An Open Letter to Michael Strong (draft)

My mission is to Illuminate.

I do that by teaching what I know, or at least sharing my experiences with others - both successes and failures.

Sometimes I want to create a whole curriculum, with formal outlines and all that fun stuff. Then I realize if I can simplify amplify the example I am setting, that can be enough for those who are ready to learn what I'm laying down.

This is an example of a conversation I initiated with Michael Strong. A man who I would consider one of my top candidates for mentoring, if he were so inclined, based on his experience developing Socratic Montessori schools in Alaska, and his current work with John Mackey - founder of Whole Foods.

These are the types of people I want to get around if I am going to really serve the world with the vision I carry in my heart.

I invited Michael's input around my interest in finding a Grad program to deepen my confidence in how I present my vision to the world, and how I develop a community of inquiry around it.

He responded in true Socratic fashion with this clarifying questions:

"Do you know what role you would like to play in the world of education?"

My response, while involved, is the best I've been able to articulate both what I am doing, and how I aim to get there. I post it here both for anyone interested in the Enlightened Child vision, and also for Michael, since I will reply to him with a much truncated version of this stream of consciousness draft.

If you're looking for mentors of this caliber, there are a lot of lessons contained in every part of this blog post.

There are also a lot of suggestions I'd love to hear from anyone who has more experience with this than me.

Below begins my response...

~~~~~
Michael - such wonderful questions. Thank you.

This response is long - I won't be offended if you skip to the bottom where I do finally boil it down to one, tripartite sentence explaining what I am after.

~~~~~

From the hip: I want to foster a Community of Inquiry that spreads globally (via social media networks) like a mycelium network, attracting the brightest minds and deepest hearts and helping them launch a life of True Purpose according to their individual nature.

My methodology is to start with Truth, express it through Beauty, and simply invite those who are interested (find this Good) into a dialogue, into a community of inquiry where we explore the truth and get it working for us, get our lives on track because lord knows the current administration and schooling system all but insidiously intends to knock us off track, knock us senseless. Grrrrr...

So, my vision is to enter the educational process at any age - pre-birth to maturity - with a series of principles that quite frankly "Make Sense!"

I create Montessori-inspired toys and games and books that model core principles every child must come to know to be successful in life. They begin learning about Art, Morals and Science... Compass, Mentors, Maps... Health, Compassion, Wealth... from a very early age because I provide a format for discussing the big questions in life using the symbols for truth that have been refined over millenia - the Oroborous, Yin-Yang, Chakras, Enneagram, Kabbalah, Zodiac. "Graduation" from my "school" means a student is financially self-sufficient, well-connected and able to obtain new mentors, radiating health & has a clear compass in hand at all times.

My materials are patterned after Montessori materials because I attended 2 years of Primary. My daughter is in her 6th year now, and her mother just completed her 3 summer Primary certification. They are very simple - a coloring book that represents numbers 1-12 in a multi-cultural expose of principles. Oroboros, Yin-Yang, Triquestra, Zia, 5 Chinese Elements, Hexagram, Chakras, Ba-Gua, Enneagram, Kabbalah, Planetary Archetypes, Zodiac. I also create games - like painting a Mancala board with the chakras, using it to teach about cause & effect, relationship dynamics and how to create a windfall of success.

Imagine if the Tri-nomial Cube was a popular toy made by Mattel for the mass-market. You and I know Pythagorean mysteries are contained in the concrete operational artifact, and its purpose is to hardwire the child's brain for the abstract understanding to be overlayed several years later (assuming the child is able to stay with the Montessori curriculum!) My materials invite deeper mysteries - the deepest, most relevant ideas for the greatest number of humans. Who am I? What do I want? How will I get it? In a Good Way?

