How is learning through memorization real learning?

Are we able to know a tiger in a zoo?

Are we able to know a cell in a petrie dish? 

Are we able to know the expressions of our children in a box?

The answer to all the above is no. 

How can memorizing something bring through expression and understanding ? It can't. 

How many remember what they learned in school? 

How many professionals have learned systems well, only to realize they were in a box and had limited understanding. And how many are beyond their thirties when this happens?  How few become whistleblowers and stand up? How many give up and continue because they fear losing their pay check? 

Another pattern I have noticed is that children that were raised in environments where they had a lot of hands on interactions with the practical physical reality have a greater understanding of systems. And, those that become whistler blowers have had the opportunity to have " hands on" experiences post " memorization of text books"?  How many years does it take to have the experience and then begin to put together the actual physical reality and what they have used as an internal map ABOUT what it is that they are doing? 

We have an education system that is backwards. It places the cart before the horse. 

What is compartmentalization and how does that lead to fractionalization of information? If we memorize a text book about something and take a test based on what we memorized, and then go out into the world to occupy a job in relation to what we memorized and passed to enable to job, what do so many slowly realize?  Somehow there is a disconnect between what exists and what we were programmed through memorization to believe, to direct our actions. 

I met a mother who had arrived early at her daughter's school for " end of the school day " pick up. A school administrator had come out and told her she could not wait outside. This mother was shocked. She was told she could not wait outside because of a fear of any loitering person being a potential threat. 

An institution that is there to educate has lost discernment. What is replaced with discernment is a compartmentalized belief that the world is one of constant threat. And that is fractionalized thinking, that is spiraling in images and symbols of fear, something memorized through repetition from the " text-book" of media today, a stream of information, selected and utilized to program, to maintain a tension for control. That person probably has a low level of reading ability.  Such beliefs stagnate a natural ability to process information. It is the absence of being able to make relationships between things, as one rather is following an internal text ( symbols embedded into the flesh ) and allowing such a " ghost in the flesh " to be what directs actions. Slow way down and look. It is visible. Or are you in a type of Plato's cave seeing only the shadows of programming allowed and accepted to define one's world? 

Another visible way to know this difference is to listen to the music/math of a person's words as they are spoken and come from one's flesh. And, this is being measured. And this is known through allowing one to have a reading assessment. 

Do you want to find out? 

Send me a message and I will be able to arrange it. 

The Limitations of a Scattered Mind. How can we rebuild and restore our ...

The innocence of the child and the zone of proximal development.

We have all heard of the innocence of the child.

Yet, do we KNOW where and what that means in practice?

In the educational language, there is something called the " zone of proximal development." I believe this is from a man named Vygotsky.

We understand in the order of operations of development, that we work with children within where they know something, where they are comfortable in being able to process something with ease. One could say, this is where something is becoming automatic, meaning the child knows it so well they need not have to spend time " thinking " about it.

That " zone" is where the child can easily expand upon understanding with no FORCE. Meaning, they have built enough of an understanding, or ability to communicate what they know effectively, and can HOLD that AND simultaneously add to that. They move with ease from the known into greater understanding or presence ( were this used effectively).

That state of " ease" is a quiet and calm state, an open and vulnerable state, which it must be because our sensitivity is where our greatest ability lies. Here we can more quickly and easily take in measure and movement of qualities in expression that is this reality.

If we are under any kind of pressure, or force, that gets in the way because it occupies our attention. Then, if we take in some of the " new" it will be colored with that FORCE that as a force, in itself, will accumulate and the child will have increasing inner friction that is compounding to the extent the child will have greater and greater difficulty in processing new information, and even information that was once believed to be known. Here, in the very behavior of the child, is an interference.

Here, the innocence of the child is lost. AND, that zone of proximal development is more difficult to experience.

Meanwhile, we know this in the very words we use to describe children and their development overall. If we " automate" what we practice, if we practice FORCING information without practical application and take away - as not find that point of behavior of calm and ease, that place where the child gently moves from the known into the unknown experiencing a state of " awe" for the new - and instead FORCE movement, we end up compounding a lack-of-ease automating.  This is a pressure that will have an outcome of increasing difficulty in learning. It works BOTH ways. YET, we know that self discovery happens within that state of ease because that state of ease is quiet by the nature of FULL ATTENTION.

