PLEASE NOTE: I am now posting to www.sunwalked.wordpress.com as my main blog/website
You might be interested in some of the content there.
All good wishes
SunWALKer
The tree is probably the most universal and archetypal symbol of education.
BBC correspondent Alan Johnston, the only international correspondent still living and working in the .... Gaza Strip, was kidnapped on his way home from his Gaza City office on 12 March. Intensive international efforts are continuing to secure his release.
Click on photograph to go to the BBC website. Please add the link to your blog or site.
You live in illusions
and the appearance of things.
There is Reality,
you are that Reality.
When you recognize this
you will realize that you are no thing and being no thing are everything.
Kalu Rinpoche - 20thC Tibetan Buddhist p. 201 in the excellent Essential Spirituality by Roger Walsh
PS from RP - But for an educational, developmental perspective duality it is as vital as achieving experience of singleness. The two are like a pair of scissors - not just for cutting into reality but to understand how we grow and develop. We don't come back to earth with a bump we re-enter duality with a jolt so as to enable the impulse from oneness to take us a bit further.
An appeal for education that nurtures wisdom – at least for gifted students - comes from a surprising source – Charles Murray in the Wall Street Journal. He says; The encouragement of wisdom requires a special kind of education. It requires first of all recognition of one's own intellectual limits and fallibilities--in a word, humility. This is perhaps the most conspicuously missing part of today's education of the gifted. Many high-IQ students, especially those who avoid serious science and math, go from kindergarten through an advanced degree without ever having a teacher who is dissatisfied with their best work and without ever taking a course that forces them to say to themselves, "I can't do this." Humility requires that the gifted learn what it feels like to hit an intellectual wall, just as all of their less talented peers do, and that can come only from a curriculum and pedagogy designed especially for them. That level of demand cannot fairly be imposed on a classroom that includes children who do not have the ability to respond. The gifted need to have some classes with each other not to be coddled, but because that is the only setting in which their feet can be held to the fire. Are only the academically gifted capable of wisdom? Is intellectual walling the same as humiliation - and is this a good way to cultivate wisdom? My experience is that classes and invidual children possess wisdom. The first step in its cultivation is stopping the system causing the wisdom to atrophy. Of course using the SunWALK model, including PFC the cultivation of wisdom is built in for all students from Year 1 onwards! The article can be read in full at http://www.opinionjournal.com/extra/?id=110009541 Thanks to Gordon Kerr for pointing out this article.
I wonder if the genius of Ken Wilber has been turned to dissolving the hardening of the hearteries that characterizes fundamentalism? If he hasn't perhaps one of the students reading this might set her/him self that task!
One key passage is from A Brief History of Everything p. 61;
Evolution is best thought of as Spirit-in-action, God-in-the-making, where Spirit unfolds itself at every stage of development, thus manifesting more of itself, and realizing more of itself, at every unfolding.........an infinite process that is completely present at every finite stage, but becomes more available to itself with every evolutionary opening.
Evolution = God at work! There is nothing more integrative than this idea.
It occurs to me that the above quotation is also a description of the development of each of us - what is true of Creation as a whole is (of course) true of each of its parts.
And in the understanding of Wilber, and the great teachers through the ages, when we are able to not be hung up on duality we are that whole Spirit-in-action.
My main sites are at www.spiritofholisticeducation.org.uk
I am trying to make VOX work for me but since the people at VOX won't answer any questions it is not making progress.
Roger
In Basics: Introductory A) I made some points and raised some questions around my answer to 'What is the real difference between the 'holistically minded teacher/practitioner' and the 'non holistically-minded teacher/practitioner'?'
Here I want to re-introduce the one-sentence version of my model and raise around it some issues and questions. There are several versions of the one-sentence model - but they are essentially the same.
Some questions: What constitutes a holistic model of education? What elements, systems, concerns etc. must it have to qualify as holistic? What would 'fail' a model? Is there any justifiable rank order of importance? How and in what ways can intellectual rigour be ensured/guaranteed/improved within a holistic model of education?
Here is a 'vertically presented' version:
The SunWALK model of spiritualizing (or humanizing) pedagogy sees education as:
nurturing
capabilities through the
storied development
of meaning, which is
constructed, and de-constructed,
physically
mentally and
spiritually, through
Wise &
Willing
Action, via
Loving and
Knowing - developed in
Community, through the
‘Dialectical Spiritualization’ of
Caring,
Creativity &
Criticality discourses, all undertaken in the light of the
‘Sun’ of chosen higher-order
values and
beliefs, using best available, appropriate
content.
