THE CORN PLANTERS

Planting gardens and trees touches a resounding chord in the body/heart/mind/soul symphony that is us – an expression of our connectedness to Earth and the Kingdom of Plants. The growing number of community and backyard gardens reflects a deep yearning in people living in cities. There are many layers to the beneficial effects when families and communities tend gardens.

The family value of planting, tending and harvesting a garden is more than the sum of its parts. One aspect is the research that often precedes and accompanies growing organic produce for the nutritional advantages. Another value is the joy of turning dirt into soil filled with organic matter that feeds the organisms that feed the plants. Then there’s the shared enjoyment of planting seeds and/or seedlings and watching them grow. The excitement over fruitage follows this, with the anticipation of the day of picking the ripe vegetable or fruit. And finally, it’s deeply satisfying to know that you are feeding your body, and your family’s bodies the best, the freshest, the most nutritious food you can offer.

But, as I said, the value of the process is greater than the sum of its parts. The book Hotevilla by Thomas Mails and the Hopi Elder Dan Evehema hold important clues as to this overarching benefit, especially for modern families living in modern neighborhoods. The painter E.A. Burbank, named “Many Brushes” by the Hopi, admired their industriousness and declared he had “never known a more charming, hospitable, and peace-loving people.”

Farming among the Hopi was the domain of the men and boys. The farms were handed down from generation to generation and were the joint property of the people of the village. From a young age the boys accompanied their fathers for the planting of the corn. They learned to offer heartfelt prayers for this, the first among a series of sacred steps. 

Because of the sandstorms the farmers had to build mound fortifications to protect the tender plants. Additional threats came from crows and ground rats waiting for a chance to eat the corn stalks. The farmers had to take turns standing as sentinels or waiting all day long in an adjacent hut watching for invaders.

When father returned home from the fields he often picked up his toddler to sing corn-planting songs and dance the gentle rhythms with his child in his arms.

When the corn matured all the children witnessed the next stages of food production, which the women and girls managed. By pulverizing the grain between two stones they ground the corn into a fine meal. Then the women and teen girls made “piki” together. After mixing the cornmeal with water and lye, they cooked the tortilla-like flat bread over a flat stone with a fire underneath. Stomachs surely rumbled as they smelled the bread, which they had all helped generate, cooking

Droughts taught the Hopi to store enough grain for two years.

Many children could name the herbs and their medicinal value with authority that approached that of the adults.

Have you gleaned all the life-lessons, all the intrinsic motivation, all the industrious sharing whole families can experience by planting, tending , harvesting, cooking and eating food they have nurtured from seed to fruit in their family plot?

Most of us are really glad to own labor-saving devices. However, in modern homes neighborhoods, there is very little for children to do. In many households their primary escape from boredom is a device that holds the body and mind captive for extended periods of time.

Today our idea of children’s household chores has devolved mainly into clean-up, something that many of us view as a tiresome, unpleasant addendum to an enjoyable activity. Do we want our children to perceive work as unpleasant and only entertainment as innately satisfying?

The health benefits of garden prep, tending and harvesting include healthful workouts that surpass gym routines in multilayered benefits. A family garden offers at least one shared household labor that can involve high-interest and participation in a process that is ongoing for a several months. Gardens can bring families together in labor that is meaningful and purposeful and therefore innately satisfying.

Although we may not hold ceremonial dances, as do the Hopi, to celebrate the harvest, gardens offer each family a reason to joyfully celebrate, each in their own way, the bountiful gifts of a Living, Generous World.  Such Joy is a Special Wisdom.

NATURE INTELLIGENCE

Nature intelligence is the Eighth of the Multiple Intelligences, which Howard Gardner added a few years after his book Multiple Intelligence was published.

Still a few years after that the book Last Child in the Woods by Richard Louv was published.

I loved that book, which confirmed what we were already seeing by providing children wild spaces to play here at the Living Ethics School. If you’ve been reading my blog since last year, you know that I have returned to this topic and quoted Richard Louv repeatedly.

Nature is the Great Teacher of children. Her wild spaces are their Natural Habitat. She offers an optimal space for the cultivation of imagination, multiple intelligence, conflict resolution, collaborative construction projects, optimal emotional/mental/mind/body health. Every day as the staff of the Living Ethics School watches our children happily engaged in nature, we know that this time, outside the classroom, away from phonics and multiplication tables, is optimal time for the children fullest development.

The Children’s Village is a place to haul logs, tires, planks, freshly cut branches, ply wood, rope, etc. for construction purposes.

It’s also a place for disagreements that require conflict resolution, sometimes mediation and other times group meetings to brainstorm to reach a consensus on property rights, and rules and regulations – just like in the real world.

For over thirty years I’ve observed the morphing populations. In the years we had mostly boys, the tree houses and cleared out spaces under trees enclosed by vines and shrubs became mostly forts. The would-be warriors stored itchy bombs (Sycamore seed balls) and spear grass from the prairie to attack hapless passerbys.