If one is fully focused, one is naturally quiet, still, calm. That is more that state of innocence, it is where a child can know the old so well they need not think about it, AND simultaneously absorb, as expand, into greater awareness, as an understanding of something to the extent it automates and is easily referenced and checked in ways that open what is natural and fun. Learning is awesome.

From my perspective the innocence of the child is that point, that state of being, that FOCUS that one finds when one allows a child to move forward from their zone of proximal development.

For this reason, it is so important that children master language through correct practice, to accumulate a sense of knowing the words to the extent they need not think about them.

This takes practicing the words.

In our busy world today, the adults do not always have the time to lend a consistent and stable practice of our words that help us to structure our understanding to be able to learn new things and communicate with clarity. Our schools are what is called the " direct instruction model." Meaning, it is one teacher, with a set curriculum and 25ish students in a room. They, by this design, cannot check and see if every child is properly focused and effectively taking in the new information. Nor do teachers have the time to lend a consistent and effective practice of the language. They are too busy teaching a lesson that they must move through. They are not meant to be that consistent "small careful practice managers." It is an impossibility.

Given that we are moving from an industrial age, into a more automated age, with an increase in the flow of information, it is imperative that we adults of the old system provide our children with the means to practice their words to the extent they need not think about them to allow them to realize and understand the basics of how they work.

In our world today, there are too many children having slow processing speeds, having all manner of attention disorders, which all indicate that we are not working with what is natural as their ability to absorb and understand new things. What is imperative, is that they master language to the extent they can recognize where they are at themselves, within all this, to make the choices that lead them to becoming their best and independent as adults.

What do you want for you child?

Looking at slow processing speeds. How did we get here. How can words help?

Today I am going to look at processing speeds. It is a question I ask because it is understood that there is a big problem wth processing of information speeds in our children. 

In music rehearsals, if a piece is played at a certain tempo for too long a period of time, it is very difficult to get that ‘ set tempo’ to change. It is also not recommended to play something by rote, again and again in automation, because it is difficult to change what becomes an embedded tempo/movement etc.. Thus, how one does what one does, determines the outcome. If one has practiced something by rote too much ( because repetition in itself is not a bad) what happens is one gets locked into a form. It is like a lack of real play, as real play involves presence. If one is present, one has a greater ability to change.

I was reminded this week of how our belief systems can become visible in our behaviors. We respond to counter measures towards our beliefs with the same flight and flight reactions we learned in times of physical life and death survival. Meaning, we treat the beliefs we hold in the same manner we treat a tiger raging towards us to eat us. 

When I relate these two actions to behavior, I realize that when we learn something in such a way,  it becomes embedded as what we have practiced creating a separation. It becomes a kind of stagnant knowledge that we believe as us, because we focused on it and are resonant with it in a fixed way. The action of focusing on absorbing a set body of information also becomes our behavior. If this fixed and focused upon information is questioned, and we lack perspective because it is difficult to change out of what has become fixed within, do we find ourselves reacting with defensiveness and/or wanting to escape, to go and hide? One may have to slow down, suspend belief, and review some past behaviors to see this. It takes some spatial ability, of which using what is natural within us, and what has not been developed as effectively as it could be, is our presence. That presence took in the form that may not have been ‘ bad’ but when taken in in such a way, caused some stagnation. Tricky, but visible.

This is really the problem with memory learning in a box AND, in a room where the same age group is filled with children moving at different speeds in processing. Also, the dimension of an incorrect intake of information that has become stagnant. Also, that many parents in the home are a product of that of which I speak. This is too much for a teacher to sort out. I would say that this design overall - of public schools - is a formula that creates the problem of which I speak.

