Monday, August 8, 2016

The Children Can't Read Means the Children Are Not Processing Information.

I went to an educational meeting this week. I sat and listened to teachers talking about various methods they use in their practice. There are methods to narrow the focus, and there are templates to order information. There are many ways to create such activities.  One example is to read something from the perspective of being within a certain role; that of a plumber, for example.

The conversation then turned to the real problem, The children could not read, they could not process the in-formation, conveyed via a code, as words. That code being about something, because it can never be the real thing. It is always a perspective about something. 

There are numerous problems here. One of them being that children can process information, so many know what is in-formation on the media about the lives of the Hollywood Stars, or the members of sport teams. Children can take in story/information.

Within this, there is obviously a separation from the in-formation conveyed in a school and what is absorbed outside of school.

Let us look at ourselves. Have you ever read something and realized that you did not take in a single word you just read? Have you ever been talking with your best friend and realized that you had not heard a single thing your friend has said? And, did you admit to your friend that you did not hear a single word they said, because you believed it would hurt their feelings if you said you had not heard a word they said? Did you then want to leave, to go somewhere else, because you did not want them to know that you had not heard what they had said? Is this not a form of skimming information, as in not being present, as in, if you have a look, that you went into your imagination because some word or some manner triggered a past event known as a memory- a moment in time where an action/movement/experience took place as how you reacted or expressed yourself?  Within this, a mannerism  is another form of words, as we realize our friends have personalities - which is likes and dislikes automated into the body, just as a perfect practice automates the ability to play an instrument, for example. We have emotional polarities of past events we have not cleared in practical actions. What happens is an associative mind set, that distracts us from a natural ability to focus and conceptualize what is in the present. 

When we realize we have not processed information, be it in the classroom, or while reading a book, or listening to a friend, we are in effect not present. Where have we gone? If we read new information, that has no living context, in relation to our experiences, then we have a hard time relating to that information.  If we do not understand this, it can have an outcome of a negative impulse, meaning we become an end game as a self definition of incapacity- when this is what was lived, yet we define ourselves as the ending point that lacks follow through.  We are in essence out of balance within ourselves. This makes processing information more difficult.

If we use imagination of our past, -because this can only be what the imagination is, a blueprint of our experiences - to analyze new information ( be it something in class, or a friend speaking)  we employ words - because this is the units of expression men use - and that information does not fit into our experience/imagination/blueprint, we must deconstruct and reconstruct our understanding. This ability is a natural ability, yet it can become stagnant. Our natural ability to take in form can become stagnant when we repeat a limited ideological system, what some can call a belief system, or a traditional value system. When we are caught in this, we have automated a measure of information. We have in essence mis-used the imagination. Instead of realizing the imagination for what it is, we have come to believe that our measure of ideas, beliefs and opinions are of greater value than that from which this memory was built, the world around us and our experiences within that world.. 

Have we come to believe that our in-form/experience-  information was more than what we are? We have forgotten that our likes and our dislikes are based on our past experience. We are in moving  pictures with a ‘ music’ or polarized attached value just like the music as drama added to story in television - these are a mindfulness of  memories and not what is actual, these are not what is living as what is all around us- be it a physical thing, or information conveyed through words, spoken and written, or imagery as media and video games. When we are caught in this, having not realized how this all works, we lose a sense of space, and begin to have more difficulty taking in new information, we have lost control of who and what we are, we have become limited. 

Our in-formation has been accepted as being larger than reality.  We begin to project our state of being onto reality. We then separate from reality and begin to make mistakes about life, moving into protection and defense of what we have conceptually accepted and allowed. When this is not understood, we stagnate an innate ability to process information. Our words are no longer the measure of their real value and instead trigger what values we define ourselves as. The consequence is a weakened ability to process new information. This leads to a consequence of an inability to communicate effectively instead of a natural ability to move ourselves in reality with skill and constancy. Our relationships suffer because of this too. 

