Drawing Forth

Hold Pebbles and See Jewels

I just saw and heard a poem recitied on YouTube. The poem is called "Faith" and was written by the late Ruhiyyih Khanum. It is recited by a woman by the name of Mehr and has background music.

In the poem there is a phrase that says one of the definitions of Faith is “to hold pebbles and see jewels.”

This is what we do as teachers. We “hold pebbles and see jewels” and if we do our job correctly, the stones become jewels.

Try, try again.

This link should make you feel eternally grateful and should make you cry. In this video Nick Vujicic (who has no arms or legs but has come to terms with it) delivers an inspirational speech to some school kids. These children will never forget the day they witnessed this. You won't forget it either.

Bringing forth what is within you

Linn A. Moffett posted this on Facebook today and it fits in perfect with the theme of this blog:

"If you bring forth what is within you, what you bring forth will save you.

If you do not bring forth what is within you, what you do not bring forth will destroy you..."

The Gospel of St. Thomas

Can Relatively Untrained Children Help Other Children to Learn

Irma Nyby is an almost ninety year-old retired school teacher living a few hours north of Sacramento California. She has been an inspiration to me, assisted in the creation of preschool teacher training programs in southern Africa and has experience that should be shared widely.

The last time I visited her she shared a story of her first teaching post. She was assigned to teach the slowest learners who were stuck between kindergarten and the first grade. Her classroom was a result of four streams that had divided up students into groups of very gifted students, less gifted students and she was given 30 students who were seen as the least gifted. Mrs. Nyby understood that her task was next to impossible - except that she had a supportive principal. She studied some work going on in Oakland, California and was given a day off to visit a class where fifth and sixth graders were helping children like those in her class. She returned inspired and received the permission of the principal to take children from the fifth and sixth grades to help in her class. The principal agreed, but the fifth and six grade teachers needed to also agree. As it turned out, they did agree and sent her all the class bullies and other problem-makers and slower learners.

Irma accepted the gift she was given, gave the tutors a brief training and assigned them various tasks to help their much younger schoolmates. She shared a story of one of the most notorious boy bullies in a rocking chair - giving comfort to a five year-old troubled little girl.

And what were the results? Miraculous! Word spread about what she was doing and she was invited to present her work to a conference of educationalists in Chicago, after which she received job offers from various parts of the U.S.

The picture above shows one of the older children patiently tutoring a younger student. A wonderful side benefit of this program is that the older children began to develop interest in learning again.

Nuances

Nuances

Nuances pile up:

the subtle breath,

the watched glanced at,

the window looked out,

the “darn it” said with all the venom of “damn it”

all picked up casually like little carpet sweepings from parents,

and older children;

till they become not just a pile of nuances,

but our personality.

© Steven Fletcher

January 29, 2009

Marriage and Mentors

I was searching for some contact information in my email this morning when I found the following from a single, thirty-something-year-old woman:

“Most of my friends are single or divorced women. They are supportive and loving, and it is good for me to see the single ones who are my age and older who have full, wonderful lives on their own. But, having the perspective of friends who have managed to have a sound marriage would also be helpful. A friend who divorced a couple years ago, was telling me that her strategy now is to hang out with this couple she knows who have a beautiful marriage that she admires. She wants to learn how wonderful marriage can be and to orient herself so that in the future she will be better prepared for that sort of marriage herself.”

From the perspective of mentorship, this seems like very profound advice. Many of us were raised by less-than-deal families. Our parents held on to their marriages by a thread or at some point may have divorced. This is our seed bed for learning how to be a spouse, a mother or a father. If my father dominated my mother then this is what I learned. If my mother dominated my father I learned that instead.

Even if we take the best of marriage preparedness classes, we may fail to learn the ways of harmony, of willing sacrifice, of setting proper limits and other skills that are required for a happy, healthy marriage.

But most of us can recognize a dysfunctional marriage when we see one and most of us are attracted to a harmonious marriage.

So, whether you are single or already married, the advice my friend received is important, spend time around couples you know that “have a beautiful marriage” – a marriage that you admire. Watch and listen and learn. We are never too old.

Education and Creativity

The following link is a wonderful talk about creativity and education – about how we should value and encourage it. The talk by Sir Ken Robinson posits that creativity is as important as literacy.