This in one sentence covers most of what I think is essential for any educational model (or school, or system) that claims to be holistic.
Over the next few days/weeks I will comment on each concept-element and then move on to comments and questions on the 30 unit course.
The educational model is itself based on a model of being human. Being human is seen as having capabilities in caring, creativity and criticality (the 3Cs) - acquired and expressed via the agency of the human body.
We all need to make a decision as to whether we are essentially material beings or spiritual beings. My choice is to see the human as spiritual - caring, creativity and criticality are seen as capabilities of the human spirit - but in this world they are more or less dependent on the agency of the human body.
The true 'subject matter' of the teacher is the human spirit hers/his and the students'. The goal is the nurturing of the human spirit - just as Tai Chi masters nurture each student's chi or life-force.
This of course is done 'in community' and for the purpose of living well. Living well is itself a matter of debate. I choose to be inspired by the perennial wisdom of the great wisdom traditions. A fine book that focuses on the essential nature of those traditions is Essential Spirituality by Roger Walsh.
These spiritual teachings of course nurture the moral voice. Philosophy and science are particularly nurturing for the IT voice of the objective. Creativity is particularly nourishing for the I voice of subjectivity.
The list of key concept-elements in the one sentence version of the SunWALK model.
My argument is that all of these concept elements need to be accounted for in any educational model that claims to be holistic. AS such SunWALK is both a means for evaluating any model and in itself a meta-model. Many courses, such as MA courses, in effect require the student to articulate the model that each of us has implicit in how we approach the study of and practice of, education.
Such courses require us to articulate that which in us might be vaguely conscious and we do this against ideas found in public theory.
The concept-elements then are:
model
spiritualizing/humanizing)
pedagogy
education
nurturing capabilities
storied development
meaning
constructed/ion de-constructed/ion
physically
mentally
spiritually
Wise/Wisdom
Willing/volition
Action
Loving
Knowing
Community
‘Dialectical Spiritualization’
Caring,
Creativity
Criticality
discourses
the light of the ‘Sun’ of chosen higher-order values and beliefs
content - best available, appropriate
After the series of mini-articles on the key concept-elements in the one-sentence version of the model the next set of Basics articles will follow the subjects of the units in the 30 unit course
SEE http://spiritofholisticeducation.org.uk/content/category/12/38/61/
PART 1: Dictionary
of Holistic Education Concepts -
Introduction Part a)
Go straight to Dictionary without introductions
ABC DEF GHI JKL MNO PQR STU VWXYZ
'Foreword'
The first section presents a 'dictionary' of Holistic Education concepts. The Dictionary is likely to be useful after or during working through the TASKS in the rest of the site.
NB The Dictionary is in continuous development - this first draft contains a lot of useful material but formatting is rough. I will turn to a major development of this work, and to polishing its presentation when all of the other basic work is completed. The Dictionary will take years to complete.
Perhaps it is more accurate to say that the dictionary is a list of educational concepts that are looked at and 'placed' holistically - since many of the concepts are used by educators who may not consider themselves holistically-driven. By 'placing' I mean the weight and importance and meaning that each concept has for an individual is likely to differ in the case of holistic practice, as compared say to a utilitarian view of learning and development.
Inevitably in learning about nurturing the learning and development of those we lead we are 'dealers in concepts'. However we should keep in mind that it is meaning that makes us human and meaning comes from what we experience of the Whole as much as from parts.
Heschel puts this dramatically as;
"Concepts are delicious snacks with which we try to alleviate our amazement"
(A. J. Heschel, Man Is Not Alone p.7)
Dictionary Intro b) - Inspirations
Go straight to Dictionary without introductions ABC DEF GHI JKL MNO PQR STU VWXYZ
Dictionary Intro b) - Inspirations
As I searched literature and ideas in developing my model certain 'peaks' began to show above the mist-laden valleys! As you go along your path you will find your own main features that will enable you to navigate your way. Below are some of the 'peak' ideas that have inspired me. You are invited to make your own list, or, if you want to do this later go on to the next page.
