from the unconscious

 

Schooling Tropical Minds

I have been a science (biology) teacher in four countries and an education advisor in three countries.

My instincts were to facilitate learning and to encourage critical thinking but there have been times when the context demanded teacher centred chalk and talk. The lecture. This was mainly where there was no science equipment, no departmental budgets and no knowledge of, or enthusiasm for, learner centred approaches.

In Jamaica the recommended first and second year textbook was “Science for the 70s” which was designed for use in Scotland as part of a package that included worksheets and a wide range of equipment in support of individualised learning. I had been part of the team that produced the worksheets which were designed to enlighten the Scottish Education Department’s Curriculum Paper no. 7. The textbook did not stand alone. 

In Zambia there were labs and equipment but the Indian Head of Science kept the stuff locked in a cupboard in case it got broken. 

In the South Sudan there was some equipment in the central store which I managed to deliver to schools. When I was inspecting one prestigious Juba school the science teacher was explaining the Liebig Condenser. I had delivered one to the school a few weeks earlier and I saw it under his desk in the staff room. But he did not take it to class. He received his teacher training in Uganda and did not have a problem with chalk and talk.

In the South Sudan schooling used a 6-3-3 system. So I had students for three years. During the first 6 months the content was presented in a manner suited to students for whom English was a second language. I then chalk and taught Biology in a user friendly way for two years before spending the last six months teaching how to pass exams. 

Many of the students found the Biological ideas fascinating and I enjoyed teaching them. Rather than have them copy notes from the blackboard I prepared handouts with spaces for making notes. This freed up teaching time for discussion about how the various topics related to the students’ real lives. The handouts eventually became a text book complete with questions from past papers. Many of the topics that arose during discussion went into a teacher’s guide to the student text book. 

Note that in the model school which I helped to establish in the South Sudan there were many, popular, extracurricular groups supported mainly by expatriate teachers. These were aimed at establishing more student centred and contextually relevant activity. I for example promoted the Technology and Industrial Studies Group (TISG), A Tree Planting Service, and a local branch of the Wildlife Clubs of the S Sudan.

Note in passing that we had one set of buildings, one set of staff and three sets of students – morning school, afternoon school, and a Teachers’ Union school in the evening.

The idea that what is taught in school classrooms should be relevant and useful to daily life was missing. And there was little feeling for encouraging students to think for themselves. The task was to rote learn the answers to more or less predictable questions so that you can get a school certificate and thus a good office job.

In Belize we spent time figuring what the children should learn in school. The most common response from persons on the street was reading, writing, arithmetic and discipline.

BUT … there was always a good sprinkling of bright keenies in all the places where I taught - characters who listened intelligently and got kicks from asking tough questions. This included many students and also a few teachers. Many were refugees for whom the traditional way of doing things was no longer relevant - and more ‘modern’ ways were still being negotiated. 

SO … I tweaked the chalk and talk system and supported extracurricular activities But, in the end, I gave up hope of the formal education system contributing to the revolution. Schools were a main part of the problem. They reproduced rather than reformed the inequitable cultural divisions and forced people, including most teachers, into outdated patterns of thought. 

In Belize the intellectual elite was quite progressive. Moral and spiritual needs were given serious consideration and a self-awareness curriculum and lesson plan was developed for the Home Room periods in Secondary School.

In Lesotho I was part of the Secondary Education Support Project (SESP). We ran workshops dealing with leadership, management and administration of schools as a whole and of classrooms in particular. I gathered an extensive range of books and articles covering hot topics. I converted most of them into ‘one pagers’ thus making it easy to approach a topic from several different points of view. We were mentoring 25 locals for their Master degrees from the University of Bath. My subjective impression was that less than 5% were able and willing to embrace the existential crises that accompany the quest for meaning in the progressively modern and globalised world. 

So much then for schooling tropical – and temperate - minds.

Radical mind change

Have begun to read Adam Unwin and John Yandell (2016) Rethinking Education: Whose knowledge is it anyway? (No-Nonsense Guides) 

“What is knowledge? Who decides what is important? Who owns it? These are central themes that run through this title that aims to change perceptions and understanding of education. Using historical and contemporary examples, the authors examine the motivations, conflicts, and contradictions in education. In breaking down the structures, forces, and technologies involved they show how alternative approaches can emerge.”

Is there anything totally new about education? I was well on top of the game for a while. But I have not kept up to date. But I once had a comprehensive concept map. I could give it some radical twists under the notion of ‘changing minds’. 

Changing your own mind – easy to say, tough to do

Changing the minds of others – inferiors, equals, superiors; juniors, peers, seniors. Different sexes, classes, races, religions, cultures and subcultures. Many stakeholders, many claims, concerns and issues.

I let the unconscious brainstorm the topic and then listed items alphabetically.

