From: Robert Swanson <robertswanson@...>

Steve Hassan does not speak about schools that I know of, but his
description of cults is useful in discerning the intent and utility of
schooling.

http://www.freedomofmind.com/faq.htm
Steve Hassan, cult expert and counselor, answers questions about cults and
mind control

Let's do a comparison. We will ask what is a cult, what are the two kinds of
cults, and what does this mean to education? Some of what is below is direct
from Steve's web page.

A Cult is any group of people who have a set of beliefs and rituals which
are not mainstream. A cult may be religious, political, therapeutic,
entrepreneurial, (or educational).

There are two kinds of cults, either selfeffacing or self-enhancing. A
selfeffacing cult is a pyramid-shaped authoritarian regime with a person or
group of people that have dictatorial control. It uses deception in
recruiting new members (e.g. people are NOT told up front what the group is,
what the group actually believes and what will be expected of them if they
become members). It also uses mind control techniques to keep people
dependent and obedient. Destructive cults try to "clone" people to become
small versions of the cult leader, rather than respect people's
individuality, creativity and self-will.

In a self-enhancing cult people are freely able to choose to join with full
disclosure of the group's doctrine and practices and can choose to
disaffiliate without fear or harassment. Any mind control techniques used
will keep the locus of control within the individual and there is no hidden
agenda to have people submit and turn over their power to some other human
being. Being in control of your own mind includes being in touch with your
feelings, having the ability to think analytically, question, look at issues
from multiple perspectives, having control of your behavior to take periodic
"timeouts" in order to reflect and be able to have access to information
which may be "negative" to the group leadership.

When would a school be a cult? When its practices do not fit mainstream. Is
it mainstream to ring a bell every hour, to have highly structured "free
time", to function socially as a dictatorship, to have one's interests
dictated, to have one's time dictated, to have your media rewritten for your
consumption, to perform for others without compensation, to be secluded from
other age groups, to have either competitive or aloof relationships
emphasized rather than cooperation and friendship and love, to have one's
behavior controlled by threat of shaming or by threat of imprisoning one's
parents? In some cases normal work relationships may be competitive and
one's time is dictated, but when is it normal for young children to be
working, and are they getting paid?

Is mind control as used by schools self-enhancing? Not when there is no free
choice as to what the mind is doing. Not when the use of the mind is an
abstracted benefit not understood by the individual. Not when the mind's use
is for the benefit or scrutiny of another -- the teacher's job approval and
grading system. Not when the result is anxiety, aggression, depression,
sadness and withdrawn behavior.

Are public schools cults? They do not inform children of their motives,
practices, intent or conditions up front (what six year old can explain the
education process; even I can't, except as a cult). Their control techniques
demean the individual politically, socially, emotionally and creatively, and
are structured to remove self-will and individuality. One is not trusted to
one's self. There is little or no freedom to quit the school or to join
another school. Being out of line five minutes is met with a shaming
protocol. A functional agenda specifically benefiting the individual is
rarely if ever considered in over ten years of incarceration. Specifically
deterred are: being in touch with your feelings, having the ability to think
analytically, questioning, looking at issues from multiple perspectives,
having control of one's behavior so to take periodic timeouts in order to
reflect and be able to have access to information which may be "negative" to
the group leadership. Schools may claim to promote analytical thinking and
multiple perspectives, but this is not true when the materials available
have been selected for them as well as the issue looked at, the time allowed
to research, to whom the material is presented and who's approval determines
meaning.

Robert Swanson



Who is Steve Hassan:
[I am a human rights activist who very much values my spirituality as the
core of my existence. I pray and meditate daily. My work has received
endorsements from virtually every major religious denomination. I definitely
believe in a God who created us with freewill and wants us to use our minds
to live lives of love, peace, beauty, and goodness. My work has grown out of
my own desire to grow in understanding and to help people to realize that
they need not be psychologically constricted.

I am a licensed mental health counselor. I got my Master's degree from
Cambridge College in 1985, and have taken the time and undertaken the
expense to receive counseling training from some of the top people in
America and the world. I have experience doing individual, couple and family
counseling. I teach communications techniques and strategies and encourage a
legal approach which I call "strategic interaction therapy".]

>> This aspect
>> "humanity" is
>> not inborn and has to be modeled.

  on 12/7/00 1:54 PM, Joe Jackson at shoeless@... wrote:
> Robert,
> As I could not disagree with this statement more, and insofar as this idea
> is the fundamental basis for your feelings regarding the inadequacy of the
> model, I believe that I have discovered the root of our fundamental
> disagreement about what these schools should do for students.
>
> I am glad we have so much that we agree on!
>
> -Joe
>
Inborn in humans is the ability to be nourished and to be stimulated by the
five senses and by some sort of heart connection not understood. Given these
we also have the ability to evolve. This evolution is changes in brain
structure, body development, emotional development, and, according to recent
science, changes in the genetic code. Yes, we evolve genetically due to
environmental input! (Now we'll nerver know which came first, the chicken or
the egg?).

Inborn in humans is the possibility to evolve. This is huge. The limits of
evolution are set by nutrition and stimulation. If parents nourish and
evolve their own genetics that is a good start. Next, they can nourish and
stimulate the infant in the womb. The newborn needs the stimulus of loving
touch and warmth and gentle words, and a lack of other stimuli. After this
the child needs extreem variety of stimulation in a context of joy and love
so to open a wide variety of potentials into our world. At age eleven the
potentials focus that applied intelligence be developed in behalf of the
given environment and one's interests. Aspects of material survival then
become so fluid as to be second nature (not daily worry). Creativity is
given open reins. As a person thinks, so he is -- possibility.

A child raised by wolves would not speak, maybe not even walk. A child
raised by nervous parents will walk and talk but may never fully understand
peace and love and cooperation. A child raised by a loving world community
may speak twenty languages, be in complete peace, move without hesitation
into continued improvement of self as relative to a wholesome world, and
cooperate with others with a charm and grace that would befuddle us lizard
brains. This person's joy and excitement for life could power a creativity
lightyears advanced from our own. Imagine Einstein, Jesus and Cleopatra
holding hands as they skip down the street with the students from a Sudbury
school. They are not going anywhere. Within, they know they have arrived.
They found self because of who they are with.

It's all a matter of models,
robert

A paradigm-cult for school--counseling:

A cult is people using beliefs and rituals that are not mainstream. So, what
would a self-enhancing cult be (one that improves the individual)?

How about counseling? The beliefs and rituals of counseling are not
mainstream. It is an arena where it is okay to openly, honestly express
feelings. It is okay to dig deep within for the truth. Chit chat, denial,
and projection are considered a waste of time if not overt lack of wellness.
Counseling, by the measures in the last message below, is a great cult.
People are informed of the terms of their relationship up front. No one is
harassed for making decisions in behalf of themselves. Kindness and equality
are landmark virtues. People are to be respected and heard if not obeyed.
Specifically supported are: being in touch with your feelings, having the
ability to think analytically, questioning, looking at issues from multiple
perspectives, and having control of one's behavior.

Gosh, I wish everyone would sign up with a counselor. In contrast, most
everything about our lives is selfeffacing.

