So when I say Principle it's not like I'm saying Morals, or Values.
Though, those can be Principles, too.
Principles are not absolutes, though they tend to apply predictably within certain parameters of life and creation.
Principles can be likened to the Rules of a Game. My mentor taught me that a business has to be a Game Worth Playing to survive and thrive.
Principles are at the foundation of systems like math and geometry. They are the rebar that strengthens ideas into concrete establishments - government, finance and war... They are the magnetic maypoles of sublime scientific revelation... They are the underpinnings of astrology and depth psychology, anthropological forensic anatomy....
Principles make use of group-mind from atoms to collective consciousness in human endeavors.
Principles are the things you can rely on when you are unsure of all else.
Principles are time tested, mother approved, logically deduced, observationally informed, experientially interacted with ways of knowing that only self-reflective consciousness can apprehend.
Principles are knowable, utilizable, non-explicit patterns that can only be seen by searching through the chaotic patterns of life until the organizing principles become apparent and everything seems to fall into place.
That's what it's like learning to understand Principles.
That's why I talk about Principles with all my mentees.
The fastest and best way to learn something is marrying experience with the guidance of a mentor who has a clear map to share and knowledge of the terrain being traversed.
Principles are that map.
Purpose is the compass.
Participants are the mentors and peer-group that inform the journey.
Puts Learning on Auto-Pilot
Repetition over time is the key to any learning. Tonight at Jiu Jitsu, I started to see how my months of regular, disciplined practice are paying off in faster reflexes, better recognition of my situation in a grappling match, more precise movements, etc...
It's only from repetition over time that I have gained this new set of skills.
What's unique about the Montessori Method is that it teaches children with a unified curriculum from pre-school through as far as high-school.
What a child learns in the 3-6 age range - principles like height, width, length, volume, etc... - they will continue to come back to in subsequent grades like 2nd grade science class, or trigonometry in later years. The principles don't change, but the child's ability to access them and utilize the specialized knowledge they inform changes drastically.
So, how do I use this in my parenting? Well, I do my best to teach Corrina principles. Sometimes she finds my lectures boring, other times she surprises me by parroting something I said to her months or years ago when she was way too young to understand what I was saying. (I was a philosophy major - it's easy to get carried away ;-)
What I've discovered is that if I give her a book or a game that teaches deep principles without needing to explain them to her abstractly, she absorbs the information through play. Then, in several years, she will return to the material from a higher mind-brain developmental level. She will start to see what I would like to convey to her, but on her own time, on her own terms.
A great book I bought her recently is "Be Here Now" by Ram Dass. If you're not familiar, check it out. It's a classic in the hippie, new-age genre. It also makes some very important principles (from many different cultures and religions) very clear. And it's drawn like a coloring book. So, even though Corrina can't grasp concepts like God and psychological wholeness, she can still color the pages and enjoy the beauty of the pictures.
The words are making an impression on her mind. Even if she doesn't know it. And in 10 year, when she's completed the coloring and she's ready to start looking at the world through idealistic, hippie lenses, she will have this masterully colored book, with a decade personal history, that will speak to her from many levels of her being.
It basically puts her learning of the information in this book on auto-pilot for me. I just let her enjoy what she already loves to do, and trust the process. The Montessori Method is brilliant. I encourage you to try something along these lines with your own principles.
Cheers,
Craig
It's only from repetition over time that I have gained this new set of skills.
What's unique about the Montessori Method is that it teaches children with a unified curriculum from pre-school through as far as high-school.What a child learns in the 3-6 age range - principles like height, width, length, volume, etc... - they will continue to come back to in subsequent grades like 2nd grade science class, or trigonometry in later years. The principles don't change, but the child's ability to access them and utilize the specialized knowledge they inform changes drastically.
So, how do I use this in my parenting? Well, I do my best to teach Corrina principles. Sometimes she finds my lectures boring, other times she surprises me by parroting something I said to her months or years ago when she was way too young to understand what I was saying. (I was a philosophy major - it's easy to get carried away ;-)
What I've discovered is that if I give her a book or a game that teaches deep principles without needing to explain them to her abstractly, she absorbs the information through play. Then, in several years, she will return to the material from a higher mind-brain developmental level. She will start to see what I would like to convey to her, but on her own time, on her own terms.
A great book I bought her recently is "Be Here Now" by Ram Dass. If you're not familiar, check it out. It's a classic in the hippie, new-age genre. It also makes some very important principles (from many different cultures and religions) very clear. And it's drawn like a coloring book. So, even though Corrina can't grasp concepts like God and psychological wholeness, she can still color the pages and enjoy the beauty of the pictures.The words are making an impression on her mind. Even if she doesn't know it. And in 10 year, when she's completed the coloring and she's ready to start looking at the world through idealistic, hippie lenses, she will have this masterully colored book, with a decade personal history, that will speak to her from many levels of her being.
It basically puts her learning of the information in this book on auto-pilot for me. I just let her enjoy what she already loves to do, and trust the process. The Montessori Method is brilliant. I encourage you to try something along these lines with your own principles.Cheers,
Craig
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