© Rodney H. Clarken, 2005 1 Teaching the Whole Child, Embracing the Whole World Dr. Rodney H....

© Rodney H. Clarken, 2005 1

Teaching the Whole Child, Embracing the Whole WorldDr. Rodney H. ClarkenNorthern Michigan University

President of the American Educational Research Association Special Interest Group on Wholistic Education and author of “Holistic Education” in the upcoming Encyclopedia of the Social and Cultural Foundations of Education.

Presented at the Upper Peninsula Reading Association Conference, Marquette, MI, October 14, 2005


Abstract:

• Each child brings unique capacities and personalities to the classroom. As teachers, we can help them develop their physical, emotional, intellectual and spiritual potentialities. This presentation will present a model of holistic education to develop human potentialities.


A model of human development

• Based on an integration of knowledge from psychology, philosophy and religion.

• Identifies the three basic human capacities--knowing, loving and willing-- and describes how they are developed through the three basic aspects of human nature--body, mind and soul.


•Soul Divine Spiritual

•Mind Human Mental

•Body Animal Physical

Human Nature

Each higher level encompassesand transcends the lower


•Soul

•Mind

•Body•Know

•Love •Will

•Potential self/world •Whole

Self/World


Human nature

• We combine the mineral, vegetable and animal qualities in our body, plus add the element of mind, based in a more evolved brain, and have the capacity to transcend them all with our soul.


We start off as one-celled organisms• made up of atoms and molecules held together like

the atoms and molecules of a mineral.

• Our one-cell zygote divides into two cells. Each successive cell follows a similar pattern, then the cells begin differentiating into different body parts and integrating into patterns, like a mineral crystal.

• We do not lose the mineral qualities of cohesion of our body until we die, when the atoms and molecules break apart returning again to simple matter.


We implant ourselves on the wall

• of the uterus and draw nourishment from our mother through our umbilical cord. If uprooted before we have developed physically, we die.

• Like plants, we grow from a seed, augmenting in size, qualities, complexity and development until at birth we have billions of cells and the ability to live outside the womb like other animals. This vegetative quality cause physical growth throughout our lives.


In the womb, the senses and capacities

• common to animals are being developed, but not yet actively used.

• At birth the physical body, which humans share in common with animals, is able to begin developing its sensorimotor capacities.


What distinguishes humans from animals

• is reason, which physically depends on the human brain which has evolved over eons.

• Understanding the physical brain can help us to understand the more abstract and higher mind and its role in the body.


The Triune Brain

Reptilian brain (brain stem) oldestPaleomammalian brain (limbic system) laterNeomammalian brain (neocortex) latest

Based on MacLeanhttp://www.ezls.fb12.uni-siegen.de/mkroedel/paul_maclean.html

http://www.ezls.fb12.uni-siegen.de/mkroedel/paul_maclean.html


The reptilian brain

• As infants, we operate primarily from the oldest part of our triune brains, the brain stem, which roughly corresponds to the reptilian brain that we share in common with reptiles. It controls internal functions, instinctive drives, reflexes, sleep, arousal and impulses.

• As we master and transcend some of these internal primitive activities and forces, we advance to higher animal functions.


The paleomammalian brain

• We move to the higher more evolved limbic system, the second oldest part of the brain, which “processes information in such a way that it becomes experienced as feelings and emotions, which become the guiding force for behavior”. (Jantsch, Self-organizing universe, p. 167)

• Very similar in organization, chemistry and function to the paleomammalian brain of horses, dogs and cats, and intimately connected to the brain stem’s visceral and emotional functions.


The neomammalian brain

• The neocortex constitutes the latest and highest stage in evolution of the brain. It encompasses the limbic system and the brain stem.

• It is what distinguishes humans from animals physiologically.

• It is the seat of thought and most voluntary movements: the mother of invention and father of abstract thought.


The triune brain as body, heart and mind

• Body, brain stem, part of ourselves the regulates systems in our body. Perceives itself in the lower belly, the area of its major biological functioning (i.e., hunger, sex)

• Heart, limbic system, the part of ourselves that feels emotions. Perceives itself in the chest, the area of its primary responsibility and sensory awareness.

• Mind, neocortex, the part of ourselves we most often think of as who we are. Perceives itself in the head, the area that forms judgments, handles short term memory and does abstractions


Triune brain and the three basic human capacities

• Body: to act, centered in brain stem

• Heart: to love, centered in limbic system

• Mind: to know, centered in neocortex


The willing, loving and knowing process of becoming your true self

•LovingHeart

•KnowingMind

•Willing Body

SOUL


Each of the triune brains thinks differently

• Body thinks in gestalt sequences of body sensations; body consciousness

• Heart thinks in sequences of feelings; emotional consciousness

• Mind thinks in sequences of words, concepts, thoughts, logic, etc.; mental consciousness


•Soul Divine Spiritual

•Mind Human Mental• Heart Mammal Emotional•Body Animal Physical

Human Nature & Triune Brain


Soul and the mind

• As the soul develops, the mind is illumined by the soul which leads to higher authentic, autonomous, unified, visionary and intuitive thinking. The mind transcends the logical, rational, personal, verbal and other limited and limiting mental constructs.