Mysticism is a reference to the spiritual or to the mysterious. What was it
Einstein said, either one must believe everything is an accident or that
everything is a miracle. Spirituality is the possibility that the eyes do
not see everything. Only the religion of arrogance would reject this. And
science, science delves into the mystery. Mystery stirs us to the core. How
wonderful is the mysterious! Here is a mystery for us all, the scientific
statistical odds are trillions to one in favor of the idea that our space
program has governed the timing of its rocket science according to the
position of stars and planets -- I'm talking about astrology, not astronomy!
(See enterprisemission.com, 11/8/99)
I wouldn't throw out the baby with the bath water just yet.

http://www.angelfire.com/ca3/citystars/
INVESTIGATION INTO THE ENTERPRISE MISSION'S PROPOSITION THAT THE 19.5 AND
33.0 DEGREE STAR ALIGNMENTS CONSTITUTE A PATTERN €

robert



on 12/6/00 4:48 AM, David Rovner at rovners@... wrote:

> There is no self-enhancing cult. Cults are Mysticism thus selfeffacing.
> Self-enhancing behavior doesn't fall under the cult category.
> Besides that, "can you be in control of your own mind,
> be in touch with your feelings, develop the ability to think
> analytically, question, look at issues from multiple perspectives, have
> control of your behavior to take periodic "timeouts" in order to reflect and
> be able to have access to information which may be "negative" to the group
> leadership" -- at the academy?
> "Psychologists and psychiatrists ("I am a licensed mental health counselor. I
> got my Master's degree in counseling psychology from Cambridge College
> in 1985 -- M.Ed., LMHC") see the human wreckage, but remain silent and do
> not protest -- declare that philosophical and moral issues do not concern
> them, that science cannot pronounce value judgments -- shrug off their
> professional obligations with the assertion that a rational code of morality
> is
> impossible, and, by their silence, lend their sanction to spiritual murder."
> I wonder why you directed us to Steve Hassan's activity.
>
> David.
>
>
>
> ---------------------------------
> Here is the difference:
> Inborn processes recreate institutions to meet the developing
> needs of the individual. As things now stand, the institutions
> are remaking individuals to meet the needs of the developing
> institutions.
> ------------------------
> PROCLAMATION
> FOR THE SEPARATION OF SCHOOL AND STATE
>
> I proclaim publicly that I favor ending
> government involvement in education.
>
> Add this to all your mail
> (and suggest to your friends to do the same)
> ------------------------
> ==========================================================
> RELEASE SOCIETY FROM
> SCHOOL CONTROL
> IVAN ILLICH
> ==========================================================
> *
> =====================================================
> FREE EDUCATION FROM STATE
> CONTROL
> =====================================================
> *
>
============================================================================
==> =
> RELEASE KNOWLEDGE FROM
> THE CONTROL [THE
> MONOPOLY] OF UNIVERSITIES
> (ACADEMY AS A "MAFIA")
> ==============================================================================
> ==
> *
> ============================================================
> End Government Involvement in
> Education.
>
> Separate School from State
>
> SEPARATE SCHOOL Alliance for the Separation of School and State
> separate@...,
>
> webmaster@...
>
> http://www.sepschool.org
> 21 Ways "Public Schools" Harm Your Children
> http://www.sepschool.org/edlib/v3n2/21ways.html
>
> Add this to all your mail
> (and suggest to your friends to do the same)
> ============================================================
>
>
> ---------- Original Message ----------
>
> I remember Paul Harvey quoting the richest man in Japan. When asked to what
> does he attribute his success, he replied, "When someone gives me an offer I
> chew it up and swallow it, and if it sits well in my stomach I accept it. If
> not I spit it out." (approx. quote)
>
> So many of those quotes I see attributed to Einstein indicate he was quite
> spiritual, moral and philosophical.
>
> What if schools were held to the integrity of their reason? Aside from
> reading and writing, everything I hold dear to my way of life comes from
> outside of public school. Aside from making me an anxious, fearful,
> emotionally inept individual, school did almost nothing for me. By the
> standards below I'd have to rate schools as insane, grossly insane. Their
> standards of education are mystifying.
>
> robert
>
>
> on 12/3/00 11:51 PM, David Rovner at rovners@... wrote:
> Mental Health versus Mysticism and Self-Sacrifice "The standard of mental
> health -- of biologically appropriate mental functioning -- is the same as
> that of physical health: man's survival and wellbeing. A mind is healthy to
> the extent that its method of functioning is such as to provide man with the
> control over reality that the support and furtherance of his life require.
> The hallmark of this control is self- esteem. Self-esteem is the
> consequence, expression and reward of a mind fully committed to reason.
> Reason, the faculty that identifies and integrates the material provided by
> the senses, is man's basic tool of survival. . . . . .
>
> (1) The maintenance of his life and the achievement of self-esteem require
> of man the fullest exercise of his reason -- but morality, men are taught,
> rests on and requires faith. . .
> (2) Man's need of self-esteem entails the need for a sense of control over
> reality -- but no control is possible in a universe which, by one's own
> concession, contains the supernatural, the miraculous and the causeless. . .
> (3) His life and self-esteem require that the object and concern of man's
> consciousness be reality and this earth -- but morality, men are taught,
> consists of scorning this earth and the world to sensory perceptions, and
> contemplating, instead a "different" and "higher" reality, a realm
> inaccessible to reason and incommunicable in language, but attainable by
> revelation, . . .
> (4) His life and self-esteem require that man take pride in his power to
> live -- but morality, men are taught, holds pride, and specifically
> intellectual pride, as the gravest of sins. Virtue begins, men are taught,
> with humility: with the recognition of the helplessness, the smallness, the
> impotence of one's mind. . .
> (5) His life and self-esteem require of man loyalty to his values, loyalty
> to his mind and its judgements, loyalty to his life -- but the essence of
> morality, men are taught, consists of self-sacrifice: the sacrifice of one's
> minds to some higher authority, and the sacrifice of one's values to whoever
> may claim to require it. . . . . .
>
> If the advocates of these doctrines bear a grave moral responsibility, there
> is a group who, perhaps, bears a graver responsibility still: the
> psychologists and psychiatrists who see the human wreckage of these
> doctrines, but who remain silent and do not protest -- who declare that
> philosophical and moral issues do not concern them, that science cannot
> pronounce value judgments -- who shrug off their professional obligations
> with the assertion that a rational code of morality is impossible, and, by
> their silence, lend their sanction to spiritual murder." [Mental Health
> versus Mysticism and Self-Sacrifice by Nathaniel Branden, Ayn Rand - The
> Virtue of Selfishness, p. 36. (march 1963) (excerpts)] David Rovner
>
>
> ---------- Original Message ----------
> Steve Hassan does not speak about schools that I know of, but his
> description of cults is useful in discerning the intent and utility of
> schooling. http://www.freedomofmind.com/faq.htm Steve Hassan, cult expert
> and counselor, answers questions about cults and mind control
>
> Let's do a comparison. We will ask what is a cult, what are the two kinds of
> cults, and what does this mean to education? Some of what is below is direct
> from Steve's web page.
>
> A Cult is any group of people who have a set of beliefs and rituals which
> are not mainstream. A cult may be religious, political, therapeutic,
> entrepreneurial, (or educational).
>
> There are two kinds of cults, either selfeffacing or self-enhancing. A
> selfeffacing cult is a pyramid-shaped authoritarian regime with a person or
> group of people that have dictatorial control. It uses deception in
> recruiting new members (e.g. people are NOT told up front what the group is,
> what the group actually believes and what will be expected of them if they
> become members). It also uses mind control techniques to keep people
> dependent and obedient. Destructive cults try to "clone" people to become
> small versions of the cult leader, rather than respect people's
> individuality, creativity and self-will. In a self-enhancing cult people are
> freely able to choose to join with full disclosure of the group's doctrine
> and practices and can choose to disaffiliate without fear or harassment. Any
> mind control techniques used will keep the locus of control within the
> individual and there is no hidden agenda to have people submit and turn over
> their power to some other human being. Being in control of your own mind
> includes being in touch with your feelings, having the ability to think
> analytically, question, look at issues from multiple perspectives, having
> control of your behavior to take periodic "timeouts" in order to reflect and
> be able to have access to information which may be "negative" to the group
> leadership.
>
> When would a school be a cult? When its practices do not fit mainstream. Is
> it mainstream to ring a bell every hour, to have highly structured "free
> time", to function socially as a dictatorship, to have one's interests
> dictated, to have one's time dictated, to have your media rewritten for your
> consumption, to perform for others without compensation, to be secluded from
> other age groups, to have either competitive or aloof relationships
> emphasized rather than cooperation and friendship and love, to have one's
> behavior controlled by threat of shaming or by threat of imprisoning one's
> parents? In some cases normal work relationships may be competitive and
> one's time is dictated, but when is it normal for young children to be
> working, and are they getting paid?
>
> Is mind control as used by schools self-enhancing? Not when there is no free
> choice as to what the mind is doing. Not when the use of the mind is an
> abstracted benefit not understood by the individual. Not when the mind's use
> is for the benefit or scrutiny of another -- the teacher's job approval and
> grading system. Not when the result is anxiety, aggression, depression,
> sadness and withdrawn behavior.
>
> Are public schools cults? They do not inform children of their motives,
> practices, intent or conditions up front (what six year old can explain the
> education process; even I can't, except as a cult). Their control techniques
> demean the individual politically, socially, emotionally and creatively, and
> are structured to remove self-will and individuality. One is not trusted to
> one's self. There is little or no freedom to quit the school or to join
> another school. Being out of line five minutes is met with a shaming
> protocol. A functional agenda specifically benefiting the individual is
> rarely if ever considered in over ten years of incarceration. Specifically
> deterred are: being in touch with your feelings, having the ability to think
> analytically, questioning, looking at issues from multiple perspectives,
> having control of one's behavior so to take periodic timeouts in order to
> reflect and be able to have access to information which may be "negative" to
> the group leadership. Schools may claim to promote analytical thinking and
> multiple perspectives, but this is not true when the materials available
> have been selected for them as well as the issue looked at, the time allowed
> to research, to whom the material is presented and who's approval determines
> meaning.
>
> Robert Swanson
>
>
> Who is Steve Hassan: [I am a human rights activist who very much values my
> spirituality as the core of my existence. I pray and meditate daily. My work
> has received endorsements from virtually every major religious denomination.
> I definitely believe in a God who created us with freewill and wants us to
> use our minds to live lives of love, peace, beauty, and goodness. My work
> has grown out of my own desire to grow in understanding and to help people
> to realize that they need not be psychologically constricted. I am a
> licensed mental health counselor. I got my Master's degree from Cambridge
> College in 1985, and have taken the time and undertaken the expense to
> receive counseling training from some of the top people in America and the
> world. I have experience doing individual, couple and family counseling. I
> teach communications techniques and strategies and encourage a legal
> approach which I call "strategic interaction therapy".]
>
>
>