Let’s look at something we have learned as a set body of information that has been repeated again and again. I remember learning about the WW2 Holocaust at every level. I was told this story again and again. As an adult, I realize that there were so many holocausts on this planet I wonder why I did not learn about them too. I mean there are species of animals and plants that no longer exist, there was, from what I have read, the 11 million Irish who starved in Ireland which is a holocaust of greater proportions. There was the King Phillip war in America, where more men died in relation to the population that in either world war. These numbers are HUGE. Why was I told ONLY one story? And why was this limited perspective repeated again and again and again? Had I learned about the animals and the plants and the Irish - among others- and the King Phillip’s war, would I have exposure to more patterns in regards to the movements and actions of men, and had more perspective to then begin to question the overall form and understand this world and the choices we make with greater clarity? 

In terms of the amygdala fight or flight response, I realize that I feel like I move counter to something, when I speak up about this, like I am moving against an entity that I am supposed to repeat. It is like moving out of what has been embedded within me and collectively as group think that has become an entity that resonates. In a social context speaking up with more information can run counter to being the same voice as this limited story embedded within, it can cause friction if one does not speak the same because we hold the information we practiced and the design is to focus on the information we practiced because this is what we physically did! When new information comes along, we have to deconstruct and reconstruct, yet as we can see, we can get stuck in a set body of information and stagnant within that. This becomes visible when we react to information that is counter to our accepted and allowed practices as this. One behavior is to repeat the ‘ resonant ‘ information at the exclusion of anything else - because that is what we behaved as!. This action in itself, is a vocal distraction which is the means of how one loses one’s spatial skill. I would say losing critical and creative thinking skills is done through a focus on a limited narrative that has been placed center stage again and again and again. That narrative can be a truth, yet the focus on that ONLY, not only occupies one’s presence, it also stifles presence from seeing the whole picture and within seeing the whole, realize patterns as how we come to begin problem solving. It is really very simple. It is only the resonant imprint that overwhelms and blocks what is actually more natural. 

What I describe is the building of limited associative thinking. This means that as one is locked into a set body of information, that is the knowledge one references. Such a state is a lack of real processing, as it is more the consequence of memorizing without practical application. It by design, takes away critical and creative thinking skills. Because one is in a set resonant body of information, all of one’s words are related to that, thereby, causing all that information to come up when the words around it are spoken. Ever find yourself realizing you have not heard a thing someone has said? Where were you? Was some chain of stories, as actions and movements triggered and resonantly brought up that you placed your presence in a memory instead of continuing to listen to what a person with whom you spoke was saying? Even this is not a bad, to cross reference one’s experiences, yet, when it is done without being aware of both what was said and one’s reference material, it is an indication of a slow processing speed. You are a product of public schools.

In order to perform in a group, one must know one’s place in what one does, and extend one’s presence to the greater form around one to remain stable in movement as the performance.One’s presence is busy actively ‘ reading’ more than thinking.  One’s processing speeds have to be fluent. Also, one is relating to a real moving and living thing. One can see a few measures ahead, even realize the whole of the piece to balance one’s movements, as a quick abstraction in a moment, yet one remains present and grounded in the reality. Imagine musicians getting lost in a memory and not hearing what is actually happening. Actually, this does happen, musicians can move into automated behaviors when the same pieces are played again and again. And they can begin to lose their ability, having difficulty when a new piece must be learned. 

This state of slow processing ability, indicates a loss of spatial ability, and greater reactive behaviors in relationships. It is a loss of presence in reality. The consequence is increasing physical heaviness and more emotional reaction. One’s inner resonance composed of information, is no longer in-synch with being present in the living context around us. 

One is going to have to rebuild, This can be done with words. One must reintegrate one’s words, one at a time, and practice relating to the living reality around us. Thereby increasing what is a natural ability to recognize patterns in behavior, to see when one has moved into an associative thinking that is reference to what one has created/personified within one’s self as a practiced and repeated set body of limited information. Remember, that young children do not have such developed, they remain more present, and by extension, learn things more rapidly. It is all a visible math, moving around us. We are basically, walking in a valley of good and bad, more than and less than that is a shadow world projected by a miss-use of the imagination. The degree of a loss of spatial ability indicates the degree to which we are not using our presence correctly. Do we notice as we age, that we become more and more afraid and uncertain? Do we tend to resist some things at this point of separation, and only want what resonates with us, which is the same as being in a comfort zone? 

