Bird Droppings April 1, 2011
Finding Soul in looking at Curriculum

There is something about the first light on a spring morning and trying to discern how many different birds are singing and calling back and forth waking up. Today was a rough one seems my arthritis in my shoulders is acting up and it took a good bit more to get going this morning. I did not even pack my lunch. But some silence and flute music and perhaps a memory of a wisp of smoke floating along the fence trying to rise up and dissipating in the trees helps ease the pain. It has been a few years since I studied psychology at Mercer University in Macon Georgia and a few as well since Seminary studies at Emory University. But as I continue to wander through my educational career I find new authors and favorites and recall some from days long gone. I have been a fan of Carl Gustav Jung for many years and in my assundery readings the past few years have come upon James Hillman, Thomas Moore and James Kavanaugh.
I am reading right now an article by Mary Aswell Doll for a paper I am writing. Doll is known for her work in curriculum and the teaching of literature. As I read her paper which is actually an introduction to her book, Like Letters in Running Water; A Mythopoetics of curriculum, entitled “Fiction as food.” She referenced several times Jung, Moore and Hillman, using the word soul as a medium for learning and growing.

“In another attempt upon the idea of soul I suggest that the word refers to that unknown component which makes meaning possible, turns events into experiences, is communicated in love, and has a religious concern. These four qualifications I had already put forth some years ago. I had begun to use the term freely, usually interchangeably with psyche (from Greek) and anima (from Latin). Now I am adding three necessary modifications. First, soul refers to the deepening of events into experiences; second, the significance of soul makes possible, whether in love or in religious concern, derives from its special relation with death. And third, by soul I mean the imaginative possibility in our natures, the experiencing through reflective speculation, dream, image, fantasy — that mode which recognizes all realities as primarily symbolic or metaphorical.” Thomas Moore, writing about his mentor Hillman

In the past few days I have seen the word soul used quite frequently and yet it never seems to be defined clearly ever.
Over the years I have worked with adults and children who I sense (very scientific term) with in, a void, or a vacancy that I have loosely referred at times to as soul. I am not looking at this in a religious sense as Thomas Moore also infers in his definition other possibilities as well. In this sense of vacancy perhaps learning issues become a part as well. Doll in her writing emphasizes making a connection with content and existence or context as Dewey would say and the bringing of the two together. “First, soul refers to the deepening of events into experiences” is how Thomas Moore defines soul. It is that piece that becomes a piece of your reality not just a fact memorized and categorized. As I looked over memory with an AP Psychology student yesterday several various definitions of differing types of memory fit in this idea as well.
As I read through Doll’s article other issues came to mind. In our rat race society of cramming as much curriculum into given space as possible irregardless of whether it will make sense “just get the test over with and I am out of here” I have heard that line from teachers many times. I have raised questions of filling a liter bottle (a student) with two gallons of information and where does that lead us. I think Thomas Moore sees us stripping away any soul we may have or not taking the time to nurture the soul.

“But the culture is going into a psychological depression. We are concerned about our place in the world, about being competitive: Will my children have as much as I have? Will I ever own my own home? How can I pay for a new car? Are immigrants taking away my white world? All of this anxiety and depression casts doubt on whether I can make it as a heroic John Wayne-style individual.” James Hillman

Are we killing off soul in kids and in adults is a question I keep pondering. I was watching Law and Order just yesterday afternoon after getting home from school. It was an old show about a father was so enraged with a hockey coach after a game and the coach not playing his son enough and scouts from colleges were there that he beat him and ended up killing him. As the trial and arrest played out his defense was parent rage simply losing control and the attorney for the state came back with how can we excuse this man? His rights stopped when he put his fists up to the coach. We can not accept road rage, parent rage any kind of rage and then I read Hillman’s statement again. It is about the self view, psychological depression and partly because we are all supposed to be John Wayne. Borrowing from a thought I read a day or so ago from Steven Pinker that behaviors are not manifestations of our environment but of our genetic makeup and environment triggers behavior.

