The 20-10 Test

This last week I was reading a very interesting book titled A Whole New Mind by Daniel H. Pink.  In the book, Pink gives six essential abilities you'll need to expand your "right brain," followed by a "Portfolio" of suggested activities, tools, and further reading to enhance one of those six abilities.  One of these abilities is "Meaning," that is, the meaning we put on our lives and the big picture we create for ourselves.  I want to describe one of the activities he suggested that, indeed, we may find valuable, especially if we're currently striving for happiness.  This activity Pink got from Jim Collins, author of Good to Great.

Look at your life- in particular, your work- and ask yourself whether you would still be doing what you're doing now if you had $20 million in the bank or knew you had no more than ten years to live.  If you inherited $20 million, would you spend your days the way you spend them now?  If you knew you had at most ten years to live, would you stick to your current job?  If the answer is no, that ought to tell you something.  

Necessity of a Holistic Education

I walked into my old school, excited about the prospect of “being on the other side.”  I had a great elementary experience going through the public school system, and I learned a lot and made a bunch of friends.  I was excited to share with the students I would be teaching all the fun experiences I had as a student going through school.  Being in the same classroom as one of my former teachers, I expected to see enthusiastic teachers and students excited about learning.  I was disappointed. 

What I witnessed in the public schools was almost the complete opposite of what I grew up to love and enjoy most about school:  a holistic education.  I loved school.  I was a great academic student, getting A’s in all my classes, but this wasn’t the reason that I enjoyed school.  I enjoyed it, because it was fun, engaging and I learned beyond the three “Rs (reading, writing, mathematics).”  There wasn’t a stress on standards and test scores.  The core of the student’s experience was based on their relationship with the teacher and with other students.  6^th grade was my most memorable year.  Not only did we improve in the three “Rs,” but we also went through a team system where all the subjects were integrated.  We did plays, activities, and projects, and we went on numerous field trips to get first-hand experience of what we were studying.  Our school year was broken up into units of focus.  These units were based on historical eras (Ancient Egypt, Greece, Rome, Africa and the Middle Ages).  I wasn’t a big fan of social studies then, but the overall perspective it gave me, a “whole” perspective verses fragmented understandings, made that year the most memorable.  To add, our 6^th grade class had the highest test scores of any school in the district. 

Today’s public school system is creating students that I refer to as “machines.”  As a result of “No Child Left Behind,” schools are standards-based and test-dominated.  Student success is based on if these students test well and meet government-created standards.  Worksheets have replaced activities and field trips.  It is a left-brain favored system.  If students aren’t left-brain dominate, they are at a disadvantage.  Is there anything wrong with tests and standards?  Of course not.  As the major focus of today’s educational system, however, students are being limited and discriminated against.  All students are judged on the same standards and expected to meet them.  When students don’t meet these standards, they’re viewed as poor learners.  Students with special needs are being integrated into the regular classroom more and more with less one-on-one time, and they’re being lost between the cracks.  Students who over-excel have few programs to support their expanding mind.  The public school system is trying to create “machines” that all think and act alike.  Students are uninspired and bored.

Where do school standards come from?  They’re not from the interest of students but from politicians.  What better way to keep order in a society than engraining in the younger generation monotonous thinking and welcoming authority?  The “machines” that we are creating are in danger of not thinking for themselves.

The left-brain focus of the educational system has created an imbalance in the upcoming generation.  Imbalance, as health professionals declare, leads to disease.  ADD and ADHD are rapidly rising.  The education system deems this a problem.  Students who aren’t able to sit still in a desk and focus on left-brain education are suffering from an unfavorable policy.  These same students may excel in other areas.  Yet, all other areas outside the three “Rs” are seen as secondary. 

Our schools are in desperate need of a holistic reformation.

Great test taking doesn’t lead to success in the real world.  I am an example of this.  I was in the top 15 of my graduating class.  I got a scholarship and headed to college.  After I got my degree, I was left with substantial student loan debt.  I had hope of getting a job quickly to help pay off my loans.  I landed a teaching job at a small private school, but the school closed its doors due to financial issues.  I was left jobless.  For the next two years I applied all over to various school districts.  I hoped to just get a chance at another teaching gig in the public school system to help pay off my student loans.  I was never hired, so I became a substitute teacher.  I went through many emotional battles over the next couple years.  If it weren’t for my family, who raised me in a great home where I learned to do many things and balance all areas of my life, I would have remained a “victim” of my own mind.

