INTELLIGENCE AS INTERACTION

Q.  How can schools best promote enhanced intelligence growth in children?

We have spoken of the frontal lobes as being the most human part of the brain. The center for planning and design, these are also the seat of creative, innovative and abstract thinking. Additionally, this is the area where our self-reflective and empathic pondering takes place.

Importantly, this seat of high intelligence requires input from the heart and cerebrum. In fact, the more valid, and forthcoming the input, the greater the intelligence. It’s as if the frontal lobes are the president and the heart and cerebrum are the chief advisors. The heart has its finger on the interior pulse of the world, and the cerebrum is the liaison between President Frontal Lobes and the physical world.

The accuracy, the true value of the advice from this president’s chief advisors comes from first hand, ongoing contact with the living, dynamic, ever-changing planet, including its people, plants and animals by means of the body.

At no time is this first hand, ongoing contact with the surrounding, dynamic world more vital than in childhood. This time of growing, stretching intelligence requires hands-on interaction—the scintillating interplay of all the senses.

Receptors that line the sensory and motor cortices of the cerebrum receive input from all over the body, especially the hands.1

Carla Hannaford (Smart Moves: Why Learning Is Not all In Your Head) writes, “With a huge part of the sensory and motor cortices in the brain involved with the hand, the hand shapes our cognitive, emotional, linguistic and psychological development.”2

Let’s imagine we could see the cerebrum as thousands of lights. Like tiny lightning bolts, dendrites form a connective web of shining streams of light. New experiences send new dendrites arching between synapses. The denser this web of connections, the greater the  intelligence source for President Frontal Lobes.

This is the question: How many light bulbs and links are likely to be shining if for 7 hours a day the child is confined to a chair in a rectangular room, holding a pencil, writing on rectangular sheets of paper, or interacting with rectangular computer screens or rectangular text books?

This is the next question: How much are those lights and the connecting web of light streams likely to be firing in the following scenario:

At 8:45 the arriving children are glad it’s spring and eager to play and interact with one another outdoors for the first 20 minutes. As they converse, run and climb, an array of textures, colors, forms, and sounds stimulate their senses. Amidst bird calls and songs, and other children’s voices, a variety of earthy scents assault their nostrils. They may touch the bark of trees and feel the dew-laden prairie grass brush again their ankles. Yellow dandelions beckon amid shades of green and brown. The children exercise their bodies as they walk, run, change directions, climb, and jump.

After circle time at 9:05, the indoor scene is another vibrant hive of activity as the children design independent projects. Some are seated at tables, while others sprawl on the floor surrounded by books and materials. Researchers are flipping through book pages or at computers. While some cut cardboard boxes or pieces of paper for dioramas, others design backdrops. As one concentrates on fancy lettering, another paints an animal, and still another molds a tiny clay person. While one writes on note cards, two friends converse as they co-design a project. Someone heads outside to retrieve sticks for a miniature teepee, while another raids the craft cabinet for beads or feathers.

Amidst the background hum of conversation, eyes are bright, the senses are engaged, and the hands are busy.

At 10:20 in response to rumbling stomachs, the group stops for a snack and an outdoor break before returning to projects.

In Magical Child Joseph Chilton Pearce explains in chapter 3 entitled  “Intelligence as Interaction”, that interaction is a two-way exchange of energy. Through interaction the brain grows new dendrites as well as its ability to interact.

When we see intelligence as a dynamic exchange of energy with the sights, sounds, smells and textures of LIFE, we see childhood learning in a new light.

In which case, instead of “sit still and be quiet,” we are more likely to echo Captain Jean Luc Piccard as we point toward the world and say, “Engage!”
1.Penfield and Jasper, Epilepsy; The Functioning Anatomy of the Human Brain. Boston: little Brown. 1954, P.58.
2.Wilson, Frank R. The Hand; How its Use Shapes the Brain, Language and Human Culture. N.Y: Pantheon Books. 1998, Introduction.

CURRENTS OF EMOTION

 Q. Which is more important to a child’s successful navigation through life: due attention to signals from the individual body/emotions/mind complex; or pushing step by step through a lengthy highway of standardized curricula?

