Have you ever seen a group of soldiers marching in time, a mass of bodies with not one footstep out of place as they clump obediently to the tune of the Sergeant Major, LEFT RIGHT LEFT RIGHT… not daring to misalign or appear out of place for fear of condemnation and punishment!
The marching soldiers may be analogous of our education model, a system asking us to be obedient to quite strict approaches to learning. If we don’t fit into such educational methods, are we open to being labelled a failure, stupid, or rebellious? If education leaves many people disengaged, anxious and despairing, then it may be time to reassess how we implement such a foundational aspect of our lives.
Almost four in five (78%) teachers have seen a pupil struggle with a mental health problem in the past year, with one in seven (14%) cases involving suicidal thoughts or behaviour. (1)
Such statistics should make us stop and consider how we offer schooling to our children to support them through the intensity of modern life.
What would such health outcomes (as above) be if we had more flexible, open educational methods – approaches that recognised the untapped genius in us all?
If you ask a small child to draw a picture of the sky and they paint it the colour green, does that make them wrong, or is there no right or wrong, only the child expressing their own way? We often look on the child as just immature and not yet intelligent enough to paint with ‘correct’ colours, but perhaps we overlook the wisdom that shines out in that offering. Maybe the child has tapped into knowledge and wisdom that symbolises everything they want to share in their chosen palette.
Instead of cherishing that, we look to squash out the green and replace it with our accepted blue. It’s a process of erosion, taking place over years, slowly suppressing the magic found in the child with the green tinted brush.
We look to replace that wisdom with a blue brush, every child holding onto that uniform brush tightly, for that is their accepted medium. And this is where we fail with our educational ways in that it doesn’t allow space for that colour to shine. Instead of bringing out our qualities, we are asked to all like and be good at the same way of thinking and learning.
No question there are certain things to be taught within formal education, but there is something inspiring in considering a teacher’s role is foremost to guide a child, to listen and connect with the individual, to engage by being attentive and understanding; to encourage each person to feel valued and able to contribute in their unique way; to cherish and offer confirmation as the precious people that we all are. Such an approach may also greatly support the teachers within such a system.
Educational experiences can be magical when we place importance on this wisdom and inner knowing. It’s time to say yes to flexible learning, say yes to valuing individual expression, and say a big YES to the child with the green tinted brush!
References:
- Campbell, D. (2019). Children face mental health epidemic, say teachers. [online] the Guardian. Available at: https://www.theguardian.com/society/2018/jun/23/schoolchildren-facing-mental-help-epidemic [Accessed 15 Apr. 2019].
By Stephen
Further Reading:
True Education and Healing Matters
What would our Education be like if we Truly Supported our Kids to Connect to their Body?
Education is Good: or is it?
50 Comments
The Appreciation and Intimacy that we share with children leaves them the space to pursue what they feel is True, and as long as we set boundaries that come from our Livingness and not just a dictation, children explore and share so much about what there bodies are feeling, thus we are opening up True expression from a young age.
Making education magical now that sounds more like it ✨ not pulling things out of hats!! but honouring the magic and beauty in all children, young people and adults as well as the Universe we are all part of.
We all have the innocence and wonder of a child within it’s the magic of God that never leaves us.
Thank you. This has invited me to explore the clear differentiation between things that we teach in schools that can be based on right and wrong and the so much more that needs to depart from this construct and be about nurturing and honouring all of our wisdom, potential, qualities and particular way we can contribute to and be part of life.
‘Educational experiences can be magical when we place importance on this wisdom and inner knowing.’ Absolutely when we allow the magic of another to be lived and be expressed and not try to define it, say what it can or can’t be or put into boxes that can be ticked so ‘we’ understand or it feels better for ‘us’. We have a lot to learn and also let go of here.
“If you ask a small child to draw a picture of the sky and they paint it the colour green, does that make them wrong, or is there no right or wrong, only the child expressing their own way?” Rather than condemning a child for being ‘wrong’ we can ask them why they painted in such a way and an interesting conversation may ensue? Let’s be curious.
