Yesterday, I quoted Freedom to Learn, written by Carl Rogers and Jerome Freiberg. Rogers was probably the most influential psychologist of the last century, and Freiberg is an imminent, world class educator. Point: Better pay attention to their ideas if you come across them, and furthermore, you better have meticulous reasoning and research over the course of whole decades to refute them. Let me take it one controversial step further: if you are an educator at any level and ignore their concepts, you should reconsider your profession.
When Rogers says that “if schools remain as they are, the next generation of adults will need extensive assistance in finding meaning in their lives” (Rogers & Freiberg 291), I immediately know that an integral relationship exists between education and coming to know and live core Self — “finding meaning in their lives.” This clearly implies, and is stated so in the book, that school should have this idea of valuing self and the world as a primary goal, because, as the title of the book indicates, learning — true learning — does not occur without the freedom to know, be, and express self. The authors focus on the “person-centered” model of not only education but also work and life dealings in general. As I wrote, an interrelatedness exists between all fields of life, and I likened this to the physics concept of a universal field theory in that each field of human experience affects the others; they are not independent. And the key to making it all work in a positive flow, the master formula in the analogy, is we must come to know our deepest core Self through hearing our hearts and then express that Self in relationship to the rest of this life and Universe — IF we wish to be and do the most basic of human desires: be happy. The difference between a person-centered model of freedom in an organization of any kind, including life, and a hierarchical model is contrasted throughout Freedom to Learn. They are the contrast between heart and ego drives, viewpoints, filters, and motivations. Rogers and Freiberg relate the education model to the corporate world, which I also do in my novel The Fellowship of the Heart, and Rogers discusses the essence of the conflict between bureaucracies (school or corporate leadership) and the freedom of individuals in a case study from the manufacturing and corporate business world. Over the course of nine years, a consultant who held to heart-driven relationships, beliefs — or as Rogers calls it, “person-centered” — designed an industrial workplace using this philosophy — incredibly, wildly successful with one identical item in the three person-centered plants costing twenty-two cents to produce compared to seventy cents in the three control plants. There was a “mutual regard” (a form of love) and “trust” that made these major impacts — just as I wrote about in reference to schools a few days ago. Even though the successes were noted and rewarded and publicized, the corporate bosses (leadership, oligarchy, whatever) would not shift any more of their plants to this philosophy. Mind you, philosophy, the motivating force and belief, drove actions and change. Why wouldn’t upper management change? The bosses “realize[d] how much of their power they would have to give away…they [were] not willing to give up that power” (372). This illustrates the principle of ego over heart. Hoarding power = informal conspiracy = the drive of ego, even at the expense of the fulfillment of employees (or students) and profit (learning). The book goes on to state that “Administrators of educational institutions may place a higher value of power over people than on the enhancement of learning” (372). That ripples down to building administration to teachers to students and their relationships with one another, requiring “even greater control to sustain power from the top… and the need for control is so great that some schools become prison-like while others stifle all forms of creativity” (372). I have already made this too much like an academic essay; however, I value the confirmation of my philosophy from the force of men like these. Nothing is more crucial, basic, and necessary for humans than to hear their hearts, choose core Self over ego, and live that self for personal fulfillment. Nothing. And education and schools should be leading the way in such an approach. The existing system has no unifying field; the heart unifies it all. Freedom is the antithesis of what currently exists: “We must trust our feelings and risk…and give…all the freedom to learn” (375). Yes, education must be redefined to work for the good of humankind. In the meantime, restart learning: hear your heart and learn what it means to live with purpose.
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I like the analogy of the concept of comparing ego and heart to the unified field theory of physics. I know little about physics, but I do know enough to see one similarity.