Our presence is our gift. As adults, because so many of us are a product of a mis-use of the imagination, we are not enough to ensure correct word usage in our present and absorbent children. We can use technology to correct this. We can build a sound mind that is in synch with one’s surrounding. Imagine feeling present and grounded, would one not build confidence and self esteem. Realize, you are the perfect instrument of life. 

Is there a choice to not do this? If you are interested in a tool that can accelerate this, send me a note. If your child is having reading problems and you sense they can do better, send me a note!

Thank you for reading! 

                      What is the consequence of a mis-use of the imagination?  Are you in synch with life? We are the words we effectively know.

Why is Learning to Read and Reading to Learn so Important? How Can I Help?

Recent studies in how the brain processes words/information have revealed that when a picture is learned with a word, conceptual ability is slowed down. In one article, it was noted that processing a word with a picture happened within a third of a second, while processing a word alone happened within a tenth of a second. A word, is a technological tool to place information, as human communication. After all, animals can process a series of tasks leading to a goal, though they cannot communicate this in human language. Humans use language to communicate. This is done within many borders; written and spoken text. Text is really a picture, a symbol, a graph. Words are in many ways only a reflection of what is around us, be it the practical world, or a resonant belief system one holds to define one’s self. In this, one can make that resonant belief larger than the practical. One’s words become a relationship to one’s belief. When this is larger than life, one exists in a state of separation from the practical.  This is why it has been said to take that which is good and does no harm, because this holds a recognition of the practical, the physical, and it restrains an inner construct of belief from imposing itself on the physical. 

Research studies reveal that better spelling skills lead to better jobs and higher levels of self actualization. Conversely, yet reflective of this, is the understanding that the greater the degree of violence, the less developed the vocabulary. Basically, the less one is able to communicate. The lack between these two in a world where so much communication is done with graphed constructs ( pictures, words, and the relationship of projections onto pictures) about this practical world, limits expression causing frustration and fear, leading to violence and resistance, hiding and protection. Remember, violence is a form of resistance, and it is an inability to effectively communicate. 

The practice of the smallest of what composes language, as the words, the spells, the graphs, is no longer a consistent part of our daily development of the child. And a child is very absorbent, they absorb the lack in the adults who also lack vocabulary development, and as a consequence, have varying degrees of inferiority to communication. The behaviors towards violence which is any form of a lack of real communication, become the measure of the child, because this is their experience. One reflects the other. Would there be a term such as a zone of proximal development that indicates a point of inner development? The term in itself reveals the whole.  

If one has slowed down and practiced the small, as spelling, one has focused more on the words.Yet, if one has a resonance memory of learning words with relationships to pictures or the lack of real vocabulary development in the home with the parents in those initial formative years, there is a clutter in processing, causing slower processing speeds. To note, learning a word with a picture, has faster short term effects, conversely learning a word without a picture, has greater long term effects. One misses movement in reality when one is busy processing what is imprinted within as pictures of emotional and feeling value constructs absorbed from the parent that are metaphysical maps as memory. This is a very strong state of being, as I noticed after living in a foreign country for 10 years- I had become more in manner the measure, or persona, of the national character of the country I inhabited, and it took about 7 years.  For example, how can one realize subtle tensions, as physical behavior in others if one is busy processing through a file of many pictures or value entities that are visible as personality likes and dislikes over practical considerations? And, would not a direct relationship with the word, and living reality become the greater sum of all parts? Would this not stop getting lost in inner value judgements, that can also become a collectively accepted body of information. Which, is why it is hard to communicate with ease with a foreigner, even when they have managed to learn one’s language to a certain degree. I mean, the metaphysical constructs, as persona, are visible, and how they are built is practically right in front of us. It is really very simple. One’s degree of separation from the practical reflects the degree of one’s lack of awareness, or forgetfulness, of what one resonates within as beliefs, opinions and ideas over the practical. All of this is visible in how one is using language because the language reflects one's level, or zone of proximal development, How near or far are we from realizing what we are within, and the practical world around us, without. The degree to which one can learn new things, is equal to the degree of mastery of self, one has within, as in realizing that what is resonant within is simply a reflection of one’s experiences, and possible judgements about that experience. That within, can become a comfort zone, where one loses teachability. We can get stuck in holes of our own resonance. This is when friction and resistance and a greater degree of violence with the world around us begin to manifest. 