School should be a time of discovering oneself.  If a student doesn’t learn and know about their self, all their left-brain education would be meaningless.  Holistic education doesn’t merely focus on the learning of one aspect of the self.  It explores all aspects of the self.  Instead of centering education on the interests of politicians, teachers can center education on the interest of their students.  How would we feel if we’re told our greatest interests are secondary to the interests of others?  Another component of a holistic education is differentiating instruction.  Holistic teachers come into the classroom knowing all students are different and require different methods and instruction.  Along with differentiating instruction comes flexible pacing.  Deadlines are a great way to teach integrity.  When these deadlines become a primary assessment, integrity is turned into unnecessary stress.  One just needs to step outside of America to discover that speed and time are relative.  There is no one correct speed.  Promptness is about harmony.  In some cultures, harmony is being fifteen minutes late with everyone else.  Just as cultures differ, so do students.  Some students may work well with deadlines.  Others may need more time.

Holistic education stresses the oneness of all life and experience, that we are all connected to each other and everything.  At the core of a student’s understanding of the world are the deep questions of being.  Students are on a mission to learn about themselves, their purposes in life, and achieve happiness, inner peace and a passion for life-long learning.  Teachers don’t need to preach or tell students how to believe; this would be just as limiting as a lone left-brain education.  Teachers need to inspire and motivate students to ask questions and establish a fine balance based on their unlimited potential.  

A whole-brain education is not guaranteed at home.  How will students learn about the other aspects of themselves?  Will students grow to understand the power that they are?  Or will students come out of the educational system on their toes wondering if they have any power at all?  Are we setting the next generation up for failure?  Students are constantly learning about themselves, and if there are no motivational and inspirational people to help guide them along the way, these students will enter the real world lost and unequipped. 

While it may be some time before a systematic reformation occurs to enable whole-brain learning, individual teachers can step up and incorporate a holistic approach in their teaching.  Instead of simply focusing on educating the student based on standards, teachers can be an inspiration and motivate students to expand beyond the limits of the public school system and reach their full potential socially, physically, academically, psychologically, and spiritually.  Humans are social beings, and because of this we know that we have a duty to help a brother or sister out.

What do we want the future of our students to look like?  What do we want the future of the human race to look like?  Are educators even asking themselves these questions?

Mindful of our Words

There is power behind our words.  Most of the time we are unaware of this power.  Things come out of our mouths, and we repeatedly don’t think about what we say.  The word logos is a Greek word traditionally meaning “word” or “thought.”  Logos is especially relevant in the Gospel of John, where Jesus himself is represented as logos or “Word.”  "In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God." (John 1:1).  Christians identify the Bible as “The Word of God.”  In Genesis, God created the world from His “Word.”  It was through logos that the world was created, and it is through logos that we create our reality. 

What kind of reality are we creating?  Are we creating a reality of endless joy and possibility, or are we stuck in a limiting world?  I often hear people say “I can’t do that,” or “I’m horrible at that.”  The word “can’t” is limiting.  Henry Ford famously said, “Whether you say you can or you can’t, you’re right.”  If only we taught our children this truth!  If only we understood this truth ourselves.  When you say you “can’t” do something, you’re cutting off the possibility of doing it.  I hear it often with my students, and I find myself telling them over and over again to rephrase their words. 

“Can’t” isn’t the only limiting word.  “Should,” “try,” and “hate” are others.  I have had a difficult time myself eliminating “try” out of my vocabulary.  “Try” implies the likelihood of future failure.  Very rarely will you hear professional athletes or businesspeople use the word “try” when competing.  Another powerful combination of limiting words are the words “good” and “bad.”  Growing up in a Christian tradition, these words flooded my reality.  I judged everything based on “good” and “bad.”  I was ego-dominant.  If you use limiting words, you will be limited.  “Good” and “bad” are words of judgment, words produced by our egos.  Our egos seek to do three things:  judge, control, and want to feel accepted.  They are the cause of suffering, the most limiting in the realm of spirituality.  They are the pathway to Pride, the leading vice of the fall.  So one begins to put together clues.  Judgment itself is neither good nor bad.   It’s necessary practically.  Nevertheless, you can still live practically without using the words “good” or “bad.”  When eliminating those words, we accept the present moment as it is and find a deeper peace within ourselves that we have long searched for.  When we transcend our egoic mind, we open the way to our inner self where all creativity and intuition lie.  All of the greatest feats and accomplishments first come from this inner presence, the place where God dwells. 

