I am getting back to finishing up the Teacher's Guide for the AOK Virtues workbook.  It has been about a year since I last worked on it.  Just about the time of my burnout with AI.  I was hoping to only have to make small edits, but reading the text, I realize it is not there yet.

The concepts are still too dry, and do not have enough of a relational component.  That's what I get for relying to heavily on AI.  So now I am getting back into each of the virtues and what they can provide in terms of experience for both the teacher's self-reflection, and of course the students, on an individual level and as a group.  

It wasn't far into the edits when I already found myself needing to make major edits.  The word was Altruism.  It is interesting that Altruism, such a weighty and lofty concept, came out of the era of Positivism.  The word itself having been coined by french philosopher Auguste Comte.  It surprised me, since it seems like an ancient concept, but it originated out of the Darwin era, where sprituality and in some ways morality were under attack as we faced the era of "survival of the fittest."  In the era of Positivism, we needed a moral theory that would fit with this need to understand everything from a logical and scientific approach.  

Dictionary Definition of Positivism:
a philosophical system that holds that every rationally justifiable assertion can be scientifically verified or is capable of logical or mathematical proof, and that therefore rejects metaphysics and theism.

Even though I am a scientist, I am not a materialist.  I am also not a dualist.  I don't believe matter and spirit are completely separate, but inexplicable intertwined through the soul.  I believe there is a unified theory.  And therefore, I don't minimize science and math.  Rather, like the use of mathematical models of human behaviors, and so when looking into other areas that aligned with this stream of thought I came across the Price Equation.  

I remember reading the Foundation Trilogy when I was in highschool and being fascinated by the whole idea of a math that could describe human behavior.  In this book, Hari Seldon created a mathematical model to predict large model social behavior.  Using this model, he created a plan that would help save humanity. Of course, the model didn't account for those who didn't follow the algorhythm.  Ah, isn't it always true, you know what they say about the best laid plans.

The Price Equation (see image above) is the equation for altruism.  It is an interesting conversation starter for students and a powerful tool for action when paired with the idea of "paying it forward".  It outlines how a social group that includes altruistic actions, like Pay It Forward, can out perform a non-altruistic group.  He also mentions the dilemma of the Free-Rider.  This is the person who breaks the chain.  The one who accepts the kindness, but doesn't pay it forward.  This selfishness is just as contageous as the selflessness.  What an interesting additional element to include.  Definitely a concept for the Alphabet of Vices (coming soon).

Paying it Forward can be easily practiced, one of the variables I consider when choosing a virtue to study with a class.  In addition, there is the movie Pay It Forward, with child actor Haley Joel Osment, a 12 year old boy who starts a whole kindness movement through his own kind act.  This makes the entire concept relatable to young people.  

The truth is that we can never truly pay back all the kindness and good deeds we have been the recipient of in our lives, but we can pay it forward.  The pages below are from the AOK Alphabet of Virtues workbook.

Yong Zhao is one of my top 10 educational leaders!  He has identified the truths underlying the nature of authentic self-determined learning.  He has given scaffolds and guidelines to educators and educational leaders regarding how they can implement these techniques, and he works diligently with school districts and political leaders to make it happen.  He is not just a professor, he is a true educational leader.

One of his favorite approaches is the use of entrepreneurialism in the classroom.  So when one of the girls attending the Art Garage spontaneously started creating a small business for herself, I began to design a tool that would help anyone wanting to support the same type of activities with their own students.

Creating a business is such a powerful learning experience.  It is so creative; creating a name and logo, generating the idea, framing it, and looking at the primary objectives.  It involves planning; making a strategic plan, looking at budgeting, and overhead costs.  It involves communication and social skills: sales, investors.  It is real life, and personally relevant.

No one could deny that entrepreneurialism, if done correctly, will open a whole new area of very practical knowledge.

The workbook is in the works! It is an easy way to get your students started on their way, and as always, it's super fun!
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Keep checking our product pages to see when it is available.

When I was in graduate school, I was looking to synthesize what I knew from neuroscience with what educators and educational leaders described as the essentials for teaching.  It wasn't too much of a stretch, since developmental neuroscience provides such a powerful, universal guide.  One of the most critical elements was that we needed to be building the foudational systems that would serve all of the higher cognitive capacities.  In otherwords, we needed to build from the ground up.  This means, while we are building the foundation, we may have to wait to see our results.  But if we skip the foundation, our results will be fleeting, they won't have anything to stand on.  