“Instead of seeing depression as a dysfunction, it is a functioning phenomenon. It stops you cold, sets you down, and makes you damn miserable. So you know it functions,” James Hillman

In our rat race society where being John Wayne and never stopping and emailing till all hours of the night and working twenty four seven and no sleep and energy drinks (I tend to like the five hour shots) to keep going. I saw my first bottle of Coke BLAK coffee flavored coca-cola a few years back as the Coke man was loading coolers at a near by convenience store. Reminded me I was one who stopped drinking coca-cola when new coke came out. Hillman sees our increase in depression as a response to our competitive society and that we are leaving behind something perhaps our soul. Hillman authored a best seller “Soul Code” and Moore’s best seller “Care of the soul” these two men are not just fly by nights. Hillman studied under Jung in the 1950’s and Moore a student of Hillman and a former Monk studying for the priesthood has a doctorate in psychology and music and is a pianist as well as therapist, both are concerned about this thing we call soul. In Doll’s article she emphasizes children learning literature in a manner that stirs the soul going back to Moore’s first definition, “First, soul refers to the deepening of events into experiences”
John Dewey sought to pull experience into learning by making it a crucial aspect of his philosophy. I have many times related to context and content being equal partners in learning.

“According to the German poet Novalis, “The seat of the soul is there, where the inner world and the outer world touch. Where they permeate each other, the seat is in every point of the permeation.” Thomas Moore

Over the years I read several of Moore books and one thought he refers to often is that primitives die from water born disease and in modern society the major cause of death is stress related illness. As I think about that thought it has made me think about how we teach as well. As we are taking the soul out leaving only content sort of like a tape recording children can simply give back facts. In Doll’s article she describes several things to help teach fiction one being deliteralization that is getting back to imagination and then letting imaginations run wild. She mentions several times fluidity and:

“…fiction is food, fiction feeds the souls hunger.” “Second is a teaching method for fiction probably not favored in surveys courses: slowness” Mary Aswell Doll

I have been wandering thinking throwing out far too many ideas maybe I have been reading too much in these days before our spring vacation days. A slight change of thought but very much in line this time borrowing from James Kavanaugh with a line or two from Men too gentle to live among wolves.

“There are men too gentle to live among wolves
Who prey upon them with IBM eyes
And sell their hearts and guts for martinis at noon.
There are men to gentle for a savage world
Who dream instead of snow and children and Halloween
And wonder if the leaves will change their color soon.
There are men to gentle to live among wolves
Who anoint them for burial with greedy claws
And murder them for a merchant’s profit and gain.
There are men to gentle for a corporate world
Who dream instead of Easter eggs and fragrant grass
And pause to hear the distant whistle of a train.”

I wonder if we could slow down or change gears or maybe find that which is missing from so many? I get excited when I read Moore and Kavanaugh hoping maybe we as a society will find answers and then I turn on the TV and ruin my thoughts. This morning a news broadcast about a high up official in Homeland Security who was arrested for soliciting sex with a under age girl over the internet caught my eye. He had been reported using secured cell phones and computers for his obsession. So a crazy what if the Katrina mistakes were because a memo slipped up during one of this guys computer sessions.
Each day it seems another mega conservative powerful person is found being naughty sort of like the parent rage on Law and Order I am sure someone will say this man has an illness. I would say it too borrowing from Pinker’s thoughts that it was in his DNA and needed something to bring it out fortunately this time it was an undercover officer posing as a fourteen year old girl on line. But what if’s terrorists figured him out and got into his secured files? What if black mail was a regular part of our governments doing business? I spent the better part of several hours discussing politics and ethics in school yesterday and came to the conclusion a politician by definition can not be ethical. We vote the way someone wants us to vote not how you know in your heart you should far too often. I might email Thomas Moore maybe we need a repair book for soul so please keep all in harms way on your mind and in your hearts.
namaste
bird