TASK: i.e. suggested action for student
Start collecting information about those ideas and/or the people who created those ideas - their lives, actions and sayings - that are particularly inspiring for you. There follows a collection of some of the quotations that inspired the work presented on this site. I have given a name to this set of inspirations; Being human through dynamic encounters between The Whole and the parts.
Being human through dynamic encounters with The Whole and the parts
This sub-title indicates one of the key ideas presented here - that we need both 'encounters with the Whole' as well as experience of engagement with 'parts'. Encounters with the Whole in which as Wilber says we lose, through identification our sense of an individuated self - no boundaries or ego identity - I call mythos.
Karen Armstrong has written eloquently about the loss of this mythos way of knowing in her A Short History of Myth. However I distinguish between myth and mythos. Mythos is the state of being we are in in our identification with the whole - no boundaries or ego identity - whereas myth is the name we give to the stories we tell in trying to undertake the impossible task of giving an adequate acccount of those encounters. Martin Buber and Abraham Joshua have taught us a great deal about the encounters on the one hand and, on the other hand, our attempts at using concepts to explain such experiences.
Another key idea, as we shall see, came from Ken Wilber and points out that we essentially express ourselves in one of three modes, the I, WE and IT voices, which
correspond the the Arts, Humanities and Sciences, to Creativity, Caring and Criticality etc.
These 'inspirations' then gave me key notions that have influenced and guided my own work. I hope you find at least some equally inspiring. The spiritual dimension is pan-religious i.e. not faith-specific. It is primarily about realizing an authentic and autonomous world-view. A dedicated site concerning the spirituaal dimension - the spirit of education and the education of the spirit - in education is to be found here The Spirit of Education.
Above all the work on this site centres on the belief that the most important question that we can ask is, "What is it to be (positively and fully) human - in the world with
others? To this question, so I believe, all other questions should relate. For me the one book that answers this succinctly, poetically, and very deeply, is the great Abraham Joshua Heschel's Who is Man? As such I see his book as essential for everyone who wishes to be a teacher, especially those who look for 'spiritualizing pedagogy'.
Central to Heschel's belief and teachings was that we should stay in touch with that experience of the Whole that engenders awe and wonder (what he calls 'radical
amazement'). He says that;
The secret of being human is care for meaning. Man is not his own
meaning, and if the essence of being human is concern for transcendent
meaning, then man’s secret lies in openness to transcendence. Existence
is interspersed with suggestions of transcendence, and openness to
transcendence is a constitutive element of being human…….
Indeed, the concern for meaning of human being is what constitutes
the truth of being human. A J Heschel P66 Who is Man 1965 Stanford Unity Press
This emphasis on at-one-ment however is not to the exclusion of our duality with
the 'real' world:
The
search
for reason ends at the shore of the known;
on the
immense
expanse beyond it only the sense of the ineffable
can
glide.
It alone
knows
the route to that which is remote
from
experience and understanding.
Neither
is
amphibious:
reason cannot go beyond the shore,
and the
sense
of the ineffable is
out of place where we measure, where we weigh.
we sense the ineffable in one realm;
we name and exploit reality in another.
Between the two we set up a system of references,
but can
never fill the gap
as life and what lies beyond the last breath. Man is Not Alone p8.
Wilber also helps
illuminate the 'dance between the Whole and the parts;
“To understand the whole it is necessary to understand the parts.
To understand the parts, it is necessary to understand the whole. Such
is the circle of understanding.
We move from part to whole and back again, and in that dance of
comprehension, in that amazing circle of understanding we come alive to
meaning, to value, and to vision: the very circle of understanding guides
our way, weaving together the pieces, healing the fractures, mending the
torn and fractured fragments, lighting the way ahead - this extraordinary
movement from part to whole and back again, with healing the hallmark
of every step, and grace the tender reward.”
Eye of Spirit; an integral vision for a world gone slightly mad
by Ken Wilber (1997) pub. Shambhala p.1.
Since on this site, and in the Build a Better Model of Education course, we are about to become 'traders in concepts' we should keep in mind Heschel's wonderful statement:
"Concepts are delicious snacks with which we try to alleviate our amazement"
- A. J. Heschel, Man Is Not Alone p.7
This need to experience the Whole as well as focussing on parts, such as concepts,
is also contained in the following metaphor:
"The larger the island of knowledge,the longer the shoreline of mystery." Anon
The above quotations teach us a lot about the theme of 'parts and the Whole'. Another major theme is that of generacy, as opposed to degeneracy. This includes
the ability to see particulars as part of the Whole in such a way as to experience their full significance (and perhaps stop time and go beyond place). The alternative
to being taken out of yourself is to be eternally burdened with self!
