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.

How We Learn to Drive a Car and Building a Sound Cognition. Behavioral Dis-Orders

How do we learn to drive a car?

Do we sit in a room looking at a picture of a gear shift before we enter the car and start moving through the process of driving a car?

No, we do not, more often we get into the car, and are already are familiar with the parts because we have watched our parents drive the car for many years. We do not learn the parts of the mechanisms we directly use to drive a car through pictures with words attached in a box with all the distractions around us.

We sit in the driver’s seat one day, and as we sit there we directly learn the parts of the car we use to drive the car. The gear shift is a gear shift, the break pedal is a break pedal. A cup is a cup. And, to note, do we tend to project onto these devices? No. For some reason, the means to move the car that we use, we tend not to project any blame onto, any fantasy.  Meanwhile, most of us walk around projecting all manner of values onto the human body. We compare women to women; men, for example, evidently, every seven minutes, think about sex and do some fantasy projection onto a woman when the form of the human as a woman is walking down a street. Yet, I have never heard of anyone ( though there may be some! lol) talking about the break pedal as having some vacant look where a presence is absent in relation to a break pedal! I have been present with friends and men in the company of women, for example, and the sudden absence of attention, of presence is palpable, even if we at times cannot realize why we react in moments in seemingly chaotic ways while with friends or partners.  Somehow, the way most people I have met and traveled in a car with, do not have any distance of presence, or less of such, or behaviors of avoiding what they are doing within the action of driving the car. Yet, remember those times when one almost had an accident? These are the times when one was not paying attention- I ask, what was going on? This is being in separation from what has become automated as the information directive within our memories.

Thus, when we learn to drive we learn the parts we need to maneuver to drive and we sit with our presence acclimating to the car’s structure within these means to the end. We repeat and repeat the movement, much like learning to walk, until we can order our directive capacity  and move these parts needed with ease. Then these become ‘ smaller’ in that we can process the actions faster, and we are ready to drive the car with confidence. This is a dynamic process , one that leads to driving a car.  When this structure is set, we can expand our presence to the horizon and add more awareness as extending our awareness and taking in more of the world around us.

Yet, in a school what are we doing? And what is the media doing with all the pictures about the physical world around us? We are learning things through words and pictures. We learn some words and then we start to process information about this world through words. This is, in itself , a imagination of sorts, about what is really here, and the very means is one of limitation  because there is no common sense present because we are not dealing with the real things, like we are when we learn to drive! Yet, most of us learn to drive, even if we do not do well in school! And, most of us learn to walk! Can we see the correlation here? Knowledge and information without practical application is not only useless, but also inhibiting and something that can control what one thinks as what one believes as what one images to direct one’s self, and just as we take in the structure of the car directly and begin to move within that space and the objects within it, like programming ourselves, I must ask, what is that information doing to use that we learn in school in abstract ways, as in imaginary ways only? It becomes what we express, because it is what we are exposed to! We humans become the very measure of our world, meaning the very measure of the information we accept. As parents if we send our children to a public school we are accepting what we allow. If we do not investigate what is being the measure in what is presented to our children, we are simply not being responsible for our children.

If we learn limited information, which is what learning through pictures and words is because it has no direct access to the physical mechanism, and we learn through pictures with as associations can we possibly have as dynamic an ability to act as we do when we have learned to drive a car? 

Thus, limited information, as information only, is learning by association because there is no direct physical access to reality. There is no real substance for the placeholder as the words that compose the information, the knowledge is not grounded in reality, it becomes a construction that does not fit into reality, as we can see in so much of the behaviors of people in not being able to feel secure in what they do, or to, on another level, complete things in this world that do no harm.

If pictures are used, it becomes as that picture, a ‘ flat’ association that because it is information only, and is what becomes the memory, the imprint, the picture, it is what is processed as one’s directive. Of course, as consequence as the information, if it as the limitation that it is, does not fit into reality, then the actions, the movements of the object as the human, can move in all manner of ‘ not fitting in’ or ‘ mistakes through lack’ within moving in our world here, or, within living our lives.

The media does not help either. Because we are so absorbent, we take in everything, and if our ability to take in the measure of that break in that car - and that goes for all of us, even those we call stupid in terms of schooling- is interrupted with a shock, as a sudden change, or interruption then our natural ability to self dis-cover the very volume, quality, movement, density, feeling of that break in that car is cut short, and we become that measure as that interruption, and must process through this.  Thus, within space and time, we are all so interrupted and so lacking in non-associative learning that we become a measure of limited information that is also a chaos of association that has no real grounding. We lose what is a natural sense to think critically and become creative in dynamic and active ways, and we lose what is a natural ability to problem solve as many videos and that first process we learn  reveal that we are innately built to be and do, which is learning how to walk and as I am using in this article, to drive a car.

