Source: https://tim.blog/2009/07/30/speed-reading-and-accelerated-learning/
How much more could you get done if you completed all of your required reading in 1/3 or 1/5 the time?
Increasing reading speed is a process of controlling fine motor movement—period.
This post is a condensed overview of principles I taught to undergraduates at Princeton University in 1998 at a seminar called the “PX Project.” The below was written several years ago, so it’s worded like Ivy Leaguer pompous-ass prose, but the results are substantial. In fact, while on an airplane in China two weeks ago, I helped Glenn McElhose increase his reading speed 34% in less than 5 minutes.
I have never seen the method fail. Here’s how it works…
The PX Project
The PX Project, a single 3-hour cognitive experiment, produced an average increase in reading speed of 386%.
It was tested with speakers of five languages, and even dyslexics were conditioned to read technical material at more than 3,000 words-per-minute (wpm), or 10 pages per minute. One page every 6 seconds. By comparison, the average reading speed in the US is 200-300 wpm (1/2 to 1 page per minute), with the top 1% of the population reading over 400 wpm…
If you understand several basic principles of the human visual system, you can eliminate inefficiencies and increase speed while improving retention.
To perform the exercises in this post and see the results, you will need: a book of 200+ pages that can lie flat when open, a pen, and a timer (a stop watch with alarm or kitchen timer is ideal). You should complete the 20 minutes of exercises in one session.
First, several definitions and distinctions specific to the reading process:
A) Synopsis: You must minimize the number and duration of fixations per line to increase speed.
You do not read in a straight line, but rather in a sequence of saccadic movements (jumps). Each of these saccades ends with a fixation, or a temporary snapshot of the text within you focus area (approx. the size of a quarter at 8 inches from reading surface). Each fixation will last ¼ to ½ seconds in the untrained subject. To demonstrate this, close one eye, place a fingertip on top of that eyelid, and then slowly scan a straight horizontal line with your other eye-you will feel distinct and separate movements and periods of fixation.
B) Synopsis: You must eliminate regression and back-skipping to increase speed.
The untrained subject engages in regression (conscious rereading) and back-skipping (subconscious rereading via misplacement of fixation) for up to 30% of total reading time.
C) Synopsis: You must use conditioning drills to increase horizontal peripheral vision span and the number of words registered per fixation.
Untrained subjects use central focus but not horizontal peripheral vision span during reading, foregoing up to 50% of their words per fixation (the number of words that can be perceived and “read” in each fixation).
The Protocol
You will 1) learn technique, 2) learn to apply techniques with speed through conditioning, then 3) learn to test yourself with reading for comprehension.
These are separate, and your adaptation to the sequencing depends on keeping them separate. Do not worry about comprehension if you are learning to apply a motor skill with speed, for example. The adaptive sequence is: technique ‘ technique with speed ‘ comprehensive reading testing.
As a general rule, you will need to practice technique at 3x the speed of your ultimate target reading speed. Thus, if you currently read at 300 wpm and your target reading speed is 900 wpm, you will need to practice technique at 2,700 words-per-minute, or 6 pages per minute (10 seconds per page).
We will cover two main techniques in this introduction:
1) Trackers and Pacers (to address A and B above)
2) Perceptual Expansion (to address C)
First – Determining Baseline
To determine your current reading speed, take your practice book (which should lay flat when open on a table) and count the number of words in 5 lines. Divide this number of words by 5, and you have your average number of words-per-line.
Example: 62 words/5 lines = 12.4, which you round to 12 words-per-line
Next, count the number of text lines on 5 pages and divide by 5 to arrive at the average number of lines per page. Multiply this by average number of words-per-line, and you have your average number of words per page.
Example: 154 lines/5 pages = 30.8, rounded to 31 lines per page x 12 words-per-line = 372 words per page
Mark your first line and read with a timer for 1 minute exactly-do not read faster than normal, and read for comprehension. After exactly one minute, multiply the number of lines by your average words-per-line to determine your current words-per-minute (wpm) rate.
Second – Trackers and Pacers
Regression, back-skipping, and the duration of fixations can be minimized by using a tracker and pacer. To illustrate the importance of a tracker-did you use a pen or finger when counting the number of words or lines in above baseline calculations? If you did, it was for the purpose of tracking-using a visual aid to guide fixation efficiency and accuracy. Nowhere is this more relevant than in conditioning reading speed by eliminating such inefficiencies.
For the purposes of this article, we will use a pen. Holding the pen in your dominant hand, you will underline each line (with the cap on), keeping your eye fixation above the tip of the pen. This will not only serve as a tracker, but it will also serve as a pacer for maintaining consistent speed and decreasing fixation duration. You may hold it as you would when writing, but it is recommended that you hold it under your hand, flat against the page.
1) Technique (2 minutes):
Practice using the pen as a tracker and pacer. Underline each line, focusing above the tip of the pen. DO NOT CONCERN YOURSELF WITH COMPREHENSION. Keep each line to a maximum of 1 second, and increase the speed with each subsequent page. Read, but under no circumstances should you take longer than 1 second per line.
