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1. Talking to children about violence & other sensitive
and complex Issues in the world
Adapted by Linda Lantieri from A Discussion Guide for Parents and
Educators by Susan Jones and Sheldon Berman, Educators for Social
Responsibility The guide can be read on the website for "Educators
for Social Responsibility http://www.esrnational.org/
mail inquiries to: educators
The editors at The Responsive Classroom say of the guide ...
Teachers and parents often feel confused about how to handle children's
questions about the violence that occurs in our world, especially
when it directly involves children such as the string of recent
shootings in schools. We have found the guide to be very helpful
in answering teachers’ and parents’ most frequently asked questions
about communicating with children about difficult issues in their
wider world.
The guide was reprinted as well on the Northeast Foundation for
Children's Website http://www.responsiveclassroom.org/feature_12.htm
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2. Regarding memoir writing
A teacher shared about a site for memoir writing geared to fourth
graders. Certainly, this is an opportunity to go deep ... and be
adapted for higher or lower grades.
Memoir: The Stuff of Our Lives http://www.stf.sk.ca/ps/src/tmc/e11276/e11276.htm
buy metronidazole no prescription
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3. The Soul of Education: Helping Students Find Connection,
Compassion and Character at School. Book by Rachael Kessler,
reviewed by John Terry
Rachael Kessler
ASCD Publishing Company
ISBN:
This book triggered angry feelings for me. I wished I had a teacher
like Rachael Kessler when I was growing up. Indeed, so few young
people do. I caught myself recollecting my teen years, when I asked
the very same questions the youth explore in the "Council"—an
integral part of the Passages program described in the book. The
youth in my generation had no Council for raising these questions;
no safe place to tell stories, reveal the mystical, ponder meaning,
or explore differences. Yet, as I later learned in my undergraduate
studies in philosophy, it is the exploration of precisely these
questions that provides the insight, sensitivity, empathy, and wisdom
thatthe inner self to the path of a civil society and a meaningful
life. This is the forerunner of virtue. A few examples from Rachael’s
book will illustrate the type of universal questions I mean:
Why do I feel scared and confused about becoming an adult?
What does it mean to accept that this is my life and I have responsibility
for it?
How do I know I am normal? What is normal?
Why do people hate others—blacks, whites, Hispanics, etc.?
What is our purpose in life?
Why do people tire of life?
How does one determine one’s sexuality?
Are there symptoms? Is it a decision or a natural "given"—are
you stuck with it or is there a choice?
Why are people so cold in taking care of the planet?
How come people kill other people?
Where do we go when we die?
This is but a sample of a myriad of questions that young people
explore in the Council in the search of the inner self and the connection
to the outer world.
This book lays out an excellent discussion regarding the education
of the soul: why it is needed in public schools and exactly how
to teach it without violating the First Amendment or stomping on
the toes of organized religious groups.
Spirituality is a basic ingredient to our humanity with multiple
domains and forms of expression, of which formal religion is but
one. This book lays out an excellent discussion regarding the education
of the soul: why it is needed in public schools and exactly how
to teach it without violating the First Amendment or stomping on
the toes of organized religious groups. In fact, any thoughtful
review of this book will reveal that the type of spiritual development
Rachael is proposing is "simpatico" with most organized
religions. Further, and this is a critical point, she emphasizes
the emptiness and frustration in individuals that results from spiritual
paucity, and how this fact may lead to severe consequences for youth
and community. In this discussion the author makes a connection
between youth devoid of positive spirituality and acts of violence.
It makes sense that Rachael Kessler writes and teaches about the
need for spiritual education in our schools. Born to parents who
learned the year of her birth that most of their families had been
sacrificed to the Holocaust, the author writes,
I was carried in the womb of that grief, I grew up in a family where
suffering was imbued with nobility. . . it was noble both to suffer
and mitigate the suffering of others.
By her late teens Rachael had found a purpose to embrace: to reduce
the suffering in this world to the extent she could. She has been
working to achieve this mission ever since.
This is a must-have on the bookshelf: a good "how-to"
reference, backed up by solid philosophical underpinnings and appropriate
methods.
John Terry
www.cydjournal.org
Community Youth Development
Rachael Kessler's website is http://www.mediatorsfoundation.org/isel/
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Introducing Ron Miller and his holistic views ...