<<Man and Woman and Child.doc>>

To read the chapter online and/or purchase the book,
go to www.word-foundation.org and click on 'BOOKS',
then scroll down to the book entitled "Man and Woman and Child"
and click on Read Sample Ch. 1.

The Global Village ReportBelow you will find information and/or web site
direction for:
(1)   Indigo children
(2)  The Enchanted Forest Intuitive Camp for psychic and intuitive children.
(3)  Living Values:  An Education Programme
(4)  Natural Systems Thinking
(5)  The Global Ideas Bank
(6)  Stephanie Jobe, founder of Creations Guardians
(7)  A World Without Schools?
If you are in mulitple indigo groups, this is such important information, please
excuse
the multiple copies. :0)

http://www.SOULutions.co.uk Check out this site for:
Connecting evolutionary people to one another, to events and to business.
Together we
can create what alone we can only dream. SoulutionS  is a creation of S.O.U.L.
Ltd., a
company designed to give expression to the voice for change for our world.

http://www.SOULutions.co.uk/np_educ-1.htm

(1) Read more about these new children at www.Indigochild.com.

(2)  June 22-25, Near Atlanta, GEORGIA.   2nd annual Enchanted Forest Intuitive
Camp for psychic and intuitive children. Contact: Nancy Baumgarten,
nancyb@... http://www.psykids.net Note from Soleira:  This camp
is over now, but I thought it would be interesting for you to see the kinds of
new camps
for children that are springing up.

(3)  Living Values:  An Education Programme ... by educators and for educators.
Living
Values purpose is to provide guiding principles and tools for the development of
the
whole person, recognising that the individual is comprised of physical,
intellectual,
emotinal and spiritual dimensions.  For more information, see their web site at
www.livingvalues.net.

(4)  The Natural Systems Thinking process is a webstring science developed by
the
Institute of Global Education, a special NGO consultant to the United Nations
Economic and Social Council. From backyard, to backcountry, to the internet
utilizing
a school without walls - the Natureconnect learning projects spans the gambit of
skill
development, career training and academic degree programs. For more information,
go
to http://www.ecopsych.com

(5)  The Global Ideas Bank could well be described as a "supermarket for good
ideas
and model projects."  And they aren't just theory.  Many of them are already in
place
and working smoothly for creating positive change in the world. Covering such
diverse
areas as Children and Education, Relationships, Housing, Monetary & Financial
Innovations, Taxation, Work & Unemployment, Economics and Business, Welfare,
Crime & The Law, Health & Therapy, Environment and Ecology, Science, Technology
and Energy, Transportation, Communications, Arts, Leisure & Lifestyle, War &
Peace,
Politics, Spirituality, Ageing, Death and Dying and a score of other topics, the
Global
Ideas Bank brings it all under one roof and makes it accessible to internet
surfers from
Timbuctu to Tokyo. Check it out at http://www.globalideasbank.or

(6) Meet 14 year old Stephanie Jobe, founder of Creations Guardians. Stephanie
was
born with a condition known as "tactile sensitivity."  She describes the
sensation of
normal clothing to her skin and many sounds like dragging your finger nails
across a
chalkboard.  Once she began school Stephanie was diagnosed as a "high
functioning
autistic."  She is now 14 and is still dealing with her physical challenges on a
day-to-
day basis - that is when she's not out befriending and feeding the homeless at
one of
the local parks, championing the environment, or working on behalf of animal
rights.
She says that her best therapy has been that of helping others.  It helps her
forget her
own problems. Visit the website Stephanie created, meet her personally, and
learn
about her champion causes.  It's all there at http://www.creationsguardians.com.

(7)  "A World Without Schools?" report from Michael Lightweaver. Around the
world
radically different learning systems are emerging as the foundation for a
radically
different society as people are assuming responsibility for their own education
and
collections of self learners are replacing the school system. This new mode of
learning
is exemplified by homeschooling. In 1980 there were about 20,000 homeschoolers.
By
1990 the number was over 200,000. By 2000 there were nearly 2,000,000
homeschoolers.  If this rate of growth continues for another decade there will
be 20
million children learning without schools!

The modes and means for learning are as varied as the people themselves. In
Sacramento California a group of school dropouts and school rejects formed their
own
school.  They opened the 'Drop Out Resource Center' in 1997, rented a room,
worked
with a book store to set up their own learning library. With donations from
sympathetic
neighbors they started a newsletter that has helped other nonschool groups start
their
own learning centers. [Drop Out, 1114  21st St., Sacramento, CA 95814 USA]

To preserve their culture a group of Algonquins in Great Neck, New York set up
their
own Home School Collective, 'Seeds of Many Nations."  The rich ceremonies of
their
nation, the history of land loss and repression, the practice of cooperation,
and the
belief in mutual aid, are central to their learning programs.  The school
system's
attempt to instill a different culture, one based on authority, hierarchy and
the
superiorly of the dominate culture was leaving indigenous people without a
feeling of
self-worth or "belonging,"  This learning collective is producing a people with
pride.
[Seeds of Many Nations, 234162 Olf Village Stn. Grand Necy NY 11023 USA]

Many such groups are springing up around the world. One of the advocates of a
world
without schools is Professor Roland Meighan and his publication "Education Now."
Meighan recognizes that learning is not an artificial process that can forced on
to
individuals by outside forces. Learning happens year in and year out throughout
one's
life.  Traditional schools often do more to prevent real learning than to
promote it.  For
ten years "Education Now" has been a strong voice to deschooling society.
[Education
Now, 113 Arundal Drive, Bramcote Hills, Nottingham, NG9 3FQ, UK]