2) Speed (3 minutes):
Repeat the technique, keeping each line to no more than ½ second (2 lines for a single “one-one-thousand”). Some will comprehend nothing, which is to be expected. Maintain speed and technique-you are conditioning your perceptual reflexes, and this is a speed exercise designed to facilitate adaptations in your system. Do not decrease speed. ½ second per line for 3 minutes; focus above the pen and concentrate on technique with speed. Focus on the exercise, and do not daydream.
Third – Perceptual Expansion
If you focus on the center of your computer screen (focus relating to the focal area of the fovea in within the eye), you can still perceive and register the sides of the screen. Training peripheral vision to register more effectively can increase reading speed over 300%. Untrained readers use up to ½ of their peripheral field on margins by moving from 1st word to last, spending 25-50% of their time “reading” margins with no content.
To illustrate, let us take the hypothetical one line: “Once upon a time, students enjoyed reading four hours a day.” If you were able to begin your reading at “time” and finish the line at “four”, you would eliminate 6 of 11 words, more than doubling your reading speed. This concept is easy to implement and combine with the tracking and pacing you’ve already practiced.
1) Technique (1 minute):
Use the pen to track and pace at a consistent speed of one line per second. Begin 1 word in from the first word of each line, and end 1 word in from the last word.
DO NOT CONCERN YOURSELF WITH COMPREHENSION. Keep each line to a maximum of 1 second, and increase the speed with each subsequent page. Read, but under no circumstances should you take longer than 1 second per line.
2) Technique (1 minute):
Use the pen to track and pace at a consistent speed of one line per second. Begin 2 words in from the first word of each line, and end 2 words in from the last word.
3) Speed (3 minutes):
Begin at least 3 words in from the first word of each line, and end 3 words in from the last word. Repeat the technique, keeping each line to no more than ½ second (2 lines for a single “one-one-thousand”).
Some will comprehend nothing, which is to be expected. Maintain speed and technique-you are conditioning your perceptual reflexes, and this is a speed exercise designed to facilitate adaptations in your system. Do not decrease speed. ½ second per line for 3 minutes; focus above the pen and concentrate on technique with speed. Focus on the exercise, and do not daydream.
Fourth – Calculate New WPM Reading Speed
Mark your first line and read with a timer for 1 minute exactly- Read at your fastest comprehension rate. Multiply the number of lines by your previously determined average words-per-line to get determine your new words-per-minute (wpm) rate.
Congratulations on completing your cursory overview of some of the techniques that can be used to accelerate human cognition (defined as the processing and use of information).
Final recommendations: If used for study, it is recommended that you not read 3 assignments in the time it would take you to read one, but rather, read the same assignment 3 times for exposure and recall improvement, depending on relevancy to testing.
Happy trails, page blazers.
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Εμφάνιση αναρτήσεων με ετικέτα education. Εμφάνιση όλων των αναρτήσεων
Εμφάνιση αναρτήσεων με ετικέτα education. Εμφάνιση όλων των αναρτήσεων
Τετάρτη 7 Ιουλίου 2021
Τετάρτη 7 Απριλίου 2021
Δευτέρα 18 Δεκεμβρίου 2017
Beyond Filters: How to meet our young adult and teenage children as and where they are
Presently, we do not know them. They are being raised in a manner in which no one over the age of 25 can understand. Often they are living two lives, one with us on the planet and one within the vast cosmos of their phones. In a world that is increasingly unsafe and uncertain, the space inside their phone is completely within their control. With one swipe they can feel, happy, sad, angry, numb. With each year that technology expands, the children are increasingly losing emotional coping tools. It’s not just generational gaps any more, it’s yearly gaps.
Most have been raised with television/media not only in their home as we grew up with, but also in the car, walking down the street, in the forest, while hanging out with friends. And there aren’t even annoying commercials to sit through anymore. Our kids are not being offered the gift of boredom and annoyance, and by being able to call for help and receive help at any moment, our kids are not learning how to cope with fear. Why fear when you can look up the answer in your pocket or dial 911 from anywhere? Remember not linking up with your friends at concerts or festivals because they didn’t find the note you left at the port-potties when you said you were going to be late? Yeah, that doesn’t happen to teenagers anymore.
Because of the fast pace our children are now living, we must work harder than our parents did to understand us. We need to learn about sexual orientation, gender identity and fluidity, and preferred pronouns. We need to learn what micro-aggressions are, what “inherently racist” means, about privilege, white privilege, white supremacy, cultural appropriation, ableism and–how about this one–neuro-diversity. And, you should probably know what Snapchat, Instagram and Tumbler are, as well as what a filter is (beware: Snapchat filters are greatly enjoyable and you may find yourself wishing to live inside one of them). If you think I forgot Facebook, just ask a teenager how often they hang out on FB. If you don’t know what any of that is, you need to stop everything and look it up. When you feel safe enough to talk to a scary teenager, do it ASAP and ask them to please educate you and to have them bring their friends: the more racial, economic and gender diversity the better. (Note: you will not find all of these teens within your immediate sangha’ you’ll have to–gasp!–go to the public schools.)
Until we learn where our young adults, teenagers and children are at, we cannot begin to share our wisdom. We cannot teach them how to slow down until we know the pace at which they are running. We cannot introduce to them the preciousness of life as we see it, until we understand that in their fast-paced life, preciousness is a kitten video–and it’s a gif that’s only 2 seconds long.