Among other things in the talk Robertson says that:

• children are not afraid of being wrong
• that if people are not prepared to be wrong they will never come up with anything original
• that our current system “educates” people out of being creative

The talk is just under 20 minutes long and is also very funny.

Check it out at:

http://www.ted.com/index.php/talks/ken_robinson_says_schools_kill_creativity.html

ADHD, genetics and more

Consider the labels:

• ADHD
• alcoholism
• Alzheimer's
• obesity
• diabetes
• autism

Each of these labels can be defined in academic terms.

Many have been (or are being) traced to generic inheritance

Each of these has a drug (or medical procedure) that can be prescribed to cure or help with the "disease."

Each of these labels (and their "cures") takes some of the immense pressure off parents or children who are charged with their care.

If the Olympics is any kind of societal "gold standard" then think about Michael Phelps:

As a child he was diagnosed with Attention Deficit Hyperactive Disorder (ADHD). In place of drugs his mother used water - swimming in it. It saved them both. Now with Olympic gold medals falling around him like rain, does he still have ADHD? Could ADHD just as well stand for "Another Diagnosis Hardly Done?" Are we too focused on labeling the extremes of the bell curve to recognize genius?

The Michael Phelps story is not alone. Think about the number of recognized inventors, scientists, musicians and others who could not make it in school.

Oh, by the way, the mother of Michael Phelps showered him with love also. Not shame, not labels, but love!

I think those of us in the growth and healing professions ought to consider this story and the many other like it.

Art and Music In Our Schools

Dennis Brown is a phenomenon here in the California "Gold Country." He lives a simple life and supports music in any way he can. One of the things he does is to conduct a local choral group called the Pine Cone Singers. On May 16th, 2008 the Pine Cone Singers gave the first of three performances. Near the end of the show, Dennis, dripping with sweat, stopped the performance and offered an impromptu speach on the benifits of programs for art and music. In the video he says that music saved him from a life of crime and that most of his freinds from high school are either in prison, dead or are addicted to "crack."

Hear it in his own words. Click here to play the vedio.

Claire Bove, Carnegie Scholar

This blog entry is a link to some great material. The material is written by Claire Bove who is a Carnegie Scholar. She is obviously a great teacher and science happens to be something she has focused on. It is possible to extract from these pages much about education in general. Take a look:

Feeling at Home in the Science Classroom 

Teaching Modes

Teachers, in the course of their work often teach from one of the following four modes:

Facilitation Mode

In this mode the teacher has a clear plan. It may be a road map held in the head, it may be a well prepared lesson plan or some other concrete plan. The teacher is fully alert and has mastered the tools of drawing forth and assisting students to discover. At the same time the teacher is alert to challenges from the students. These challenges come in the form of non-participation, direct challenges to the authority of the teacher or attempts to fragment the unity of the class. Teachers must be have tasted successful experience using all aspects of the skills necessary to manage these challenges and in facilitating successful learning experiences. It requires trust that students have inside themselves potentialities of great value and that one of the purposes of education is to help those potentials blossom.

Lecture Mode

The lecture mode is probably the most common mode for teachers to operate from. Success in using the lecture mode is conditioned on the teacher knowing the material, having an organized lesson plan and that students:

• want to learn the subject matter
• are willing to learn from the particular teacher
• have the learning skills necessary to benefit from a lecture
• are paying attention

Just Talking Mode

The “just talking mode” is a high risk mode. It is incompatible with both the facilitation mode and with the lecture mode. In this mode the teacher forgets to listen to the background “beat” much like a participant in a drum circle who tunes out of the unity of the group, looses the beat and becomes a counter-productive source of energy. At the same time the teacher looses credibility with the students and energy is taken from the teacher’s ability to either facilitate or be seen as a domain expert.

You Will Conform Mode

This mode is where the teacher (often based on past successful experiences) believes that if a student conforms they will be better off. Based on this, the teacher demands that a student conform to the moment. The risk is that any trust that was previously built between the student and the teacher can be destroyed. Additionally, other students who may have created a bond of trust with the teacher, may view the teacher as “unjustly” putting pressure on a single participant.