Sue what ever happened to the word ‘curious’ Children are naturally curious about anything they see and or touch. But some how the word ‘curious’ gets changed to the word ‘nosey’ which has a completely different feeling to it such as doing something you shouldn’t and that’s the quickest way to shut down a child’s curiosity by making them feel less than.
When you describe the idea of the child not being able to express themselves and having to conform to a socially accepted norm, I can picture a the rebellion of the young person who knows it is not who they are or how they want to express. I love the courage of those children who insist they want to paint the sky green because it calls me to consider if I have been aligning without questioning and therefore no longer see what is there to be seen.
“Such statistics should make us stop and consider how we offer schooling to our children to support them through the intensity of modern life. ” I agree, and instead we keep on going and going whilst ignoring the obvious signals that the way we structured society is not working.
Why must children colour in the lines? Are these boundaries we are subliminality imposing on them? Does this stifle our natural curiosity of all things and cap us in what we are allowed to do? What if we were allowed and encouraged to express what we feel in our painting, the world we live in?
A definite yes to valuing individual expression (as long as it does not harm another) as well as to question what we have confirmed to and why. I was observing a police man in London the other day walking and what I could feel was how he was walking his training and what he had learnt, he was walking the consciousness of the police and protection rather than allowing himself to walk his truth.
The way we educate is based on a false premise that children do not know and we ignore their innate wisdom rather than embrace what they know and bring it out and support them as they grow in being in the world; we also deny that children have been here before, that we all have and it further compounds our view that adults know and they don’t – it’s not true and it’s time for another model.
Heavens I have to agree about presuming children don’t know and therefore not working from a place of building what they do know and supporting them to find their place in the world from those strengths. I have learnt, and am constantly reminded, not to underestimate the wisdom that can be shared from the younger members of our community.
There is an arrogance in assuming that children don’t know. We too have been schooled in the ‘there’s a right way and a wrong way’ to do things. Looking at adult society today – its not getting us very far. Indeed its taking a sixteen year old with Aspergers syndrome to wake up the world to the seriousness of climate change.
Yes I completely agree here that these statistics are shocking and a sign that something is seriously going wrong with how we are doing things.
We don’t honour the joy a child feels in expressing themselves, as adults we can hold a very narrow idea of what’s wrong and right instead of allowing the child the freedom to express.
True and when we don’t honour that joy of expression it can kill all inspiration and they try to fit into the mould we prescribe. How far is that getting the world and the state it is in today?
Wow these statistics are frightening
“Almost four in five (78%) teachers have seen a pupil struggle with a mental health problem in the past year, with one in seven (14%) cases involving suicidal thoughts or behaviour. (1)”
Is anyone stopping to ask the question why is this? I’m 63 years old and I feel certain that when I was at school we did not have such figures, so what on earth has gone on in the intervening years? And if we were to tie these figures up with our overall health then I feel the statistics would be bleak indeed. But we just seem to carry on as a society as though nothing is happening to us?
Yes our capacity to normalise what we should consider to be extreme and acute is one of our great ignorances.
We are slowly numbing ourselves, to everything that we are shunning our part in not taking ownership for our part of being responsible for the actions around us by not speaking up?
Shocking is the state of mental health of our children these statistics tells us the system is more than cruel.
We cause so much harm to children when we do not know the pictures we hold about how things should be and how an intelligent and successful student looks. If there was the understanding globally that every child had within them all they need to express and expand in the world, in their learning then the approach by our educational frameworks and institutions would be very different.
The anxiety and worry so many of our primary children have these days is far more intense that it was 25 years ago. As curriculum pressure has increased and results at this tender age has become “more important” so has the increase of stress on pupils (and teachers). The UK government’s answer is to provide more mental health support services in secondary schools. It seems they haven’t joined the dots… high teacher turn over/teacher shortages and high mental ill health with pupils. What if, as you say Stephen we had flexible methods of teaching and took a different approach. We should be tapping into the natural joy and curiosity that all children hold.