·         “Learning” from a brain science perspective

·         Attention

·         Awareness of enculturation – be still and know.

·         Be reasonable – do it my way

·         Brain Science

·         Cognitive dissonance then back to cognitive consonance – reshaping

·         Concentration

·          

·         Curriculum development

·         Evolutionary Psychology

·         Examinations and certification

·         Flow in the zone -  non-egoic – unconsciousness

·         Focus

·         How should the children learn?

·         Informal, non-formal, formal education

·          

·         KSA – knowledge, skills, attitudes

·         Learning styles and study skills

·         MBCT – Mindfulness Based Cognitive Therapy

·         MBSR - Mindfulness Based Stress Reduction

·         Memory

·         Mind changes brain changes mind

·         Mindfulness

·          

·         Nature, nurture, serendipity

·         Neural plasticity

·         Neuroscience

·         Positive Psychology

·         Scanning

·         Scope, sequence and pace

·         Sleep and dreaming

·          

·         Teacher training -  initial and in-service

·         Teamwork

·         TFM – thoughts, feelings, moods

·         Think about thinking

·         Urge to conform and to reform – status quo v creativity

·         What should the children learn in school?

Autobiographical memory

How far back in time do my memories stretch and how detailed and accurate are they?

I ask because I am presently reading The New Scientist (2015) The Human Brain: The New Scientist: The Collection. One of its many short essays by cutting edge scientists deals with the notion of an autobiographical memory. The point of having such a ‘thing’ is to ensure that your various present needs are quickly and efficiently met. ‘Truth’ is neither a useful nor a necessary concept given that the debate about ‘reality’ is ongoing.

The major locations in my story are set out on the following chronological table which also indicates my age in the various places

Date	Locations	My age
1949 – 60	11 years in Buckie	11
1960 – 67	07 years in Portsoy (+ Cullycan)	18
1967 – 72	05 years in Aberdeen (+ Cullycan)	23
1972 – 74	02 years in Edinburgh	25
1974 – 76	02 years in Jamaica (6 month travel)	27
1977 – 79	03 years in Zambia	30
1979 – 81	02 years Reading Univ + teach at Buckie + retreat	32
1981 – 85	04 years in Sudan	36
1985 – 87	03 years Sussex Univ + teach at Keith + retreat	39
1988 – 92	04.5 years in Belize	43
1992 – 95	03 years in retreat (Howling Shed and Toonloon Tunes)	46
1995 – 98	03 years in Lesotho	49
1998 – 1999	01 year retreat – publish two albums of songs	50
2000 – 2004	04 years freelancing (join Sangha 30 Oct 2004)	54
2004 – 2016	12 years retreat (Parkinson’s diagnosis 27 Oct 2010)	65

I would have reached early maturity when I was a 25 year old science teacher in Edinburgh. As far as I remember it was on a whim that I applied for the job in Jamaica. But the Caribbean did not feel like another culture so I had a go in Zambia where I began to be interested in the concept of ‘development’. So I took some time out for thought before a four year stint in the South Sudan and then more time out before the 4.5 year stint in Belize. Then time out for private study before 3 years in Lesotho and a move to short contract work which was part contributor to my burnout and retreat from paid work.

I was diagnosed as having Parkinson’s Disease on 27 October 2010 and fairly soon after settled on a daily medication of Madopar (5x62.5mg) and Ropinerole (8mg). At my recent annual meeting with the neurology specialist (Dr Calum Duncan) I mentioned increasing problems with (a) fine motor control of my hands, (b) speech (softness and stuttering) and (c) a tendency to salivate. He recommended doubling the dose of Madopar – in steps of 62.5mg per week. I am now at the end of week three and there might be improvements in typing and in playing the guitar.

It is not easy figuring the agencies that shape the operations of the mindbrain. They include PD and its medication; mindfulness and enculturation into aspects of cognitive and affective behaviour based upon nature (instincts, intuitions, biases etc) and nurture (education, enculturation and brain washing). It is very rarely that the mood for autographical memories arises. I tend to inhabit the here and now. 

But I have journals/diaries and a lot of letters from and to me going back to the sixties. There are also photos and slides. So I can muster hard evidence about what I was thinking and feeling in times past. But I rarely bother to do so. 

The stories would be about work, play and people in a variety of times and places. Music and ideas. Meditation and Retreats. War and civil unrest. Friends and family. The tropics. And moving on through existential soft rock to changing minds.

AHA – I came across a comprehensive, factual list of my experiences as a musician from the 60s till the end of 2003 – “Bursts of the musical muse”. But it is a list rather than literature. Does this count as autobiography?

http://toonloon.bizland.com/ppap/wp-content/uploads/2013/10/Bursts-of-the-musical-muse.docx