Our words have power; our words create our reality.  Tomorrow morning, I encourage you to wake up in the morning, and instead of saying “Good god it’s morning,” say “Good morning God!”  

Coat of Many Colors

Song written by Anna's Kin in December 2010
 
Verse 1  
This coat of many colors   despised by many brothers
Those dreams of sheaves a-bowin now
Close friends plot against me
To bring down all that I see
But I walk forward to the crown

Prechorus
I was called higher
To set hearts on fire
To change this world around

Chorus
Oh the possibilities     appoint the wondrous mysteries
Oh the path laid in front of me   the lights   the blessing I see
Beyond the walls of deception    what I once believed
Enter the uncharted waters the presence I be
My heart is open and ready to enter the midst
The almighty presence  eternal bliss

Verse 2
In front the giant calling   old men people stalling
Caught in the safety of the cloud
I walk on thin old wire   past fears now aspire
I step forth resentment in the crowd

My transpersonal experience

I thought it would be appropriate to describe the spiritual experience I had this past month.  Analyze it as you will, distinguish among its many aspects, and be inspired by it.  Though words limit the experience, I will describe it to the best of my dissection.  This is my transcendental experience. 

I was in Seattle at the time, hanging out with my brother and my good friend Robin.  We were discussing a variety of things, including politics, spirituality and life in general.  As the night progressed, we decided to do a meditation and chakra healing/balance.  With music playing in the background, candles lit and the lights off, we began the meditation.  Focusing on the various chakras, we opened ourselves up to the possibility of transcendence. 

When we finished the meditation, I went over to the couch and sat there.  I soon began to feel nauseous.  I was doing whatever I could to control the feeling, but the feeling increased.  I decided to get up off the couch (I didn’t want to vomit all over my brother’s couch!) and headed to the sink.  As I bent over, the anxiety of the thought of throwing up and losing control was building.  My ego was holding on for its life.  And then, there was an explosion.  The best way to describe this moment was the big bang.  Tension built until there was a pop, and different realities were created and moved about in various ways.  Colors were enhanced, colors I find difficult to remember.  There were vibrations and images.  There was no longer the tension of the ego, no control, but an opening to all realms of the mind, of all creation.  I went over to the rug by the fireplace.  I did not want to stand with the intensity of the experience.

I completely dis-identified with my mind, my thoughts and all that I knew.  Everything was distinguishable but not distinguishable.  Everything was separate but also one.  Every thought that came to my head was not me but was me.  My neck had been hurting earlier before the experience.  I felt the pain, but I was not identified with it.  Therefore, I had no suffering.  I had completely dis-identified with my body.  Voices and whispers came out of me with no effort.  They were not English.  I could not interpret what I was saying.  Moans came out from the depth of my core.   In the middle of my visual, which was colorful and vibratory, in an image no bigger than an inch, was a vision of a meditating figure in a lotus flower position.  I could not see the face.  The image was stagnant, while everything else around it was moving.   I could not interpret the image.  All I knew was that this image was significant.

Painting by Alex Grey

Perhaps the greatest realization of the whole experience was the fact that nothing mattered.  I had no worry and no stress.  I had no identification.  My job, my relationships, my achievements, and my future: none of it mattered.  I had no concern for practical living.  Living, indeed, was in the now, in the experience itself.  I questioned reality.  I questioned life and death.  I could not separate the two.  I didn’t know if I was dreaming, sleeping or awake.  Time was twisted. 

I wondered if this was what is experienced at or near death. 

The experience revealed a truth.  The experience was real, because it layered off all the concepts and stories I had created about myself, all the experiences I had.  The layers of illusion were peeled off, floating, leaving my inner-self exposed.  The inner-self was my true nature.  It was not good or bad, for good and bad were outside of me.  This inner nature was all there was, all that was real.  It did not judge, control or seek acceptance.  It was the only authentic place where God could dwell.