Definition of soul

• \Soul\ The animating and vital principle in humankind credited with the faculties of thought, action and emotion and conceived as forming an immaterial entity distinguished from but temporally coexistent with the body. Dictionary


“an animating and vital principle”

• Energy; courage; spirit; fervor; affection, or any other noble manifestation of the heart or moral nature; inherent power or goodness. (Definition #4 of soul from Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary)

• The soul is like the sun which gives life, illumines, sustains and is reflected in the body and mind.


“faculties of thought, action and emotion”

• Thought (Mind): Knowing, ThinkingUnderstanding TRUTH

• Action (Body): Willing, DoingJustice GOOD

• Emotion (Heart): Loving, FeelingUnity BEAUTY


•Thinking

•Action/Willing•Doing•Good•Hand

•Justice•Morals

•Emotion/Loving•Feeling•Beauty•Heart•Unity•Arts

mind

soulbody

•Thought/Knowing

•Science•Understanding

•Head•Truth

heart


“an immaterial entity”

• \Im`ma*te"ri*al\ 1. Not consisting of matter; incorporeal; spiritual

• \Spir"it*u*al\ 1. Consisting of spirit; not material; incorporeal; 2. Of or pertaining to the intellectual and higher endowments of the mind; mental; intellectual. 3. Of or pertaining to the moral feelings or states of the soul, as distinguished from the external actions; reaching and affecting the spirits. 4. Of or pertaining to the soul or its affections as influenced by the Spirit;


“distinguished from but temporally coexistent with the body”• The soul is different and distinct from the body,

but associated with the body for the limited time of physical life.

• The body is like a horse and the soul is like the rider. We identify with and care for the body as it is the vehicle for the soul, our true identity, which exists after the body dies.


The soul in this world

• Just as the body develops all of it physical capacities while in the womb of its mother, the soul develops its spiritual capacities while in the womb of this world. The human body serves as the placenta to the soul, taking in and filtering the nourishment of the world through the senses and mind so that the soul can develop the spiritual qualities and characteristics needed in the next realm.


The soul develops like the body

• Like the zygote that contains all the genetic potential from which our bodies develop, our souls have all of the spiritual capacities potentially in it, waiting to be developed. Like the body, the soul can be conceived of as the cohesion of spirit and virtues binding together to make a new entity, a unique spiritual identity, just as our body is a unique physical identity.


We can see, hear and feel with our soul

• in a similar way that we can first see, hear and feel with our physical senses (body), then with our emotional senses (heart) and then later with mental senses (mind). Later, the soul can reason and think for itself, transcending the knowledge from the physical and mental realms. It uses, but is not bound by the body and mind as in earlier stages. The rational soul can imagine, discover and comprehend the mysteries of the material, mental and spiritual realities.


We use our knowing, loving and willing capacities

• through our body, heart, mind and soul to develop our whole selves and to serve the whole world.


•Body•Heart•Mind

Soul

•Know

•Love •Will

•Potential self/world •Whole

Self/World


Embracing the World

Nature Body Mind SoulWorld Physical Mental Spiritual

Kingdom/ Realm

Mineral/Plant/Animal

Human Divine

Food Nutrition Knowledge Virtues


Reality Objective Subjective Transcendental

Language Pre Verbal- Body, Cries

Verbal-Words

Post Verbal-Virtues, Deeds

Logic Pre Logical (magic/myth)

Logical (reason)

Trans Logical (inspiration/ intuition)

Reason Pre Rational (drives)

Rational (empirical)

Post Rational (certitude)


Perspective 1st, person, Pre conventional

2-3rd person,

conventional

4th and on post conventional

Source Nature Science Religion

Identity Pre Personal (physical, emotional)

Personal (ego, ethnic)

Transpersonal (universal, transcendental)

Conscious-ness

Sub-Conscious

Self- Conscious

Super-Conscious

Self Center Bio centric EgoWorld centric

Theo centric


Contact information

Dr. Rodney H. Clarken

Director of Field Experiences and Professor

School of Education, Northern Michigan University, 1401 Presque Isle Avenue, Marquette, MI 49855-5348

Tel: 906-227-2160 (secretary), 227-1881 (office), 226-2079 (home), Fax: 227-2764, email: [email protected]

Website : http://www-instruct.nmu.edu/education/rclarken

http://www-instruct.nmu.edu/education/rclarken

© Rodney H. Clarken, 2005 1 Teaching the Whole Child, Embracing the Whole World Dr. Rodney H....

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