Those are the same years the kids dug a hole enlarging it month by month until it would fit several children waist deep. The added value of the big hole was that it would fill with water and several were sure to ‘accidently’ fall in during a heavy rain.

In the years we had a balance of girls and boys, the Children’s village became towns with banks, hotels, a post office, shops for selling knitted crafts and beaded jewelry, clay or paper money, a newsletter, police, and election campaigns for mayors.

More recently with a mostly female population, along with household construction, miscellaneous pans, small bowls and other containers along with utensils have been  spirited outside for baking purposes. Nearby teachers are rounded up to sit in their kitchens or resturants and sample their dishes.

We watch them strolling in pairs around the fields, chasing each other, climbing trees, hammering, sawing, stomping in low lying muddy areas and know that each child’s emotional/mind/body/spirit complex is being exercised for vibrant health and stimulation of the Mutltiple Intelligences. Sometimes hidden tree limbs comfort wounded feelings until someone comes to offer empathy.

We see all this and its tremendous value to children and grieve about a society that has lost sight of childhood – especially the importance of children playing daily in wild spaces.

The fact is all the intelligences count. The consideration of these various keys to uniquely individual children; of what types of activities they initiate on their own in a dynamic environment; of what activities bring them joy; of what type of environment makes them want to come to school; of empathic respectful treatment under the guidance of caring adults; of time for them to create, to invent, to play and be children – this is not fluff. This fullness of childhood is the foundation for the full stature of adulthood.

There are no effective make-up exercises in adulthood for childhood lost. To postpone consideration for these humane considerations, the appreciation for the whole being while still a child, until adulthood, is often too late. And it’s costly for the thousands who have to spend time in therapy because of childhoods lost and miserable adult live stuck in soulless jobs that make good money.

The current mania for driving children faster and faster, harder and harder, for longer hours a day (homework), testing them more and more, judging, grading their efforts is not making them more intelligent. The only way to do that is to tap the nature-endowed intelligence in the attractive, vibrant ways that engage a child’s attention naturally. In dynamic, child friendly environments children are interiorly motivated to learn, without exterior motivators like rewards and grades.

I realize you are not likely to read the hundreds of books I have read on the more humane and enlightened guidance and education of children all the way through high school. That is why I write this blog. To share bits of Tolstoy, Steiner, Montessori, Holt, Gardner and others with you, so that you collectively will take charge and urge others to do the same – to restore childhood to children.

Some of you have opted out of the system by home schooling. You have the precious freedom to recognize and respond to the interests and proclivities of your children each a unique individual even in the same family. However, many of you have no choice but to send your children to a pressure and competition driven school – public or private. Yet, you pay the taxes or tuition for a system that is caught up in a corporate clone escalator that is as mindless as the curriculums it’s pressing on children. Ironically, the system would probably say that much of the pressure comes from the parents themselves!

Your voice matters. If it will not be heard individually, it will be collectively. Let us speak up to defend the right of children to childhood – to play daily in wild nature, to question, to initiate their own explorations, to learn as encouraged, cherished individuals. Think how much such on-fire graduates on intimate terms with their passionate interests could do for humanity!

Think of a world in which the dollar is not the bottom line; in which passion to contribute one’s unique labor and talents for the benefit of the world is the measure of success!

INTRA-PERSONAL INTELLIGENCE

Plato admonished us above all to “Know Thyself.” Yet, commandeering several hours of a child’s day for schoolwork and homework focused on the three R’s leaves little time to play, to dream, to know thyself. Anxious parents, unwittingly escalate this system of hoops and measures that fails to promote the deepest, highest, and most human potentials. These potentials, once awakened lead not to mere jobs or careers, but to lives of passionate involvement with one’s chosen life work; to vocations that are also avocations, i.e. lives replete with joyful fulfillment.

Howard Gardner, author of Multiple Intelligences asserts that along with higher thinking such as the generating and pondering of ideas, and empathy, the frontal lobes play a central role in intrapersonal intelligence.  Whereas, interpersonal intelligence allows one to understand and work with others, intrapersonal intelligence allows one to understand and work with oneself.

My own observation is that those who at least have one empathic role model in childhood are more likely to achieve the intrapersonal intelligence that leads to a soul satisfying vocation. In my case that role model was my mother. To her compassionate, understanding guidance, I attribute knowing from a young age that I wanted to become a teacher, not to constrain their exuberance, but to promote their love of learning.

Yesterday, I had the great joy of witnessing, crowds of awestruck people exclaim over the extraordinary beauty of my life partner’s photography at “Art in Bloom” in Mckinney, Texas.  People came forward to peer behind the photographs and ask if a hidden light source illumined his photos.

Fred discovered his love of photography, and corresponding talent for it, in his fifties. It has been a joy to observe his emergence from a career that simply earned him a living, to this passionate involvement with capturing nature’s beauty with his photography.

People were astonished that this was the 68 year old’s first photography show. When I ponder why this extraordinary talent emerged at all, I credit his close relationship with a very kind and caring mother who accepted him for who he was. Why do I think it took so long for Fred to ‘know his passion’? Because of being pressed into a left-brain, non-creative societal bias and schooling from childhood on. At a loss as to how to develop the soulful expression of a human being, we devalue and negate its power for personal transformation.

