An Educated Child

"A child miseducated is a child lost" John F. Kennedy. Sometimes people don't see the things that actually educate children. They think that education absolutely must take place in a classroom with row upon row of students with one teacher at the front of the class, dictating their assignments and lording control over the situation at all times.

I know that the basics of education (math, science and literature) are very important. Into that mix, however, is sometimes lost some essential aspects of learning. Art, Music, Physical education, and, yes, PLAY! The entire world is a classroom, and although I personally have learned a lot from books, I cannot say that my grade 10 algebra has served me well in my life. Nor has my grade 12 geotrig. My understanding of science is not vast, but has now and then come in useful. My love for reading only waned when I was in University and had to read one 500 page novel/day in an intersession class. I swore that when I got out of University I would only read the things that actually interested me. That is exactly what I have done. All in all, I must say that most of my valued education did not in any way come from a classroom setting.

I learned more from my hikes in the woods and my time raising animals on the farm than I ever did in a classroom. It is not that we did not cover things like math, science and literature in the setting of nature. We did. It was just in a far more interesting setting than the classroom could ever hope to be. I got to move around and explore while I learned. Nowadays kids are medicated if they can't sit still. I don't know a kid that can sit still for the length of time the current education system demands. I also learned about my body and how it works in the world around me. That was far more important to me than learning the rules and regulations of football. I also built personal confidence in my art and music education, most of which had nothing at all to do with my schooling.

In some ways, I think I was one of the first kids that experienced homeschooling, although I did attend school as well, boring as it was. I am also aware of the fine line between allowing a child to just be a child and allowing a child to decide that he or she is not interested in learning in general. A lot of parents, homeschooling parents or not, miss those indicators. They get so wrapped up in just day to day functioning that they miss that their child has just spent five days of his or her life and not fed the brain with activity that can stimulate growth and learning. My own children are home schooled and I think that this is an ideal environment for them to learn. I do not, however, think that it is a valid excuse to slack off when it comes to some essentials of learning. I am also quite aware that kids will learn different things at different rates. So I never compare one child to another when it comes to when each learned what. But I do want to be sure that the information is provided in a variety of ways until it sinks in...daily. That way eventually they notice that the pieces have fallen together and they have completed another piece of the puzzle of life.

This is the way to learn. Through opportunity and repetition of a theme, kids will come to their conclusions about how things work. We don't need a classroom setting to learn. We need an open invitation.

Blessed Be
Trent
http://www.youtube.com/trentdeerhorn
http://www.deerhornshamanic.com/

That Jazzy Jedi Thing

The learning is never completely done. There will always be something else to yet learn. So why do some of us freeze up and look like a deer caught in the headlights when it comes to learning something new? I think it is often because to learn something new is yet another form of change and change requires some transition time. When we allow the transition to flow, we learn more swiftly. When we resist it, we become rigid and lack what it takes to do the learning. Then all our insecurities come out.

Why do I have to do this? Why are they making me go through this? Don't they know my way is better? This is how this was always done for the last 20 or so years, so why change it all now?

The thing is, as I have said many a time before, change is inevitable. The growth part is optional. But there are some things, such as changes in or work place, that require us to grow and flow with it, or else we end up in search of a new job. Not that a new job is a bad thing, so long as it is by our own choice.

I am fortunate enough to both be self-employed and to require very little in terms of technology to do my job. So I don't have the stress of learning a new computer program after just mastering the first one. But there are some changes that require my learning curve to activate. For example, with my new circumstances I have had to find a new place out of which to work. Now that this change is in place, I now have to adjust my fee schedule so that I can cover expenses. This change then ripples to clients who have to adjust to affording a fee hike. And let's face it, I am still not paid entirely for what I am worth. I don't know who is, really. But all the change requires more "spare change" and some adjustment on the parts of everyone involved.

The undercurrent of stress involved in any change or transition can cause some grief. I highly recommend Walnut in the Bach Flower Remedies to help with such things. A few drops into your water glass can certainly take the edge off of the transition stress. It will also help you to sleep better at night, transitioning you from wake to sleep time, and then into dream time.

So the learning never stops. That is something that every Jedi warrior has to understand. This also keeps the Jedi warrior's ego out of the equation when it comes to having to learn something on the spot. Without all the "I can'ts" and "I don't know hows" in the way, the learning comes easy schmeezy!

Blessed Be

Trent
www.deerhornshamanic.com

Seekers

“Do not search for truth, just do not have any prejudices.” Master Taisen Deshimaru.

So often I encounter people who claim to be spiritual seekers, and some of them are truly embarking on a journey of self-discovery. There are also some (too many) who only equate seeking with reading books. These ones, I have learned, think that they know everything there is to know about spiritual connection but have never actually put it into practice. I almost want to use the term “book learned blockheads”, but I know that this is not entirely their fault. They have been raised in a culture where knowledge is equated with wisdom, and knowledge is supposed to be academically based. They are a product of their environment. So I write this not to bash them in any way, but to compassionately educate them in print, so that they may also come to understand a few things.

First off, knowledge is not wisdom. Knowledge is the gathering of information. Wisdom is the appropriate practical usage thereof. Just because we know how to split an atom does not mean that we must create an atomic bomb. This is wisdom.

Secondly, if we have knowledge and do not put in into practical use, that knowledge is lost and can never be applied to experience in life, therefore does not develop into wisdom at all. We can read all there is about how to build a sweat lodge, but until we do the task and then experience the sweat ceremony, we have no wisdom from the experience. We only are left with a technical manual for how to build a sweat lodge. This alone leaves us empty.

Thirdly, when we seek we must do so in a passive and receptive way. We can’t take something we have gleaned knowledge on and then lord it over all other information we gather, using it as a tool through which to determine what is “correct” and what is “wrong”. There are many ways and many paths up the same sacred mountain. To think that ours is the only way is to hold prejudice against others’ ways. Yet their way may be exactly what works for them to get them up that same mountain. Who are we to judge? All we can really do is allow the process to be what it is for us, and to be what it is for them. The truth of the matter is that there is a sacred mountain and, being a mountain, it has many paths. If it were only one-sided it would not be a mountain; it would be an illusion; nothing more than a cardboard cut out. So when we allow ourselves to be open and receptive, we make vast discoveries on a spiritual level and on all others levels as well. We don’t have to search for truth; we simply need to be open to it unfolding from within our consciousness. It cannot do that if we are going to laugh in its face as being something silly just because it is different from what we have discovered to date.

Perhaps a better term than “seeker” might be “explorer”. That way we would have not such a predatory aspect to the gathering of information, and would instead have a receptive spirit of discovery. When we allow ourselves to explore, we allow ourselves to be open to a vast universe of possibilities.

Blessed Be

Trent Deerhorn