A sensitive teacher, who is allowed the luxury of tuning into the individual emotional and physiological states of children, can tell when the brain is open to learning and when it shuts down. S(he) reads children like a detective reads clues. With, either bright-eyed focus, or a glazed, far away look, the eyes clue-in the astute observer. The observant teacher notes that the child body turns away, the hands seek something to touch or another child, when the lesson fails to trigger high-interest. Children, who are free to do so, communicate very clearly their physical/emotional state.

School systems have a choice: to either invite the teacher to modify his/her curriculum in response to these child signals; or to demand the teachers override these signals in order to force-feed officially designated curricula.

The question is: Which of the above is the most direct route to the citadel of human brilliance?

In the 1600’s the French philosopher and mathematician Descartes proposed the mechanistic view of the universe and human body. Since the inception of institutions called schools, this established view has separated emotions from rationality, i.e. feeling from intelligence. Being mainly concerned with building intellect, the mechanistic view overlooks the pivotal role of emotions in learning. Hence, the suppression of the physical and emotional needs of children in schooling. Hence, the escalating push for gains in academics at the exclusion of the joys of childhood.

The discoveries of a growing number of scientists, including physicists and physiologists, have shaken this view at its foundations.  Candace Pert (Molecules of Emotion) discovered an “information highway” that biochemically unifies the mind/body system. In this communication system, neuropeptides and receptors serve as messengers between the organs and systems of the body. This neural network literally informs the brain of the physical and emotional state of the human being. Pert compares it to music:

“Every moment a massive information exchange is taking place in your body. Imagine each of these messenger systems possessing a specific tone … rising and falling … waxing and waning … , and if we could hear this body music with our ears, the sum of these tones would be the music that we call emotions.”

We either trust, or we don’t, that nature provided young children with this communication system for good reasons. We either respond to, ignore, or suppress the child’s facial, verbal, emotional, physical and physiological clues that we are stressing his system and, thereby, inhibiting his unique nature-designated intelligence.

On the Colorado River my own experience with white-water rafting (beginner level) has since served as an analogy for working with children. Like the river, these emotional beings are sometimes placid, but always exuberance is just around the bend. At the bend, where the river narrows, are bumps and boulders. A life jacket is required and skilled navigation prevents capsizing.

A teacher’s life jacket is intimate knowledge of the emotive currents of the individuals in her care. The skilled navigation is the guardian’s loving repertoire of nuanced glances, facial expressions, verbal communications, curricula offerings and inviting actions. Experienced, free and caring teachers know that skilled navigation through the shoals of boredom and resistance leads to shared exhilaration on the river of learning.

Teachers, who have the freedom to paddle through white-water learning with and for free children, capsize at times. Child laughter erupts when we emerge wet and sputtering. But I’ve noticed the best way to turn the raft upright and climb back on as a unified team is to laugh with them.

The important goal is to keep the molecules of positive emotion, the discrete and vital drops of living waters, flowing toward whole body/emotion/mind brilliance.

OF SIGHT AND INSIGHT

Q. According to science, maximum brain growth occurs during early childhood. So, Isn’t this the time to begin teaching children to read and write?

Perhaps Nicholas’ mother knew, or intuited, a secret. Most parents of her generation dutifully sent their children to rectangular structures outfitted with chalkboards, books, paper and pencil. Meanwhile, Nicholas’s mother allowed him to escape outdoors each morning on their ten acres. While, others his age sat at desks to learn geography, Nicholas surveyed the world from his tree house.  While most glanced at textbook photos of nature, Nicholas became on intimate terms with the insects, animals, trees and plants of his domain. While teachers lectured about the world, Nicholas watched science and nature documentaries.

When Nicholas turned ten, he decided to come to our school. One of the kindest children to ever grace our little society, he patiently stooped to tie shoelaces and lent a hand to struggling tree climbers. There was an innocence about him, and yet a quiet confidence; a fascination with the world, and a voracious hunger to learn more about it.

However, Nicholas could neither read nor write. Normally, the learning journey from phonics to reading classical literature takes five or six years. I began teaching Nicholas to read in September. By May of that same year, he was daily engrossed in none other than the classic, Huckleberry Finn, by Mark Twain.

The second year Nicholas wrote pages and pages in his journal.

Normally the journey from beginning math to algebra takes about six years. Nicholas progressed with ease through addition, subtraction, multiplication, division and fractions to reach the 5^th grade level in one year.

