Talking Hands Talking Feet Blog

A Day Outside

P.A. Zeir — Mon, 29 Jun 2009 17:27:12 +0000

It is summertime in the northern hemisphere!

We enter now the ease and expansion of the summer months. What better time to reconnect with the beauty and bounty of the earth; to go adventuring and exploring; to romp and play; to smell, touch, taste, hear and see a bit of the wild side of living; to remember and reconnect to what it is like to be a child!

Our short time on earth is too precious not to experience the great university of life that exists right outside our windows, right outside our doors! To reflect and be reflected back to oneself by the intimacy and immensity of the universe we are part of.

It is never ever too late to re-educate; to begin again! What better way to inspire these young lives in our care than to be lit up and inspired with life ourselves!

Give yourself a day outside!

To listen to a lovely rendering of this sentiment in song, listen to A Day Outside #18 on Heartbeat of the Future

Fostering Genius

P.A. Zeir — Tue, 16 Jun 2009 16:07:16 +0000

Every single human being, every one of six and a half billion people living now on Earth, each one who has been and each one yet to be - every single one is a unique, first time, original opportunity and genius potentiality!

No matter how we think of our human origins, there is no denying that each life is a unique and precious gift.

If we all saw it this way, then perhaps that unique potentiality each life represents would have a little better chance from the get go. If we all valued human life as such, would we be so quick to react with hostility towards others, who happen not to share our same references or point of view?

How do we foster that unique genius potentiality in ourselves and others?

Start by not allowing it to be crushed from the get go!

How do we resist the mighty tides of human history and break free from its dominant influences?

Be based in something different!

As educators we have the task and privilege of creating a vital learning circumstance for children. The fact that the ecology most teachers work in is designed to accommodate many children en masse does not deny the need to address each child’s unique potentiality and approach to learning.

So then, how do we foster that uniqueness within a classroom scenario?

If you value it, you will nourish it! Yes! If you cherish something, you will help it grow. Give your attention 100% to each child, even if in small moments. It is in these small magnified moments that great things happen, seeds are planted, gems are discovered, pathways are opened!

It begins with value!

Facing Future

P.A. Zeir — Mon, 08 Jun 2009 18:50:00 +0000

Facing Future

Now, as many teachers end their school years, casting up the successes, sending their students on to new adventures, tidying up the class room, completing the admin… having given of yourself for nearly nine months with regularity and dedication… it is now time for something completely different.

It is now time to give something back to you!

What other profession offers a 2-3 month sabbatical every year? Whatever summertime happens to be for you, it can be an opportunity to update and refresh your own life and lifeline of purpose!

- 1 -

We are teachers, parents, mentors, counselors and coaches of children who happen to represent a unique time in human history. It actually requires for us to have a mindset that corresponds with the deeper needs of the children in our care according to the times humankind has entered.

- 2 -

The children in our care inherit a world very different to the world our parents and grandparents inherited. Not since the radical shift occurring as a result of the Industrial and subsequent ‘revolutions’, has any human generation been faced with such deep and fundamental changes as we are facing now.

- 3 -

The young people of our time were ‘born’ to this time. They are acclimated, assimilated, integrated with it. What then do they need from their teachers, parents, mentors…?

- 4 -

On one hand ‘generation next’ inherits a human world model that is entirely unsustainable and obsolete. On the other hand however, never has the world been so ‘small’! Never have we had the great encyclopedia of human experience and knowledge available to us instantly and immediately. Never have we been so close to the threshold of a unifying understanding of humanity - that there is so much more that is the same about us all, than is different.

- 5 -

Educators of whatever walk of life and inkling carry a unique responsibility in our time. We can be a bridge for these children - a bridge between two eras in the unfolding human story.

- 6 -

There is what to carry forward and what to leave behind? Not who, but what!

- 7 -

Being onset with the children of our time, facing the same direction, facing future with the humble knowing that we are all in this together - is a choice for each one of us. The young need the stability and values of the elders of the tribe as the elders need the naturalization of the young. It is a mutual need.

Whatever is your walk of life; whatever your personal beliefs are about human life and purpose here; we are educators of a very unique generation. Give your self the gift of being current with yourself, our times and the children of our time. You will find yourself teaching with new eyes, new vigor and enthusiasm when the next school year comes rolling in.

Why not give it a try?!

Begin as Beginners

P.A. Zeir — Sun, 31 May 2009 20:52:52 +0000

Here we are, human beings, one of two genders, genetically loaded, born somewhere on Earth into one of the kaleidoscopic expressions of human culture… its language, history, collective psyche, art… and before we know it, we’ve been pre-conditioned by all these influences - including of course, one of the most dominant influences of all - our families.