Now I’m crying. Because that kitten thing was not a joke. This is real.
Despite the vastly different exposure to world issues compared to what you and I may have grown up with, increasing environmental disasters and the fact that we currently have a man who is anything but a positive role model as president of the United States, our factory style education system has not changed in any truly substantial way since the 1800’s. The telephone had not yet been invented when this model of education came onto the scene. Two hundred years later, 99% of what your child will learn in the average middle school and high school is available on their phone in their pocket. You know what they are hardly taught at all: 1. empathy; 2. techniques for helping with stress, anxiety and depression; 3. how to engage in healthy emotional conversation and active listening; 4. facts and contemplations about death and dying; 5. what various foods feel like while digesting in your body and how to make adjustments accordingly; 6. what pleasurable touch feels like and what unpleasurable touch feels like; 7. how to apologize on behalf of others, even if you yourself did not do it; 8. what to do with anger.
The path forward with our children, teens, and young adults is first to engage with like-minded individuals to discover personal inspiration and get focused. Then, it is to meet the kids where they are, and to do whatever is possible to fill in the gaps where our traditional education system and society are lacking. This is not an attack on schools or on teachers in general. They are symptomatic of a system of broken values that is prevalent throughout the human race at this time. This is a system that values grade point averages, efficiency, and productivity over human experience, curiosity, and kindness.
Grown ups, the next time you are sitting on your cushions, contemplate my favorite Dorje Kasung slogan: “Not afraid to be a fool.” Lean in to that so deeply that you might as well be wearing your rump on your head, and then go ask a group of teenagers to educate you. Listen to them, watch them. Some times they are as hard to find as leprechauns, and other times they come up close. Think of it like exploring newly-discovered Martians from outer space. What is their language? How do they communicate? How do they spawn? Oh, and you can usually bait them with food. Just get a ton of food and lay it out–you’ll see.
Δευτέρα 25 Αυγούστου 2014
Depression, Addiction, and Aikido: Contemplating the Death of Robin Williams by Jack Elias
English Text Follows
Την πρώτη ημέρα των μαθημάτων λέω το εξής στην τάξη μου:
"Μην σας απασχολεί το να περάσετε τα μαθήματα. Κάντε το καλύτερο ώστε να αποσυνδεθείτε από την εμπειρία που είχατε ως παιδιά για το σχολείο, όπου αυτό που κυριαρχούσε ήταν η πίεση από τους συνομηλίκους και ο τρόμος μήπως κάνετε κάποιο λάθος".
"Θα περάσετε το μάθημα κάνοντας το ίδιο πράγμα που σας επιτρέπει να αισθάνεστε αυθεντική χαρά για τη ζωή σας - συνδεόμενοι με την σοφία που υπάρχει στην καρδιά σας και με το έλεος για όλα τα όντα".
Like so many others last week, I was shocked and saddened, and also drawn into deep contemplation, on hearing that the beloved actor, comedian and social activist, Robin Williams, had taken his own life. As a hypnotherapist who has worked with many people suffering from depression, it reminded me of a shocking, and critical, teaching that I received many years ago, that has stayed close to my heart ever since.
I had been doing Transpersonal Hypnotherapy certification trainings for about a year when I met a group of Aikido enthusiasts who were interested in my work. I was a longtime Zen Buddhist practitioner and felt a strong affinity for the philosophy of Aikido and for its founder Morihei Ueshiba.
One day I was visiting the dojo where a few of my students were practicing Aikido. While waiting for my students to finish their practice session, I picked up a small Aikido publication.
My eyes fell on a letter to the editor in which the writer praised the great qualities of a dear friend and fellow Aikido practitioner. He described a truly wonderful man who was a master chef, an accomplished horse trainer, a Black Belt Aikido master, a master carpenter and homebuilder, and a longtime meditation student who radiated tremendous warmth and calm. He said, “There was no one who did not like him.”
And then he added, “I am talking about my friend in the past tense because on Aril 10th, he died by his own steady hand.” How could someone who had accomplished so much, who was so loved by others, commit suicide?
The title of his Letter to the Editor was “Aikido is not enough.” He went on to share that balance and self-love are crucial on the path – that these qualities cannot be replaced by any degree of excellence in any kind of endeavor. The love of others cannot make up for a lack of loving kindness and compassion for oneself.
Since 1990 I have opened the first day of every Finding True Magic certification training by reading this letter to my students.
On the first day of the course, students are typically excited to learn, but also fearful about not being good enough. My purpose is to impress upon them that the central point of the course is to love yourself and to use the techniques they will be learning, to help others love themselves.
Perfection is completely beside the point.
So here’s what I tell them on the first day of class:
“Do not worry about passing. Do your best to disconnect from your childhood experience of school where peer pressure and the terror of making mistakes reigned for so many.”
“You will pass this course by doing the same thing that allows you to feel genuine enjoyment of your life — by connecting with your heartfelt wisdom and compassion for all beings.
“And of course, ‘all beings’ naturally includes yourself.