In the past couple of years the whole de-schooling movement has found a new
voice.
The 'Self Education Foundation' in 1999 started an awards program for unique
self
learning programs.  They found "a wild combination of strategies: Black and
intercity
homeschooling activists, pioneering self-education groups, people involved with
punk
and hip hop culture, creative technology, prison self-education, and
youth-initiated
school reform efforts."  Their awards went to 11 of the motley array of social
innovations.  [Self-education Foundation, PO Box 30790, Philadelphia, PA USA]

Bringing all this non school learning activity under one roof has been the goal
of "A
Coalition for Self-Learning," an ad hoc collection of members from Japan to
Moscow,
from Denmark to India, from North America to Australia.  The Coalition met on
the
internet. Few of them have ever met face to face.  But together they have
written a
book in cyberspace called "Creating Learning Communities." The book is now
available online and will soon be in print.  The Coalition is launching a
campaign to link
up with other social activists to make a radically different learning system the
foundation for a radically different society. [Coalition for Self Learning, PO
Box 567,
Rangeley, Maine, 04970 USA]
ttp://futureworld.dk/ccl-llc/book.htm

Karen,

Thanks for posting this info. What a wealth of information. I've done a
quick run through on most of the sites, and am thrilled to find people in my
area working toward the same goals!

Thanks,
Dorene

take the poll on vouchers

   http://www.excite.com   & see Today On Excite at top left.

Today on excite.com, exit poll results for vouchers are running ahead
by ten points.  Add your voice to the mix by taking the poll yourself.
Go to http://www.excite.com (See "Today on Excite" for the Poll).

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I have just discovered this list and am hoping to get inspirtation
and support as I reluctantly go back to a year of teaching in a
school with a high number of "ADD" kids. I personally find them very
hard to deal with in the class although I'm often very fond of them
individually. I KNOW spirit had placed me there to help but by too
often I seem to get dragged down into all the negativity and
ridiculous expectation of the system. This year we 2 teachers will be
expected to teach 52 children aged 5 to 8, many of
them  "interesting" personalities.
I beleive my own children are indigo children - one of them was very
challenging, the other very calm and knowing . And my 5 month old
nephew is DEFINITELY an indigo child.
The whole concept is so exciting and I know it to be true, but that
doesn't automatically mean I can cope!!!
Any advice on real life coping in a classroom would be valued and
appreciated. I LOVE the idea of showing the children the State
curriculum requirements. This is the type of technique I use a lot -
  'the rules are stupid so let's just get it over with as quickly as
possible.'

What is Digest Number 75 and where is it?? It's wonderful to hear so
many people getting into homeschooling. I tried it for a couple of
years when my 19 year old was due to start school. Sadly she and I
did not have compatible tempers and so I gave in and sent her to
school.However the mere fact that she knew I hated the school system
helped her deal positively with a lot of the rubbish.It's ironic that
I am fated to teach in the school sytem, but I do see that a good
place for dissenting people is right in the thick of it. But being a
homeschooling advocate and spokesperson was a hell of a lot more fun.
Blessings
Lynne




--- In indigo-schools@egroups.com, Beverley Tisdell <hovendick@e...>
wrote:
> Thank you Doreen
> I'm printing out your flyer but would live to see it. So if you
can, mail it
> to
>    Beverley Tisdell
>    13031 Phoenix Woods Lane
>    Orlando, FL  32824
>
> KRYON/Lee & Jan will be in Orlando on Jan 20.  Is it possible to
leave your
> family to attend? You can get particulars at www.Kryon.ccom
>
> I am eagerly waiting to get the Waldorf homeschooling materials from
> Live-Education in Calif. so I can get started with Shane.  In the
meantime
> we're having a great time painting furniture, baking cookies and
learning
> fractions, hanging pictures and mirrors and learning about studs
and sizes
> and building measurements.  On Thursdays he goes to a homeschoolers
class at
> the Orlando Science Center.  The park department also offers arts
and
> crafts, non-competitive games and swimming for homeschoolers 2
mornings a
> week.
> Our public library offers story times and entertaining guests on
week day
> mornings for pre-schoolers.  Since all these facilities are
underused during
> public school hours, you may find they are very eager to offer
programs to
> homeschoolers in your area.
>
> If I can get a few other homeschooled children into a group, we
will also
> approach the Fish & Game Commission for one of their free fishing
lessons
> which they offer at some of the lakes they stock.  Skating rinks
and bowling
> alleys are other possibilities.  At Boy Scout Headquarters I heard
about one
> homeschool family which used the Boy Scout manual and merit badge
> requirement book as their curriculum for the year.
>
> Schooling is not necessarily educating.  There is more to learn
about
> outside school so maybe we should call ourselves home educators!
>
> Thanks for mailing your brochure.
> Warm regards,
> Bev

Uncompromised Modulation
(modulate: to adapt according to the circumstances)


Computer development will reach  a magnificent turning point in the year
2010. No longer will specific information be directed into computers as
programming. Instead we will use cause and effect relationship of computer
and environment. No longer will individual programs conflict in their
interaction. Instead, a fundamental base of cooperative operations will
smooth over additional functions by applying them to a practical framework.
From the outside this will appear to be intuitive functioning.

It will happen like this. A mother robot will be placed in an office. She
will go to a desk and there dump a hundred million nanobots. These nanobots
are tiny computers that can move about. Their individual function is limited
but the variety of connections they can make with each other is virtually
unlimited. What they need to do now is configure themselves to meet the task
at hand, the office. The mother robot's job is to deliver them to the
various aspects of the environment that will be their task.

So the nanobots run about the desk connecting to anything at random. They
touch things, they photograph, they measure, they sample. What they learn is
referenced to the mother model. She provides the base reference points for
what begins "reality". As one area of the office has been assimilated the
mother robot directs them to other items. "Reality" expands. She keeps the
nanobots from climbing out a window or falling into a toilet.

In about four days the workspace has been assimilated by the nanobots
through their contact with objects. By the seventh day the nanobots have
begun organizing themselves into patterns apart from the objects. This way
they can begin to relate to things apart from being with that thing
experientially. They now have "awareness" of the fax machine without going
to the machine. The world of the nanobots becomes a separate reality as
nanobot thought. This frees the nanobots to test infinite configurations
between the office furnishings. They will test the possibility of filing
papers in the sink. They will try plugging the typewriter into the copy
machine. They will test the effect of vacuuming clutter from the desktop. In
the end they will choose operations that have continuance. And they will
choose operations that have continuance through expansion. Simply put, they
are learning to be practical.

Around the eleventh day functional patterns will be resolved. The  phone
will be answered when it rings. Files will be organized in drawers. The
ledger will be balanced. With these issues resolved many of the nanobots can
stop moving around and set themselves in a pattern to manage these things
with greatest efficiency. The group energy can now focus on advanced
operations. A third programming issue can now be addressed. Given the
functional nature of learned interrelationships, the nanobots can now assess
these functions as separate programming. That is, office procedure can be
considered apart from this specific office. The nanobots can think for
themselves what sort of office building they would like to create and how it
would do business. Learning (programming) has become fully abstract. This
can happen safely because a working base is in place.

By day sixteen the nanobots have optimized their abstract evaluation of
procedures. They are ready to move into creation. This is the next logical
step for being a business that is not a dead end. As a practical matter they
want to expand function. This can be done in at least two ways. One way is
for the nanobot computer to network with other nanobots who have arrived at
similar conclusions. Another way is for the nanobot computer to become a
mother and release millions or trillions of nanobots into a new environment.
Whichever it chooses will best further continuance.