This is just the way it is. But the most wonderful thing of all is - we, that is you, the you of you, are not any of these things! What we are, what you are - at core, is something else, something wonderful, something to discover!

As a child I remember thinking - all these grown-ups must know what they are doing, what they are here for. They certainly act like they know! They don’t seem to think twice about what they’re doing. I don’t hear them questioning it, or doubting it. So they must really know what they are doing!

So began the journey of childhood contradictions.

Think about the children in your care a moment. Perhaps they feel the same way!

Children want to know what the case is. They actually want to know why we are here. They want to know what to do. They need to engage in the journey of life in a meaningful and purposeful way. Just like me and you! And…just as we did, they look to the grown-ups for leadership, for answers.

It is such a disservice to young human lives to feed them pre-digested, assumed knowledge. They need live knowledge, living connected process and engagement.

So what is the most fundamental attitude to have as an educator to be able to provide real live connected relevant education?

BEGIN AS BEGINNERS!

There are no experts here. Welcome to the adventure of a lifetime! The most valuable commodity is our humility in the face of the immensity and mystery of life and Creation. History is littered with the arrogant conclusions of experts gone awry. Begin, oh teachers of humankind, always at the beginning! In the awesome wonder and workings of life and the universe that is our home.

Why would we give anything less?

For a related song check out #21 Seed to Star on Rainbow Train and the lyrics

The Wonder of Wonder

P.A. Zeir — Tue, 26 May 2009 16:44:04 +0000

“How can I help my kids ‘switch on’ to learning?”

“How does one promote creative, enthusiastic, inquisitive learners in a public school setting?”

“Most of us see our students for one school year and that’s it, they move on. How can we expect to make a lasting difference in their lives within such an artificial and institutional learning environment?”

These are great questions, the short answer to which is - by contagion!

It is true. If you want to produce ‘switched on’, enthusiastic, naturally inquisitive learners for life, be one! Yes. Be one…right along side the children in your care, not on top of them, not in front of them, not facing them, but right along side them… be the kind of student you are hoping to inspire them to be!

“Wisdom begins in wonder!” said our wise old friend Socrates.

Wonder itself is a magic key to learning… Why?

Let’s wonder about wonder a moment…

Wonder is a bright something more than curiosity or inquisitiveness, although it contains those qualities, but with something more.

Wonder is not cold inquiry. It is not calculating. Wonder somehow contains a warmth and humanity that magically opens doors.

Wonder is not fantasy. It is as real and valid as our very next heartbeat! It involves the mind but in partnership with the finer emotions and feeling life.

It is irresistible, this very human property and faculty we call wonder. The more we use it, the more it grows.

Make it part of your daily bread… to wonder…out loud… facing the same direction as the young wonders in your care.

To hear wonder-inspired songs for children go to Do Re Mi Dragon - “All Things of Wonder”…Also on Heartbeat of the Future is “I Wonder What the Sun Knows” at http://talkinghandstalkingfeet.com/music.html

Fostering Humanity

P.A. Zeir — Sun, 17 May 2009 21:47:46 +0000

There is a quality, a presence, an attitude; it engenders a kind of magnified understanding and sensitivity; it is a rare quality in our world by and large and yet it speaks to the heart of nearly every human being; it has inspired great acts and great art throughout history; it is the mother of kindness itself; we call it simply - humanity.

Now, if your charge as an educator was to encourage and foster one single quality in the young, what would it be?

The word humanity seems to hold so many of the qualities we attribute to our essential humanness. In its presence, the presence of true humanity, certain things simply do not, cannot thrive such as cruelty, hatred and bigotry. And yet one of the actions of the quality of humanity is to offer remedy and a path of forgiveness to such things.

It is a compassion, consideration and care which offers a means to rise up out of self-centered apathy and narrow mindedness.

It is gratitude and generosity, a being truly thankful for the gifts and challenges of this life with a strident will to pay back and give tribute in return to all that supports one’s existence. The spirit of generosity is remedial upon so many things that seem intent on bringing the human race down. Gratitude and generosity are a natural out-pouring in response to the gift of life. Arrogant greed and self entitlement are clearly antithetical to the nature of humanity. And yet it is the very essence of humanity to appeal to the ‘better angels of our nature’ rather than to punish and therefore reinforce unjust, inhuman, ignorant or misguided behavior.

There is a magnanimity and unstoppable spirit of service in the quality of humanity. It is the unbiased and unconditional wish to see the human experiment succeed! It is a transparent fierce benevolence that defies deception and hypocrisy.

How do we engender this quality of humanity in the young? It begins, of course, in us, in what we do with ourselves, with each other! How do you recognize it? Humor and Humility are brother and sister to it. HUM!!!