The fact that the UK government can’t join the dots between the pressure they place on students and teachers and the mental health issues of students and high teacher turnover says a lot about the the kind of intelligence promoted in education and how that impacts on relationships and society in general. It feels very cold, insensitive, and ignorant or oblivious to what’s truly going on. This is what happens when mind centered intelligence is focused on and not the intelligence of the heart and whole body.
In giving more mental health support – not in itself a bad thing – but why aren’t we looking at the causes – the why? We know toddlers and very young children have this natural curiosity – and great wisdom. Adults seem to think because they are older that they are wiser and ‘know’ more. Not true in many cases……
Yes, we place a great deal of care and attention on the students but we do not appreciate the care and attention needed on the health and wellbeing of the staff. In any business high staff turnover is a red flag, time to pay attention to this one because they support our next generation to know the world is a caring and loving place, or not.
Ah the old sledgehammer of wrong and right. Down it comes and everything that falls on the ‘wrong’ side of it often gets condemned for life. Take away wrong and right and you have us and the freedom to be who we naturally are.
Stephen what came to mind whilst reading your article was the Pink Floyd song and video ‘Another brick in the wall’. A song about exactly what you are sharing here and the video depicts ‘vacant’ looking kids on a conveyor belt disappearing into a mincer and coming out as sausage meat!
Yes – we have such a prescribed way of doing things and such an inherent belief that there is value in only one way that we fail to see and miss completely the utter gold in the expression that is in each and every child. This is not only to the detriment of the child but to the whole of society, which misses out on all the colour and different angles that make up the whole.
Expression is everything, everything is known by it’s expression. The only way to know God is through our expression and so what an evil process our current education system is, it takes the closest living thing that we have to God on earth, ‘our kids’ and it suppresses and condenses them to such an extent that their expression no longer resembles the expression of God. And what’s even worse is that we measure a child’s merit on how good they are at fitting into the education system and what’s even worse is that kids measure their own self worth on their ability to fit into the system. The system needs an overhaul of such magnitude that there will be very little left of our current model. And I say hallelujah to that!
When do we consider the gold we are burying in our children with the bureaucracy as a tool that is used on teachers, who is supporting this system by staying silent?
So so true Michelle. Everyone is missing out on account of the blinkered vision that those ‘higher up’ hold. There is no one right way – but there might be one true way…
The way we are educated stays with us for life, often there are memorable teachers we still know by name for good or bad reasons. The original meaning of the word was to ‘bring out’ but these days it’s made to squash students into a box. This has a great impact on our health in school and beyond.
My god, these statistics really did shock me. It made me consider how my behaviours contribute to such an epidemic and can’t help but feel that in my choices to abuse myself through food, negative thoughts and so on I have a part to play. The responsibility of taking care of our bodies has a much deeper meaning when we know that everything we do impacts others. Because when we don’t take care of our bodies & ourselves, we feel weak, sometimes we can feel like we don’t care and in that state, our words, actions and thoughts towards others can be just the same as those of a Sergeant teaching his soldiers to stay in line – squashing & cutting out the sensitivity of all around us.
“Educational experiences can be magical when we place importance on this wisdom and inner knowing” I so agree. yet it’s so sad that many teachers cant enable this, either because they are caught up in the education consciousness or on account of bureaucracy from higher up the chain.
Agreed, the pressure to conform goes all the way up the chain and affects teachers just as much as the chidren and young people. Education has become a factory for churning out conformity and mediocrity.
Honestly – it is very hard for teachers not to be caught up in the education consciousness because a) they went through the system themselves and were ‘successful’ in it and b) they are invested in making education as it is work. This consciousness then permeates every other facet of life as the competition, comparison and idea of what intelligence and success is continues beyond into work and family life. The cycle begins anew with each generation and gets cemented more and more in the body. The levels of withdrawal from so many students are a testament to how much they feel this and how disempowered they feel in the face of this energetic onslaught.
