Soulful education cultivates the whole person

Rob Haines, Barque community member and English language teacher, blogs Soul in Education, incorporating ideas of Thomas Moore, James Hillman and others who encourage soulfulness in education. In his January post, "When two worlds collide", he quotes Thomas Moore's tweet (@thomasmooreSoul) from 13 January 2011: "Straddle this line: facts and knowledge on one side; dreams, intuitions, mysteries on the other. The goal is to live in both realms always." Haines writes:

"A curriculum of soul work would truly prepare us to live in the real world instead of an abstraction we call reality. We would learn , not merely how to function in society and get jobs but rather how to live communally and find our life’s work, our calling. To paraphrase Moore, care of the soul is not about fixing problems or curing ills. Soul work is about cultivating the ordinary experiences of our daily lives to add depth, richness, and meaning rather than just accumulating experiences and achieving Herculean tasks for the sake of profit or ego.

Soulful education would emphasize the study of images (art, for example) and philosophy. Careful consideration would be given to the overall aesthetic of our schools, physical design, food served, and leisure activities. Instead of impulsive reaction to trends and slavish attention to the bottom-line, we would aspire to beauty and holistic learning that cultivates whole human beings who care about their lives and respect others."

Read his complete post and the thoughtful responses from readers interested in education. Add your own reflections to the discussion.

Moore promotes value of "educating the senses"

Joy A. Kirkwood blogs about Shaun McNiff's book, Earth Angels: Engaging the Sacred in Everyday Things (2001) in her post "Earth Angel" today. She paraphrases Thomas Moore in the book's foreword to say "in our quest for knowledge we have lost enchantment and the sense of the wonder of the world we live in." Kirkwood responds, "To this I say, Amen. For me the key is in what we treasure and why and to look again at the common things around us and to let ourselves be awed by life." In his foreword, Moore also states:

"I'd like strongly to affirm Shaun's interpretation of the Epicurean value of "educating the senses." I have no doubt that we have reduced experience to our mental life. We think of education as a mental exercise, and we even undergo therapy as though it were a way toward self-understanding. It's about time to broaden our notion of education, realizing that we have widespread illiteracy in the realm of the senses. Otherwise, how could we fill our cities with ugly buildings, and allow airlines to shut off all avenues to sensation as we travel the airways, and let businesses keep us away from rivers and lakes, and spend our days and hours of leisure in front of a television screen? Clearly, we need remedial education in the senses, to begin with. We need to learn how to live from the heart, the hands, the stomach, and the feet. And, close to my heart, we need to educate our ears so that we will no longer tolerate the soul-wounding noises that dominate modern life."

Kirkwood shares that she "has been involved in arts and education for adults and children for over thirty years. In 2008 to 2009 [she] also taught Expressive Art classes at Wellspring Calgary, an innovative cancer support centre in Alberta."

Cultivating soul through education may be elusive

In his blog post "Finding Soul looking for curriculum", Frank Bird writes about soul in education with references to James Hillman, Thomas Moore, Carl Jung, James Kavanaugh and Mary Aswell Doll. Bird considers different associations with soul and includes

"Our rat race society where being John Wayne and never stopping and emailing till all hours of the night and working 24/7 and getting no sleep and pouring down energy drinks (I tend to like the five hour energy shots) is how we live...

Hillman sees our increase in depression as a response to our competitive society. That we are leaving behind something perhaps it is our soul. Hillman authored a best seller, The Soul's Code and Moore authored the best seller Care of the Soul. These two men are not just fly by nights. James Hillman studied under Carl Jung in the 1950’s and Moore, a former monk studying for the priesthood, has a doctorate in psychology and music. Interesting he is a pianist as well as therapist. Both men are concerned about this thing we call soul. In Doll’s article she emphasizes children learning literature in a manner that stirs the soul. By going back to Moore’s first definition, "First, soul refers to the deepening of events into experiences," John Dewey sought to pull experience into learning making it a crucial aspect of his philosophy. I have many times related to context and content being equal partners in learning."

Bird also touches on the ethics of politicians, hoop cheese and smoked turkey in this entry.

Spiritually open pedagogy contributes to learning

Powell's Books offers a used copy of The Spiritual Side of Writing: Releasing the Learner's Whole Potential, edited by Regina Paxton Foehr and Susan A. Schiller. According to the description, "Foehr and Schiller assert that spiritually open pedagogy is a choice that can reintroduce balance and, at the same time, foster lifelong learning. To them and their contributors, critical thinking and spirituality are not mutually exclusive but mutually intertwined. They view intellectual argument and the interpersonal exchange of ideas as some of the highest forms of spiritual empowerment, capable of filling students with wonder, exhilaration, and an awe for learning. Those interchanges give students a new vision of their own power to understand and create meaning."

The book includes a chapter of interviews, "Writing the Spirit: Interviews with John Bradshaw, Larry Dossey, M.D., and Thomas Moore." Powells includes the full Table of Contents in its description.

The Spiritual Side of Writing
Subtitle: Releasing the Learner's Whole Potential
ISBN-10: 0867094133
ISBN-13: 978-0867094138
Editor: Foehr, Regina Paxton
Editor: Schiller, Susan A.
Publisher: Boynton/Cook Publishers
Location: Portsmouth, NH :
Publication Date: March 1997
Binding: Paperback
Language: English
Illustrations: Yes
Pages: 214

Children are not cars on the assembly line of life

For his blog, The Night Sea Journey, SGF writes about contemporary pressures to grow up in "The Lost Childhood". He introduces his concerns with, "As a teacher in a public school system I often wonder about our society, what it values and it's impact on our children. It seems to me that too many kids today are not allowed to be children. Too many are not getting their basic life needs met. They are driven away from their basic qualities of spontaneous play and youthful vitality towards the goals of our society's desires driven largely by capitalism!"

SGF quotes Thomas Moore's Dark Nights of the Soul through his post, including Moore's view, "We repress the child by forcing children into religious and character building camps, by excluding them from social life, by containing them in poorly equipped and dispiriting schools, and by demanding that they grow up quickly through extra lessons and limits on play, and by surrendering them to too many au pairs and babysitters. In repressing the child, we keep the troubling human soul and specifically it's child qualities away from adult pursuits."

SGF then links Moore's observation, ""Many people live in emotional darkness because they have never fully enjoyed a child spirit in their overly serious lives," to Michael Jackson's recent death.

Teachers need to share their creative energies

Anne E. Ulvestad wrote "Our Place in the Universe" for Religion and Spirituality, February 1, 2007. In this column, she talks about education and the teacher's role in the classroom by quoting Thomas Moore's soul-centred approach to education: "Education of the soul leads to the enchantment of the world and the attunement of self." Ulvestad then asks, "Is that part of our teaching method? A sharing of self, and an uncovering of self, is the most basic form of knowledge. Can we take the chance to teach based on the fundamental adage "Know thyself"? She continues to quote Moore:

"Education is an 'eduction,' a drawing out of one's own genius, nature and heart. The manifestation of one's essence, the unfolding of one's capacities, the revelation of one's heretofore hidden possibilities — these are the goals of study from the point of view of the person. From another side, study amplifies the speech and song of the world so that it's more palpably present."

Ulvestad observes, "Here we have no discussion of credentials or scientific evidence of what works in education. Teaching, as learning, does not take place in an isolated manner, but through interdependent relationships. To teach is to try to define a space where truth happens. To teach is to acknowledge a reality that we are a part of, not apart from, this truth. As who we are interacts with the knowledge that we would impart, it is enhanced or diminished by our own self-knowledge."