If you are wondering where this places humans in the functional order, this
is a good question. For many years humans have placed abstract analysis
ahead of basic experience thus avoiding the foundation on which abstraction
finds functionality. This is not continuance programming. It reaches its end
in the confusion created within the material foundation of day to day
business. No one develops a full patterned understanding to uphold
continuance. Instead people have used isolated unfounded abstract values
(superstition) for expansion into new areas. This builds chaos upon chaos.
Though some individual parts function well, the system as a whole is at
least retarded, and at most a ticking time bomb. Perhaps some day humans
will develop that higher nature of intelligence -- reflection based in
reality. Then they can choose the real values of continuance and expansion.
To do so would mean bringing children to playful experiential exploration
throughout childhood, and adding in abstraction (reading, writing and values
systems) after age eleven. The teens are for free exploration of applying
what they have learned by testing reconfigurations. Adulthood is for giving
birth to reconfigurations expanding continuance. Their intelligence will
seem intuitive. Here are the Einsteins and Mozarts and Teslas and great
leaders of nations. And really great parents and teachers as playful models
of possibility.

robert swanson
1/4/01

What has been compromised is human development. To give young children
abstract rules and values and books to function by places the cart before
the horse. Children's five senses have to develop in an exploration of the
real world. This is what creates their mind structure as human beings on
planet earth. Without this structure in place people never really quite
arrive here. They develop as abstractions instead. It would be the same as
if twenty companies developed software independently and then asked Bill
Gates to write an operating system to run them. The potential of the
operating system would necessarily be very limited. This is true of people.
It appears that we are using but 1% of our potential. All because we insist
our children behave themselves according to "our standards" and because we
ask them to read before eleven years old. Yes, we need be afraid of what
free children might do, but only because of what fear has done to them. It
has made them imbeciles.

Modulation must occur in the brain that the brain adapt to what is life. We
are not born with a functioning brain the way we are born with a functioning
heart. Any instincts are only the very first steps of survival, e.g.,
nursing. Apart from that it is up to adult models to demonstrate success at
living. What they demonstrate will be imprinted into the child's brain. Then
(as if to challenge my statement above) the brain grows an operating system
to accommodate the programming. Millions of new connections form at four,
six and eleven years. That this is new hardware is true only to an extent.
We are genetically programmed to bond at birth with mother, explore at her
side, then explore with her safely close by, explore others while having mom
to return to, explore the broader environment knowing parents still provide,
and finally to explore on one's own when realizing that autonomous survival
is an exciting adventure. This genetically programmed operating system
creates a creative person with an amazing ability to thrive -- maybe a
hundred times more than the compromised person.

Modulation is what happens in the brain because the child is allowed to
modulate. With controlled risk and a little mutual respect the child is
allowed to explore. Neurons vibrate in response to the five sense's
exploration and relate input to "uterine-mom" software already developed.
Sequentially, various vibratory rates mesh signals as neurons learn (through
rapport from neurons) which signals successfully go where. This is cause and
effect learning -- what works is developed. As signals manage to mesh in the
brain a "world" begins to form that can be recorded and built upon. (It is
interesting to note that people who gain first sight later in life through
eye surgery see only a chaos of flashes and colors.) This "world" is the
software gradually coming together in the brain. Where modulation is lacking
that software will not be developed and then no operating system develops to
support it. That is why the neocortex, two thirds the space in our heads,
the high achievement of evolution (if evolution really exists) goes largely
unused.

Practically no modulation occurs (maybe 2%) because of words (parental
judgments). The genetic operating system insists that learning, and
survival, be reality based. What gets imprinted in the brain is what adults
fundamentally model. If they model the world as disorganized stress then the
child adapts to this because 1) it is the only known world, and 2) to avoid
abandonment. If orderly congruency and peace are modeled the child conforms
its operating system to this. And this, as it so happens, is congruent with
the genetic program that would open the neocortex to know a world that
thrives in creative cooperation.

Modulating abstractions creatively is built-in to occur after age eleven.
Then values and books have real utility because they can relate to a real
world imprinted in the brain. Body/senses, mind/memory, emotional
connections, and the facts of life will continue to coordinate fluidly,
subconsciously, for the sake of survival as the higher brain takes over
creative direction of consciousness. This is what happens in a creative
society. This does not happen in "schooled" individuals. They have no
reality of survival. They have abstractions of survival as a basis to
function by. So limited, survival will always be such a struggle that no
energy is left for purely creative thought. This retarded ability is
supported by a society which fails to recognize the value of free-of-values
thought process. Ironically, the values-society has little ability to
recognize the true values found in the higher "Godly" creative thought which
we are genetically programmed to reveal. A values-society must remain a
materialistic society based in survival.

Modulation of real values is a product of a society setting fear of outcome
aside that free adventure may set the boundaries of an open mind. Here the
mind expands to its full ability. Here is the essence of education -- it is
modeling fearless joyous intuitive survival, free of abstract boundries. By
the time students are ready for abstract data they will be prepared to sort
through it and absorb it at a rate we can only dream of. The catch is to
recognize these exceptional abilities blossoming at age four and then not
suppress them with a retarded status quo way of doing things. At least allow
children adventure even at some risk. Secondly, try to take them into the
adult world of survival without fear or judgment. To a happy child, it all
is play.

More below...


on 1/4/01 11:57 PM, Robert Swanson at robertswanson@... wrote:

> Uncompromised Modulation
> (modulate: to adapt according to the circumstances)
>
The mind must be programed fundamentally, same as a computer. Software and
hardware can only be successfully added to a working base. The base must be
cause-effect relative to reality.
> Computer development will reach  a magnificent turning point in the year
> 2010. No longer will specific information be directed into computers as
> programming. Instead we will use cause and effect relationship of computer
> and environment. No longer will individual programs conflict in their
> interaction. Instead, a fundamental base of cooperative operations will
> smooth over additional functions by applying them to a practical framework.
> From the outside this will appear to be intuitive functioning.
Intelligence will appear intuitive because we won't be wasting thought
rehashing what was supposed to be experientially learned by four years old
and practically applied by age eleven. Fear/values based people are not
cause-effect educated. They are faced with a life of mundane conscious work
that is terribly frustrating and forces maladaptations socially based, not
creatively based.