To bring the light of humanity into what you teach is a service to humanity itself. What could be more important? After all, it is not what we see, but the light by which we see - that determines the quality of a life.

“One way or another, we all have to find what best fosters the flowering of our humanity in this contemporary life, and dedicate ourselves to that.” -Joseph Campbell

“An individual has not started living until he can rise above the narrow confines of his individualistic concerns to the broader concerns of all humanity.” -Martin Luther King

Defying the Big Box

P.A. Zeir — Mon, 04 May 2009 03:11:11 +0000

Way, way back in the Summer of 1979, I was adventuring through Anchorage, Alaska after living for many moons in a tiny Athabaskan village 40 miles south of the Arctic Circle. It was early in the morning and the city was just waking up. I was trying to catch a ride to the Kenai Peninsula. The weird thing was that from the street corner where I had my thumb out, all I could see in any direction were the familiar trappings of “Any-City U.S.A.”. There were street lights and billboard signs, gas stations, a 7-11, a strip mall, and store fronts as far as the eye could see.

It was bizarre! Ten miles away in any direction was the Alaskan wilderness, with Grizzlies, Caribou, Moose, mountains, roaring rivers, huge forests, giant ferns, salmon berry bushes… and here I was on a street corner devoid of any local character or distinction. The commercial culture of the USA had spread like an epidemic. That was in 1979!

Nowadays we could be in St. Louis, Denver, Seattle, Charleston, Miami or New Jersey and feel right at home surrounded by the comforting familiarity of the Big Box culture. It is everywhere the same.

Now… this article is not a critique of the economic model and mentality the drives the Big Box phenomenon. That is another story. This article is about making a space for difference, variety, uniqueness and distinction in defiance to the mono-cultural stamp.

It is simple really. Wherever you live and teach, find examples of what makes that place unique. Here’s a 3-step workshop to get the wheels turning:

First, look to the natural worlds - the land, the climate, the animal life, the trees and plants - native and imported. What are the names people have given these things? Just observe and take note. Don’t define anything yet.

Second, look to the human expression and translation that seems uniquely typical of that place. What celebrations, dances, music, colors, theater, architecture, names originate or simply thrive there?

How does the land affect the way people speak there? What is the local accent?

Again, just take note of as much of this as you can. Better yet, workshop this with your friends, students and family!

Step Three. Having collected many examples, how would you describe the nature and character of the place where you live? What does it cause in the people who live there - native and imported? Put it to words, to poetry and verse. Put it to music or movement. Paint it, draw it. Find expression for it. You may be surprised at what happens!

For example, we live in Northern New Mexico, which is called the Land of Enchantment, is a combination of high desert, river and alpine ecologies, has a ancient red sun symbol on a yellow field for the state flag; is home to a dynamic mix of cultural origins, a thriving arts community, unique cuisine and a huge variety of ceremonial and celebratory holy days…

So we put it to song and dance - called The Seasons of New Mexico which has now been performed and celebrated in many of the Santa Fe public elementary schools.

What expression do you want to give the place you live that defies the Big Box mono-cultural, mono-chromatic monotony?

It is a way of giving back, paying tribute to that part of the Earth which supports you and your community. You may be pleasantly surprised at the response you get in return.

To listen to the song Seasons of New Mexico go to… http://cdbaby.com/cd/thtf4

Teaching Sustainability - Part Three

P.A. Zeir — Mon, 27 Apr 2009 03:20:13 +0000

In 1987 the United Nations World Commission on Environment and Development defined SUSTAINABILITY as “development that meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs”.

If only our grandparents and great grandparents had operated with this definition in their hearts and minds!

We live in a very different time now.

In respect to the U.N. definition of sustainability from 22 years ago, we have to qualify what is meant by needs of the present. If you were to ask people from various regions of the globe what they saw as their present needs, you would get a huge array of responses. There is still a great disparity between “developed”, “developing” and “underdeveloped” countries. World trade, for example continues to operate within a totally unsustainable and unethical framework.

In 2000, the annual report of the Forum for the Future defined sustainable development this way:

“Sustainable development is a dynamic process which enables all people to realize their potential, and to improve their quality of life, in ways which simultaneously protect and enhance the Earth’s life support systems.”

It is the responsibility of our generation to live this definition!

We can excuse our predecessors on the basis of ignorance, but we now know better!

“The voyage of discovery lies not in finding new landscapes, but in having new eyes.” Marcel Proust

“Problems cannot be solved at the same level of awareness that created them.” Albert Einstein

“We need a new environmental consciousness on a global basis. To do this, we need to educate people.” Mikhail Gorbachev

Teaching Sustainability - Part Two

P.A. Zeir — Mon, 20 Apr 2009 15:20:42 +0000

Give historical context:
For millennia humans lived sustainably - up until the onset of the industrial/technological revolution.

