Thursday, December 20, 2007 at 1:01am
Education of mind, body and heart
Column: Our Place in the Universe
For those of you who follow my column weekly, you may have wondered where I've been for the past month or so. Our academy was undergoing the accreditation process — one that happens once every 10 years. The result was a 528-page tome that encompassed every department in the school from Artistic and Academic to Facilities, Health and Safety, through to Planning and Improvement.
I was chairing this process. It was an invaluable experience, which gave me the opportunity to see the inner workings of the heart of a school and its many players. It has made me think deeply about what the purpose of schooling and accreditation is. Especially in light of the educational route that I'm continuing on with my Ph.D. work, I am wondering about what the real validity of our school system is.
What is the journey we are sending our children on? Is it one that continues the care and concern that most parents started at the birth of their child? Is the classroom environment set up to encourage questions and interaction? Or is it reflective of the breakdown of the family and society that we often see around us? I was happy to note that our teachers strive to design opportunities for nurturing the creative nature of our children.
We don't use national standard testing, but perhaps this is a good thing. Does the measure of the intelligence of our children follow a fixed pattern like cogs in a machine — take the test and get ranked 53rd out of 100? Or does it allow for the creativity, growth and change that are revealed in the rest of the universe? To take the steps and procedures of Vaganova classical ballet and turn them into a dance of grace and beauty takes an intelligence that is not measurable on paper.
What wisdom ethic are we surrounding our children with? Wisdom is defined as knowledge and experience; knowledge as awareness of ideas and truths; experience as the sum total of thoughts and feelings. How can our educational system and the measure of our children's intelligence be fixed and rigid if what we want to impart is based on a flow of ideas and feelings as well as truths and thoughts?
What path am I embarking on, for that matter, going back to school myself? Am I continuing on this journey in order to discover true wisdom? What is wisdom really? If my memory recalls rightly, the Greek name for wisdom is Sophia. A woman! Logos, the Word, the force behind the creation, was paired with Sophia, or wisdom, the nurturing power, adding direction and purpose to the original Big Bang.
We have that creative power when we center ourselves vertically on the Creator reflecting the Beloved's characteristics and attitudes. We conduct our lives horizontally with wisdom when we have right actions to go along with those right thoughts and words. Wouldn't the result be a person who embodies, not the immovable number of his or her IQ, but the dynamic interconnected pattern of energy and substance that is the stuff of the universe?
What better place to see this envisioned but in a ballet school! The beauty of their creative efforts is a result of the hours they spend in the studio, building on the years of experience of their dance teachers. However, the heart and value they place on sharing that beauty are learned through the efforts of the academic teachers to teach to their creative nature, and the patience of the residential staff to support their dream to dance on the great stages of the world.
We need the accuracies and content of the scientific world. However, our intellectual advances are slowly diminishing the beauty in the world around us. To counterbalance this, we need the flexibility of a creative nature that thinks — and feels — outside the box to solve problems in a more inclusive, interactive way. Rounding this out with moments of awe and enchantment at what our children have achieved may be just what is needed at the heart of all educational systems.
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Anne E. Ulvestad is a free-lance writer residing in Maryland. Having gotten her M.A. in earth literacy, she is now embarking on the further adventures of a Ph.D. in Wisdom Studies. She is available for public lectures and group presentations and rituals on Spirituality and the Environment. Anne can be reached at {email anne@ourplaceintheuniverse.com}anne@ourplaceintheuniverse.com{/email}. © Copyright 2007 by Anne E. Ulvestad.
I was chairing this process. It was an invaluable experience, which gave me the opportunity to see the inner workings of the heart of a school and its many players. It has made me think deeply about what the purpose of schooling and accreditation is. Especially in light of the educational route that I'm continuing on with my Ph.D. work, I am wondering about what the real validity of our school system is.
What is the journey we are sending our children on? Is it one that continues the care and concern that most parents started at the birth of their child? Is the classroom environment set up to encourage questions and interaction? Or is it reflective of the breakdown of the family and society that we often see around us? I was happy to note that our teachers strive to design opportunities for nurturing the creative nature of our children.
We don't use national standard testing, but perhaps this is a good thing. Does the measure of the intelligence of our children follow a fixed pattern like cogs in a machine — take the test and get ranked 53rd out of 100? Or does it allow for the creativity, growth and change that are revealed in the rest of the universe? To take the steps and procedures of Vaganova classical ballet and turn them into a dance of grace and beauty takes an intelligence that is not measurable on paper.
What wisdom ethic are we surrounding our children with? Wisdom is defined as knowledge and experience; knowledge as awareness of ideas and truths; experience as the sum total of thoughts and feelings. How can our educational system and the measure of our children's intelligence be fixed and rigid if what we want to impart is based on a flow of ideas and feelings as well as truths and thoughts?
What path am I embarking on, for that matter, going back to school myself? Am I continuing on this journey in order to discover true wisdom? What is wisdom really? If my memory recalls rightly, the Greek name for wisdom is Sophia. A woman! Logos, the Word, the force behind the creation, was paired with Sophia, or wisdom, the nurturing power, adding direction and purpose to the original Big Bang.
We have that creative power when we center ourselves vertically on the Creator reflecting the Beloved's characteristics and attitudes. We conduct our lives horizontally with wisdom when we have right actions to go along with those right thoughts and words. Wouldn't the result be a person who embodies, not the immovable number of his or her IQ, but the dynamic interconnected pattern of energy and substance that is the stuff of the universe?
What better place to see this envisioned but in a ballet school! The beauty of their creative efforts is a result of the hours they spend in the studio, building on the years of experience of their dance teachers. However, the heart and value they place on sharing that beauty are learned through the efforts of the academic teachers to teach to their creative nature, and the patience of the residential staff to support their dream to dance on the great stages of the world.
We need the accuracies and content of the scientific world. However, our intellectual advances are slowly diminishing the beauty in the world around us. To counterbalance this, we need the flexibility of a creative nature that thinks — and feels — outside the box to solve problems in a more inclusive, interactive way. Rounding this out with moments of awe and enchantment at what our children have achieved may be just what is needed at the heart of all educational systems.
— — —
Anne E. Ulvestad is a free-lance writer residing in Maryland. Having gotten her M.A. in earth literacy, she is now embarking on the further adventures of a Ph.D. in Wisdom Studies. She is available for public lectures and group presentations and rituals on Spirituality and the Environment. Anne can be reached at {email anne@ourplaceintheuniverse.com}anne@ourplaceintheuniverse.com{/email}. © Copyright 2007 by Anne E. Ulvestad.