Was Nicholas a genius? As far a I could tell, no more so than other children are geniuses. He was emotionally ready to learn. He was highly motivated to augment his considerable knowledge of the world with academics. His level of physiological development supported his quest and made learning easy.

Did Nicholas’ mother intuit that when children are ready, when they have been allowed their full childhood, they can accomplish five or six years of learning in one year?

The collective story, passed from generation to generation, asserts that our success as adults is because of childhoods imprisoned in hierarchical systems. Fearfully, the current, seventh generation graduates of these institutions subject our children ever earlier to rote learning and left-brain minutia.

But, according to science, this practice holds hostage natural physiology, including the development of sight. In this first in a series on physiology and learning, let’s focus on the eyes.

Carla Hannaford, Ph.D (Smart Moves – Why Learning Is Not All In Your Head) writes, “In a three dimensional environment, such as outdoors, the eye is in constant motion, gathering sensory information to build intricate image packages necessary for learning. The brain integrates these image packages and other sensory information like touch and proprioception (the sense of how our bodies are positioned) to build a visual perception system. The eyes are equipped with different kinds of visual focus, of which three dimensional focus is vital for learning, yet we emphasize two dimensional focus in learning situations with books, worksheets, computers and video games.”

Have you ever observed a four-year old hunker down to intently follow the path of a roly-poly for several seconds? He’s exercising his foveal focus. Next, if he’s lucky, he’s running through an open field developing his peripheral vision. Sure, he’s having fun, but improving his vision?

In both the U.S. and Singapore the forcing of 3 and 4 yr. olds to sit still and do seatwork (reading and writing) has stunted the vision. In Singapore, this led to 85% having myopia as 5 year olds. Similarly, in the U.S. children tend to become myopic when they start to do school work. (G. Kobata, What Causes Nearsightedness? Science, 1985, vol. 229, pp. 1249-1250.)

Can there be a correlation between free and happy childhoods and excellent vision?

A New York longitudinal study* followed 133 subjects from infancy into adulthood. In the early learning environment three major factors emerged as vital contributors to competency in adulthood:

First, sensory-rich indoor and out door environments;

Secondly, freedom to explore the environment with few restrictions; and

Thirdly, available parents that acted as consultants when the child asked a question.

Nicholas’ mother must have intuited that nature designed full support of the child’s physiology, to fully support adult competency.

* Thomas Alexander and Stella Chess, Genesis and Evolution of Behavioral Disorders From Infancy to Early Adult Life. American Journal of Psychiatry, 141, pp. 1-9.

OF EAGLETS AND CHILDREN

Q. How is a child’s sense of fantasy related to inventiveness? Isn't technological savvy grounded in thorough scientific knowledge and rigorous study?

A. Similar to any other human muscle or capacity, the imagination atrophies if it’s not exercised. For this reason sixteen years of plodding through unimaginative academics fosters memory, analysis and parroting at the expense of the capacity to envision new possibilities.

Suppression of the sense of fantasy is analogous to clipping the wings of pet parakeets. It’s a good way to insure that a tame bird stays in the confines of a familiar dwelling. If the pet does escape through the door, it’s not likely to make it past a nearby tree.

The generative potentials of our children are more akin to freely soaring eagles than caged birds. Within months, eaglets begin to flap their wings. Importantly, the parent eagles encourage their offspring through their own daily flights. Very soon the eaglet’s food will no longer be brought to him. He must soar with strong wings at breathtaking heights to survey vast terrains.

Soon out of toddlerhood, fledgling humans begin exercising their imaginations. Once awakened, this persistent urge can turn anything from a bit of fluff, to a stone, stick or fabric square into the three year old’s pretend play.

Among the important reasons for cultivating the wings of the imagination, is the sense of meaningful connection and contribution to one's society. The heart of Nature impels the first flights of fantasy with joyful abandon. A dynamic community further infuses the sense of fantasy with a sense of purpose--the urge to create new designs and inventions for the betterment of one's people.

The hands that hold the doll or build structures of blocks become instruments of the heart that embraces humanity, taps limitless resources, and invents in harmony with nature. The lessons encoded in fairytales, parables and legends endow the generative genius with ethical precision.