‘To see a world in a grain of sand
and a heaven in a wildflower,
Hold infinity in the palm of your hand,
and eternity in an hour.’ William Blake
Experience needs to be transcendent as well as of the here and now if we are to create teaching that is holistic - but it doesn't necessarily have to be within a particular religious context. Happiness and peace and development would be greatly helped if we recognized that there are many paths to the summit of the hill. Learning ultimately takes place within a love relationship:
“A person is only as good as what they love.” Saul Bellow.
“Love revealeth with unfailing and limitless power the
mysteries latent in the universe.” ‘Abdu'l-Baha.
“Love is the beauty of the soul.” .
“Knowledge is love.” `Abdu'l-Baha.
and, if we believe Schuon, knowing, at least the deeper kind of knowing, requires goodness:
“Virtue is necessary, for light does not go through an opaque stone
and barely illuminates a black wall….”
Frithjof Schuon, Spiritual Perspectives and Human Facts p. 178.
Vital to our understanding of being human is to know that we are 'more than'; more than animals, more than we can say, more than the dominators and exploiters of this one planet we all inhabit.
A form of psychology called Transactional Analysis shows that we tend to speak in one of three voices; Parent, Adult or Child (PAC). Communications that suit communicator and communicatee e.g. both being in Child mode tend to be happy and successful. However there are potential problems when one party is in one mode and the other in a different mode. Wilber helps us understand that we speak in different voices. These he calls the 'I' voice, the 'WE' voice and the 'IT' voice.
Our global society could be so much happier if we understood, and respected, these three voices and the domains, and ways of knowing, to which they refer. The I voice is that of subjectivity - it is expression, as in the arts, of how each of us experiences something - it is true for that person (if they have at least a modicum of self-knowledge and sincerity) Expressions in the (arts) I voice ring true - more or less - for others, in terms of their own subjective experience and its expression. 'Ilike/I don't like' includes 'I recognize (and value)/I don't recognize (or value)' according to the experience I have had, and processed e.g. via thought, talk or some art.
The IT voice is that of objectivity. Some people want to say that there is no such thing as objectivity. For example the distinguished psychologist Robert J
Sternberg;
As Immanuel Kant pointed out in The Critique of Pure Reason, if there
is an objective reality, it is unknowable. All we can know is the reality
we construct. That reality takes the form of a story.
Love really is a story….
Sternberg Robert J., (1998) Love is a Story: a new theory of Relationships, : OUP
In one sense this is true. The Whole remains a mystery. We each remain a mystery - even to ourselves.
In another sense sense the Sternberg/Kant view is nonsense. If there is a Whole we, admittedly, cannot comprehend it - because the finite cannot comprehend the infinite. Heschel however in his three major works shows us that we sense the Whole in ineffable encounters. Such encounters come he says with radical amazement. The stateof radical amazement, or beyond that awe, is the state tfrom which we derive meaning. - the amazement that is not satisfied through the snacks of concepts.
But to suggest that because of this there is no objective reality is a false argument. However that which is objective truth and reality is, as Wittgenstein says, a matter of agreement - which justifiably gets adjusted from time to time, through scientific discovery or agreement via consultation or 'revelation'. But to collapse the generally agreed objective reality that a metre length is a metre length (against a known standard) into the subjectivity of say a Van Gogh landscape is seriously perverse.
Of course subjective expressions often include recognition as well as sensation - trees in a Van Gogh landscape are entirely un-naturalistic but are nevertheless recognizable as trees. Similarly metaphor contains both subjective resonances and objective (by agreement!) elements.
The third voice, the WE moral voice, also exists by agreement. It relies, on the other two for its health and well-being - e.g. the moral voice needs to be supported by the (scientific) rationality of the IT voice, but it also needs imagination, as in literature and other arts, for such essential elements as empathy and compassion.
All three voices rely on the other two. All three are ways from and to the heart-mind, or consciousness. All three are ways of engaging with reality, and of going beyond into the transcendence of Mystery.
