And So The Questions...

The truth, the innocence, and the all-knowing spirit of life fills our first breath. Who and what answers our first cry? What happens in the moments of life that fill the years to follow? Do we become the sum total of who touches, who answers, who denies, who ignores, who accepts, who rejects, who encourages? What moves us out of the shadow of our own experience? How do we hold on to the promise and joy of our own experience? How do we befriend that knowing within? What is the power that breaks the grip of oppression? What is this power that declares in silence, in words, in deed? What's this power that knows only itself as its teacher?

Why do systems that purport to educate have increasing numbers of youth shutting the doors of school behind them? Why does society have increasing numbers of school age children leaving the very systems that are supposedly preparing them for the world of work, independence and productivity?

A birth of a child is filled with promise and joy. Each birth is another opportunity to allow life its meaningful expression. The child almost instantly seems magnetized to particular stimuli and experiences. Why is the child so drawn?

Wherein lies his or her individual quest? Do we allow the child’s responses and in turn learn more of what life is when newly presented? Do we allow the child to experience joy of knowing self? Are we able to guide, nurture and encourage inquiry and exploration? Or do we impose and ultimately destroy what is open, curious, exploratory and creative? Why these questions? When one has been an educator for over forty years these are the questions that challenge the credibility of your profession.

For over two decades children, teenagers, young adults, adults and parents of those who have been tagged failure, learning disabled, emotionally disturbed, attention deficit disordered, hyperactive, gifted under-achievers and “lazy”, have chose to avail themselves of services that provide a renewed opportunity to explore self, learning style, creativity, and those experiences that have encouraged or have dimmed the joy of learning. What have these last two decades of service taught me? It has brought me closer to the pain of so many and closer to the joy experienced when freed from false beliefs, misconceptions of self and a sense of powerlessness. Those who tell their story tell of the judgments, criticism and pain they experience as students of failure. Yes, many “drop out” of school and “drop into” the health, social service, welfare and judicial systems. Failure and the thwarting of what is whole and natural is indeed the hallmark of disease and dysfunction, be it personal, social, economic or political. Understanding of what is supportive of individual difference is basic to the creative and harmonious use of human energy and motivation.

If we hope to creatively and harmoniously use human energy and motivation we must be supportive of individual differences and self-knowledge. If we are to be true to the precepts of a democratic system of governance, we cannot create systems that negate, demean or discriminate. A system that tags a first grader as a failure must be newly accountable. If a child does not readily acclimate itself to the world of filling in blanks, matching pictures, coloring in spaces, matching symbols to sounds is this child a failure? Or have we, the bearers of judgment and the creators of arbitrary standards, failed?

For full description of services visit:

http://www.apogeelearning.com

A Post Script

I WELCOME any and all comments to be posted on this blog. The collective political 'we' is deafened by their own created din. There are those among us who are to be heard, those who live beyond the din's pervasive call, those who hear the knowing messages of Spirit and Truth and in Grace, open the way for our children. Let us gather our creative endeavor, word, song, music, poetry, art, links, to advance a dialogue resounding with the needs of our children at its core. YES, children are our future - Let potential soar!

YouTube - The Greatest Love of all (Live) - Whitney Houston
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gvPYXHM94DQ

This a song - a mission - a mandate - holding to the promise of potential!