education 6

The most important thing to establish in any classroom-regardless of the subject- is the right atmosphere to establish creativity-and that means no fear- no fear in the classroom- children will respond to this like nothing else-a classroom that allows them to be themselves and allows them to express their creativity- how to accomplish this?-it isn't as difficult as it may seem-the first thing is to have an open friendly and welcoming attitude to the students-the second is to prevent any other student from making a classmate feel inhibited by put downs and the third is to encourage them to express their point of view without censure or even criticism- there are exceptions and it takes experience and practice to achieve this- what if free expression means one student criticizing another?- is humour allowed?- it takes time to develop the right approach- but above all the teacher must model what he wants from the students-i was told early in my career to be tough at first- be an -expletive-and i know what the teacher meant when he told me this- he knew what he was talking about- but being tough does not mean -cutting down- criticizing or otherwise being sarcastic in any way-these things simply do not belong in a classroom- it is about letting each student find that part of themselves that is brilliant' creative' and beautiful- and every student has this- once they bring it out- it influences every other part of their school experience- confidence gained in one subject area can lead to confidence and success in other areas-one of the other points -a valid one- is what if the student is afraid to begin with-a student that is afraid brings his fear to the classroom-this fear can be expressed in a number of ways- but it does not surprise me to see him start to act out in negative ways- especially when the other students begin to express their creativity- this type of student needs a lot of attention- and the attention cannot monopolize the teacher's time or attention- he must distribute it equally among all the students- but private meetings can help-the most effective tool that i know of to reduce fear in the student and in the classroom is the practice of the TRANSCENDENTAL MEDITATION TECHNIQUE-it brings immediate and long lasting results and helps when all other methods have failed- the David Lynch foundation is presently working to provide TM in schools around the world- it has made an incredible difference-i will elaborate on some of those differences later-i have had 18 years experience teaching in non- meditatting schools and 12 years working in meditating schools- i have seen the difference and it is remarkable-Fear is tricky business it comes in many shapes and sizes- and it can be very deceiving-but there are two categories that apply-fear of failure-which is common- and fear of success- which is even more common in my experience-and way more tricky too-fear of failure is easy to understand- especially when trying some thing new- but fear of success means that the idea of being successful is a problem for you-what does or will being successful mean?- for some students it may mean unwanted attention or pressure to produce or a feeling of being singled out- the other students often have ways of making the successful student feel bad about their success-they put them down or accuse them of trying to be a big shot or curry favor with teachers and other adults-sometimes their are people at home who are threatened by a family member's success- as they think they never were successful and never will be-all this can be worked out but it takes time- a strong and resilient inner life takes time-but TM can help with this too and that is why i am so convinced that it is needed in our schools today-more later.