If we look at schools as a framework, meaning a framed box where we learn through pictures ( word descriptions are a form of pictures),  that set body of information becomes not only a general scaffold of information, it becomes a general scaffold of information that is also a picture. Thus, and we know that after seven years a child has accumulated formation based on the parents awareness and their environment with humans being that of which I speak. If the parents have learned words without a direct relationship to the living reality and mastered spelling, we have a manifold problem, where the experience of the child is the measure of everything they have been exposed to. This is why a child from a stable environment, where there is more effective language use, do better in school. This means, that the schools do not really teach children. This means that the schools, with teachers that are a product of this, and a design that exacerbates this, are a part of the problem. I would say that the capacity of humans to order, and the consequence of a lack of clear order, or the consequence of limited order ( the guise of  good) are actually the problem. 

Schools more manage, the degrees of difference, as capacity or lack of effective word/spelling use inherent in the home. If the parent does not have a mastery of language, and they exist as a product of a school system where they learned a set body of information through memory/picture, and this being a general scaffold of information resonant within without direct application , what does the child become as they absorb the image and forms as movements of this limitation overall? Realize the consequences of this general set body of memorized/resonant information, that becomes a distraction, thereby losing an ability to process information in real time, because of so much time spent focusing on a set pictured body of information in itself learned with no real living relationships to reality,  leads to greater and greater insecurity, compounding over time into behaviors that are what exist in the home environment that is then what the child absorbs!  And we wonder why we have so much friction in our relationships. A more perfect practice builds a more fluid teachability, imperfect use of the imagination, lead to lesser degrees of effective self responsibility. No one can realize this but the self. 

How is it that we cannot realize that the reason we wait for a child to reach seven, before sending them, traditionally, to school, that we send them at this age because they have absorbed enough experience in reality to begin to self direct. Just as in the model of reading, where, usually, 1st and 2nd grade are when one learns to read, to then move into reading to learn as being the model of practicing the small, building momentum, then moving into beginning to apply one’s self in a deeper and greater circle of awareness AS NOT BEING HOW THIS ALL WORKS!  It is that how we work, is right in front of us!  We realize, that within this, it is very very difficult to change that foundational resonance. It takes great patience and consistent effort. It takes rebuilding! Think of Helen Keller. The schools in themselves, cannot be that detailed practice. They are a program of presenting a set body of information that is a general scaffold without any living relationships, thereby sounding like a good, that is really what leads to the dumbing down of America. If each generation does not realize this slow and subtle dumbing down, we are like a frog placed in cold water heated over many decades. when the frog dies because the water has become too hot, and we cannot see that, we stand there unable to see why the frog has died. We are at that point where the frog has died. What I have heard from superintendents, is that there are problems, and what is being done is not working.  This is even happening in some of the best schools in the state. What is interesting, is that local parents at the elementary school where I am, they talk about how wonderful the school is, because this is what the teachers say to them, the voice higher up is different. My experience in life tells me that this is probably the same story in every town. Humans can weave many justifications, to protect their metaphysical ideology, ignoring what is so evident in our present reality; our children have lost  practical ability. If you are an adult, ask yourself how much loss of spatial skill you are experiencing. The degree of a loss of spatial skill is equal to the degree of a loss of focus on the forms that are all around us, as the practical. That within metaphysical resonant construct has become larger that life. I can say, after I moved back to the states after living in a foreign country for ten years, the degree of this is very deep, and it takes effort to change it. For this reason, I have great admiration for what was done with Helen Keller. Obviously, prevention is the best cure. 