This view of compassion and love for oneself and others is a core aspect of the transpersonal approach that informs my courses and trainings. {LINK TO: http://findingtruemagic.com/training-institute-for-therapeutic-learning/ }
The secret trap on the road to “mastery”
Many people hope to accomplish fantastic goals by using hypnosis to master their minds. And this is entirely possible. But it can be a golden path to destruction if you’re secretly hoping to leave behind any part of yourself out of a sense that it is somehow “flawed” or “not good enough.” You can’t enjoy your success if you throw out self love.
Many bright stars have taken their lives in the years since I first read that letter. These are often people whom we think “should” have been content – people who seemed to have it all. This week one of the world’s favorite entertainers made the same choice as the Aikido practitioner described in the letter.
Robin Williams had a lion’s share of talent and artistic mastery, as well as a huge heart of compassion . . . for others. One of the main things people shared about Robin Williams, beyond his work ethic, his outrageous lightning fast humor, and his generosity in supporting dozens of charities, was that he had the rare ability, when he was relating to you, to make you feel as though you were the most important person in the world.
There was no one who did not like him.
So why wasn’t that enough to make him want to stick around?
The thought that makes depression and addiction seem immovable
Many of my clients have struggled with depression and addiction, and many of them say one thing that I also heard Robin Williams say in an interview. He said that the alcoholism, the addiction, “isn’t connected to anything, and doesn’t come from anything. It’s just there waiting. It lays in wait for the time when you think, “I’m fine now. I’m OK. And then all of a sudden it’s not OK.
This viewpoint, while common, shuts ourselves out of the very real possibility of healing. It treats the condition as a thief that can pounce on us and steal our happiness, even – or especially — when things are going well for us. It treats our suffering as a “thing” that is more powerful than we are, as a monster that can victimize us, rather than as a mutable condition we can actively work with and change. It seems to me that those who accept this view are more likely to take their own lives. I worry about them.
On the flip side, whenever I’m working with deeply troubled client and they begin to glimpse the possibility of freedom from their depression and addiction, I feel encouraged. I see people choosing to accept this challenge, along with the pain involved in meeting it.
When I see this happening for someone who’s been acutely depressed, I know they’ve had a glimpse of self love. It only takes a glimpse for us to begin to insist on self-compassion. And when you’re intent on dissolving your despair, this is the most powerful protection there is.
How do we know it’s possible to overcome depression and suicidal thinking?
We live at a time in which science has revealed to us that the brain is not a fixed or hardwired organ. In fact, the brain has amazing generative powers — its neuroplasticity. {LINK: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Neuroplasticity} Our brain is constantly reshaping itself and generating new connections, in this way increasing its own power to learn and adapt. This new science renews my view that nothing is absolutely intransigent – not depression, not addiction.
This doesn’t mean that people who suffer from depression or addiction are “to blame” for not overcoming their problem. What it does mean is that there is always the possibility of finding a way in, of nudging the brain to literally learn its way out of a problem that we once believed were hardwired into our gray matter.
Now is the time to let go of our preconceived notions about what is possible and what is “impossible.” It is a time to explore and experiment with humility. As a therapist, and even as a friend, it can be like walking a tightrope to get the right balance between empathy and offering possible guidance when we’re seeking to help someone else.
Helping others: What’s self love got to do with it?
Sometimes, especially if you have no deep suffering of your own that helps you to understand the road the other person is walking, it may be best simply to be present with an open heart, and to bear witness. If you do have a basis to offer some guidance, it is best to do so in a way that will not be received as criticism.
This is a common mistake people make when they try to apply the proposition, “We create our reality.” Applying this incorrectly, people diagnosed with cancer often end up thinking that having cancer means they have failed somehow and have made themselves sick.
I often contemplate how to be skillful in this way. How to refute the notion that something cannot be changed – “It’s just there waiting” without offending the person who believes this? Without harming their sense of self-worth? Without giving them the impression that you don’t care about their suffering?
Along with millions of others, I wish, powerlessly, that Robin Williams had not taken his own life.
But in the grief that follows, so many have risen to the occasion, to celebrate Robin’s gift for bringing comedy and laughter to millions, as well as his kindness and generosity to those in need.
And to acknowledge that those around us who are suffering with depression and addiction need more from us. They need our awareness of their struggle, our compassion for their pain, and our listening ears.
Until we experience genuine compassion for ourselves and our own struggles, we are powerless to be of any real help to others.
So, if you’re someone who believes in dedicating your efforts to improving life for “all beings,” make sure you’re including yourself in the big picture.
Source: findingtruemagic.com
Παρασκευή 6 Σεπτεμβρίου 2013
Back to School: Whatever Happened to a Good Education? By Richard Reoch
As schools across England and Wales return from their summer holidays - with thousands entering the education system for the first time in their young lives - I am reminded of the words of a wonderful Sri Lankan friend of mine.
"All this killing is being led and supported by extremely well educated and highly cultured people," he said.
He was not taking sides in his country's war. He was bearing witness to a society being dismembered despite having some of the highest social indicators, including education, anywhere in Asia.
His words have haunted me. Education in itself is not necessarily a guarantee of civilization.
To the extent that education can change the world, as Malala Yousafzai, the young victim of Taliban violence, said in her recent address to the United Nations - it depends on what we mean by education and how that is best delivered for the benefit of all.
It is a question with which all educators wrestle.
