the Igbo youths. The Federal Ministry of Art and Culture should intervene with positive policies to curb this problem, if not the Igbo culture and the entire Nigerian culture will be westernized.

Remember to focus on the outliers, respect the future they represent.

I first came across the ideas of complexity theory during my doctorate work at Columbia in 2001. I was instantly energized because the battle described by scientists as they wrestled to force meaning and knowledge out of apparent chaos seem identical to me to the experience of a person who is trying to learn something they are having difficulty understanding. Since then I have explored authors who write on complexity theory and its ties to both business and education. It is not uncommon for me to bring it into general conversation. Often I notice that people tune out or stop listening, making the assumption that it is too much for them.

What is it about complexity theory that I think is so important for everyone to consider? It has to do with the power of outliers.

Next I’ll speak on a topic that arose for me as I taught in public schools in the 1970s and 80s. During that time we had some students who regularly disrupted classes, we sent them to the office, and if they were bad enough they were suspended from school. Students like this were relatively rare. The systems of public education have gone on for 20 or 30 years in the same vein. Today if students disrupt class, they are sent to the office, and if this happens often enough, they are suspended from school. Unfortunately, everywhere in the Western world, teachers report that this is much more frequent and prevalent that it was when I was working in classrooms.

Complexity theory tells us that there is a norm of activity that exists in any field of interactions. In my example, that is the norm students in schools. However there are also always outliers whose activity appears at first random, chaotic, and disruptive. Science has taught us that these outliers with their random chaotic and disruptive pattern, if watched long enough, will create a complex new possibility. They call these fractals.

Let us just consider that idea. We live in a time when all of our systems are stressed by change. Could you perhaps the disruptive elements be creative potential for the development of a new and marvellous norm?

Imagine a system that you are involved in is feeling the stress of change. What are the outliers? What are the stressors causing disruption? What might happen if, instead of fighting against the disruption, we took it seriously, respected its message as the potential of something new, and made plans accordingly?

Twenty or 30 years ago, we were unable to imagine that students being disruptive in class had any kind of relationship to the future of student behaviour. What if we had asked ourselves seriously what we needed change in order to make some fully engaged? What if we had started to change our behaviour as teachers? What if we had begun to learn how to include multimedia in our presentations? What if we had asked their opinion on what they wanted to be learning? Is it possible, that because of schools and teachers, who would have by now (after 30 years of experience) built flexibility into the standard mode of operation, education would be better prepared to face modern students who have grown up with computers and iPods?

Some things I find important to consider:

1. When I find myself upset, stressed, or angry about something that is disrupting my norm, do I stop to consider whether or not the disruption might involve something that will improve the future?

2. If I do not consider that, is my anger or frustration really about my loss of control?

3. Does my desire to control my life and my situation inhibit my ability to be flexible and move into the new world that is being created around me with ease?

There is an old saying that “if you cannot beat them, join them.” Maybe at the conclusion of it all, the message of complexity theory is the same. The secret is in looking ahead enough that we see which disruptive outliers are the important ones, and going to become the new fractals in our lives.

In another article on three keys to staying young, based on ideas from neuroscience, creativity research and transformation, I discuss the use of tension as a precursor to transformation. When we add complexity theory to this, we see the message that rather than fighting or defending our position, perhaps we need to make use of these disruptions as they help us chart new paths to the future.