Balance in education needs to be between I, WE and IT - energy and excitement come from continuously juxtaposing I, WE and IT methods and I, WE and IT texts.
In societies that respect the three voices there is happiness - more or less. People there can enjoy the benefits of science, arts and morality without wilfully mis-attributing the different expressions of the human spirit and without mis-applying one set of truth criteria upon one of the other domains. When there is mis-attribution or mis-application we end up with nonsense or cruelty or such suppression that the nation does not flourish. For example the mis-application of scientific process to the mystical/arts domain (scientism) might give us some comparative numbers but provides no real mystical or aesthetical insight. We might just as well value paintings according to how many pounds they weigh.
In the West, at least, the three truth-gathering, truth-telling ways of engaging with reality I, WE and IT are;
subjective expression via arts/the mystical methods,
moral expression, via humanities methods,
and objective expression via scientific methods.
Each form of expression relies on the other two either before or after the event.
Education, and societies, need to respect, and use effectively, the three voices and their respective ways of engaging with reality, and of truth-creation and of coming to know our selves and our world.
SunWALK: education as walking the life journey in dialogue with
friends - acting wisely through loving and knowing - in the light
of the 'Sun' of higher-order values.
A sense of the field can be obtained from Roger Stack's 'Map' of Holistic Education see also his blog
Spirit of Holistic Education site - HOME PAGE SunWALK - SiteMap
All of our 'short courses' are units within the overall course
How to Build a Better Model of Education . The 30 units, starting with an Overview lecture, are;
01 Overview Lecture (In SW see also summary versions of model)
1 CHANGE: What's Wrong With Education as It Is?
2 HUMAN-NESS: The Human Spirit and the Spirit of Being Human
3 CARING: The Spirit Of Caring In (Holistic) Education
4 CREATIVITY: The Spirit Of Creativity In (Holistic) Education
5 CRITICALITY: The Spirit Of Criticality In (Holistic) Education
6 COMMUNITY: Community, Culture and Content in (Holistic) Education
7 MORAL EDUCATION: Moral Education - A (Holistic) Perspective
8 DIALOGUE: Dialogue and Dialogic Processes in (Holistic) Education
9 CONSCIOUSNESS: Evolving Consciousness of Greater Contexts & others ways of framing 'holization' + awe and wonder'
10 LOVE: Love As The Mother Of Knowing in (Holistic) Education
11 INSPIRATION: The Spiritual as Sources of Inspiration in Being and Becoming Human
12 CONTENT: The Arts, Sciences , Humanities and Philosophy in (Holistic) Education
13 IDENTIFICATION: Empathy, Compassion, in Education of the Human Spirit
14 TEXTS and CONTEXTS: Texts and Contexts – the core dynamic in (Holistic) Education
15 MEANING: Meaning, Metaphor and Truth in (Holistic) Education
16 KNOWLEDGE: Knowing, Knowledge and the Unknowable in (Holistic) Education
17 PEDAGOGY: Spiritualizing Pedagogy in (Holistic) Education
18 WISDOM: Wisdom as an essential quality in (Holistic) Education
19 LEARNING and TEACHING: The Spirit Of Learning And Teaching In (Holistic) Education
20 VALUES & VIRTUES: Values & Virtues as well as awe and wonder;
21 CURRICULUM: Developing abilities in a Dynamic Curriculum in (Holistic) Education
22 STAKEHOLDER RELATIONSHIPS: Authority, Empowerment & Consultation - Balancing the interests of all Stakeholders in (Holistic) Ed
23 DEEPER SEARCHING: A deeper look at 'What is Holistic Education' - starting with Parker Palmer, Abraham J Heschel & Ken Wilber
24 WILL: Will, Motivation and Leadership in (Holistic) Ed
25 BODY MATTERS: The physical dimension in Holistic Education - inc the New Circus as metaphor for teamwork & embodiment in H Ed
26 STORY: Story in Holistic Education - including Maths and Science
27 MODELS & METHODS: Model-making and Methodologies
28 ACTION: Action, Activism and Behaviours - The WALK in SunWALK
29 BELIEFS: Beliefs and World-views
30 LEADERSHIP: Leadership and management
The course, or sub-sections of it, can be run in short or long versions according to the wishes of the host institution/organization. The shortest = the one hour Overview lecture. The longest = one/two years at e.g. MA level.