One thing I had noticed in learning and development was that growth is not linear.  I noticed that changes could happen in a moments notice.  We all remember the "growth spurt".  This is true not just for physical growth, but cognitive growth as well.  Even evolution is a non-linear process, but shows what has been called, punctuated equilibrium.  I just love that term.  

So what does this mean for the classroom.  First, testing is a terrible measure of learning.  Why?  Because it doesn't take into account what is going on behind the scenes.  Learning is happening all the time.  It doesn't necessarly reach the conscious awareness until later.  Each of a student's experience lays down a foundation.  The majority of a student's learning is implicit (automatic/unconscious/reflexive) and provides the understanding of the world and their place in it.

We should be working more with implicit learning, since it happens automatically and lays the foundation.  For example, when we are teaching something like reading, the best approach is not to have a reading lesson, but to actually read stories to children.  The more children are read to, especially stories, the more the rhythm of the written word can create the grammatical neural scaffold on which the symbolic letters of the written word will happily nest.  Not to mention, the use of stories can help build character and help students make sense of the world and challenging situations they are experiencing.  Pedagogical stories are powerful tools in a classroom.

When reading, the teacher should not interrupt the story and ask children questions.  They should not test for understanding and give a grammar lesson.  They should read, and allow the child to go into the imagry of the tale.  

Since our conventional education  focuses on teaching reading directly, and has taken away much of story time, considering it childish, we are trying to build the roof with no foundation.  Teaching site words will engage the a greater portion of the visual-spatial cortex, rather than the regions of the auditory cortex that would more effectively support reading.  

In some work I did with Fleurette Sweeney, PhD, we talked about the power of song in effectively engaging the neural networks lending themselves to healthy reading.  Indeed, this is a powerful way to help children read.  Song has all of the elements necessary to move from the sound to the symbol, and not the other way around.  The sound is emphasized and the rhythm of the song helps students break down syllables.  

My favorite activity to create an Ah-Ha moment for children is to have them read a longer passage of something they know by heart.  This can be done in early 1st grade, or late Kinder.  Begin by daily group recitation of a poem or song.  This is most fun to do while they step the syllables.  I like to have them step  in a circle, adding movments that fit the theme of the story.  I have used songs I know by heart, because it is important to use the EXACT same words each time.  When saying the words enunciate, and use enthusiasm.

Then, once the poem is well rehersed, the final activity is to write it on the board and allow them to copy it to a large paper or poster.  They can decorate it as well, but once they have written it all out, have them read it to you.  Those who couldn't read before will be so surprized and realize they can indeed read.  The foundation was laid and this exercise is the keystone to opening that pathway.  It is the punctuated moment of change.  For students who had struggled with reading, the joy they experience with the realization they can read is wonderful.

Many cognitive abilities open like this.  The gradual building of the foundation is unseen.  It is implicit.  It is happening through the daily activities.  Building from the bottom up will create a powerful foundation for effective life-long learning.  Creating brain networks takes time, but once they are built, healthy learning results.

Is free schooling better than unschooling?  Unschooling is the most extreme in its lack of structure.  I believe there are times when unschooling is the only thing that will really work to activate someone's natural learning ability.  It all comes down to the degree of damage that has been done through the oppressive classroom experience.  Unschooling is about recovering from the punitive coersion of classrooms that often shame non-traditional learners.  As I shared in my other post, most of the kids I worked with who wound up in the alternative schools, considered themselves bad and dumb.  They had heard it enough times, and so it wasn't surprising that they started to adopt that identity.  

As educators, we have to recognize the damage may takes time to be undone.  

The undoing cannot come in the form of schooling at all.  School now feels like the source of emotional humiliation.  School means domination and oppression.  This can be so overwhelming, that any activity, no matter how innocuous and even joyful, will be resisted by the student who has been so damaged by school.

If your non-traditional learner has become defiant, this is not a bad sign.  It means they are standing against the definition that has been placed upon them, that they can't learn, they are lazy and dumb.  They are resisting, and this has much more energy than apathy.

When someone has been wrongly defined by the system, the individual can actually feel something is off.  There is a sense that those around me, do not understand me.  They do not see me for who I am and what I can do.  Even if at one level, the student recognizes their limitations, they also know at a deeper level they have something to offer.  ADHD students expecially, have a strong will and desire to create.  When given the chance, they can do, learn more, and create outside their experience level.  This is the talent of the non-traditional learner.  This is what a freeschool model will ignite.  But first to get through some of the wounding.  First to help them take off the armor.