When the great meditation master Chögyam Trungpa Rinpoche came to the West, after the exodus from Tibet, he first studied at Oxford University (as a Spaulding Fellow) and then went on to lay the foundations for the first Buddhist-inspired university in the Western world - Naropa University in Boulder, Colorado.
The Naropa goal echoes the original meaning of the Latin term to educate, which means literally to 'draw out' or 'lead forth' - implying that there is something within the student that needs to be cultivated, not imposed.
What set this institution apart from the outset was an emphasis on what came to be known as Contemplative Education; now a worldwide movement that seeks to cultivate the inherent power of the human mind and heart.
The movement is taking roots in the UK. I am looking forward to hearing Chris Cullen, previously Head of Pastoral Care & Counselling at Hampton School in London and now co-founder of the Mindfulness in Schools project, share his experience at the Awake in the World festival being held in London next week.
Chris and his team have developed a mindfulness curriculum for teenagers called .b (dot-be) that is being used in a growing number of schools to engage even the most cynical of students in the UK and across Europe.
A recent evaluation of the dot-be programme showed significant differences between participant and control groups' mindfulness, resilience and well-being. Students, teachers and parents reported improvements in students' motivation and confidence, competence and effectiveness.
These experiments in Contemplative Education - aiming to cultivate the whole person - include an initiative by the influential upstate New York Garrison Institute on Contemplative Teaching and Learning. It promotes awareness of self and others by infusing classroom life and teaching with experiential mindfulness practices.
This notion of cultivating the whole person is, I believe, what we used to mean by a "good education".
There is a definite feeling among innovative educators that we need to find our way back to it.
One of the Garrison Institute's board members, Mark Wilding, in a recent discussion with educators, said, "A great deal of what we see in education at the moment reflects an underlying attitude of 'basic badness.' At least in the United States, many educators are crying out for a new spirit of wholeness and inspiration. That is why people want to become educators in the first place."
London-based Canadian Tessa Watt, the author of Mindfulness: A Practical Guide, and coordinator of the Awake in the World festival, reports that young school children in Vancouver are being taught to begin their day with a few minutes of mindfulness practice. "They draw pictures of their brains and talk about which parts are used in processing their emotional reactions," she says.
On the country's other, Atlantic coast is the innovative Shambhala School in Halifax, Nova Scotia, also inspired by the mediation tradition of the same name. The school openly states that the heart of what is offered is teaching and experiencing "confidence in unconditional goodness for everyone."
Would an approach like that have made a difference to my friend in Sri Lanka, and to the country's continuing pain - this month a mosque was attacked by a Buddhist mob? We have no definitive way of knowing, and a multitude of factors are involved.
But there may well be a relationship between aggression that develops in later years and the early experience of young people in schools.
"When children are raised in an environment that does not encourage basic goodness and self-worth, their sense of self-identity becomes fragile and confused," says Sakyong Mipham - spiritual heir of Naropa University founder Chögyam Trungpa - in his bookThe Shambhala Principle. "This imbalance leads to unhappiness and aggression such as bullying, which naturally begins to affect society."
This is a global conversation. It is not only questioning the world's educational systems: it is pointing to the necessity to nuture the innate intelligence already present in even the youngest of minds.
Σάββατο 24 Αυγούστου 2013
Care for a cookie? by Noel McLellan
Teaching is a questionable undertaking.
Most of the teachers I have known have good hearts and and are willing to work hard, often for few tangible rewards, to help their students succeed. No matter how rewarding, teaching is a challenging endeavour under the best circumstances, which rarely come together. Many teachers work in very difficult systems, and loss of heart is common.
But that’s not what makes it questionable. It doesn’t matter if it’s difficult or if we’re not sure whether we’re making a difference. Teachers know that teaching is worthwhile, no matter the challenges. What is questionable is our assumption that we know what we are teaching.
If we think of teaching as simply passing knowledge from one person to another, it’s a fairly simple matter, like making a cookie and handing it to someone to eat. We know how to spell, so we teach someone, and then they can spell. That’s a good thing in itself, but that’s not all that happens. Teaching is a social interaction that taps into some of the most volatile forces embedded in society. So much is transmitted and communicated beyond the facts and figures of what is being taught on the surface. It looks like a cookie, but it’s a nuclear bomb.
All social interactions have invisible dynamics in that we are always communicating more than the simple content of our words. Our attitude, outlook, bearing, eyes, tone, and the whole environment determine the feeling of the interaction. In the teaching relationship those dynamics are heightened. The hierarchy of teacher and student contains a treasury of unspoken implications. Foremost among these is that the student must be open, on some level, in order to receive whatever is being taught. What comes with openness is vulnerability. Even just showing up in the role of a student invokes a degree of vulnerability. Being a learner implies that you have something to learn- you don’t know something, and that makes you humble and soft. The student is vulnerable to the teacher and the environment, and this meeting in the space of vulnerability brings a quality of intimacy to the relationship. In this intimate space of communication, many lessons are being transmitted. These are lessons of culture, values, how we are as people interacting, assumptions about human nature and society, and perhaps most importantly, how to relate with that feeling of vulnerability itself. Knowingly or not, through our example, we are modelling and teaching how to be as human beings. This is the inner curriculum, and although it is probably more important than the outer curriculum of academics in shaping the character of individuals and influencing the direction of society, it goes largely unacknowledged in the realm of education.