Great post Stephen. “What would such health outcomes (as above) be if we had more flexible, open educational methods – approaches that recognised the untapped genius in us all?” As parents we too have had that educational experience and can think we are doing the ‘right thing’ in moulding our children. Letting them express their individuality doesn’t dampen their sense of fun – or wisdom.
We certainly bombard our children with many ideals and beliefs, believing we have to shape them to cope and be ‘successful’ in life. We don’t stop to consider that the life model we have is one we have generated and created and therefore it is one we can uncreate or change! So rather than squashing children to fit the model in society we have, how about honouring our children, nurturing them from the love we are – recognising the love they are, so that we can change society to fit a model that rests purely and squarely on the appreciation of the gold that is innately there but one we have hidden under the surface and bring it to the fore?
Have you ever been in a storm that has spawned a tornado? One of the tell-tail signs is the sky turns green. It is a message to seek shelter.
The use of the analogy of marching soldiers is interesting. 2,000 years ago Roman soldiers when they came to a bridge had to break from the rigid march and walk at their own pace or risk causing the bridge to collapse from the imposing vibrations.
Through our current education system we take the absolute dazzling brilliance of uncut diamonds and shape it into bog standard glass. Shame on us.
The education system has become a machine that takes our children, as raw materials and treats them like dough. The process mixes,, adds pressure to flatten and then the cookie-cutter finishes the process. Then they are sent out into the world to be eaten by the biggest machine; we call life.
This is very true Steve my Dad who passed away many years ago said we were sausage meat put into a machine that turned everyone into strings of sausages. He told me this when I was starting school over 58 years ago so we do know that the education system doesn’t work. It bludgeons us in such a way that we are crushed by the relentless requirements to be good, do better and out compete one another, the list is long. Our current form of education has never worked and will never work and tinkering with it doesn’t work either. To learn something by rote does not make you intelligent.
What a forward thinking and wise man your Dad was Mary. ‘bludgeoning’ is the exact word. Being good and nice were instilled into me from as far back as I can remember. But that left no room for me to be my natural self. What are we doing to our beautiful children – the society of tomorrow?
Great article, Stephen! I also know of people who were told as young children by teachers and even parents: ‘your drawings are junk’, ‘colouring is outside the lines’, ‘disobedient and uncooperative’, ‘couldn’t sing to save yourself’, ‘can’t remember your lines’, ‘always do something different from what you’re told’, ‘hopeless at maths’, ‘stupid’, ‘bad’, ‘pretty not brainy’, ‘brainy not pretty’, ‘pathetic at spelling’, etc. Those people have carried the pain of that belittling abuse into late adulthood, so much so that at one point I felt to offer workshops in getting past ‘performance abuse’!
Dianne I have recently been looking at anxiety and stress around performing, it’s actually quite horrific and started at an early age, it’s around everything from getting things right in school, exams, presenting – even being with people socially can feel the same, a performance to get things right, pressure to please others, etc. I would sign up immediately to your course, it would be so valuable to explore this further with support.
You’re spot on Melinda when you say that people feel ‘performance anxiety’ purely from being in the company of others and when you think about it that’s intense. What on earth have we done to ourselves when being with others, (which in truth is the most natural and joyous thing for us all) has become one of our most loathed and arduous tasks, so much so that most of us feel relief when we are by ourselves and limit those who we are with to a very select few?
Dianne, I’d sign up for your course, Art and singing were two areas of my life that spring to mind for me. Performance anxiety yes but I never thought to label that as abuse before….. Humiliation in front of others – so destructive and the after effects can be long-lasting.
Yes. We cannot underestimate the impact of our words either ‘belittling’ or ‘building’. How can it ever make sense to actively reduce someone when we have every opportunity to support, confirm and encourage?