Choosing heart as a filter and motivating force operates in and on many fields of human experience. Ego, the default filter, tends to respond to specific and discrete situations that arise, and it attempts to isolate the person. When operating and acting from the heart, we come to understand that we have a core Self identity, and as we relate to the rest of the Universe, the heart principle establishes dynamics that are interrelated and interdependent — no isolation or isolated phenomena, rather an interplay of energies. When we experience loneliness, frustration, disorientation, and any of a whole host of other negative experiences, we have a choice: continue in ego, which will isolate and intensify the negativity, or choose the heart, which will guide into positive creations, solutions, resolutions, and growth. When the ego operates on the major fields of life, we see little unity; life seems to be boxed up in neat and tidy units because that can protect us and allow us to continue to function discretely in other areas of life when one box is damaged. However, if no resolution occurs or the negativity increases, we suffer from mental, emotional, and societal problems rarely understanding that the root, the base problem is not knowing Self. When the heart is known and we awaken to Self, we can trace major world problems directly to people denying Self. When we function as core Self, we see the dynamic relationship of fields of life, fields of human experience: physical self and all bodily needs to human relationships in all forms to spirituality/religious beliefs to psychology to education to society/social issues to government/governance. Let’s think about education. Reform has been talked about and instituted constantly because education just doesn’t seem to be working. Reform has been ego-driven; problems are isolated, and specific fixes are applied and different trends and vogues are adopted that may help a little bit in one area but problems crop up elsewhere. However, in order for any ego-driven system to work, it must be protected to keep working, so those who get to make the decisions end up showing their ego colors. How do I recognize this? I see ego in the dictatorial forms and expressions that define prevailing practices today: rigor — “we set the standards;” accountability — “we measure those standards;” compliance — “Do what we say or else.” Curriculum is designed, methods and techniques are used, and tests are given. It is all neatly boxed and different segments of education are worked on and touted as solutions — all isolated and failed attempts. What would be a unifying force that redefines education and fixes the philosophy? Educate with the primary purpose of young people coming to follow their hearts, awaken to Self, and find purpose in expressing Self. That’s crazy, right?! Nope, not. When humans do that, they are curious; therefore, they learn; therefore, they grow, think, create, contribute, and therefore, they are fulfilled and tolerant of others living Self; therefore, society and social issues are dealt with humanely and positively; therefore government is affected. Interrelated, connected, interdependent fields affected in ripples based on an approach of education that is structured on children coming to know Self. A number of educators actually believe this, but they are subject to the ego-driven, dictatorial system, so their voices are not heard very often. Carl Rogers and Jerome Freiberg write of their work in educating founded on the deepest self. I worked to educate this way, but they were a lot brighter than me and they set it down very clearly in Freedom to Learn. The freedom they address is the freedom to be Self that then designs education, but that is linked to the rest of one’s life. Much of meaning for the individual depends on the value we assign to life experiences, including school. Rogers discusses this process of valuing from our core Self rather than the conforming ego. “The tentative conclusion is that even though modern humans no longer trust religion or science or philosophy or any system of beliefs to give them their values, they can find an organismic valuing base deep within themselves, which, if they can learn to be in touch with it, will prove to be an organized, adaptive, and social approach to the perplexing value issues that face all of us” (291). I see the reference to the Heart — “deep within themselves…learn to be in touch with it” — that is the filter through which to view and assign value to life, and it extends to all of life. And Freedom to Learn applies this directly to education. I will leave with this thought about the current inadequacy of schools in this freedom to know, be, and value from core Self: “But if schools remain as they are, the next generation of adults will need extensive assistance in finding meaning in their lives. The world is changing at such a rapid rate that the fifteen thousand hours most children spend in school need to be reshaped if young adults are to flourish in a complex and interdependent world” (291). Flourishing does not come through conformity and standardization achieved through ego-driven means; it will only come through drawing out the heart, an action that impacts all other fields of life. Last night a former student reminded me of why I have continued to write and express my core Self — just as I did when I taught. He wrote to let me know how my Morning Pages have helped him through a really rough patch in his life. Mind you, he graduated like twelve or thirteen years ago.