As a Dead Head, I developed my materials to "get around" and operate like a modular, supplemental education system. Since they are primarily tools for pattern recognition, it doesn't matter what "else" the child has learned to that point, interacting with the materials spontaneously organizes the accumulated data in the child's mind. A formal schooling environment is welcome to incorporate them as well as any homeschooler, as well as any curious child who happens upon these in a Dead parking lot ;-)

People of all ages can be attracted to the beauty, and allow the deeper meaning to seep in over time - like a young child or a thick adult ;-p, or for young adults, even teens, I want to create a series of coaching nad information products that invite them to dive into the deeper meaning and explore the principles I present them through coaching, group calls, events and workshops, and yes, perhaps physical schools... though this is not where I intend to focus. Too slow for me, though I respect the value of a well run institution when I see one ;-)

My own daughter has proven to me that children can understand the rudimentary principles as young as 3, probably younger if I knew how to test for this. I've developed a handful of proto-type toys and games and books over the years. People LOVE them. It's my passion to create them, delving deep into the mystery schools from which they have been passed into the world.

What has held me back from living this mission wide open to this point is critical deficiencies in my development. Ken Wilber's AQAL map has been the most helpful in pin-pointing the deficiencies, and now after a 5 year jaunt through the world of slash and burn economics, I have "graduated" back to a more Integral worldview, with the lessons of Marketing and Business Development seared into my heart like a cattle brand.

I'm ready to launch, to teach what I've learned to my entrepreneurial interns, and work out the organization of this "school" that also serves to administer my business (a social media marketing firm based on Authenticity). I have 12-15 young men paying $100/mo and doing these weekly and monthly coaching calls. That money accumulates until it is enough to scholarship one of these young men who is really showing earnest desire to teach and master through mentoring his cohort - send him to a national workshop or seminar that will completely alter his map of reality and transform his character. Integrate his energy across the rest of the cohort, and strengthen the frame of consciousness I am intent on fostering.

Come spring, I want to be enrolled in a program that will give me the CONFIDENCE (not just credentials) to really step things up to a national and international level. I want to fast-track my Authority positioning by writing some profound papers, possibly a book, that will explain this unique educational framework - the mentoring pyramid informed by inquiry into the principles of deep presence... Living Embodied Enlightenment if you will.

My hunch is, with enough exposure to enlightening ideas, the developing soul will spontaneously burst into a full blown Enlightenment experience. Even if only for a moment. And THAT is what I believe the world needs - more of us informed by a True vision of our Soul's Purpose. Along with the influence and resources to do something profound with that Vision.

And, like Ghandi says, I gotta be the change I wanna see. I have to model this and entrain the DNA of my "lineage" by aligning myself with mentors of strong character and penetrating insight - both into the world, and into me.

There is so much I know I'm capable of... I'm ready to start experiencing life with the guidance of worthy mentors who SEE me, Feel me, and draw me into the world in an extremely skillful way - much as you have done with your question today. Heheh - an Educator. One who 'draws forth from within.'

Michael - I'm open to creating this scenario for myself through some college that facilitates independent study. Or a program that is already in place (Fielding's MA in Educational Leadership & Change with an Integral Certificate caught my eye). Or even just diving in with some steady guidance by a man like yourself, and perhaps others you recommend to round out the experience and guidance.

What I mostly need is a focused course with a clear outcome - develop and publish an educational manifesto per above outline, secure mentoring relationships with a stellium of exceptional mentors, and grow this "school" that is really a business that pays the bills while paying interns to learn and stay close to me. Yep. That's it, in a nutshell.

Apologies for building you a clock when you asked for the Time. First opportunity anyone's ever given me to truly un-pack all that I've been carrying in my soul the past decade.

Thanks again,

Craig

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

To Your Enlightenment Experience!

Craig

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Montessori is NOT Self-Help...

Back in college I read a lot of Spiritual and Self-Help type books. I was interested in growing and becoming a better person... or stopping the gnawing existential pain I kicked up in the process.

When I got into Sales I was pleased to discover a culture of personal and professional development. Guys like Zig Ziglar and Jim Rohn were instrumental in helping me ground my mind in this worldly reality and get a grip on who I am becoming as a man. Mentors and friends helped as well. But ultimately it all comes down to experience.

Since I never took a marketing or finance class... EVER... I had to teach myself these things through experience (aka repeated failure). I started businesses and made sales calls and did all the things the gurus said. And I've gotten much better. But something still nags at me... about the potential I have within me that I fear may never see the light of day.