A Call Out to Time

Song written in July 2012

This time will surely fade away

Every moment, every breath that is spent by day

No turning back, no replay of time

Unformed bliss  my heart shines

Born of ground, live and die

Back to earth forever abide

Whoa now rushing water, time slow down

This is my only song

Whoa now rushing water, time slow down

I hope it lasts long

Life of our fathers, do we recall?

Dreams of our mothers that were once held and kept so tall

Lasting legacy, is it for real?

Lasting legacy, why the appeal?

Around like wind  transcend all men

Strive eternal  end so thin

Whoa now rushing water, time slow down

This is my only song

Whoa now rushing water, time slow down

I hope it lasts long

Our children will live a segment of time

Through them we live and through them we die

Recalled for generations, maybe two maybe three

But soon we fade as time cease to be

Memories, silenced once loud

All is lost, the fall of the proud

Whoa now rushing water, time slow down

This is my only song

Whoa now rushing water, time slow down

I hope it lasts long

The thing that will last is so undefined 

The thing that will last will leave none behind

Forever it stays  forever with all

Times ending days  its one lasting call

Whoa now rushing water, time slow down

This is my only song

Whoa now rushing water, time slow down

I hope it lasts long

Whisper Box

When I got my first teaching job in Rainier, Washington, I was excited about the prospect of the upcoming year.  Ideas were generating in my head, and with the help of my family, we designed an amazing classroom.  There were three units displayed throughout the room.  A rainforest theme in the reading area, a space theme in the presentation area, and an ocean theme where students first walked through the door.  The one creation I was really proud of, though, was the “Whisper Box.” 

The "Whisper Box" was designed with a shoebox and construction paper.  It was an idea I got from my mentor teacher during my student-teaching experience.  Years earlier, this teacher got the idea when he was teaching primary education.  Being sick of all the tattles the younger kids would tell, he designed a "Tattle Box," where students would go if they felt the need to tattle.  What a brilliant idea!  Not only did kids have fun with it, but soon they left him alone!  I knew I would implement this idea in my teaching somehow.  I was waiting for the right time. 

That time came with my first primary teaching job.  Always assuming I would be teaching the middle school age, being hired as a 1st/2nd grade teacher and then a Kindergarten teacher really had me dwelling on my inexperience with that age group.  Anticipating the possibility of crying and other young issues, I took my mentor teacher's idea and molded it.  Instead of just focusing on tattles, I expanded the idea to include any issue students may potentially have.  Students were told that whenever they had a problem or felt "bad," they could go over to the “Whisper Box,” whisper their problem into it, and their problem would go away.  How successful this was!  I watched as young kids would go over to the "Whisper Box" if someone or something bothered them, whisper into the box, smile, and run off and play again.  The students went from "feeling bad" to pure joy in just seconds.  As the year progressed, I asked the students, “What if you don’t have the ‘Whisper Box’ near you when you’re feeling sad?  What if you were out on the playground or at home?”  One kid, pondering, quickly answered.  “My parents said you can just send it to the ground.”  Wow!  What a realization.  Another student suggested that they could send it into the air.  Students were coming up with various ways to get rid of negative feelings.  Throughout the rest of the year they used these various ideas, and soon the "Whisper Box" just sat on the shelf. 

A kindergartener whispering into the "Whisper Box."

The “Whisper Box” became an alternative way of getting rid of concerns, a symbol.  Why is it that as adults we have such difficulty "letting go" of our concerns?  How is it that a child who is capable of getting upset any second can simply "let go" and change from sadness to joy?  Maybe this is why Jesus told us to observe children, the greatest in the Kingdom of Heaven.  When we go from childhood to adulthood, our minds develop in magical ways, and our analytical thinking increases.  Our ego becomes stronger, and our minds take center stage.  In our minds we create stories about certain facts, whether true stories or not.  When an event occurs, our ego makes a judgement, and our minds dwell on that thought.  We soon identify ourselves with our minds, believing the mind is who we are.  Our minds become primary, and the pathway to our inner self becomes blocked.  It takes years and years of unnecessary hardship and suffering for us to finally realize the distinction between our minds and that which observes the mind, our true self.  It takes the experience of darkness to finally "let go" and become one with our true self:  Love.  When the barriers are broken, when this passage is finally open, our lives will flourish with tremendous joy and endless possibilities.