We find ourselves outside of being present if we do not catch this, and when we do, we fear speaking up about it. And, most of the time, we do not sort out that past triggered by words/mannerisms/pictures/music etc- these associations to what we have accepted as beliefs. Overall, unless we realize this, and unless we remain present, and have the means/will to sort this out, we continue to do the same, and end up compounding this inner experience to the point where we prefer to be with those who have a similar inner blueprint, and/or we seek an escape from this tension/resistance, through drugs and alcohol. These are but a couple of coping mechanisms we employ. 

The research in education makes it clear that the more words a person effectively knows, the greater their processing of information ability. Meaning, the greater their degree of effectiveness in getting a job, in remaining in school etc. This is also why so many parents send their children into private schools, because they understand how absorbent a child is, and how being around other children who are more able to process information, will have an effect on their child. 

If one has developed/practiced a habit of hiding a lack of being able to process information, in any form, then this becomes what is practiced and will continue and compound until a movement is taken to realize how this works and to practice processing information- as the words and the pictures and the mannerisms that are signifiers of likes and dislikes based on how this works. A mannerism that resists, or appears as a holding back, or sudden reaction of rejection, or the sudden appearance of physical tension in the body, is an indication of accepted and allowed information in a person. These mannerisms are in essence, information, they are value judgements that have been practiced often, they are an incorrect use of the imagination, and they stagnate a natural ability to process information. This is called a veil by some.

The real problem is that we all know this. We use this when we scan a crowd and look for mannerisms that are similar to our own. We do this as mothers, when we enter a group of children and mothers, we scan to find a match, because we have not realized that we are processing information. That information we believe to be what is most effective, yet, it is more than likely what we are comfortable with, because we do not realize that we have come to believe that our ‘ inner-formation as information has more value than practical living reality. Our beliefs, opinions and ideas, is just this, our past experiences. If made more than reality this renders ourselves no longer being present in how this all works overall.

Our teachers in our schools do not understand how this works. When they meet and talk about many ways of narrowing the focus, and or mapping out information to take it apart, the one thing that is not matched to all the research that makes it clear what is the means to effective information processing is that the children must know the words. One cannot process information unless one knows the words - even if a person can understand something, if they cannot express it in words, they have a hard time communicating with others, and moving in society with ease. Words are the building blocks of a stable and solid foundation. In so many ways, we are word processors. If we have emotional viruses, as polarized ideas, as value judgements, we create an inner world that becomes an elephant in the room, as our within, and this elephant takes over our focus. The consequence is a separation from using our natural conceptual ability to process reality, meaning to process the words of another, and the practical steps necessary to complete immediate tasks in daily life.  When a sense of difficulty is attached to doing our daily actions, understand that one has developed an associative ‘ elephant’ of information within that is of value judgments and not a presence directly sensing reality. This entity of information slows down one’s concept of reality, living in this reality becomes more difficult.  One is, not processing information and is caught in a web of one’s own acceptance and allowance. 

When I did my student teaching, the one thing that was the hardest thing to teach, was vocabulary.  This means that it is understood that the hardest thing to teach is knowing the words. Instead, what is taught is chunks of information as ideas, information that is bumping up against other ‘ information’ that does not fit. The child is unable to compute in relation to their information and reality. They end up zoning out, just as that experience of not being able to process a text, or hear one’s friend’s words. Imagine this experience being compounded? Thus, one can create  many methods of ‘ narrowing the focus’ or forms to order information, yet, if the starting point is not having clear and living definitions to words, as the smallest units of how we form our information, and one does not have the ability to practice this, as a perfect practice to inform the physical body- which some call ‘ ownership’ then in effect what happens is similar to a group of bubbles of information bumping up against one another. Thus, as the teachers complain that the children cannot read, they are in effect not seeing the consequence of a mis-use of imagination, as information, as that personality of likes and dislikes automated and focused upon as being more real than reality. Also, what information is impulsed in school, often has no real practical purpose as it is a general scaffold of information - a separation from real living in detail in itself. 