Teachers are human. Challenges and opportunities come and go. We all fail sometimes. However, the successful teacher will learn from these mistakes. Understanding these “modes” could help us all become better teachers. The understanding and practice of these skills could be taught in teachers education programs.

Links to Educational Concepts and Ideas

I will update this from time to time but here are a few links that I feel are important on the subject of drawing forth the best that is in us all:

Dr. Jill Bolte Taylor a scientist on left brain, right brain thinking and on the unity of all things. On the TED website called Stroke of Insight.

Here are some quotes I have collected on education and stories: Gentle Place Organization

Here is a you tube video on Rites of Intensification.

A Picture and 1000 Stories

A Picture and a Thousand Stories

This picture tells a story. The main character is the young girl on the left. She is responding to questions. My role (that's me on the right side of the photo) is one of educator in the exact sense of this web site. I am not in "teaching" mode, I am in "drawing forth" mode. The one doing the teaching is the little girl on the left.

This took place at an English corner at a university campus in Beijing. The conversation had previously turned a bit ugly. The topic was the political relationship between China and Japan. There is a lot of unresolved history from World War II. I was the only foreigner present that evening. The graduate student who was ‘hosting” this discussion tried repeatedly to draw me into the politics of the discussion. These two little girls turned up and changed the dynamic.

I asked the little girl on the left, “So, what do you think? Do you think we should fight and have wars to solve problems?” She responded with, “Oh, no! We should all just love each other." We all learned a great lesson.

Crystal Sets, Electronics and English Class - How does "education" take place?

I'd like to share three stories from my childhood and youth. The stories teach us much about education. We understand that education takes place in schools and outside of schools. It also takes place inside of schools in ways that teachers do not plan. Generally speaking these two modes are called formal education and informal education. The two modes interact and effect one another.

For example, a child who gets excited about learning to play the piano, may also get excited about learning other things. The child who is inspired by love for an uncle, may want to emulate him and this may lead to him or her into doing well in school.

In my case (and there are many others who have similar stories) I was bored in school during most of my childhood. I spent many hours looking out the window of the classroom longing to be outside in the fresh air. Many subjects made little sense to me. I did not see the reason to learn them. There was no motivation to learn. My teachers varied from poor to excellent but for the most part I was not interested in learning.

When I was six years old my uncle (Taylor Fletcher) made me a crystal set radio. I can still picture him working in the corner of his garage putting together a few things and then magically, without a battery, there was sound in the headphones. Turn the knob this way you got a man reading the news in Los Angeles turn the knob a little more and there was a lady singing. To me this was magic.

When I got home I climbed a 100 foot tree next to my bedroom and somehow strung a copper wire to another tall tree 50 feet away. This was the antenna. After hooking that to the radio and then connecting another part of the radio to a water pipe for a ground, the magic came again. From my bedroom in northern California, without batteries I could listen to the world around me. I don't have a picture of the radio my uncle made, but this is similar (Thanks to Jim Frederick for permission to use the photo):

The one my uncle made for me was a bit more "bare bones" than the picture above - but you get the idea.

A few years later my family was visiting some friends outside the town where we lived. I was perhaps eight years old. In the basement of the house I found an old (and very beat up) World War II, Navy electronics training manual. It was used to teach adults about electronics but it approached the subject in very simple ways. I started to read with interest and then became excited. The owner of the house (George Dakserhoff) gave me the book. For months, every night before sleeping I read the book. Over and over I read it. Some of the words were difficult for me - like "microfarad" but I was excited and I read on and I taught myself about electronics.

School for the most part could not hold my attention. Somehow I graduated from high school and enrolled in college. The first year I did poorly. The second year a professor by the name of Mrs. Connie Mundrick changed my life forever. Until then, English was my worst subject in school. She made it clear from the beginning that the purpose of English class was to learn how to communicate your thoughts - not just to be able to write a complete sentence without errors. Something snapped into place and I became excited about writing. On the side, I started writing poetry. A year later, I had a binder with a few hundred poems.

Without my uncle making me the crystal set, without the man giving me the electronics manual and without Mrs. Mundrick's inspiration - without all of them - you would not be reading this blog.

Think of where formal education can go when institutions learn to detect, discover and guide children's natural inclinations and tendencies!

Until next time.