Tuesday, September 28, 2010

Education ... It's Everywhere


If reality is consciousness ... then education is everywhere ... replete with changes, challenges, and rewards along the way. We never stop learning, from the day we are born ... as our consciousness partially spirals into this aspect of physical reality. From that day forth, the mind will search for answers, as if a giant computer programmed to that end.

The human brain is an electrochemical machine forever viewing streaming consciousness for experience and interpretation.

The higher the education - the higher the consciousness and the greater the clarity.

Education is the greatest awakening tool we have in the quest to return to total conscious awareness.



It's September, and with that always comes a look at educational systems and how they prepare students for the future.

I've spent most of my life around education - as a student or teacher - on all levels of education. I know children - how they process and see the world. I've seen also sorts of education system come and go - some successful, others failures. I always wanted to develop curriculum, but the opportunity never presented itself in the traditional sense, so I'm doing it here within the chapters and pages of Crystalinks.

I know people who teach in public schools, charter schools, private schools, Catholic schools, Yeshivas, schools for students who are emotionally challenged or learning impaired (special education), vocational schools, schools for the gifted and talented, home schooling, to name a few. There are an endless number of school programs available to suit the needs of students, in the US and abroad ... as long as funding is available - therein lies a big problem in a recession.

Why did I leave the Board of Education? I wasn't burned out but couldn't deal with the dysfunctional system and dramas. So if I couldn't handle it, what about the children? Do you know how many teachers are burned out or feel hopeless to do their job properly? Many .... Yet we move forward and hope for the best.

I remember putting on an end-term performance with my 5th grade students in June 1984, that was like Glee, but the words were changed for educational purposes. It was an unqualified success for the students and parents, but the school Principal was a woman like Sue on Glee and told me to never do it again. Done. I quit after the school year ended and became a substitute teacher in High School and loved it.



My children went to public school, but as a stay-at-home mom - they were involved with all sorts of creativity, sports, travel, and more. They grew up in a middle class environment where everyone worked hard and went off to college - where the energy to get the most out of every day, was always there and made my daughters who they are today ... this energy now rippling down to their children.



Is there a right or a wrong way to teach children? No ... as it is all part of a process. If the student is happy and learning, then the system works, but be aware of their emotional package/baggage which constantly changes.

The key at any age is creativity - let the child create. Just as you wish to create your reality while interacting in the dysfunctional world we call our everyday lives - so too must a child learn through creation - arts, sciences, music, photography, nature, animals, etc. Technology is so important.


Each generation of students will face different sets of challenges - this we all know. Autism is on the increases, in one form or another. Today we recognize emotional problems such as ADD and learning challenges and try to help students develop to the best of their abilities. Some parents can face challenges with their children others say they will outgrow them. History has taught us that is not so.

Also of concern is the age of students. I can't tell you how many parents tell me how smart their child was in elementary school, then by middle school - and certainly by puberty, the grades started to slack off. Why? This is the age when emotional problems show themselves, especially those that are genetic. If left undiagnosed and blown off as part of puberty, the problems accelerate into high school, when parents are forced to say, "My normally bright child is failing" and look to find fault with the education system.

If there is mental illness and external factors affecting the child, they must be addressed. A teen at puberty, with a predisposition for depression, will not be able to focus and do their work - their brains simply can't function. If the family situation further hampers growth, they will fail, or go into that space where they just want to stay home and play video games, or hang out with friends, drink, smoke weed, etc.


There will always be successes and failures in all aspects of life, all we can do is try - it's what self awareness and healing is all about.

Keep it simple ... if the parents are dysfunctional, so too will be the children unless they get professional help.

If the education system is dysfunctional, so too will be its students.

If this reality is based on duality, bipolar content, so too shall be the people who learn within its parameters.

People work so hard to heal and help and make this experience better. Yet by its very nature, the fact that its created in duality to experience emotions, it is, and will remain bipolar - a learning experience based in emotions in the biggest school of all - the universe/universe - each step of the way forever challenged, until it blips out of existence taking with it all of the knowledge of our experiences. With changes in science and technologies, we will understand the truth behind the illusion ... viral feedback into the collective unconsciousness which created the education program in which we came to Earth to learn, but will soon return.



Media



Everyone seems to want to major in film and communication ... an interesting aspect of the grids ... yet producing too many college and university students who can't find jobs. You have to prepare for the day job also.



Recently Oprah featured programs about education, saying that she always wanted to be a teacher and discussing the Oprah Winfrey Leadership Academy for Girls and Waiting for "Superman" a 2010 documentary that analyzes the failures of American public education by following several students through the educational system.




Monday's message from Obama is wrong - good for working moms maybe, but not great for students. School is not about tough-love, but dealing with the issues of students and whoever raises them.

Obama presses for longer school years

Barely into the new school year, President Barack Obama issued a tough-love message to students and teachers on Monday: Their year in the classroom should be longer, and poorly performing teachers should get out.












Venus' South Polar Vortex
  NASA - September 28, 2010


What's happening over the South Pole of Venus? To find out, scientists have been studying images taken by the robotic Venus Express spacecraft when it passes over the lower spin axis of Earth's overheated twin. Surprisingly, recent images from Venus Express do not confirm previous sightings of a double storm system there, but rather found a single unusual swirling cloud vortex. In the above recently released image sequence taken in infrared light and digitally compressed, darker areas correspond to higher temperatures and hence lower regions of Venus' atmosphere. Also illuminating are recently released movies, which show similarities between Venus' southern vortex and the vortex that swirls over the South Pole of Saturn. Understanding the peculiar dynamics of why, at times, two eddies appear, while at other times a single peculiar eddy appears, may give insight into how hurricanes evolve on Earth



The images above reminded me of this image of ...

Venus, a Creation Goddess archetype, linked to the Spirals of Creation