This is why “teaching” is questionable. If we acknowledge the influence of the inner curriculum, teaching without intentionally examining and developing it is a failure to acknowledge the true influence of education. It’s unclear what we and the whole environment are actually transmitting, though it most predictably defaults to the status quo.
On the other hand, there is something unsettlingly presumptuous about the notion of intentionally shaping the “character” and fundamental outlook of students. What credentials do we have to do so? What training have we gone through, and who agrees on the intended outcomes?
source:broken leaf blog
Σάββατο 21 Μαρτίου 2009
Raising our children by Chogyam Trungpa Rinpoche
Raising Our Children, Sharing Our World
By the Vidyadhara, Chogyam Trungpa Rinpoche
Exclusive to the Shambhala Times, courtesy of Lady Diana Mukpo
I have been the father of my own personal, physical children. I have also been the psychological father of many semi-grownup children, and I have been the father of a larger vision, of how our world can actually give birth at all. I feel that I have the authority and the experience to express myself about all of these levels of fatherhood, although I still feel humble, nevertheless.
To begin with, I would like to correct a problem in our language. When we refer to our offspring, we should refer to them as children rather than kids. Calling our children "kids" is like referring to others as "you guys." It has a somewhat lighthearted connotation, but at the same time we sound embarrassed.
There are so many demands put on parents. In the Buddhist community, there is a demand on you to practice meditation and you have social obligations of all kinds, such as volunteer work and sharing other responsibilities within the community. On top of that, you have your job, you have your relationship with your partner-a husband or wife who might be quite a handful-and on top of that you have your children, who may be absolute handfuls to handle. So you might begin to feel that you are going to explode. You try to use every finger, let alone both hands, to help you maintain everything at once. Keeping up your daily schedule of meditation practice becomes impossible. And then, on top of that, you also have to look after your economy. There seems to be no time left to press your shirts or dress properly or clean your house. All sorts of demands are made on you. Partly because of your personal commitment to practice and partly because of other social commitments, all sorts of demands bounce back on you, so that you find your life completely full, absolutely full. We don't even have time to change a diaper, let alone change the oil in your car. But at the same time, those things are necessary. We have to make time for the most basic things in life, in order to make things valid.
When you are finally able to send your children to the babysitter or to school, at least part of your life seems to be taken care of, organized and worked on. But I should warn you about regarding your children only as sources of disturbance and disorder in your life. When you want to hear a certain lecture, go to some public function, or for that matter have an affair or spend time with your wife or your husband, there is often a tendency to want to park your children somewhere. You love them, of course, but nevertheless the mentality of regarding them as some kind of temporary nuisance comes up.
You would like to become a free person once more-for twenty-four hours or a few hours. You would like your freedom for even ten minutes-and so you provide your children with bottles and pacifiers to keep them occupied. In England, they call their pacifiers dummies, which should tell us something. I find that a very insulting attitude towards your own body and flesh-which are your children. Because you are having a very important discussion, you remove the kids from the room. You feed them somewhere else and put them to bed early. I'm not particularly saying that you should be on duty with your children twenty-four hours a day or that you should feel heroic and warriorlike in dealing with your children. But parking your children away somewhere or not even being able to find the time to clean them up is not so good.
On the one hand, there's a problem with sending your children to school to get rid of them so you can have some free time. On the other hand, practically speaking, in order to have time for anything else in your life, you need a school or some other situation for your children. However, there is a very thin, hairline's difference between having a convenience mentality towards caregivers as opposed to having dedication to one's child.
The main point I'm concerned with is that we should not transmit any sense of rejection to our children. Whenever we feel that the children are nuisances, that's because we are being the nuisance rather than our children. School should not be regarded as a place where you make a deposit, like a bank. You check your child in and get your serial number. When you finish your business, you can come back with your serial number and retrieve your child. Sending your children to school is not like checking your coat at a restaurant.
We are actually building a Buddhist world so that our children can grow up in an atmosphere that is right and good. It's revolutionary and represents a fantastic vision that we are trying to build such a world. We would like to bring up our children in a situation in which parents, teachers, caretakers and even administrators are all working together, joining forces to upgrade the early growth of our young ladies and gentlemen-which is fantastic.
I personally decided not to put my child into a school that was very sloppy. I didn't have any resentment of the caretakers, but I felt that the atmosphere was not good. It seemed that many of the children were parked there like little cars, and I didn't want to park my child in the parking lot. It was sloppy, dirty and casual, and without an appreciation of basic dignity. If there's basic vision, then I would include my child in that situation with delight.
It might be very convenient to have your children in a preschool of some sort, but school should be an expression of our dedication and our actual understanding so that our children can evolve there, so that we can actually build them up. Our children can learn how to eat, how to handle things, and for that matter how to roll around on the ground and how to relate with other children. Basically, we need to learn how to bring up all of our children as statesmen, royalty almost. In our world we don't have a prescribed royalty as such. However, everybody who learns to handle themselves and to relate with reality fully and properly and with dignity comes through that experience with confidence-which is the equivalent of royalty in this case.