Reading some Maria Montessori this morning (founder of the Montessori schools - AMI) I thought back to my two years as a Montessori kid. They made sense. I grew and understood how I was growing. I engaged in playful mastery of the material and I was recognized as a young, developing soul. It was joyous times.

The chapter I read this morning talked about how to really mess up a child for life. Luckily I spent the rest of my schooling in institutions that read THAT manual and my jaw dropped in astonishment at the aftermath and how it has played out in my life.

When I say Montessori is NOT Self-Help, what I mean is that as I read the chapter and thought about the impact these negative schooling experiences have had on my life, I realized that the next page would not be some treatise or meditation exercise designed to free my soul from the bondage of psychological anguish these naughty naughty institutions have inflicted upon me.

No. There would be no Self-Help epiphany today.

What I see very clearly, though, is a need to assist parents and teachers in honoring the soul of the child and not foisting the habituated traumas we acquired in our own schooling and socialization on our children, but truly "Following the Child" and learning something of our own humanity in their innocence and joy.

Montessori is a recipe for a child who will not need much, if any, self-help work. There will always been an edge to grow to, but the negative feelings that we were saddled with in childhood need not hinder that growth or create mind-boggling challenges that make us say things like, "I'm afraid of success." Something is wrong with a culture that instills fear of completion and the joy of accomplishment in its populous.

What can we do to help our children grow up free from the weeds of the antiquated schooling and socialization process?

Cheers,

Craig

to see original post and all my social media links, visit: www.enlightenedchild.com

Does Your Child Work From a Checklist?

Pilots work from a checklist. There's a LOT to remember. Any one thing forgotten could cost lives and fortunes. Firemen, doctors, attorneys, great salesmen, even artists and dancers if you look closely enough... they all use checklists. True, some of them aren't on paper, in binders called Operating Manuals. Precisely my point...

We all do it, actually. We get up in the morning and we run our routine. When we go to take our shower we have a little routine that we run. Firs this, then this, then this... oh I better trim these... we are running through a mental checklist.

When I got up to leave the park yesterday my mind did a quick scan: keys, cash, cell phone and anything... anything... oh, yeah - sunglasses that I left in the grass!!! (That's actually what prompted today's post.)

What I was suddenly conscious of (though I've studied this application in personal and professional development for years) was the UN-consciuos process, or "checklist," that my mind went through to take care of me. I can think of LOTS of times in my life when I haven't had good checklists, and I forgot things... like deodorant ;-p

So, here's the insight:

If your child is developing checklists unconsciously, help make them conscious. I like to ask Corrina after she enthusiastically asks me to move on to the next activity, "What's gotta get done before we can do that?"

This puts her in a helpful, receptive state and she begins to seek answers to the question in her mind. She knows she can't proceed until certain things are complete, and she's apt to lay a shoulder in if she can help speed things along. This is a great parenting device, and it gets her thinking in checklists.

So, the next step is to make that checklist process conscious. I'll discuss that in my next post.

Cheers,

Craig

to see original post and all my social media links, visit: www.enlightenedchild.com

What is Montessori Education?

Here is a great primer on Montessori for ages 3-6.

The actual Philosophy is much deeper, bordering on the mystical, but this gets you oriented with the classroom.



"Children are allowed to continue with a piece of work for as long as they desire. They choose activities that interest them and practice them until they feel a sense of Mastery. Then they move on." ~6:30

7:40 "Part of becoming Independent Learners is taking responsibility for oneself, and the classroom environment."



3:00 "As the child becomes comfortable with the basics, the materials becoming increasingly abstract and complex, helping the learner to understand first the patterns of addition, subtraction building from this foundation to the complexities of squaring and square root, cubing and cube roots."

3:40 "The materials provide a method for the students to check their own work, as well as, to visualize the problem in 3 dimensions.

What I want to study is the cutting edge human/childhood Developmental Science, Montessori and similar alternative educational philosophies, and the 12 Archetypes in the Enlightened Child book.