We humans are so caught in the web of abstracting in our imaginations, that we can no longer realize how we work.  We can ask ourselves what is a thought, especially if we ask ourselves what we generated as that momentum built from absorbing and by extension, imitating, as the very movements of the adults in our world that we were placed in, that we” learned to read, to move into reading to learn. “  If our parents were products of a system that by design, used learning in isolation to imprint a general scaffold that was by definition a ‘ picture’ of information ONLY , causing slower practical processing of reality, thereby causing mistakes of reality, leading to insecurities ( because we blame ourselves and rightfully so in many ways, because we are the only ones who can change this ) that becomes our actions as these little movements build momentum and accumulate into what is resonant within us, that then reverberate as our thoughts- such things we are not aware of -  and from where they come - when it is all explained in the learning model. I mean, manipulation can be such a subtle thing, and a hard thing to realize if one is caught in a resonance, or memory, of mis-information that may be correct, but limited as not enough, that causes distractions from seeing living reality thereby being a slow processing speed in who and what one is as having a living relationship to one’s practical reality! Astounding! I want to say WT#, here. LOOK!

A word, as human communication, is a thing, it is sound, it is visual, it is kinesthetic, meaning it touches one. It is a graph, it is a sound gram, it can touch us, reach us. It is like all the arts in one! I mean, why is it the one thing in a school that is taught as words, taught in a way that it is so in separation from practical and realistic real time connections, and drawn out with boring texts and group lessons, of same age, yet different starting points of development? Why is it this way? I mean, I have taught music, individually and in a group, it can happen so much faster than how we teach language, because it reveals by design the process of what happens when one physically learns, meaning when one builds with a direct relationship to a physical movement. This is so hidden in plain sight!  Mixing ages moves counter to the understanding that one can only move forward according to the zone of one’s proximal development! So, to set up groups of a wide range of development is to not move within that border of development, where learning happens at more expansive rates. It is in some ways the opposite, and can explain how competition exists within the schools, because while one is trying to process through memory, which is much slower learning, one is also comparing one’s self to the other students, as though one is in a race, which distracts from what one is doing, and becomes a habit because we become what we practice - as the learning to read, and reading to learn model explains. Thus, overall, the whole design is mathematically counter to what is best, counter to how we learn, and it is by design. If you are shaking at this point, it is because one is going to have to deconstruct to reconstruct, and that causes a self ordering process of slowing down that racing mis-used imagination, that feels like one is shaking inside. Yes, the problem is that deep. 

The good news is that there is a solution. One has to rebuild. It means using words as the placeholders of information, and building living relationships directly with the practical, physical world. Thus, one NOT ONLY practices learning the means of communication as words to hold information, one also builds a momentum of relating each word to the living reality around us, so we become a movement that never misses a beat in the world around us, as this is processing more than ONLY what is within one’s self as that which is in the imagination that is a consequence of one’s experience in a world that has practiced the opposite of what builds a sound mind. 

That which is missing, is a consistent practice of the individual with the small. School is a kind of orchestra practice and that private lesson a one-on-one practice. Therefore, what is missing is the consistent and constant individual practice as this analogy is another perspective on this. A musician must practice the instrument alone ALSO, moving with the small, practicing it, to accumulate a more correct and direct relationship between the instrument and the physical living reality. This builds a more natural direct practical effective focus.  There is a stage where one can get stuck, or lost, in automation so one must learn to always check, even when it appears that one is quite capable. Beyond automation is, from my experience,  the point where masters realize the most important is mastery of the smallest, the simplest of movements, as the smallest and simplest are the means to sensing the whole, or the more complex. In a way one builds trees of understanding, from the general to the subtle, and one continually cross references one's inner structure, so that there is only one ‘ picture’ very well composed, and so readable, that one can not only see what is within, but what is without at the same time. I see this as being the particle and the wave, in my limited, yet emerging awareness of this, and, as this that should never have been lost, as this is realizing the real potential of each of us, leading to a world where we as human beings work in the same manner together as that of which I speak. Overall, we can realize that processing speeds differing in measure from a third of a second, to a tenth of a second, can have great consequences in our lives, especially within the law of accumulating effects. This begs the question as to what is insecurity and what is self confidence? How are they build, or how are they formed? 