According to Kathryn Bensinger, author of The Art of Using your Whole Brain, droves of people end up in the therapist’s office in their forties. Many were told as young adults to put aside foolish dreams and earn degrees for practical professions that would earn them decent wages.  These include people from all walks of life: Accountants who put aside their art at a young age; office managers who long to work with the soil; business professional who would rather be homemakers; house painters who are frustrated writers, and on and on--all miserable; many on the brink of a new beginning based on intra-personal intelligence or self-knowledge.

It takes courage and commitment to allow both children and ourselves to follow the path less traveled. For those of any age, who are awakening to their intrapersonal intelligence, to the inner voice that connects them to their deepest, highest, most meaningful, and therefore joyful modes of self-expression—these true and inspiring words of Goethe offer a guiding light:

COMMITMENT

Until one is committed, there is hesitancy,

The chance to draw back,

Always ineffectiveness.

Concerning acts of initiative and creation,

There is one elementary truth,

The ignorance of which, kills

Countless ideas and splendid plans:

That the moment one definitely commits oneself,

Then providence moves too.

All sorts of things occur to help one

That would never otherwise have occurred.

A whole stream of events issues from the decision,

Raising, in one’s favor all manner

Of unforeseen incidents and meetings

And material assistance which

No one could have dreamt would come their way.

Whatever you can do, or dream you can, begin it.

Boldness has genius, power, and magic in it.

Begin it now.

                                                                        Johann Wolfgang Goethe

INTERPERSONAL INTELLIGENCE

Howard Gardner describes Interpersonal Intelligence as the ability to understand other people: what motivates them, how they work, and how to work cooperatively with them. Successful salespeople, politicians, teachers, clinicians and religious leaders are all likely to be individuals with high degrees of interpersonal intelligence. (Multiple Intelligences, 1993.)

He also notes that at its core, interpersonal intelligence includes the “capacities to discern and respond appropriately to the moods, temperaments, motivations and desires of other people.”

The example found in his book to portray this interpersonal intelligence is Annie Sullivan, the nearly blind teacher of Helen Keller. The following account is paraphrased from Annie Sullivan: the Miracle Worker. www.biography

Their lessons together often became physical and violent during Helen's frequent moments of frustration. Finally, Annie insisted that Helen move with her into a small cottage on the property so they could, deepen their relationship and maintain focus on communication. After 7 days Annie saw clear evidence that her therapy was working.

“My heart is singing with joy this morning. A miracle has happened! The wild little creature of two weeks ago has been transformed into a gentle child.”

Soon after, Helen's miracle breakthrough occurred at the water pump, when Sullivan poured water on one of Helen's hands while fingerspelling "w-a-t-e-r" in the other. For the first time, Helen made the association between an object and what was spelled in her hand. According to her autobiography, Helen then spent the rest of the day demanding that Sullivan spell out the words for countless other objects.

Interpersonal intelligence is inseparable from Emotional Intelligence, which is the title and subject of the book by Daniel Goleman (Emotional Intelligence: Why it can matter more than IQ, 1995.)

A number of studies that have been summarized over the past decade have shown that “there is a highly significant relationship between emotional intelligence and occupational performance. The average predictive validity for these studies is .55, meaning that approximately 30% of occupational performance is based on Emotional Intelligence; and when leader-ship is examined separately from general occupational performance, this figure increases to about 67% meaning that two-thirds of leadership is dependent upon Emotional Intelligence.” (1)

A very important point to emphasize here is that the pre-frontal lobes, the part of the brain that is the mostly ignored orphan of modern schooling, are the seat not only of superior I.Q. (envisioning, idea-generation, invention/creation), but also increased E.Q. (empathy).

To say that Interpersonal Intelligence i.e. Emotional Intelligence is essential for success is tantamount to saying that for optimal skill development in these areas children must be taught, and learn, in ways that best promote these intelligences. In other words: HEART TO HEART.

 I ask you, is it truly likely that schools promote both I.Q. and E.Q. through the press and pressure of drilled abstractions, punctuated with time-consuming discipline and punitive reactions to acting out, chewing gum, and talking in class? As a 45-year veteran of teaching I estimate that very likely 80% of the discipline problems in schools are due to emotional resistance by children to Institutional Autocracies that are bankrupt in both I.Q. and E.Q. (The other 20% can be often be attributed to food toxicity, challenging relationships, and/or hours a day spent staring at media, violent or otherwise.)

Their resistance is simply an outcry to be taught and related to from the heart, for the heart and to the heart. The wonderful correlative statement is that this is also the best way to promote their future success, including potential leadership, in the workplace.

“It is with the heart that one sees rightly: what is essential is invisible to the eye.”

                                                            Antoine de Saint-Exupery,

                                                            The Little Prince

1. [e.g., Bar-On, 1997b, 2004,2006a, 2006b; Bar-On, Handley & Fund, 2006; Han-dley, 1997; Ruderman & Bar-On, 2003], the EQ-i™