I had helped him, but he helped me, too. His message came at a time when I really needed some encouragement. I was thinking about how I always told my students that I got as much from them as they did from me and how we would be learners together. Bam! My mind, working through the filter of my heart flashed back to a book that I had not thought about for a very long time. I heard the voice: Go get it. Up to my office library I flew, and there it was: Freedom to Learn by Carl Rogers and Jerome Freiberg. I had used the book in a teacher study group that I led many years ago, as well as it being a chosen text for my masters degree. I started leafing through it and reading the various highlights and margin notes that I had made. It was so awesome: I realized that I had lived the professional life that I so admired through my years of teaching, growing in the concepts throughout my career. And what were those concepts that were so important to me and that the book espoused? In a way, my philosophy of life is my philosophy of education. I believe that we have to make conscious choices to live through the very logical, no bullshit messages and viewpoints of the heart. If we don’t choose the heart, the ego is the default setting. I’ve said it before: the current philosophy of the prevailing educational system is ego-driven, and that is NOT how learning occurs. Ego says to do what makes us fit in and makes us look good, so for those who vomit on about data-driven schools and know that in order to obtain valid data, knowledge delivery and measurement (testing) has to be standardized, they — as far as I’m concerned — knowingly kill their espoused “life-long learning” rhetoric and produce test-taking, knowledge-numb drones. Learning is a heart proposition, meaning that learners have to have the opportunity to come to awaken to Self and Self-interests, which in education means that students should develop the bulk of the learning experience. It is a personal, organic development, and the whole person is involved; if not, it is shallow and relatively insignificant learning. This is why I argue that education as a philosophy and concept must be REDEFINED and NOT REFORMED. Repackaging egoic approaches does not make a difference. What does make a difference is love and trust. How could I so powerfully relate to over 2,500 students in a stupid, narrow-minded, restrictive, creativity-crushing environment? I think that my students knew that I loved and trusted them at some deep, unspoken level, and they responded in kind — a mutual calling forth of love and trust. This attitude and reality comes from the heart. Love and trust are logical for learning; for students to be self-actualized learners, they must awaken to Self and function as learners in relationship to self. Oh, I can hear many educators now: “Love and trust? How can those be goals of a teacher?” How can they not be if we understand life, learning, and the future of our race. To me, it is like a unified field theory in physics: choosing heart over ego unites many fields of everyday life, maybe all. If you are an educator and do not know Freedom to Learn, you should — before any crap about learning communities, learning by some intricate matrix design of curriculum, or any of a thousand other canned programs. As with any meaningful concept, it is not some neatly packaged unit — kind of like a republican democracy. I could and undoubtedly will yet center some posts around this work, but I would like to focus on this idea of love and trust. In the book, the “love and trust” comes from the record of Alvin White, who served as a visiting professor one spring to MIT. In a very complex course, Calculus of Variations, he taught as I strove to, only he had much more freedom than I did. From one of his student’s evaluations, he observed this about love and trust: “The concept came from the process of our exploration…Love and trust contributed to the spirit of celebration and were essential ingredients in the process of obtaining knowledge. …Love and trust seem far removed from mathematical logic…Yet if we are engaged in learning and teaching, then all of the disciplines share the process involved in intellectual imagination and creation. Love and trust were natural parts of our learning in the group process. …teaching and learning without love and trust are unnatural” (133). Get that? Love and trust are essential for creation, no significant, deep learning without them, no joy in learning without them, almost no personal responsibility without them. Teachers who say a student fails are really saying that they failed, failed to establish a classroom and relationship that allows learning and creativity to occur — which, by the way, shows the irrelevancy of grades. Rogers says, “We are not talking about a method or a technique. A person-centered way of being in an educational situation is something into which one grows…a set of values…that places choice, the significance of responsibility, the joy of creativity…built on a foundation of the democratic way, that empowers each individual” (Rogers and Freiberg 123 3rd edition). To me, the road to free hearts, souls, and minds that create significance, peace, and love begin with coming to know Self. Education should be an essential element in that growth, and that’s where educational philosophy should begin. This morning I was feeling overwhelmed. Why? I started making a list: work on novel revision — finish by tomorrow; reschedule some meetings; go to store; drop off packages at UPS; do some cleaning. Wait, I never finished painting that little piece of wall. I should get some trimmer string and trim the lawn this time. I really need a new lawn mower. Oh, I still haven’t taken care of that insurance call. Do I need to arrange for a dog and house sitter? I forgot