It is time to clean this up, and ensure that this mis-take in development of our children comes to an end. There is a tool to expedite this process. It is a tool to lend a more perfect practice ( one could call this a metronome, or a ski pole, or an abacus: it is a tool) , to prevent mis-understanding as cognitive dissonance, and to build a sound mind.

If you are experiencing a loss of spatial skill, or having reading problems, send me a note, and we can look at a simple and practical way to correct these problems.

Thank you for reading.

                                         Time to get the river flowing. 

Reading skill development and transferring learning.

‘ In research primarily dealing with beginning readers, Samuels and other ( Samuels, 1967 , Singer et al., 1973-1974) have looked at the role of pictures in learning new words. In general the studies show that presenting words without pictures resulted in better learning, especially for poorer readers, then presenting words and pictures together. A ‘ focal attention hypothesis’ has been developed to explain these results. According to the hypothesis, the word-alone condition works better because it forces the child to focus on the word itself. The word-with-picture condition makes initial learning easier, but makes transfer of the learning more difficult, since the child focuses on cues that will not be present in the transfer task.” 

Bowker, R. (1980B). Vocabulary instruction. The state of knowledge ( Tech. Rep. #1980-4) Boston. Human Engineering Laboratories

This is a telling and interesting quote. I would add to this that there are focal distractions AND vocal distractions. 

In my previous post, I talked about the need for the group interaction, as being in the orchestra/classroom AND the lesson/private-lesson AND that individual practice with the self, just like a musician must practice the small self generations all by themselves. It is both, or all, that build to mastery. 

Learning language, the means humans use to communicate, is no different. I learned a foreign language as an adult. I practiced with a group, in a class. I did lessons in a class. I also went home, and all by myself, practiced sounding the words, practiced spelling the words, practiced RELATING the words to reality. I did not ONLY practice this ‘ music’ as the words, in the group, in the world, in the lesson. I had to do that practice of generation and fine tuning MYSELF. 

Imagine if one ALSO practiced words, just like practicing an instrument? It is the same, it is exactly the same! And it is not as difficult or overwhelming as one might initially think. Many children have mastered an instrument when given the opportunity within a seven year period. After all, our cells regenerate every seven years. Thus, to do this is not difficult. 

Most people use only about 10,000 words. If we were to break down this number of words we could learn, and practice all by ourselves, within a year, that would be - in a seven year period - about 1430 words a year. This is about 4 words per day.  Imagine doubling this and taking twenty minutes or so a day and slowing down and practicing 8 words/notes a day? Imagine practicing spelling and speaking and relating 8 words a day, for a period of seven years, by one’s self, to fine tune one’s use of words? This would be like knowing the instrument so well, one could play ANY FORM one came to interact with. ( of course here are always new forms one encounters, and sometimes, just like learning to walk, something new comes that one must slow down and learn to ‘ sense’)  In all, it would not even need to be 8 words a day, as most of us already know one aspect of many of our words, it is more that we have not practiced the spelling and speaking and defining in clarity to a self directed relationship as clearly as we could. It would not be a starting point from ground zero for many of our words, and the simple corrections would move faster than we can imagine.

We are not one-sided instruments.  We lose the joy of performing in full capacity when we do not master the sounds we generate. The real joy is becoming a master of self, which means practicing the smallest of things. Each must ALSO practice the small, learn to SELF generate words, building direct practical spatial relationships between the word and practical movement. This is the art and practice of mastering sounding and spelling the word, and defining the word as having a direct relationship to reality. The absence of this causes vocal and focal distractions because not only have we not practiced the word ourselves, alone, the words are in a singular relationship within the context in which they were learned ONLY. Of course, we do sort this out in time, yet one can realize the varying degrees of confusion this creates in classrooms, in lessons, and in personal relationships. 

Thus, in relation to words, what practices are we doing that compound over time into self generation when there are attention distractions because of a lack of individual practice?