At six, seven, eight and nine years old the imagination is still expanding with growing complexity. The chapter book series, Wolves of the Beyond (Lasky) inspired one group of 7 to 11 year olds to become wolf packs extrapolating new adventures from the books’ plots during recess. For weeks on end the wolf packs built structures on the prairie and pursued one another through Thorn Forest, which forms a green belt perimeter for the prairie. The participants even figured out how to card the school’s knitting yarn to make magnificent wolf tales, which they attached to their belts.

These past weeks, it's been moving to see the children’s total absorption in their co-created dramas. And how wonderful to know that by behaving as nature designed them, the children are exercising an artery of superior intelligence—the imagination!

While intellectual gymnastics in cold institutions produce pedantic plodders, the restored Mother essence incubates the heart/soul complex of human hatchlings. This heart/soul brilliance announces its presence through individual talents and preferences. The child, a receptive conduit for the soul’s nudging, invites academic forays and flights of imagination as complementary aspects of his work/play.

The imagination, synchronously developed with the absorption of new knowledge, expands exponentially. From childhoods satiated this integration of science and creativity, emerge  fulfilling vocation opportunities for graduates.

Far removed from the perching of caged fowl, Nature’s children try their wings for a future of soaring like eagles. But their best learning opportunities come from attentive elders, who likewise extend their own wings and soar skyward.

NATURE THERAPY

Q. What about challenges like ADHD? What about when children transition from the Living Ethics School to a mainstream school, in which they will have to sit still and attend to academic work several hours a day at school and then more at home?

In present day society the champion young resisters of forced confinement for several hours a day generally earn the label ADHD. In the ground-breaking book Last Child in the Woods Richard Louv connected ADHD to the emotional and physical cost of alienation from nature. He coined the term Nature-deficit-disorder (NDD), which is the only label I know of that actually points society toward a healing solution. Whereas the label ADHD provides a socially acceptable gateway to drugging children, so they will docilely comply with the system, Louv’s NDD points toward a bonafide healing therapy: access to the scents, sounds, colors, textures, and endless opportunities for play in wild nature. According to Louv:

The real disorder is less in the child, than it is in the imposed, artificial environment. Viewed from this angle, the society that has disengaged the child from nature is most certainly disordered, if well-meaning. To take nature and natural play away from children may be tantamount to withholding oxygen.

Just as withholding oxygen can result in brain damage, thousands of studies have proven that daily sensory deprivation of a variety of sounds, textures, and scents, such as those found in nature, contributes to the dulling of the senses and intelligence. Similarly, curriculums that are devoid of life deprive children of the joys of childhood and trigger depression and defiance. And of course, oxygenated blood flowing to the brain necessitates due attention to physiology. Confinement must be replaced with children running, playing, climbing a lot, every day.

But there’s more, much more to the story. The research of Dr. Konstantin G. Korotkov http://www.korotkov.eu/ takes us deeper, all the way into the quantum realities of the child-nature alliance. Dr. Korotkov invented the gas discharge visualization (GDV) camera. which captures energy fields emanating from humans and plants. Even more intriguing his camera captures ongoing interchanges between plants and plants, and plants and people. Science and spirituality are now on the same turf, revealing quantum level communication and communion between the plants and trees, as well as the natural environment and people.

But anyone who intuitively plants children in wild nature already senses this truth. At the Living Ethics School, for thirty years, we have observed children climbing trees, running across the prairie, sneaking through Thorn Forest, sitting in tree house headquarters, and creating households, shops, hotels, banks and post offices in the Children’s Village.

Years ago when the trend became less and less recess, we placed outside play right in the middle of the morning for 40 minutes, mid-day for an hour and at 2:30, after a shorter than usual school day. Most days a bright-eyed group floods into classes recharged and ready to learn. Snow days and early spring days are the exception, at which times we are forced to set aside lesson plans and accede to the irresistible beckoning of the outdoor amphitheater.

“What about when our children move back into the system?” Anxious parents ask.

When John Holt was asked what intelligence is, he replied that, “Intelligence is figuring out what to do, when you don’t know what to do.” When therapeutic attention has been given to the cultivation of both joy and real intelligence for the first decade of childhood, most children quickly become A-B honor students after a brief adjustment period, during which they figure out the teach/test and teach-to-the-test system.

The powerful assets, which those who have communed with wild nature (in both inner and outer terrains) bring to institutions, are their innocence, open-friendliness, sense of self-worth, enthusiasm for learning, and activated whole-brain intelligence. In an unnatural environment, some will even retain these natural attributes.