Within this, we can see, the extent to which so many children are suffering , because their ability, a natural ability, a natural learning ability is what and who they are, is suppressed through what I call a chaos of information that takes so much time to sort through, balance out, that the life and the ability of the child takes years to sort, and the child that becomes the adult blames themselves, and instead of becoming their full potential, a dynamic state of being, they become behaviors of quilt, of shame, of self judgement and not the expression of living a life that is aware  and able to do all things as well as they learned to walk and to drive a car.

This is also why all educational research shows that people who learn musical instruments tend to have  a greater capacity to see consequence and be constructively critical and creative. It is because to play and make music, one is not only a memory of associative imagery, a musician actually deals with a physical object where they must perform with that object just as someone does with a car, or in learning to walk.  The simplicity of this is such, that if one cannot fathom this, then know that the associative mind of information only, is a wall of information being processed through that of a story of justifications as the inFORM of oneself and that it is so busy, in what it is , that slowing down and relating to reality is like a huge effort. It is like slowing down a speeding train where one believes that the train is all that exists, because the train is moving so fast, that the car can no longer be seen through the window, that car that is driving along side that train.

Another insight into how much we move as information is to think of someone we know that we are very careful around, where we feel life we are walking on eggshells around them, to not cause an outburst or reaction. This is when we fear facing the information of that person, though ironically we are aware of this, which means we can process through the information, we simply fear not being able to answer. What we in essence are avoiding, is a wall of associative information only, that is all it really is, a measure that one has allowed to define oneself as. We are in essence facing a speeding train, and we fear facing the ‘ crash’ if we look at that belief, that is that information, and investigating it, to ground in ways where there is no longer that sense of ‘ walking on eggshells’ and instead, as the outcome to address this in detail, is to come to a point of understanding in ways that remove the tension that is simply a friction of two bodies of information competing to have attention- because that information of association is constantly wanting validation to support its construction. It is, ironically, again, like a ghost in the machine that believes itself to be as real as that gear shift, when it is only a memory. And that memory is not all bad, it has good in it, as it is a measure made from what is real, and what is right here in front of us.

Thus, what I propose, is to rebuild that cognition, to re-order it, to clean up all cognitive dis-order,  to take the time to create a memory of small bits of information, to enable oneself to have the space within self, to focus oneself through a well ordered memory, a wall of information, to be able to see beyond the structure of the ‘ car’ to the horizon, to enable one ‘s self to expand and move in constructively critical ways, to become creative in ways that do no harm, and thus live a dynamic life, a life as dynamic as we are when we drive a car, or as dynamic as when we learn to walk because this is us using our great capacity to think critically and be creative, building a life that sees the world and rides the train at the same time. This is our natural state of being, one that is much easier than the conflict with living that a mind built of associations rather than a mind that sees directly here.

Remember, the statement ‘ the apple never falls far from the tree’ is a testament to the outcome of generating associative memories, because the focus of the child, those formative years, is on the parent, and our ability to take in information, like a feral child, is so great, is so magnificent, that we take in the measure of our parents, and if they are built of associative thinking constructions, the child will become that measure. And as we know habits, as what we repeat, are harder to change - just like slowing down that train-  than to have learned to play that violin correctly in the first place!

I would suggest, using Techno Tutor, as this is the only tool that I, as a reading specialist and a trained violinist, have found to be the most effective way and means to building a memory, a ‘ train of information’ that can be so well ordered that one can move from the mechanisms of the car to seeing not only the inside of the car, and also, the horizon. After all, that horizon is magnificent, we need only slow down, rebuild ( and prevention is the best cure) and look. It has always been there!

Since it is too hard to change the structures that exist within our society, why not transform our schools into places of discovery and investigation? Why not turn our schools into places where we build well ordered cognitive maps, that give a structural means to build self confidence and self esteem, in each and every child, so that the teachers can trust the child, and themselves to allow a child to take a direction that enables the full potential of that child to discover a full expression of themselves as life, that can create dynamic individuals that can respect and work with the world around them, never needing to walk on eggshells!. This is what we all seek. The structures we have in our society can be transformed into a good.  The strength comes from all of us standing together to make subtle changes that help all of us to help ourselves.

Thank You for reading!

                                         The Ghost in the Machine.