In all, if we want to master what we communicate as words, what we sound, that individual practice with the small, as the word, and its relationship, must be clear and direct. We must be able to spell the word, speak the word, and build a direct relationship with the word and reality.  This overall, is developing self control within self focus. After all, what is self act-ualization? Anyone who has truly mastered an instrument, knows the joy of mastery. The practice of the small, by the self, is also necessary, to experience the joy that comes with self mastery.

As human beings, when we really know something, we are happy. When we are uncertain, unclear, we become anxious and insecure. Anxiety and insecurity are the markers of attention disorders, or attention transfer disorders, or inner unsorted, focal and vocal distractions. There is great joy in mastering the small, it is the means to clarity and self confidence! 

In my next post, I will talk about how effective vocabulary development, with careful direct relationships improves efficiency. 

Thank you for reading.

If you want a tool to help in that small practice of word recognition on an individual scale, send me a note.  

Vocabulary and spelling development is no different than learning an instrument.

“ The findings for the subarea of the study reveal that the observational research indicates that less than 3% of classroom time is devoted to vocabulary development. Surveys of teachers disagree with this finding giving much higher percentages for word meaning development, Teachers say they use a limited variety of methods whereas the reading texts describe a wide variety of both direct and context methods. Many reading investigators believe that there is a lack of classroom attention to systemic vocabulary development “ ( p. 10 )

A historical examination of vocabulary development in the schools,

1900-1985 Matsuda, Lynn Goodwin, Ed. D. University of Hawaii, 1987

This is an important understanding in relation to what is happening in our schools and why there are opinions and contradictions in relation to vocabulary development. Having taught in a school, it was understood that teaching vocabulary is very difficult, and  why there is little time spent on vocabulary. There are weekly spelling tests, yet this practice is more for the student to do by themselves, as teachers must move through a set curriculum. For this reason, there is a focus on defining words using the text, as this is a valuable skill,  although it is not systemic vocabulary development. Teachers cannot be this systemic development, nor are they meant to be as the very design of public schools.

If I look at taking music lessons, what happens is one goes and has the lesson, and one may go and perform in an orchestra or music group. The lesson and the group interaction is not a time for the small details to be worked out by the self. They offer opportunities for insight, yes.  Thus, it is true that we learn from interaction and from lessons, yet that space is not the necessary individual practice that builds mastery on the small scale. It cannot be, by design.  

It is a situation where the classroom time is the lesson and the group interaction, yet it is not that practice done by the self, that is ALSO necessary. Learning language, words and spelling, must also have that careful practice, by the self, alone, building greater recognition of words, and speaking them; spelling them out, sounding them, knowing the parts, and defining them. It is the same as having music lessons. One must interact with the whole, use the whole to expand understanding AND also do that careful self directed and detailed practice. The benefit of this necessary practice is really knowing something, it is that wonderful and necessary discipline of integrating something so that self can generate with confidence. 

Overall, the above quote is correct that teachers do not do that systemic practice, because by design, they cannot. They also teach to use the text, and they model words, but they ultimately cannot go home with the student and be the necessary individual practice that leads to real mastery. 

Teachers, parents and administrators, must realize the practical nature of this. Our bodies are just like an instrument. We have lessons and we have group interactions. The practices of the group is actually being what it can be and do. Overall, nothing can replace that individual careful practice of integration. Children, or adults that have not walked this, must practice sounding the words, generating them without copying, spelling the words and placing the words into living contexts. When one practices the individual  discipline of moving with an instrument, momentum builds and one is able to process more with greater ease. Working with words is really no different. 

There are tools that organize and automate this practice for the child. What is awesome about this, is that this gives the child the sense that they are doing this themselves. How empowering would this be for a child to realize they can learn and develop with practice? What greater lesson can we give to a child?

Overall, it is important to realize the benefit and limitations of a public school. How we learn an instrument ( or a physical discipline)  is a cool analogy in relation to developing the skill of effective communication. 

If you are interested in such a tool send me a note! 

In my next blog, I will talk about vocal and focal distractions, and how within that necessary individual practice, learning the word by itself, mastering the sound and the spelling, how important it is to build a definition that is directly related to one’s living environment. 

Thank you for reading.