There are countless examples of people with dyslexia and ADHD being brutalized in school.  ADHD students are often forced to take dangerous medications, while traditional dyslexics are often just overlooked completely.  These are just two of the many forms of learning differences that are not supported in conventional schools.  There are many others, and when such a student, brilliant and sensitive, goes through the traditional school system, they often end up with mental health issues, and a core lack of self-esteem and self-awareness.  They don't know who they truly are and have adopted the identity placed on them by unknowing teachers.

This is when unschooling is appropriate.  For me, my healing came through an outward bound experience.  It helped me organize my external activity and connect with my true nature.  It helped build my will forces, and gave be silence and peace being in nature.

Unschooling is not academic, it is not graded, it is not teaching.  It is time to connect to the self.  Learning happens everywhere and when that natural curiosity is allowed to come through, when the sense of self starts to become one of the awareness of greatness, then the person will seek out their own path of schooling, and you can be there to support them.

I am attaching my favorite dyslexia video here because I often look for it on youtube, and can never find the link.  So here it is, and I hope you enjoy it as much as I do.

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Boredom is not really about having nothing to do.  It is about not knowing what to do.  Something feels off.  Nothing feels nourishing to my soul.  

Boredom is the soul's way of indicating the need to get started, but often I don't know what I should get started doing.  This is where the frustration comes in.

Boredom is different than apathy.  There is resistance, a kind of stuck energy, in boredom.  The resistence is against the so called choices in front of me.  Nothing feels good enough and so in boredom I stay stuck in non-action.  In apathy, there is no energy.  I no longer care. 

Boredom is a product of indecision.  It is a lack of awareness of what I am capable of doing.  It may be that I have lost my own sense of purpose and direction, or it may be that I have had my own choices so limited for so long, I have forgotten how to utilize my own will to direct my actions towards a bigger goal.

Conventional schooling is complicit in creating this state.  The ability to make goals and direct actions towards my own interests needs to be developed. Like any cognitive capacity, goal setting, self-directed action, and purpose require experiences that foster development.  Instead of allowing students to explore their own goals, and discover their own purpose, conventional schooling dictates everything the student will learn.  The effect of this,  has led to boredom, and often apathy. 

Autonomy is one of the core variables for fostering motivation.  How do we give back autonomy, and reactivate intrinsic motivation?  Starting to reignite a sense of interest, purpose and personal goals is possible.  These are the basic skills for a good and meaningful life.  It starts with giving choice.

In a free-schooling model,  everything is about student choice.  Students make their schedule, and in some of the Democratic Free Schools, the students are even involved in hiring the teachers.  Can you imagine the difference in a student's sense of autonomy when using the Free-School model? 

Once exercising this muscle of choice, the periods of boredom-frustration begin to fade.  I start to have an internal structure for my own life.  I start to discover the sweet-spot of purpose driven action.  I am driven to learn and grow in order to achieve my own vision, rather than simply jumping through the hoops and filling in the bubbles of life.

If you have your own problems with boredom and frustration, or feeling stuck, it is possible to start to structure your own inner guidance system through daily practices.  One I really like is to write down all of your personal interests each day.  Notice the themes.  Start to give yourself permission to engage in those activities.  Most of us have lived a life directed by our social and cultural environment.  Most of us have followed a script for our life.  Now we are in the era of co-creating new systems.  High Creatives will be on the front lines of the new way of teaching, living and creating a new world.

When I worked in alternative education, those schools were all the non-traditional learners end up at some point, there was one consistent challenge that was present in every student" the belief that they were bad and dumb.  It's funny because that as a non-traditional learner myself, and an alternative school student by my sophmore year in high school, I can recognize that truth in my own journey.  By the time I was in highschool, I definitely thought I was dumb, and bad, well, I embraced my rebel side by that time and so yes, that too.

It wasn't until I went to college, that I wasn't dumb.  Then two doctorate degrees later, both from tier 1 schools, I felt pretty confident that I am indeed smart.  And so are most of our non-traditional learners.  So incredibly smart that the container of conventional education cannot fit them.  

When High Creative, sensitive children are shoved into the traditional learning container it is like being in a world where no one speaks your language.  These brilliant minded kids do all they can to fit in, sometimes tuning out and becoming invisible, so that they don't say or do the wrong thing or expose their lack of understanding.  For those who being invisible is too oppressive, they may begin to act out, trying harder to be seen as who they are and get their needs met.