So I can develop materials that Leverage a child's developmental capabilities to learn Life Success Principles as enjoyably and early as possible.

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

Concept: Montessori Method - Children teach themselves

"A child's work is to create the person she will become."

Maria Montessori pioneered a method of education that, even 100 years later, is still far ahead of the times.

The backdrop for her developments was provincial Italy at the turn of the last century. Passionate and determined by nature, she became the first female doctor in Italy in 1896.

Working with the impoverished and "retarded" youth of Rome's ghettos, she realized, "that mental deficiency presented chiefly a pedagogical, rather than mainly a medical, problem." She concluded that, "children build themselves from what they find in their environment."

Although her methods were criticized for being too detached, rigorous, and even harsh for the youth, they did seem to facilitate a more genuine, natural experience. She was often heard saying, "I studied my children, and they taught me how to teach them." Montessori was the first to view education in this manner.

She pioneered other attributes of what seems to be modern education today. She suggested that teachers see themselves as social engineers, and enhanced the scientific qualities of education.

The main concepts of Montessori Method include:

1.) The Prepared Environment - Unlike a typical classroom where students are subjected to the lesson plans a teacher has prepared for the entire class, regardless of each student's aptitude or interest level, a well-prepared Montessori classroom is designed for children to learn independently, at their own pace, through exploration of the activities that are most engaging to them according to the developmental needs each day.

2.) Materials - Each stage of a child's development requires different learning experiences, each stage building on the last. To ensure each child has mastered the lessons needed for the next level, Montessori materials are designed to be inviting and engaging, isolating the concept a child is to learn. Using patterns in color, shape, size, texture, etc... these materials assist the child in discerning each conceptual building block on their own, enhancing the confidence of the child delighting in personal accomplishment every time the material is mastered. Often, a child may return to the same materials at a higher developmental level to discover that the concepts they are now absorbing were alluded to years earlier in the more basic materials.

3.) Normalization - This word might be better explained as "Naturalization" or "Flow" in today's parlance. Here's what she says about, "the most important single result of our whole work."

"Only "normalised" children, aided by their environment, show in their subsequent development those wonderful powers that we describe: spontaneous discipline, continuous and happy work, social sentiments of help and sympathy for others. . . . An interesting piece of work, freely chosen, which has the virtue of inducing concentration rather than fatigue, adds to the child's energies and mental capacities, and leads him to self-mastery. . . . One is tempted to say that the children are performing spiritual exercises, having found the path of self-perfectionment and of ascent to the inner heights of the soul." (Maria Montessori, The Absorbent Mind, 1949)

A Recipe for Enlightenment?

Sounds like a strong candidate for the foundation of an educational curriculum designed to streamline and strengthen a child's development toward Enlightened states of consciousness. Since the flow state experience is always available to us, even in our pre-rational years, it is important to emphasize your child's awareness of and affinity for this experience. The deeper the visceral memory of a spiritual state of consciousness is embedded from an early age, the stronger it will attract our children to return to it as life becomes increasingly complex.

My own daughter, Corrina, attended Montessori (AMI) from the age of 2-6. Her mom, Jen, is currently in training to become a Montessori primary (age 3-6) teacher. This year the school is training an elementary teacher, so Corrina is attending the local public school for 1st grade.

Personally, I'm grateful that she has the contrasting experiences to help her appreciate and value her Montessori training. She is consistently receiving awards for "best student," "most improved reader" (she's reading at a 4th grade level and writing long stories with illustrations in her journal). Teachers at the school constantly ask us where she went to kindergarten. Next year we plan to enroll her for the 2nd and 3rd grade elementary program.

Ultimately, wherever your child attends school, studying the Montessori Method will have a great impact on your understanding of your child's developmental needs, and how to best help your child grow according to his or her true nature.

For more information, check out these resources:

• http://www.maitrilearning.com/downloads.html -
• Secret of Childhood- especially recommended for parents. A history of what and how Montessori learned about the unique nature of the child, the problems that can arise when the child's nature is not properly nurtured, and the repercussions that proper and improper nurturing of the child have on society.