For many thousand years
We made everything by hand
Then came industrialization
Marching through the land

Now we could make and do things
Much easier and faster
No one thought this revolution
Would lead to such disaster

The demand for resources increased
With the demands of growing populations
Robbing the planet’s trust and bounty
From future generations

Give perspective:
For millennia human population increased at a sustainable rate - up until the ‘population explosion’ of the last 200 years, bringing the numbers from 980 million or so in 1800 to 6.5 billion in 2009.

It wasn’t long ago that 85% of the demand and exploitation of the Earth’s resources came from the U.S.A. That demand alone was unsustainable (not to mention unjust, undemocratic and inhumane). Now however, to add to the perspective, North American demand pales in comparison to the global demands projected as China and India industrialize in 21st century terms.

Give remedial ways and means:
It starts with how we think……..

A long, long time ago
We were people of the planet
Who walked and worked this land
With respect for the Lady who ran it

But now we’ve forgotten how
To live in natural balance
So now we face the future
With a mighty challenge

Rise up and get yourself a natural education
We are the changing tide and the bridging generation
Mother Earth’s our teacher and our inspiration
We come from deep inside a love for all Creation

We learn from Mother Nature
To grow the food we eat
The most important grocery store
Is the soil beneath our feet

Plants and trees and thriving seas
Provide the air we breathe
Hydrogen, Hydrogen, Oxygen
Brings life to everything

We learn from Mother Nature
To take only what we need
There’s no place for selfishness,
Dishonesty or greed

Rise up and get yourself a natural education…

We learn from Mother Nature
Conservation of energy
Nothing wasted, nothing lost
Symbiotic reciprocity

We learn from Mother Nature
To love bio-diversity
The greater range and variety
The greater productivity

We learn from Mother Nature
To be a generous community
Winning back the planet’s trust
And natural immunity

Rise up and get yourself a natural education…

Teaching Sustainability -Part One

P.A. Zeir — Mon, 13 Apr 2009 02:11:27 +0000

We live in a time now rife with contradictions.

Never before have we had the capability of mass self destruction on one hand; and at the same time stand at the threshold of such extraordinary breakthroughs in the human potential.

Never before have we faced environmental degradation and biological devastation on a global catastrophic scale on the one hand; and at the same time possess the applicable science to correct it, creating new models of living that are truly reciprocal with our home planet Earth.

Never before has the rich biological, ethnic and linguistic diversity of life on our planet been so threatened by the mono-chromatic, mono-cultural tides of “globalization” on one hand; and at the same time been so close to a truly integrating, unifying principle amongst the kaleidoscopic cultural heritages of human life on earth.

Never before have there been so many people, so suddenly - coinciding with the advent of industrialized medicine, agriculture, education, mining, energy production, architecture, technology, transportation… Never before has the human population exceeded its capacity for self sustenance on the one hand; whilst at the same time understanding more about human health, longevity and well-being than ever before.

Never before have we had so much information at our disposal - instantly, but seem to understand so little about so much!

Never before have such large groups of the human population been so isolated from each other by virtue of computer technology - on the one hand, when we can travel the globe and “visit” anyone in just a few seconds at the click of a button, on the other.

Never before have we been able to travel almost anywhere on earth in a matter of not days, but hours, on the one hand; whilst the environmental damage done doing so is almost irreversible.

Never before have we destroyed so much land to provide the food we eat; while the most valuable grocery store is the very soil beneath our feet!

So… teaching sustainability to young people comes with many contradictions. The message of sustainability contradicts our way of life in the “developed” world. Our way of life is simply unsustainable! Young people are inheriting a lesser circumstance than did our grandparents - in respect to our planet’s biological and ecological well-being.

Some say - we need some kind of miracle to turn it around. Others believe global catastrophe is inevitable. Some well intentioned proposals of the green revolution seem incredibly naïve. And still others simply deny the problem altogether - and continue pursuing their almighty ‘bottom line’ at the expense of everything and everyone else.

Accountability and responsibility begin with understanding what the case actually is! It takes some humility and courage to do so. Teaching sustainability is a humbling prospect - because we don’t actually know how serious our situation is.

How do you inspire children about the future and portray the emergency nature of the present it at the same time?

Many of the children out there seem born with the intelligence and capability to handle it!

The planet we live on IS INTELLIGENT! The Earth, our Great Mother and her multiple systems of support has a remarkable capacity for self-regeneration and healing. We just need to pay a lot more attention to her.

Lesson number one in the School of Mother Nature!