Through applying Shambhala vision to how we raise our children, we develop mutual confidence, so that our children are not regarded as under-developed apes but as embryonic beings, who have the seed of being fully developed within them. As Buddhists, we say that people inherit their own Buddha nature. In dealing with their children, sometimes people forget this. Because young children can't eat, get dressed, change their diapers or walk without help, we regard them as subhuman beings. That would be called setting-sun vision. Setting-sun people do not believe in the Buddhist vision of Buddha nature. They think that human beings are basically apes and their approach to survival is based on the fear of death. Really being alive and actually performing properly in a real world is what we call Great Eastern Sun vision. It is very important to take that attitude towards raising our children. We have to understand that raising our children is actually upgrading basic human existence. The world of the Great Eastern Sun upgrades itself by itself. Sophistication, confidence, dignity, power, sanity and practice all build up tremendously if we work together and have the right attitude. We don't want to leave our children behind, obviously.
All sorts of nuisances may take place, but they are not setbacks. They are part of the journey. Although the tires on our vehicle might be punctured and our transmission might need to be replaced, we keep going. We continue on our journey. In fact, having children provides a tremendous connection with the real world and also with the dharmic world and the vajra world, if I may say so. I found that out myself. At the beginning of my journey, I felt: "I am a mendicant monk. How fantastic. How free!" Then I began to fall in love and I thought, "Maybe I can just fall in love and be with my wife. How clean cut." But when I first heard a San Francisco doctor say, "Congratulations. The test is positive," I didn't know what to say. I felt that I'd been pulled down, made into a part of the world, that the ship had dropped its anchor. Throughout the pregnancy, I was constantly suspicious.
But when my child was born, I realized that there could be no obstacles between my wife and myself. In fact, having a child opened a new avenue of relating with the Great Eastern Sun. It's a perpetually shiny and fantastic sun-although at some point I was hoping that it would be a daughter. It is a fantastic feeling to be a father and an originator of another clan, a further extension of my particular mission, which is to propagate the vajra world and the Shambhala world. It actually works, and it feels very good.
We should have some sense of delight in having children. We can actually open our world to them, whether they are large or small, ten years old or two weeks or even one day old. The Buddhist world is a real, genuine and powerful world. Some day, I hope that a Buddhist-inspired educational system can be presented, where children can actually learn to sit and practice. Some kind of early training and discipline are very much called for. It's not so much that we are trying to turn our children into Buddhists or Christians or anything else. But we are trying to share the world with them, which is a good world.
We might face all sorts of obstacles, but we can work with them one by one. When one baby needs a diaper changed, we do that. Another one might have diarrhea but we can work with that too, step by step. It's not so difficult. I've been changing a lot of diapers, for people young and old. I've been breast feeding a lot of people, as well as bottle feeding some of them. I myself have acted simultaneously as both father and mother. I appreciate how it feels. There is a lot to do, but the whole thing is wonderful.
Based on the Opening Talk to Alaya Preschool
March 10, 1978
Edited by Carolyn Gimian
Copyright 2009, Diana J. Mukpo
By the Vidyadhara, Chogyam Trungpa Rinpoche
Exclusive to the Shambhala Times, courtesy of Lady Diana Mukpo
I have been the father of my own personal, physical children. I have also been the psychological father of many semi-grownup children, and I have been the father of a larger vision, of how our world can actually give birth at all. I feel that I have the authority and the experience to express myself about all of these levels of fatherhood, although I still feel humble, nevertheless.
To begin with, I would like to correct a problem in our language. When we refer to our offspring, we should refer to them as children rather than kids. Calling our children "kids" is like referring to others as "you guys." It has a somewhat lighthearted connotation, but at the same time we sound embarrassed.
There are so many demands put on parents. In the Buddhist community, there is a demand on you to practice meditation and you have social obligations of all kinds, such as volunteer work and sharing other responsibilities within the community. On top of that, you have your job, you have your relationship with your partner-a husband or wife who might be quite a handful-and on top of that you have your children, who may be absolute handfuls to handle. So you might begin to feel that you are going to explode. You try to use every finger, let alone both hands, to help you maintain everything at once. Keeping up your daily schedule of meditation practice becomes impossible. And then, on top of that, you also have to look after your economy. There seems to be no time left to press your shirts or dress properly or clean your house. All sorts of demands are made on you. Partly because of your personal commitment to practice and partly because of other social commitments, all sorts of demands bounce back on you, so that you find your life completely full, absolutely full. We don't even have time to change a diaper, let alone change the oil in your car. But at the same time, those things are necessary. We have to make time for the most basic things in life, in order to make things valid.
When you are finally able to send your children to the babysitter or to school, at least part of your life seems to be taken care of, organized and worked on. But I should warn you about regarding your children only as sources of disturbance and disorder in your life. When you want to hear a certain lecture, go to some public function, or for that matter have an affair or spend time with your wife or your husband, there is often a tendency to want to park your children somewhere. You love them, of course, but nevertheless the mentality of regarding them as some kind of temporary nuisance comes up.
