When I was a kid, about twelve years old, I went to a YMCA special weekend called Inward Bound (the link isn’t to the same program, but this one is close, and looks great!). It was for kids all over the state and we learned about ourselves, about how we’re all different, and got some great communication tools. One I remember distinctly was called “The Haircut” and it was an entrée into sharing critical feedback with someone else. For example, if I wanted to tell Bruce that what he said about me to Julie hurt my feelings, I’d approach Bruce and say “I’d like to give you a haircut.” Because he’d been trained just like I had, he knew then that his job was to simply listen with an open heart before responding.
It was great practice for how to talk with people about difficult things, and it’s a lesson that’s served me well ever since (36 years). In part I think the experience stands out so strongly because it was so unique.
Today, enter a new book for educators: Educating from the Heart: Theoretical and Practical Approaches to Transforming Education, edited by Aostre N. Johnson &Marilyn Webb Neabley. Would that all my teachers had this book, not only when I was young, but in every class I’ve ever attended!
Educating from the Heart “supports the belief that heart and spirit are intertwined with mind and intellect, and that inner peace, wisdom, compassion, and conscience can be developed together with academic content and skill.”
According to the publisher, the book is “based on the questions: ‘What does it mean to educate from the heart? What does it mean to educate with spirit?’ It offers both theoretical overviews and practical approaches for educators, academics, education students and parents who are interested in transforming schools. Well-respected voices in the field of education provide a framework that includes recent findings from the world of neuroscience, as well as fresh perspectives about traditional wisdom. Practicing educators describe methods directly applicable in classrooms. In addition, many chapters emphasize the importance of educators attending to their own inner lives. The book encourages reinvigorating approaches to learning and teaching that can easily be integrated into both public and private K-12 school classrooms, with many ideas also applicable to higher education. It supports an educational system based on the beliefs that heart and spirit are intertwined with mind and intellect, and that inner peace, wisdom, compassion, and conscience can be developed together with academic content and skills.”
Sounds pretty great, doesn’t it?
And what’s even better is that our own Peter Perkins, GLP co-owner and partner, wrote a chapter in this book entitled Paying Attention to the Whole Self, in which he shares, among other things, his first encounter with a holistic wellness experience “in the mountains of Old Snowmass.” He tells us that what he learned about himself and everyone else during this encounter “planted a persistent question” in his mind. “The persistent question,” he writes, “looks mostly like this:
If holistic wellness is about caring for the whole person, and if as human beings we are of many dimensions which help us to survive, to be healthy, and potentially to thrive, then what are these essential dimensions,and shouldn’t everyone – parents and friends of youth, as well as professional teachers, counselors, and service providers – know how to tap into them?”
I’d answer that with a resounding YES, as does everyone else who’s contributed to this welcome book.
You’ll have to check it out to learn more! For more on this subject, take a look at Talk About Wellness.
What have you done in your work that stresses the heart and spirit? Do share!
This book sounds like a great opportunity to better understand why and how we educate the future leaders of today. As an educator,many students verbalize that they enjoy learning from an educator that has a professional relationship. I personally recall my favorite educator was an nursing instructor who gave me supportive instruction with a caring approach. She was sincere in her teaching and truly wanted me to be a lifelong learner,and because of her gentle teaching methods. I am just that,a person who loves “learning for life.”
That book is really intriguing based on the title and the comments here. I think I’ll grab one too.
Valerie,
I too have purchase the book. I am taking this one and one of Jane Vella’s on vacation with me in two weeks. I have been working hard to stay ahead in class so I can educate myself on some new teaching tactics. Welcome. I think you will enjoy this site.
Kathy
@Valerie –let us know what you think of the book when you have a chance. Enjoy!
Joan,
Thank you for the book reference. I have purchased the book this evening,and I am looking forward to reading it.
Katherine and Kristine,
Thank you both for this website refernce.
Kristine,
Hi there. I love this site. I too am going to purchase this book. I think I will be reading forever. A couple of them I am going to take with on vacation in a couple of weeks.
Kathy
I just purchased this text and look forward to integrating the concepts into my work.
Joan,
Excellent suggestion. I have not done much of that and really need to work hard on doing more of this.
Thanks
Kathy
@Kathy,good to hear your story about sharing your experience from your heart. I’m sure your experience is very valuable to your students. Also,a Dialogue Education approach would allow students to share their own stories,too,with you and with each other so that the material is relevant to them and respect’s their experience. Even having them discuss the case studies from your experience gives them a chance to apply their own knowlege,skills and attitudes to what they’ve heard from you. This way everyone’s heart is involved.
Hum,Another book I am going to have to buy. I have added Jane Vella’s two books to my recent collection. I think there is a lot to be said by this book. Teaching in many ways is like my second career which is nursing. Teaching must come from the heart. Many times I enter the classroom without a real plan. The book describes “reinvigorating approaches to learning and teaching”I really feel that spontaneity is important. Rather that reading from the book and performing some typical lecture,teach from your heart,what it is that your have seen and know. Since I teach surgical technology students and I have worked in the operating room for 28 years,I have many stories to teach my students that I feel are equally if not more important than information they can learn from the book.
Thanks for allowing me to share.
Kathy
@Sibyl,that’s so interesting,and I’ll bet that others have had that experience,too. Something about your Mother’s voice effected you so deeply that it lives in you even after all these years! I’d say that’s your spirit talking.
And @Jane,I agree with ou about Peter being the “gentle strongman of dialogue education”–what a lovely way to put it.
I don’t know if this is what you are looking for,Joan,but…I have only started writing in the past seven years. I was stunned,having grown up in Pennsylvania,to find any written dialogue from my youth has my Mother’s North Carolina accent and dialect. Whenever I even talk about her- as an adult-,that accent still is there in me and emerges. It’s weird.
WHAT A great insight,Joan. How proud I am of Peter Perkins,who is to me the gentle strongman of dialogue
education. That chapter of his is honest and clear. I urge all who come to this blog to find that book and be heartened by reading it!
Jane Vella