Within this information age, where we have information at our finger tips, twenty four hours a day, our children are therefor, informing themselves as what they are exposed to. If they do not have a well ordered memory, which words are a cool technology/tool to be used as, then they are going to get caught in limited information which is mis-information even when some parts are not to be rejected because they are essentially good.  This limited inform, causes insecurity - a consequence of mistakes based on using that limited information to direct their actions; actions that are based on that information only, without using that innate ability to process space and time, within and without seeing and referencing in all their interactions in their daily living. 

If our children do not know their words, if their words trigger emotional polarities based on not understanding how this works,  or, not standing up within how this works,  then that skimming event happens where we do not take in the information, or that resistance and consequence ( as habits practiced become automated)  of self judgement of not being good enough in school, turning into a personality of likes and dislikes, instead of making choices based on what would lead to effectively processing information with  practical discernment and living a productive and effective life. 

We can come up with ideological techniques, such as “ keeping tasks within arms reach” and believe in the promise of such new concepts, that are really regurgitated methods, and not see the forest through the trees. We are, when we get excited about a supposedly ‘ new’ method, falling into a hope which is an emotional polarity, because we have defined ourselves as teachers, as a caregiver personality, missing the whole way in which this all works. We have to give up our own self value judgements and ground ourselves back into the practice of real living, where humans use words, a technology to order the practical as a means to focus ourselves with presence in the practical actions we need to understand and realize  effective and productive lives. 

If one does not know the notes/words, no instrument of generation , such as a template or device to narrow the focus, or ‘ idea’ such as keeping things small ONLY, is going to be what sorts out the emotional polarities that are a consequence of a lack of understanding how this all works. In such instances, where prevention is the best cure, the student must rebuild and understand that they must know the words, the vocabulary, as this is/are the ‘ notes’ that fill the graph that enables the child to form the tune/information, to then assess within and in real living space as the world in which that child comes to be an adult. Our imagination must be realized as what it is, and reality around us, must become what we reference. A well ordered blueprint of information allows a child to retain a natural ability to assess the world around them and their experiences at the same time. This is a retention of a natural spatial ability. Spatial ability is lost, if personality ( personification of ideas as value judgements)  becomes larger than life.

As adults, we can realize how we are caught in this web of cognitive dissonance, this separation from processing information, in media, in books, as the words and stories of our friends. We adults can realize our separation from processing in ways that allows us to remain present through a lack of presence. When it becomes more difficult to drive a car as we age, or it becomes more difficult to read information outside of a comfort zone, or it becomes harder to sit in a school meeting, or it becomes harder to finish a task, or read that newspaper article all the way to the end, or realize how difficult it can be to shift without becoming annoyed at sudden events that happen in our daily lives. We can see where that negative impulsing as a belief appears so real, we take what someone has said personally as though it is a threat to who we are, losing all spatial ability to process in ways that lead directly to problem solving.  

We have become the behaviors of separation from the practice of living..  Our words have become polarized and trigger past events that exist because they moved in self interest instead of what considered the real world around us.  In other words, the information we have defined ourselves as does not fit into being present and practical.  Instead of looking at the real value/measure/math of each word, we follow ideas that appear to be full of promise, yet lack a direct seeing into the small details that build the whole. We must be able to process words with ease, to realize patterns, and conceptualize with greater clarity, and remain present in the reality in which we live. The joy of this is that when we know our words, effectively, we retain a greater degree of spatial ability because we have developed a self trust in our relationship to being present in this reality. After all, this is where we live our lives.  The research in education substantiates this realization. 


Thus, the ability to process the code, as words, is the greatest gift we can give our children. This has the value of building a sound and stable character. Imagine if you had really known your words, where each unit of measure was clear, no longer triggering the emotional reactions due to a lack of understanding how this all works? What would your communication skills be? How would your relationships function? Would you have a greater ability to see both the forest and the trees at the same time? Meaning, to see the state of being as information within, and where that state of being, a measure, was disconnected from the living reality around us? Would you be more of a master of yourself? Would your focus improve to such a degree that you seldom missed what was conveyed in words around you, or self realize when something was new and needed more investigation without fearing to speak up and say this?  Do you have an effective vocabulary? 



We are the words we effectively know.

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