(F’eeling) Awareness, Communication, & Thought:
Whether you’re teaching others or only yourself at the moment, YOU are the teacher who counts most here. I’m here to help, providing the materials that follow, particularly the most useful activities & exercises found, adapted &/or invented during my long teaching life, rank beginner to escapee.
Except for a few core principles (e.g., we develop what we exercise), I’ll try not to waste your time & attention with generalities or educational jargon. In most cases, simple, everyday language will do, whether giving directions for an exercise or interpreting results.
(F’) ACT 101, for example, deals with the three inter-related skill-sets most basic to almost any kind of success, academic, professional, or personal: Awareness, Communication & Thought, each a set of skills that necessarily work together. In the same way that walking & running need legs & body moving in tandem to get anywhere, Awareness (attention) & language (the medium of communication) work together in thinking. Thinking & language, in turn, shape a good deal of our awareness.
The relationship between thought, language & awareness is so close, they can be considered part of each other as well as part of the same more general capacity. Change the quality of attention, and the ability to articulate changes, affecting both thought & communication going forward. We often learn our own thoughts on an issue only by trying to share them with others. The actual thoughts may not even exist until we try to formulate them in a sharable language. The process that clarifies writing clarifies thought, & vice versa. Such basic skill-sets remain at the heart of all we do as humans.
Awareness appears even before we’re born, followed closely by communication after (initially non-verbal), & later, with acquired language, by various forms of thought. FEELING (the F’ in the course name acronym above) must be even more basic than awareness, however, being what we’re aware of first & most, from before we’re aware of awareness through the rest of our lives going forward. We feel our way, our surroundings, our choices…our experience.To feel & to experience may be considered synonyms, though feeling may go on to mean touch, various sensations &/or emotions, preferences, intuitions, or guesses.
“Music is feeling, then, not sound.” –Wallace Stevens
Yes, though MPR (Mime Public Radio) reminds us it is sound also. The point here is that the individual human voice carries more than the dictionary meanings of the words spoken, including many possible levels of feeling. A sensitive listener may pick up information that ranges from the speaker’s character, intent, spirit, attitude, mood, physical condition, region, culture, language, & education…to message content. The early 20th C. Santa Fe writer Mary Austin claimed she could identify regional sources of native songs in languages she’d never encountered, simply from their expressive vibratory resonance with where they’d been made, singers & songs shaped by their surroundings, like rhythms of prevailing winds.
By their very nature, these were group songs, reminding us that most language–whether spoken or written; & whether representing an individual, group or institutional entity–is generated with a sense of receivers, being shared, connecting with others. Most writing has some sense of its reader(s)–whether particular individuals or members in a generalized class, category, or otherwise more or less vaguely imagined audience. Language is a medium of transmission, after all.
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Even in the midst of flow, the throes of inspiration, it doesn’t stay still, but feels already in motion, whether to other people or just the writer down the road….
p this is usually not a one-off-&-done process, but involves “many happy returns,” at least enough to try fresh readings, improving as much as possible each time along the way. How many fresh readings? As many as it takes or are possible, whichever comes first. Most good writing is re-writing–double that for better writing. Composing & editing go hand in hand, as the composer reads over what’s first put down, listening to finer-tune.
ACT 101 goes somewhere, too, into a realm of expanded potentials not found on most maps, or even in many courses focused on basics. [Don’t be confused, by the way, by being inconsistently referred to under different names, as many of the same elements have been part of variously named courses over the years. These include: Writing-Awareness-Thinking (WAT) & Strategic Thinking-Easy Writing-Productive Awareness (STEWPA).]
The term composing may be more accurate than writing in describing the process usually involved. Writing itself needn’t be part, even pecking out on a keyboard. Communication is the more usual term for the general category involving the transmission of information/meaning person to person(s) &/or other entities. Not all communication is composed, however. A good deal of information is sent & received more or less automatically, unintentionally. Some is both intentional & spontaneous, however, as in an animated conversation.
ACT 101 makes communication & thought more aware, & then uses this awareness to further the student’s goals, including improved ability to communicate & develop sound thought. Strategic thinking has as at least part of its aim to be useful. For most students in high school & college language & communication courses, the first & most tangible use is probably doing more or less passably well on assignments at hand, often with minimal awareness about what that will involve or require.
Our aim includes (but isn’t limited to) empowering the student to succeed. If the student is the teacher, as may be the case here, all the better. The teacher succeeds by enhancing the student’s own capacity for success, not in the particular assignment alone, but in the development of skill-sets that know no limits, where masters-in-progress go on learning by doing day by day.
Expanded & more informed awareness, i.e., better understanding of the territory, includes learning a few organizing frameworks to suit particular jobs, tools that help focus the attention to do the job. As in a sport, one gets a seat-of-the-pants feel for the particular qualities of attention called for within different positions & situations from a combination of playing, observation, & coaching.