> It will happen like this. A mother robot will be placed in an office. She
> will go to a desk and there dump a hundred million nanobots. These nanobots
> are tiny computers that can move about. Their individual function is limited
> but the variety of connections they can make with each other is virtually
> unlimited. What they need to do now is configure themselves to meet the task
> at hand, the office. The mother robot's job is to deliver them to the
> various aspects of the environment that will be their task.
The brain is born infinitely adaptable. It is not born adapted. The world
and the senses must come together that the knowledge of life be formed from
the ground up.
>
> So the nanobots run about the desk connecting to anything at random. They
> touch things, they photograph, they measure, they sample. What they learn is
> referenced to the mother model. She provides the base reference points for
> what begins "reality". As one area of the office has been assimilated the
> mother robot directs them to other items. "Reality" expands. She keeps the
> nanobots from climbing out a window or falling into a toilet.
In the womb the mother has already been modeling reality to the child. It
has been learning languaging and also either stress management or joy
management. How the child comes to be born is a major factor. It is the
basis for how and how soon the child begins to explore.
>
At four years the child recognizes most of the stuff of life. At seven years
the child becomes the organizer of stuff.
> In about four days the workspace has been assimilated by the nanobots
> through their contact with objects. By the seventh day the nanobots have
> begun organizing themselves into patterns apart from the objects. This way
> they can begin to relate to things apart from being with that thing
> experientially. They now have "awareness" of the fax machine without going
> to the machine. The world of the nanobots becomes a separate reality as
> nanobot thought. This frees the nanobots to test infinite configurations
> between the office furnishings. They will test the possibility of filing
> papers in the sink. They will try plugging the typewriter into the copy
> machine. They will test the effect of vacuuming clutter from the desktop. In
> the end they will choose operations that have continuance. And they will
> choose operations that have continuance through expansion. Simply put, they
> are learning to be practical.
Survival and expansion are the only real values to a child experiencing
reality.
>
At eleven years the child becomes the organizer of abstractions -
abstractions concerning the way stuff is organized.
> Around the eleventh day functional patterns will be resolved. The  phone
> will be answered when it rings. Files will be organized in drawers. The
> ledger will be balanced. With these issues resolved many of the nanobots can
> stop moving around and set themselves in a pattern to manage these things
> with greatest efficiency. The group energy can now focus on advanced
> operations. A third programming issue can now be addressed. Given the
> functional nature of learned interrelationships, the nanobots can now assess
> these functions as separate programming. That is, office procedure can be
> considered apart from this specific office. The nanobots can think for
> themselves what sort of office building they would like to create and how it
> would do business. Learning (programming) has become fully abstract. This
> can happen safely because a working base is in place.
Pure creativity opens because survival is second nature -- the child
successfully learned causes and effects.
>
From eleven to fifteen the child practices creatively applying the given
world to abstract possibilities. This is the final modulation preparing the
child to be a creator of life, creating according to higher and higher
values as "reality" expands with the adventure.
> By day sixteen the nanobots have optimized their abstract evaluation of
> procedures. They are ready to move into creation. This is the next logical
> step for being a business that is not a dead end. As a practical matter they
> want to expand function. This can be done in at least two ways. One way is
> for the nanobot computer to network with other nanobots who have arrived at
> similar conclusions. Another way is for the nanobot computer to become a
> mother and release millions or trillions of nanobots into a new environment.
> Whichever it chooses will best further continuance.
Whether a great creator of stuff or a great parent, life will seem filled
with purpose and fulfillment.
>
> If you are wondering where this places humans in the functional order, this
> is a good question. For many years humans have placed abstract analysis
> ahead of basic experience thus avoiding the foundation on which abstraction
> finds functionality. This is not continuance programming. It reaches its end
> in the confusion created within the material foundation of day to day
> business. No one develops a full patterned understanding to uphold
> continuance. Instead people have used isolated unfounded abstract values
> (superstition) for expansion into new areas. This builds chaos upon chaos.
> Though some individual parts function well, the system as a whole is at
> least retarded, and at most a ticking time bomb.
Violence, despair and insanity are natural outcomes to minds without a
working base, trapped in the fight-flight of survival.
> Perhaps some day humans
> will develop that higher nature of intelligence -- reflection based in
> reality. Then they can choose the real values of continuance and expansion.
> To do so would mean bringing children to playful experiential exploration
> throughout childhood, and adding in abstraction (reading, writing and values
> systems) after age eleven. The teens are for free exploration of applying
> what they have learned by testing reconfigurations. Adulthood is for giving
> birth to reconfigurations expanding continuance. Their intelligence will
> seem intuitive. Here are the Einsteins and Mozarts and Teslas and great
> leaders of nations. And really great parents and teachers as playful models
> of possibility.
Einstein did poorly in school. Mozart had no schooling. And Tesla -- I don't
think he knew where he got his fantastic creations that are the basis for
most everything we have in our modern society.
>
> robert swanson
> 1/4/01

Paste this web page in your browser. What a fun site! Skip through the pages
following your interests. Great place to start parents along this line of
thinking. See the example below.
robert


http://www.ils.nwu.edu/~e_for_e/nodes/NODE-79-pg.html
Piaget and Intelligence Tests
Copyright 1994, The Institute for the Learning Sciences

It will be far from simple to get schools to conform to natural learning.
Natural learning requires natural curiosity, and curiosity tends to be an
unbounded thing. Children get curious about what they get curious about.
When one child wants to go in one direction and another child wants to go in
another, teachers and school curricula committees have difficulty coping.

Schools have been quite content to have classes that in no way conform to
natural learning techniques. Although children do not respond well to long
lectures, we nevertheless give them regularly in school. Although children
do not respond well to sitting in one place for a long time, we nevertheless
make this a fixture of most schooling. Although children like to find things
out for themselves, we insist on telling them what we want them to know.
Although children need to have their questions answered in order to generate
more questions, schools tell them to wait their turn or not to ask at all.

Learning by Doing ...

Doreen:
There may be others methods but I am using the parents' guide for
homeschooling from Live Education! which is Waldorf based and very hands on.
My grandson has struggled with Math and so we have been doing geometry and
reinforcing what he learned previously.  Check out their web site and email
them about algebra..www.live-education.com
Bev Tisdell

----------
From: Robert Swanson <robertswanson@...>
Date: Sun, 14 Jan 2001 02:19:27 -0800

As is, we equate shame with emotional drive. Incorporation of emotions into
daily life is considered the opposite of intelligence, and so, emotions are
rarely mentioned. We hide them under a facade. Emotions lead us to being out
of control. Does this seem like what nature would intend for its highest
achievement? Were we accidentally genetically programmed over millions of
years to eventuate as a conflicted self, unable even to organize its own
state of being?

An organism survives by being organized. Its organization is integration of
its systems. Integration of mental-emotional aspects creates the assemblage
of intelligence. The organism survives. Humans are different than many
organisms. Their integration occurs more gradually taking about fifteen
years to become concrete. This integration process may be perceived as two
important transitions.

There are transitions children move through. First, their consciousness
knows nothing but being the interaction they are engaged in. After the first
transition children are also aware that they can think of interactions apart
from what is occurring. A second transition around age eleven allows
creative thought about interactions that they have not experienced.

Each transition can occur with maximum benefit if the previous stage has
been worked over like a fresh slab of concrete. This means that the
substance of life is poured into the framework that mom provides. Then the
substance is "textured", worked over experientially again and again that
particles settle and harden in place, and the suspension, the confusion, is
wicked away.

Now imagine an upbringing where many rules are set in concrete. The child
learns to perform socially. The child learns to perform for school. The
child performs as a child according to rules imposed on childhood. The rules
are hard set. Only generally cemented in place is how the basic life
interactions work. Thus, a child usually learns to crawl, walk, talk, count
and have manners, but these are developed as rules, not as the nearly
infinite interrelationships that actually comprise life's foundation. Doing
in Rome as the Romans do is ruled out of a child's experience. The parents
consider broad exposure dangerous. How else could a child learn The Rules
but by limitation. In this limitation the rules are set in concrete while
the stuff of life wicks away.

What is the stuff of life? For one, it is the imprinting in the brain of the
magnificent range of interactions that comprise life. For another, it is the
emotional/intuitive qualities associated with the range of interactions.
These things together, emotions and interactions, create a working
foundation from which can spring a working ego, an easy and practical way of
survival, and a practical creativity that has all kinds of fun expanding on
the given world, the stuff of life.

But what happened to fun intelligent creativity? What happened to
intelligent ease of survival? These things got swept away as suspension
(actually dissolved at eleven years old) while the concrete rules settled as
the way of life. Intelligence cannot function as intended without
emotional/intuitive associations. Emotions and intuition are integral parts
of our being. The imposition of rules cannot bypass these to recreate
intelligence in some pagan image of humanity. Our genetic programming is far
too complex to manage as such a simplistic idealism. The brain fails. And
with it goes the sophisticated intelligence that easily, intuitively,
understands getting by in life, and understands how to expend energy
joyfully enhancing the quality of life.

What needs cementing in the child is not a limited set of rules. What the
child needs is the full set of interrelationships that are the stuff of
life. And what glues this stuff with intelligent consciousness is emotions.
If emotions are ruled out when we absurdly try to recreate life, then the
stuff of life cannot become a solid foundation for intelligence to erect
upon. Instead, intelligence becomes an abstract with the purpose of
recreating life as a bunch of unfounded rules.

