Mind and Life XIX

Hi Scott

I appreciate your attempts to encourage a discussion on integral education.  There must be parents and educators and interested parties amongst us who share this concern.

I think it would be particulary interesting to find out if this conference will also be looking at the area of special education.

One of your previous posts, “Any Special Educators out there?” brought to my attention that you are involved with K-8 education.

When you look at the Conference Overview and Session Descriptions of Mind and Life X1X you will see that they mention K-16 education.  Not living in the U.S. I am not entirely sure what these numbers refer to (maybe you could explain this to me), but I would imagine that K-16 is mainstream.

My one daughter who has just completed a degree in Communication Pathology and whose main passion is to work with children with Autism Spectrum Disorder has often discussed with me the need for routine and visual timetables in this field of education. 

Teaching the concepts of compassion and empathy in this field would no doubt be a challenge but one that I am sure can be overcome.  Have you read “a friend like henry” by nuala gardner.  This is true story of how a dog unlocked the world of an autistic boy and the remarkable empathy that followed. Here's a You-Tube link as well.

I would also like to share this blog post: "Autism: Running the race for our Kids"

I believe too, that the use of toys like “Thomas the Tank Engine” can be used to visually explain the different emotions to children with special needs.

It is important now to add a contemplative aspect to school.  

I am excited by the conference because it is a big step being made in the right direction.

Regards

Linda

Dear Anne

You obviously have firsthand experience of the topic we are discussing. 

I very much appreciate the approach you took in your presentations at the conference for teachers.  The idea of developing creativity in the teachers first so that they could model it to the children was no doubt a new and challenging idea to many of them. 

The idea of social and emotional development being improved by this process is discussed in “The Mindful Brain” (Thanks for the excellent links.  I read all that I could in the ‘look inside’ sections).

In the light of one of my recent posts entitled “Quaternity” I found it particularly interesting to note that reflection is seen as the fourth “R” when educating the mind.  Jung said that whenever there was a trinity, in this case, reading, ‘riting & ‘rthmetic, there was always a fourth waiting to be discovered!  The 21st century is becoming aware of so many fourths, in so many fields, it seems.

I enjoyed the approach which suggested that to encourage mindful learning, matter be offered in a conditional format rather than as a series of absolute truths.  This encourages the learner to keep an “open mind”, have a healthy state of uncertainty and be aware of multiple perspectives. That will certainly promote integral thinking.

“Spinning Inward” seems excellent, especially in that it breaks away from the one type of learning that was always favoured in schools, and thereby promotes verbal and nonverbal learning.  It is saddening to think of how many children have not coped in the school system in the past, just because they were visual or kinaesthetic learners.

I came across this article entitled “Mindfulness and Education”.  It introduces yet another approach to mindfulness training.  Her method is less serious and invites the teacher of mindfulness to lighten up.

In “Wherever you go There you are”, Jon Kabat-Zinn has a lovely chapter entitled “Parenting Two”.  Although he discourages teaching one’s own children meditation in a formal manner he says that there are moments  as a parent when one will have the opportunities to make meditative recommendations, such as “when children are experiencing pain or fear or are having a hard time letting go into sleep.  Without being over-bearing or insistent, you can suggest that they tune in to their breathing, slow it down, float on the waves in a little boat, watch the fear or the pain, look for images and colors, , use their imagination to “play” with the situation, and then remind themselves that these are just pictures in the mind, like movies; that they can change the movie, the thought, the image, the color, and sometimes feel better quicker and feel more in control.” (p.259)

He writes that children alternate between being receptive and not receptive to such ideas as they grow, but that seeds have been planted which they can return to when they are older.

I too find the work being done by the Mind and Life Institute worth following and look forward to reading about the conference.  Over time many of these conferences have been presented later in book format.  On their website, there is already a Conference Overview and Session Descriptions .

Keep well

Linda