Transformative Education
“Paradigm change is itself a transformative learning process.” (Sterling, 2001, p.11) To move from transmissive to transformative education, we must move towards a learning process that as Sterling says, is constructive and participative in nature. (Sterling, 2001, p.38) Education, in this form, would be capacity building and process oriented. This paradigm is holistic in nature, allowing for all parts of a human being to show up. Nearly three years ago, I taught a class called Let it Shine in the public school system, where we used creative expression to build relationship with self and the outside world. In a second grade class, we explored our relationship to different emotional landscapes through movement and art process. When children entered the landscape of grief, they began verbally sharing stories of loss. “I remember when my goldfish died.” “I was there when my grandmother died.” “My cat Oscar died last week.” Slowly, tears began to fall from their eyes, and in a few minutes, more than half of the class was sobbing. I knew that I had to get them back to math class in five minutes, where they would be sitting at their desk with pencils in hand. I was panicked, wondering how in the world I was going to transition these children, whose hearts were wide open, down the hallway quietly to math class. Needless to say, it did not happen. As the teacher scurried them back to their desks, I felt like a failure. The next day, when I met with the principal he said to me directly, “This system does not have the capacity to hold the emotions of these children.” I wanted to argue with him, but he was right. Kathleen Manning, associate professor in higher education at the University of Vermont, speaks of this denial of emotions in our educational systems in terms of what she calls upperworld and underworld emotions. She says that we overvalue the upperworld emotions, such as happiness and joy, and actively avoid the underworld expressions, such as grief and rage. She says, “Any expression, particularly public, of these very real human feelings is viewed as weakness. Underworld emotions, though normal and complementary to expression of the positive, upperworld feelings are discouraged or even banished from modern organizations.” (Manning, 2001, p.29) The emotional landscape of our children is being left out of the learning process. With all that these children must “learn”, we just simply do not have the time for their inner lives. Because we are not tending to the inner life in education, we have quite a mess on our hands with our young people. Each month I receive emails and phone calls from young people all over the country, asking for spiritual guidance. An undergraduate student in southern California emailed, “I am lethargic. I don’t feel like being around anyone and I am scared.” Another asked what she should do when all of her friends are drinking and that doesn't work for her anymore. They are not prepared to be with what is alive within them. Parker Palmer says, “Attention to the inner life is not romanticism. It involves the real world, and it is what is desperately needed in so many sectors of American education.” (Glazer, 1999, p. 16) I respond to these young people by directing them to their breath and feet first. The breath is sacred, and so are our feet, because they have the power to bring us back to the here and now. In education, we have drawn a line between spirituality or sacredness, and the public education process. Andrew Wright, in his book Spirituality and Education, says “spiritual education will inevitably be a controversial issue in schools. This...however, does not detract from the importance of the subject: it is precisely because spirituality is so problematic that there is an urgent need to develop a pupil’s spiritual knowledge, understanding and insight. (Wright, 2000, p. 7) If we commit to and root ourselves in the sacred, we have the capacity to continue, and deepen into, this controversial conversation on education and spirituality. The way we learn and educate can be pathways to healing and wholeness.
* This is an excerpt from an article I wrote on holistic education, to see it in whole, please send me an email and I will send it to you.
Jenny -- I am moved to tears by the poignant truth of this commentary. My heart is so moved by your beautiful story of these second graders, deeply engrossed in something so powerful in their lives, marching back to math class...and then, the stories of the young reaching out to you for guidance when they do not know what to do with their own emotional experience of life
Blessings to you in your work; the world needs to wake up to what you see...
With heartfelt tenderness and gratitude,
Gayle
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I have been a massage therapist for twenty years. In my practice, I see adults of all ages. I've seen children as young as six to those in college. I love children starting bodywork because it gives them another option to get in touch with their bodies/feelings. As a bodyworker, I have several responsibilities. I guide each person who walks through my door, setting the stage for what they may experience. A body/individual eventually needs to feel safe, which then leads to building a foundation where trust is established. Then, I am able to guide the body so it can do whatever it needs to do during that session. I don't do the work nor do I have a particular outcome in mind. My references to the body do not mean just the body. I tell my clients when they come in that they have come to a sacred space where not only do I address the body, but I also address the mind and the spirit/emotions. One cannot be separated from the others in my work. If any part should be minimized, it's the mind. The mind helps us acquire knowledge. But the mind can also get us in trouble if we over think an issue that's really about our feelings. I suggest to each client as I'm working on them, if their mind starts to step in and "try" to deal with feelings/emotions, they need to tell it in a firm way, that it needs to take a rest during the massage. With that done, the body and emotions/innerspirit/soul are free to let all kinds of feelings come up. I use different words to refer to that spiritual part of the being. The reason I do that is because many people don't know that part of themselves exists--for a lot of reasons. Children know, but when they go to express themselves, they are often shut down. Unfortunately, I don't think that public education can do much in this area since our spiritual part often cannot be recognized there. So, it goes to those of us who are bodyworkers, educators in more open systems, writers, and anyone in a position to educate human beings as to what "parts" we possess--the mind, the body, and the spirit/emotions. Once a human being really knows this, then the process of unearthing upperworld and underworld emotions can begin. This process has been ignored and neglected for so long, not because no one cares, but rather because most beings have no clue what's involved. There are just an aware few, who up until recently were squelched in our attempts to get the word out. For many of us, we did not have a core group with whom we could discuss ways of getting our message through. Awareness is increasing. The time has come. I cannot tell you how many times I've had an adult client on my table cry because a loved one has just died. Then that grieving person apologizes. Or a client who is embarrassed to express his or her true feelings about an abusive individual. These feelings have been repressed for too long. Beings of all ages are ready to express their feelings, with guidance.
Mom
Innerspirit Therapeutic Massage
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Have you ever done co-counselling? It's geared toward going where the emotion is. It's designed to follow waves so still is a bit hard to structure on a schedule, but when it's time to close, it engages the logical brain by asking questions like what did you have for breakfast this morning? Or, assigning tasks like counting backwards. It's amazing how it shifts from the inner world to the upper one so quickly... and relatively gracefully.
It's good to be able to do that. I'm a speaker, and I used to take my audiences into their pain without quite taking them out all the way. Now I do take them out all the way, and leave them upper-world ready. (Pretty much, anyway.)
I think those kids need what you gave - we all do. And we all need to know how to wallow and how to pull ourselves out of a wallow. If we don't navigate the waters consciously, they pull us under at the most awkward times... or we deaden, which is probably worse.
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Love this one.
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please send me full articule
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