ACT 101 is ACTIVE, therefore, based on ACTIVITIES. Thought, too, is active, as Einstein & others proved through the power of the pure thought experiment. Still, most of these active exercises are best as actually experienced, not just imagined.
The course speaks mostly TEACHER TO TEACHER, since it’s the teacher who most likely prepares, directs & guides the exercises, including the group processing often called for. Nevertheless, it aims to put the student in charge–whether that student is also teacher or not. The skill-sets themselves transcend categories.
In the professional world, teachers tend to have responsibilities divided between students, school system, levels of community (local, state & national), & the fields of study which their classes ostensibly represent. There’s a lot to navigate. At B’odd College, by contrast, our loyalty begins & ends with you as student-teacher. Our success is your success; your success is ours, as well as your student(s). No need to mention that at awards ceremonies, however, glory neither sought nor expected. Sharing what’s learned has always been part of the human equation to some degree….
Meanwhile, as much as I prefer to remain personally invisible, like a photographer who stays out of the shots, I realize you may want to know more–& even benefit from the knowing. One of these days, maybe I’ll try to put up a YOURS CRUDELY page with personal profile, maybe a posthumous &/or unauthorized autobiography, or simple resume. Until then, where Yours Crudely’s coming from & how I got there will come out in bits & pieces as relevant to particular course backgrounds–as per the following.
COURSE BACKGROUND (SHORT FORM):
[Initial aspects, activities & perspectives were developed in a variety of institutional settings, e.g., as one-man English department at a north Texas boarding school (1965-66); guest teacher at the Sri Aurobindo International Centre of Education in India (1967-68); Teaching Fellow at the University of Nevada, Reno (1969-72); instructor in writing, communication & honors courses at New Mexico Highlands University (1972-76); game designer for courses & market simulations (1977-1982); presenter & Chautauquan in programs & workshops offered through the New Mexico Humanities Council, Land of Enchantment Poetry Theater & related groups (1982-2007).
A highlight of the time in Nevada was working closely with Walter van Tilburg Clark, whose writing & life go on teaching. During my time at NM Highlands University, I served on a presidential task force to design & implement an “affective education” option for freshman; also revised approaches to the basic freshman writing course; and had a workshop with Lawrence Kohlberg at the Harvard Graduate School of Education, each an influence on what follows.
In the 1970s, when the following W-A-T course was developed, UCLA’s John Wooden was widely acknowledged as one of the most effective teachers sports had ever known. At least one team of behavioral scientists studied his coaching in detail. The effects of integrity of character can hardly be quantified, however.
He famously never made winning an explicit objective, for example, focusing on fundamentals instead, i.e., matters of attention, attitude, engagement, responsiveness, & teamwork, all at their highest potential, in practice as in play. Whether as teacher or tactician, how you played mattered, as this both reflected & shaped one’s character. One might say, Without integrity, you’ve got nothing of value; with it, you’ve got the basis for a value-filled life.]
COURSE BACKGROUND (somewhat longer version)
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STEWPA/ WAT 101: is a condensed, activity-based, awareness-enhanced, guided course integrating three domains, modes &/or kinds of exercise. Initial aspects, activities & perspectives were developed in a variety of institutional settings, public & private, humble to Harvard, but especially as Guest Teacher at the Sri Aurobindo Centre of Education in Pondicherry, India; as Teaching Fellow at the University of Nevada, Reno; in courses at New Mexico Highlands University; & in programs offered through the New Mexico Humanities Council (roughly 1982 to 2007).
Besides an undergraduate degree, the Harvard connection included a 1970s workshop with–& declined office offer from– Lawrence Kohlberg at the Graduate School of Education, a pioneer in understanding the development of ‘moral reasoning,’ especially how to encourage it (by exercise). Lawrence was interested in how game & simulation structure might enhance delivery of moral dilemma exercises. As attractive as working with him in Cambridge seemed, my New Mexico commitments made that a road not taken.
Despite the short time spent with him, his work had a profound influence on my approach to teaching a wide variety of skills, not limited to the moral-reasoning domain. Others with equal or greater influence over a longer period include Walter van Tilburg Clark & Tyrone Lavery from Nevada years on, & a few colleagues since (e.g., Lee Paradise, Jim Nielsen) The contribution from each deserves at least a chapter.
Tyrone expanded the possibilities for using games & simulations in college classes. Based at Long Beach City College (CA), he worked closely on many projects with Dr. Jim Turner from UCLA’s Neuropsychiatric Institute. The three of us presented findings together once (about what I no longer remember) at a national college-teacher conference in Saint Louis.
In Walter Clarks case, I’m at least a book behind what’s called for. If possible, I’ll try to put a short course together, including what I might add to the understanding of: his novels, especially The Ox-Bow Incident; his teaching (e.g., using Basho as his ‘text’); & the character of the the man (e.g., his role in “the Richardson Affair,” including communications with Frank Richardson, the main character).