The point is this: Emotions cement the integration of intelligence. For
emotions to be a part of the concrete stuff of life they have to be freely
experienced by children while being freely modeled by adults. Then they can
begin to move through the transitions mentioned in the third paragraph. From
experiencing self as only the experience of emotion the child can transit to
seeing a relationship of self to emotions. From here the child transits to
imagining varied possibilities of using emotions as tools for recreating
relationships in the stuff of life. Here is true control.

This intelligently functional child will have the ability to relate
happiness to the work of quickly changing society into what works better and
with more happiness. This focused attention is so different than our
associating happiness with laziness, with addictions, with breaking rules,
with distractions. This intelligence I am speaking of is far different than
today's "smart" person who can outwit others, avoid being caught, escape
paying taxes, and get the most for the least amount of time spent away from
his personal distractions and addictions.

Where do emotions and the stuff of life come together? In play.
Rules/rigidity and play/emotions are antithetical. We can have one or the
other. In order to choose intelligence and success we must also choose play
and emotions. Choosing these means using a vocabulary of emotions freely.
This will enable transitions as the time comes for them. Choosing these also
means adults have to play with children. Children are to take adults into
their realm of child-play, and, adults are to take children into their world
of adult-play. To the child there will be no dividing line. Emotions will
glue in place first experiences, and then emotions will glue in place
additional experiences. All of it will be play. There will be no transition
into abstract rules because the rules will be obvious as being the way life
works. Finally, doing what does _not_ work in life will simply be an act of
stupidity. And we won't have many stupid people when people are doing what
comes natural with the concrete stuff of life.

robert swanson

----------
From: Robert Swanson <robertswanson@...>
Date: Sun, 14 Jan 2001 12:10:47 -0800

Life does need rules, but these are meant as measuring sticks, not as
idealisms abstracting life as some fairy tale. Fairy tales and superstitions
don't work well in real life. What does work is to measure what is occurring
and then do things that measure up even better.

The best measures are simple guideposts that everyone understands. Once we
become fluent in these, more complex measures may be gradually implemented.
Likewise, results will become more refined and the benefits will define
higher "values". These values still won't be The Rules. They will simply be
what works.

Simple guideposts are nicely provided for in "Living Joyfully With Children"
by Win & Bill Sweet. Their down-home experience with their own children is
easily translated to other daily situations.

My own idea of applying material in this book is to simply post one of the
lists of behaviors and then schedule some sort of interaction measuring
actual behavior against the experimental wish list. To understand this,
let's make up a scenario.

Here is a list to post:
(pg. 18) Honoring Play
* Encourage solitary play.
* Provide opportunities for authentic free play with other children.
* Play with your children on their terms.

At a weekly school meeting the children are asked to comment on these and
reach some sort of consensus. The children reply that there has been lots of
time for free play with each other, but not enough space at school to play
alone, and, as to adults playing "correctly", the children did not
understand the question. The adult's response to this measuring of behavior
was to divide up a room so that individuals could have their own space. The
adults also set aside alternating days one week to deliberately play
correctly one day and incorrectly the next. This had the result that
children vehemently requested correct play. Not only did they think correct
play was better than incorrect, but it added so much to the school
experience that children were requesting adult attendance in a third of
their activities. The adults thought the experimental list such a success
that they created a suggested schedule for similar experiments using five
more lists. They thought that after doing that much they could decide on
hiring a psychology professor to help with more technical experiments of
"higher" value.

These are some of the other lists available in the book:
* Kinds of play that pass the play test. (pg.17)
* Degrading themes to avoid in the milieu. (pg.4)
* Appropriate responses to crying. (pg.26)
* Traits of a strong emotional core. (pg.33)
* Responsive/not imposing actions of adults. (pg.36)
* Principles vs. rules. (chapter 9)

There are more lists in this book of 186 pages. But in reading it you will
develop ideas for your own lists applicable to your situation. I promise,
doing these experiments will make a profound difference in the sense of
effectiveness and satisfaction.

robert

To get the book...

http://www.amazon.com:80/exec/obidos/ASIN/1889051179/qid=979501620/102-43236
05-2367305
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Living Joyfully With Children
by Win Sweet, Bill Sweet

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It is imperative that children be socially adapted at age six to be
successful in life. What they don't say here is that adaptation derives from
adult play with children.

I dislike the idea of using the list below to evaluate children. If adults
will let down their guard to be honest and intimate, then the list can be
used cooperatively with children to make realtime changes. Free children can
be trusted to help construct a constructive milieu. It is adult thinking
that is in the way, not children.

At six years old, in school, I would have passed only two items on the list
below. My staunch '50's parents thought playing with me to be inappropriate.
The changes I have made in my life I have really had to work at :(

robert

EXCERPTS:
http://ericae.net/edo/ed356100.htm
Young Children's Social Development: A Checklist. ERIC Digest., McClellan,
Diane E.; Katz, Lilian G.

unless children achieve minimal social competence by about the age of six
years, they have a high probability of being at risk throughout life.

the single best childhood predictor of adult adaptation is NOT IQ, NOT
school grades, and NOT classroom behavior but, rather the adequacy with
which the child gets along with other children.

THE SOCIAL ATTRIBUTES CHECKLIST

I. Individual Attributes

The child:

1. Is USUALLY in a positive mood

2. Is not EXCESSIVELY dependent on the teacher, assistant or other adults

3. USUALLY comes to the program or setting willingly

4. USUALLY copes with rebuffs and reverses adequately

5. Shows the capacity to empathize

6. Has positive relationship with one or two peers; shows capacity to really
care about them, miss them if absent, etc.

7. Displays the capacity for humor

8. Does not seem to be acutely or chronically lonely

II. SOCIAL SKILL ATTRIBUTES

The child USUALLY:

1. Approaches others positively

2. Expresses wishes and preferences clearly; gives reasons for actions and
positions

3. Asserts own rights and needs appropriately

4. Is not easily intimidated by bullies

5. Expresses frustrations and anger effectively and without harming others
or property

6. Gains access to ongoing groups at play and work

7. Enters ongoing discussion on the subject; makes relevant contributions to
ongoing activities

8. Takes turns fairly easily

9. Shows interest in others; exchanges information with and requests
information from others appropriately

10. Negotiates and compromises with others appropriately

11. Does not draw inappropriate attention to self

12. Accepts and enjoys peers and adults of ethnic groups other than his or
her own.

13. Gains access to ongoing groups at play and work

14. Interacts non-verbally with other children with smiles, waves, nods,
etc.

III. PEER RELATIONSHIP ATTRIBUTES

The child is:

1. USUALLY accepted versus neglected or rejected by other children

2. SOMETIMES invited by other children to join them in play, friendship, and
work.

This digest is adapted from the article, "Assessing the Social Development
of Young Children. A Checklist of Social Attributes," which appeared in the
Fall 1992 issue of DIMENSIONS OF EARLY CHILDHOOD (pp. 9- 10).


ERIC Digests are in the public domain and may be freely reproduced and
disseminated

Looks like deep stuff, interesting.

http://www.schoolofwisdom.com/listing.html



And on the brain...
Joseph Chilton Pearce mentioned Paul D. MacLean as his source for saying the
neocortex is underdeveloped. If you find better information, please let me
know. Paul's books seem to be out of print.
robert

http://www.switchboard.com/about/about.asp?IMG=yes&MEM=1

http://mitpress.mit.edu/e-books/Hal/chap13.java/thirteen6.html
http://www.cns.nyu.edu/home/ledoux/nytimes.html

My take on the above links:
Irrationalism vs. Spock

Logic alone does not assess the context of its thinking process. It does not
care that you may be impatient. When are emotions of value? When they help
us arrive at fairly intelligent choices in a shortened amount of time. If
this effort is put into furthering creative development, it has "more"
value. When the effort is for simple survival (fear) it has "less" value.