So how do we help these sensitive souls dissolve these old beliefs, or even better, help them to see their own brilliance and find their rightful place in the world.  How do we create spaces that honor all kinds of minds?

We have at this time, more sensitive children entering the world, and the container they are entering in is not ready for them.  The response of the traditional schools is punishment and medication, which contributes to the child's false belief that "there is something seriously wrong with me."   

If your school is doing this, please consider taking them out.  The damage done by the medications and negative messages can be extremely debilitating.  For those who are trying to change the system, it is simple.  Create space in the classroom for self-examination.  Making emotional awareness a priority, and not in the superficial academic sense, but through integrating lessons with emotional and personal meaning.   Allow for the arts to be a form of schoolwork.  Let students direct their own learning so that they can find the connection to what they are creating.

Student directed learning leads to success.  A student following their own interest can show off what they can do.  Instead of the teacher set goals, student set goals can often exceed the limits of the rigidly defined expectations of a rubric. 

I remember once in an interview with an educational leader, he made a point about the current model of testing for understanding.  He pointed out that when you go to a library and explore everything there, you never get a test at the end to see what you understand.  The truth is that understanding is complex.  A test can never measure what we know.    

The answers are there.  The research in the realm of educational neuroscience and Mind, Brain and Education have shown us many ways to create a learning container sensitive to all students.  For leaders in the school, allowing teachers to be responsive to all of their students, rather than creating a focus on testing and standards, can make all the difference. 

Having a strong will is a wonderful gift.  It is a necessary cognitive capacity for completing difficult challenges. A strong will means “I” am the director, NOT “You”.  A weak willed person can easily go with the direction of the ‘other’.  A weak willed person follows the crowd.  A weak-willed person is easily led, while the strong-willed person is a leader.  A strong will is tied to Ambition, a weak will is tied to Apathy.

Our world needs strong willed people if we are to solve the complex problems we face.

The problem is, the strong will needs to be nurtured to develop properly.  It is connected to the developmental system of the basal ganglia somatosensorimotor system.  This system needs certain experiences to develop, and often someone with a strong will is not receiving the right experiences to develop the connection between their own intentional will-force and emotional validation of self-directed goal-oriented actions.

The young person with a strong will can often be viewed as a problem child.  They can be labelled with defiance, or ADHD.  When a child is not compliant, no one is asking what is underlying their unwillingness to “perform”?  Often the task they are asked to perform has very little personal meaning.  

What we must understand about the developing brain is that it takes time to learn how to use the will-force, and most school assignments are not designed for this development.  A strong will is challenging to direct, so that it takes considerable effort to focus it.  Once the stong willed child has made this incredible effort to move their attention to the task at hand, there is nothing of substance to keep them engaged.  This then leads to a general disengagement in school, and hence the label and often medication that destroys the natural developmental process, damaging this beautiful neural system.

Should school be about breaking a child’s will?  Are we looking to create compliance or maximize the potential of each child?  I believe we need to focus on the latter.  To maximize the potential of each kind of mind in our classrooms and our world.

There are so many ways we can develop the will (whether it be weak or strong).  

There are two issues.  Developing the will, and learning how to use the will correctly.

Developing the will can be done in the form of physical education and completing hard physical tasks.  The basal ganglia, which is the foundational neural system of the will, is connected to the frontal cortex, which is the primary motor cortex.  This system is part of our attention-action loops.  Have you ever noticed how a child with ADHD seems to be disembodied, often bumping into things in the classroom, dropping things, and just not present in the physical space.  To help a child come into their physical body, and learn to use it effectively is an act of helping develop the will and their voluntary attention system.  One thing that does not help the development of this system is the use of drugs.  They may artificially amp up the frontal function, but in the long-run, it will reduce the development of the neural connections and create an artificial dependence on the medications for activation of the will.

Physical activities can also help direct the will force towards something meaningful.  It can help exhaust some of the excess charge on the system when there is not a goal towards which the will-force can be directed.  But ultimately, giving the strong-willed person a goal that has meaning to them is the best way to help them develop their will.

When the will force is connected to a goal it becomes the greatest ability one could have. When we teach someone how to use their will in the completion of large and challenging goals, this ability carries over to all of life's ambitions, it is tied to our deeper purpose, that is the reason we are here.

This issue is near and dear to me.  It is the reason I moved out of neuroscience.  It is the reason I struggled myself in conventional education.  It is a part of my own deeper purpose in coming into education. This is not the last work on the strong will.​