You would like to become a free person once more-for twenty-four hours or a few hours. You would like your freedom for even ten minutes-and so you provide your children with bottles and pacifiers to keep them occupied. In England, they call their pacifiers dummies, which should tell us something. I find that a very insulting attitude towards your own body and flesh-which are your children. Because you are having a very important discussion, you remove the kids from the room. You feed them somewhere else and put them to bed early. I'm not particularly saying that you should be on duty with your children twenty-four hours a day or that you should feel heroic and warriorlike in dealing with your children. But parking your children away somewhere or not even being able to find the time to clean them up is not so good.
On the one hand, there's a problem with sending your children to school to get rid of them so you can have some free time. On the other hand, practically speaking, in order to have time for anything else in your life, you need a school or some other situation for your children. However, there is a very thin, hairline's difference between having a convenience mentality towards caregivers as opposed to having dedication to one's child.
The main point I'm concerned with is that we should not transmit any sense of rejection to our children. Whenever we feel that the children are nuisances, that's because we are being the nuisance rather than our children. School should not be regarded as a place where you make a deposit, like a bank. You check your child in and get your serial number. When you finish your business, you can come back with your serial number and retrieve your child. Sending your children to school is not like checking your coat at a restaurant.
We are actually building a Buddhist world so that our children can grow up in an atmosphere that is right and good. It's revolutionary and represents a fantastic vision that we are trying to build such a world. We would like to bring up our children in a situation in which parents, teachers, caretakers and even administrators are all working together, joining forces to upgrade the early growth of our young ladies and gentlemen-which is fantastic.
I personally decided not to put my child into a school that was very sloppy. I didn't have any resentment of the caretakers, but I felt that the atmosphere was not good. It seemed that many of the children were parked there like little cars, and I didn't want to park my child in the parking lot. It was sloppy, dirty and casual, and without an appreciation of basic dignity. If there's basic vision, then I would include my child in that situation with delight.
It might be very convenient to have your children in a preschool of some sort, but school should be an expression of our dedication and our actual understanding so that our children can evolve there, so that we can actually build them up. Our children can learn how to eat, how to handle things, and for that matter how to roll around on the ground and how to relate with other children. Basically, we need to learn how to bring up all of our children as statesmen, royalty almost. In our world we don't have a prescribed royalty as such. However, everybody who learns to handle themselves and to relate with reality fully and properly and with dignity comes through that experience with confidence-which is the equivalent of royalty in this case.
Through applying Shambhala vision to how we raise our children, we develop mutual confidence, so that our children are not regarded as under-developed apes but as embryonic beings, who have the seed of being fully developed within them. As Buddhists, we say that people inherit their own Buddha nature. In dealing with their children, sometimes people forget this. Because young children can't eat, get dressed, change their diapers or walk without help, we regard them as subhuman beings. That would be called setting-sun vision. Setting-sun people do not believe in the Buddhist vision of Buddha nature. They think that human beings are basically apes and their approach to survival is based on the fear of death. Really being alive and actually performing properly in a real world is what we call Great Eastern Sun vision. It is very important to take that attitude towards raising our children. We have to understand that raising our children is actually upgrading basic human existence. The world of the Great Eastern Sun upgrades itself by itself. Sophistication, confidence, dignity, power, sanity and practice all build up tremendously if we work together and have the right attitude. We don't want to leave our children behind, obviously.
All sorts of nuisances may take place, but they are not setbacks. They are part of the journey. Although the tires on our vehicle might be punctured and our transmission might need to be replaced, we keep going. We continue on our journey. In fact, having children provides a tremendous connection with the real world and also with the dharmic world and the vajra world, if I may say so. I found that out myself. At the beginning of my journey, I felt: "I am a mendicant monk. How fantastic. How free!" Then I began to fall in love and I thought, "Maybe I can just fall in love and be with my wife. How clean cut." But when I first heard a San Francisco doctor say, "Congratulations. The test is positive," I didn't know what to say. I felt that I'd been pulled down, made into a part of the world, that the ship had dropped its anchor. Throughout the pregnancy, I was constantly suspicious.
But when my child was born, I realized that there could be no obstacles between my wife and myself. In fact, having a child opened a new avenue of relating with the Great Eastern Sun. It's a perpetually shiny and fantastic sun-although at some point I was hoping that it would be a daughter. It is a fantastic feeling to be a father and an originator of another clan, a further extension of my particular mission, which is to propagate the vajra world and the Shambhala world. It actually works, and it feels very good.
We should have some sense of delight in having children. We can actually open our world to them, whether they are large or small, ten years old or two weeks or even one day old. The Buddhist world is a real, genuine and powerful world. Some day, I hope that a Buddhist-inspired educational system can be presented, where children can actually learn to sit and practice. Some kind of early training and discipline are very much called for. It's not so much that we are trying to turn our children into Buddhists or Christians or anything else. But we are trying to share the world with them, which is a good world.
We might face all sorts of obstacles, but we can work with them one by one. When one baby needs a diaper changed, we do that. Another one might have diarrhea but we can work with that too, step by step. It's not so difficult. I've been changing a lot of diapers, for people young and old. I've been breast feeding a lot of people, as well as bottle feeding some of them. I myself have acted simultaneously as both father and mother. I appreciate how it feels. There is a lot to do, but the whole thing is wonderful.
Based on the Opening Talk to Alaya Preschool
March 10, 1978
Edited by Carolyn Gimian
Copyright 2009, Diana J. Mukpo
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