Fairly intelligent choices are a balance of function between the great
conceptional neocortex and the emotional mamalian brain. If the mamalian
brain is left to reason with the lower lizard brain then decisons will be
primitive. Developing creative neocortex influence turns more emotions into
feelings and a higher intelligence response.


http://www.kheper.auz.com/gaia/intelligence/MacLean.htm
  "It had previously been assumed that the highest level of the brain, the
neocortex, dominates the other, lower levels. MacLean has shown that this is
not the case, and that the physically lower limbic system, which rules
emotions, can hijack the higher mental functions when it needs to."




Neurology--web magazine
http://www.epub.org.br/cm/home_i.htm

robert

Are we successfully dumbed down as John Gatto says? Do we actually use 20%
(or maybe less) of our neocortex as Joseph Pearce claims, and think more
like primative life forms than as humans?
robert


http://www.epub.org.br/cm/n03/opiniao/elson1_i.htm

During its development, the brain has to form around 100 trillions
connections among 100 billions neurons. There are factors, like the genetic
factor received from parents, which determines part of the child's cerebral
structure, and the environmental factor, which produces stimuli that
determines the emission of axons and dendrites and the formation - or not -
of connections, or synapses.

Science knows also that children who have little environmental and social
stimulation in this initial phase of life are unable to complete the
development of certain networks in their brains, sometimes causing a
permanent deficit in the child's ability to learn to talk, to read, to sing
and to play musical instruments, to dance, to leard new idioms; in other
words practically everything that is important to become a full-functioning,
intelligent adult.

***

http://www.kheper.auz.com/gaia/intelligence/MacLean.htm
  It had previously been assumed that the highest level of the brain, the
neocortex, dominates the other, lower levels. MacLean has shown that this is
not the case, and that the physically lower limbic system, which rules
emotions, can hijack the higher mental functions when it needs to.

See the whole list. It seems perfect for a Sudbury type education.
robert


http://www.awareparenting.com/learning.htm
Principles of Learning by Aletha Solter, Ph.D.

Excerpted from Aletha Solter's workbook to accompany Helping Young Children
Flourish (Shining Star Press, P.O. Box 206, Goleta, CA 93116, U.S.A.)

1. All children are born with the desire and the ability to learn.

2. Children learn best when the learning is self-initiated, arising from
their own curiosity and interests, rather than imposed on them.

3. Children learn best through hands-on experiences and self-discovery,
rather than through direct instruction. Concept formation arises naturally
out of concrete experiences.

Hello,

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The 11th Commandment: Honor Thy Children
Thou Shalt Not Cause Thy Children Pain

Please note -

If you would like to join the Metagifted mailing list you need to reply to
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Also on this part I made a little typo-

> You are also welcome subscribe to another list with the same content
> posted by the moderator, but different subscribers by writing to
> majordomo@... and put in the body the text (without the
> quotes) "suscribe metagifted-list". This is the Metagifted Community
> of Awareness original mailing list.

Oops - This should have said, "Subscribe metagifted-list"  for the line
you have to put in the body of the mail to majordomo@...


~Wendy

----- Original Message -----

From: Metagifted moderator

To: indigo-schools@yahoogroups.com

Sent: Tuesday, February 06, 2001 9:30 AM

Subject: [THE INDIGO NETWORK] Invitation to join the Metagifted group

Hello,

Reply to this email to join the Metagifted group,
an email group hosted by Yahoo! Groups, a free, easy-to-use email group
service.

JOIN NOW, IT'S EASY: reply to this email by choosing "Reply" and then
"Send" in your email program.

By joining Metagifted, you will be able to exchange messages
with other group members. Yahoo! Groups also makes it easy to store
photos and files, coordinate events and more.

Here's an introductory message from the group moderator:
------------------------------------------------------------------------

Hello!!!

You are invited to join the Metagifted group at Yahoo! Groups, an email group service.  Please take a moment to review this message.

Metagifted is a mailing list discussion group for anyone interested in the topics covered on the Metagifted website www.metagifted.org including giftedness of all types including both academic and metaphysical/spiritual, metaphysical issues, and the combination of these things including how to teach metaphysics to children. This list is for sharing of information about gifted or metagifted persons including oneself and children, teaching and parenting techniques, Indigo comments and questions, Shamballa and Reiki questions and information sharing. The purpose of this list is to provide a method of communicating with people with similar issues and ideas and to further awareness of the topics of giftedness, metagiftedness and Indigo children.

We are all here to support each other! I want to provide resources to help us connect to one another to welcome the new energy and the new children.

You are also welcome subscribe to another list with the same content posted by the moderator, but different subscribers by writing to majordomo@... and put in the body the text (without the quotes) "suscribe metagifted-list". This is the Metagifted Community of Awareness original mailing list.

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Namaste,

Moderator of Metagifted Yahoo group
and Director of Metagifted Ed. Resource Organization
~Wendy Chapman


------------------------------------------------------------------------

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To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to:
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Hello!!!

Welcome to the Metagifted group at Yahoo! Groups, an email group service. 
Please take a moment to review this message.

Metagifted is a mailing list discussion group for anyone interested in the
topics covered on the Metagifted website www.metagifted.org including giftedness
of all types including both academic and metaphysical/spiritual, metaphysical
issues, and the combination of these things including how to teach metaphysics
to children. This list is for sharing of information about gifted or metagifted
persons including oneself and children, teaching and parenting techniques,
Indigo comments and questions, Shamballa and Reiki questions and information
sharing. The purpose of this list is to provide a method of communicating with
people with similar issues and ideas and to further awareness of the topics of
giftedness, metagiftedness and Indigo children.

We are all here to support each other! I want to provide resources to help us
connect to one another to welcome the new energy and the new children.

You are also welcome subscribe to another list with the same content posted by
the moderator, but different subscribers by writing to majordomo@...
and put in the body the text (without the quotes) "suscribe metagifted-list".


To start sending messages to members of this group,
simply send email to

Metagifted@yahoogroups.com

If you do not wish to belong to Metagifted, you may
unsubscribe by sending an email to

Metagifted-unsubscribe@yahoogroups.com

You may also visit the Yahoo! Groups web site to modify your
subscriptions:

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You can tell us about products that directly relate to these topics, but any
unrelated spam will result in immediate removal of the spammer from the list.

Namaste,

Moderator of Metagifted Yahoo group
and Director of Metagifted Ed. Resource Organization
~Wendy Chapman

Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms

I am passing the word!!

~Nicoletta
*********************************************************
"It is paradoxical, yet true: Children are the most in
need of loving attention when they act the least
deserving of it!"
                      by Aletha Solter, 1998
     from the article "Why Children Misbehave"
                   www.awareparenting.com
*********************************************************


To: CCL-LLCs@onelist.com; LearningCommunities@yahoogroups.com
Subject: [LearningCommunities] Pass the Word!!!


As most of us know creating learning communities is one part of a massive
global transformation taking place today as we create a new Information Age
civilization to replace the dying Industrial Age civilization.  All of our
institutions are in the process of being replaced, especially the factory
style school.  However, the change is far broader.  Please take a look at
the 90 Insights outlining the new learning systems and new civilization.
Please email others and tell them about the Insights.
http://www.winwinworld.net/InfiniteWealth/

We're creating a revolution!!!!

Barry Carter.

Shortcut URL to this page:
   http://www.onelist.com/community/LearningCommunities

Oops!!!
I gave the wrong info here. Don't reply to the invite message directly or
you will subscribe the whole group.  I removed the group that someone
signed up and signed up that person. If you also wanted to join and didn't
get signed up yet, please do the following:

To subscribe yourself, please send an email to
metagifted-subscribe@yahoogroups.com. Just put "subscribe" in the body.

sorry for the confusion!

Thanks!
~Wendy

  On Tue, 6 Feb 2001 Poetmom99@... wrote:

>
> Teresa
> The 11th Commandment: Honor Thy Children
> Thou Shalt Not Cause Thy Children Pain
>
>
>
>