Walter’s great American novels tell only part of the story, and even there, with significant aspects still untold. Walter’s recognized impact on the teaching of creative writing hardly captures the extent of his influence on higher education, even at universities he changed from a distance. This in turn reflects his profound influence on the historical community, Reno being the Bedford Falls of his lived version of It’s a Wonderful Life. His role in the Richardson Affair had a major impact on higher education in the 1950s in Nevada & elsewhere, yet was played mostly behind the scenes, much by the sheer influence of his justly respected perspective. Although attracting national focus, thanks in part to his film-related celebrity, his greater impact was made locally, part of a mostly informal “magnificent seven,” in reality, no set number, each drawn to the roles called for by the intersection of principle & circumstances.
A conversation we had, at least partly about Basho, was how I ended up at UNR, a Teaching Fellow doing independent study with him as mentor. I only seriously read his own work after he’d died. Among the things I noticed, not to my knowledge ever noted before by others, was the close formal parallels between the five chapters of The Ox-Bow Incident & Lawrence Kohlberg’s five-stages in the development of moral reasoning, as defined by “forms of thinking.” In the 5th & final chapter of Walter’s work, the narrator understands exactly how he could have changed the outcome, preventing the tragedy for individuals & community, as an active link in the chain of what justice in a democracy requires. In the more civilized version, an academic lynching, Walter fully understood what right action required from chapter 1.
Though we commonly associate form with characteristic content, similar content can actually reflect definably different stages of development, cognitive or otherwise. In the case of a sport or other skill-set, for example, levels of play develop mainly from the exercise itself, what might be called “the feel of the doing.” Helpers may ease or back-up the process, like a parent with toddler, but the toddler’s own urge to toddle comes with the territory, naturally. What’s commonly called trial & error, learning from doing, most usually involves learning from relative success, with improvements happening all along the way, beginners & masters alike. The learner experiences a dual pleasure, first in the doing itself & again in the development itself, e.g., the felt empowerment of the muscles involved.
For a teacher, it helps to know what’s actually being taught, the nitty gritty of the skills, as well as the characteristics associated with successful performance, things not necessarily reflected in all textbooks, let alone all writing, thinking or communicating courses. A sports coach might seem to have an advantage over a writing coach from being there observing in real time as the underlying activities take place. Given how well the page may reflect a process in the mind-field, the writer’s disadvantage may disappear.
a brief John Wooden digression
In the 1970s, when the ACT 101 course was first being developed, UCLA’s John Wooden was widely recognized as one of the most effective teachers sports had ever known. At least one team of behavioral scientists studied his coaching communication in minute detail. The effects of integrity or character can hardly be quantified, however, let alone measured in percentages of this & that. He put some of his own ideas in a book, a copy of which he signed & gave to my then 9-year-old son.
Perhaps most famously, Coach Wooden never made winning an explicit objective, focusing on fundamentals instead, i.e., matters of attention, attitude, engagement, responsiveness, & teamwork, as well as muscular training. Whether as teacher or tactician, how you played mattered, both reflecting & shaping character. He was known to tell players there were many things more important than basketball, but that while they were there, in the gym, on the court, integrity required them to be totally there, with full attention engaged. Other aspects of their lives deserved the same. Without integrity, you’ve got nothing of value; with it, you’ve got the basis for a value-filled life.
I did not know or study John Wooden personally (although I met him). I seem to have had an indirect connection with the team of social scientists who studied his second-by-second communication, however, as I heard results described by Dr. Jim Turner, then associated with UCLA’s Neuro-Psychiatric Institute. Dr. Turner’s own doctoral research had involved methods for better training of social scientists, as well as for training in other fields. His results focused on ways of encouraging better question generating…. Not only does each field have its standard canon of questions, advances are often made by those asking new ones. So what questions do you have?
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Can good writing be taught? A: Of course (not).
Can enlightenment? Of course (not).
Can inspiration be taught? Of course (not). It can be triggered, of course, as well as encouraged, welcomed, honored…
Can understanding? Of course (not).
Understanding is a clearly quantum phenomenon, allowing for holding both seemingly contradictory alternatives as true at the same time, in what’s called super-position, not either-or, but either-&-or. Understanding (arguably of anything) provides an excellent example, because no matter how fully, deeply & even completely you (feel or believe you) understand something, you don’t understand understanding itself.
Exactly what is it, & how does it actually happen? Arguably, no one has really answered such questions, any more than anyone can explain where mind comes from, what it is, or what the self is….Recognizing that elusive quality of understanding is part of understanding itself, while the mind’s direct contemplation of the mind remains more basic than any representation, interpretation, or verbal distinctions that might be made about associated neurological operations….