I have that conference call this afternoon at 1:00, and I haven’t spent the time on my special project this month. If I don’t get these things done, she will be mad, he will be disappointed, he might not help me, … Get it? All these things are very real things that are my responsibility and weighed on me this morning. What part of me? Who did I fear would be upset with me? Yeah, you get it: I had not stopped and asked my heart anything. I began to recognize the feeling of being overwhelmed — the anxiety, inability to make decisions (prioritize), no focus, the flood of even more things that I should be doing. Do I want to get these things done? Yes, but when it is because of the way I will look to others or feel if they don’t approve, then I must be aware that the life filter which I am choosing to use is ego. The result? Overwhelmed. Make a better choice, Mike. Okay, Heart, what do I need to do? Write first; that is your job. Then, what will make you feel better? I don’t know. Bullshit. Breathe. Just stop right now for ten minutes — guided meditation. Then, listen. I did, and after that, I did those things that help with the anxiety, things for me. I know that in such times, after I get in touch with self, physical work that accomplishes something and finishes a job, helps immensely — like mowing the lawn. That feeling of being overwhelmed just melts away when I can process that I am able to finish stuff — just one thing at a time. Then, I can look at any list I might have made and just pick something, being sensitive to what I want to do, and do it. I do not try to prioritize anything when I’m feeling like this — unless that action just strikes me right — because I know I don’t make good decisions when I’m overwhelmed. I just try to do everything and nothing gets done. Friedrich Nietzsche said, “The individual has always had to struggle to keep from being overwhelmed by the tribe. If you try it, you will be lonely often, and sometimes frightened. But no price is too high to pay for the privilege of owning yourself.” Ego says, “Oh, my god, we’ve got to get all this stuff done! How will we do it?! What will they think if we don’t finish?! They will be so unhappy, angry, …!” Worry, hurry for everyone else so I can feel good in reference to the tribe. If we don’t make a conscious choice, Ego is always the default setting. Make a better choice of the Heart: “Who are you? How will you express that in the one thing most important to You? Breathe, be aware, choose one more thing and act, if you want to.” Yes, I choose to own and express core Self, at least I did today. And you, what do you do when you feel overwhelmed? Make a choice: ego or heart. Self-awarenessPositive ThinkingChoices I had a great birthday weekend, thanks to Kathy! Baseball game at Busch Stadium — Cardinals come from behind win over the Giants. Amusing, excellent, comical performance of Shakespeare’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream at Forest Park in St. Louis — outdoors on a night that was dreamy in and of itself, 75º and no mosquitos! In both places, I watched people enjoying themselves, enjoying others, enjoying life. It made me think.
How many would be going back to a job or life that puts them in dissonance with the self that I was privileged to witness in their eyes and faces as they enjoyed themselves? If they are living in dissonance, what are they doing to help themselves feel the joy they were experiencing over the weekend? How many ask what their purpose is in life? What questions do they ask themselves? Or have they even given up asking questions to help themselves discover joy in their daily lives? Thinking about questions, as an educator, I often heard and sometimes said to reticent students that there is no such thing as a dumb question. I believe that, but only if I refine the statement: there are no dumb questions, but there are wrong questions, questions that don’t target what the student really wants to know. For example, sometimes I would have the majority of a class really engaged when one lone hand would shoot up: “What time is this class over?” No, wrong question, a deeper something was going on. Re-direct by me: “You’re bored, don’t understand, or don’t see the purpose. What would be a better question? Maybe, ‘Why do we have to know this? What are you talking about?’” That always took the steam out of potential disrupters, because they really did have deeper issues. When things aren’t what we envision in our lives, what questions do we ask? If you can’t ask the right questions, you’ll never get the right answers. When folks are bored with life, despairing, depressed, or frustrated and ask Why me, it’s the wrong question. At such times when we ask why others who aren’t as talented get noticed, make more money, or get the promotion, we are asking the wrong questions. We need a re-direct: What is my purpose? What else can I do? “But the money, the security, the reputation!” Ego will talk to you all day about those things. Trust your heart. Ask the questions and listen to your heart. Have faith. Answers will come but only if you really want them, only if you ask the right questions, questions that the heart can answer. |
Questions to consider:How many times have you asked yourself or simply thought about the following questions?
Who am I, really? What is my truth? How do my actions reveal what I really feel and believe? What would I do with my life if I could do anything? What is my passion? Why am I here? How can I discover answers to any of these questions? If you have considered any of these questions, I hope that my experiences and writing will give you some guidance. Please read my blog and comment and share your thoughts. I would love to hear from you! Archives
December 2019
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