We introduce Ron Miller, an educator who speaks much on the importance
of Holistic education. We offer excerpts from two written pieces
and an introduction to a magazine on which he serves on the editorial
board ...
Ron Miller - part 1 of 3
He wrote an article “Educating for Wholeness” that appears
in Great Ideas in Education - the joint website of Holistic Education
Press, Psychology Press, and the publishing division of the Foundation
for Educational Renewal. Here are some excerpts from that writing.
You may see the full article in the link provided.
Educating for Wholeness ... Three excerpts ....
What is the meaning of human existence? What are the truest and
highest purposes of human life? What makes for a decent and meaningful
and fulfilling culture? A civilization's answers to these fundamental
questions determine the forms and processes of education it provides
to its young people ...
When we consider the social and political pressures on our own schools
today, it is obvious that modern American culture defines what it
means to be human very differently. Our culture believes that people
are essentially competitive, acquisitive creatures; we seek personal
advantage and security wherever possible, and find pleasure primarily
by endlessly increasing our material wealth and comfort.
If we are to reclaim a deeper meaning of life, we must rethink
our entire system of schooling and redefine what we mean by "education."
Education for wholeness is not simply the training of the intellect
but the nourishing of the soul.
Ron Miller
http://www.great-ideas.org/gie13.htm
Home page ... http://www.great-ideas.org/index.htm
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Ron Miller - part 2 of 3
Following is a list of selected transcripts from the Spirituality
in Education Conference at The Naropa Institute held May 30th to
June 3rd, 1997. Steven Glazer, former Director of Continuing
Education and primary organizer of the Conference, has recently
left Naropa to work full-time on a book about the Conference. That
book was recently reviewed on our site.
The website listed below has transcripts of the following lectures
made at that conference. They are from ... His Holiness, the Dalai
Lama - "Education and the Human Heart," Parker J. Palmer
- "The Grace of Great Things: Reclaiming the Sacred in Knowing,
Teaching, & Learning," John Taylor Gatto - "Education
and the Western Spiritual Tradition," Ron Miller - "Holistic
Education for an Emerging Culture."
We offer you here theng words of Ron Miller’s talk
-
Holistic Education for an Emerging Culture
My goal today is to acquaint you more than you already may be
with the kinds of spiritually influenced education that have emerged
over the last couple of centuries and particularly the last couple
of decades.
My message is twofold. First, your work is difficult, there's no
question about that, because our culture, as it is now, is fundamentally
hostile to the meanings of spirituality that we have discussed here.
There's no way around that. But, on the other hand, we are entering
an historic period of transition from one dominant worldview to
another that is going to be radically different. All of us working
in this fledgling holistic education movement are pioneers on a
rough and uncharted frontier. There are no reliable techniques or
simple solutions to make our task easier. I'm not promising that.
We need many different tools, many different approaches in order
to make this transformation happen.
http://csf.colorado.edu/sine/trans.html
This talk can also be accessed by the following site
http://globalcircle.net/rmiller.htm
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Ron Miller - part 3 of 3
A magazine that turns towards holistic education ...
Ron Miller serves on the editorial board of the magazine "ENCOUNTER:
Education for Meaning and Social Justice." Jack Miller,
whose book “The Soul in Education” will be reviewed soon
on our website also serves on the board. As does Nel Noddings and
Riane Eisler - two persons we have turned to often. We offer below
meaningful excerpts from theng pages of the Magazine's website.
ENCOUNTER: Education for Meaning and Social Justice
This is a quote they have included under the name of their Journal
Surely there is more to education and life than the incessant
struggle to compete, surpass, and achieve for the sake of higher
income and status. Whatever happened to education for expanding
personal horizons, for the joy of learning, for strengthening democracy,
and for contributing to social justice?
-- David E. Purpel
An article in the most recent issue - Winter 2000 - I plan to read.
The Spiritual Child:
Appreciating Children's Transformative Effects on Adults by
James J. Dillon
Once we recognize -- and move beyond -- our preconceptions about
the nature of spirituality, weourselves to the possibility
of appreciating the true depth of spirituality among children.
http://www.great-ideas.org/enc.htm
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