Bird Droppings July 4, 2025
Finding Soul in looking at the Curriculum, or can I get a nickel’s worth of cheese, please.

I interviewed for a part-time teaching position yesterday and then had lunch with a fellow teacher and friend from the last school I taught in. After driving home, I had many thoughts about education. I had thoughts that lent to spiritual as I wandered this morning chasing a sunrise and looking for deer. I found three deer and a flock of geese as I drove around. But my thoughts kept wandering back.

There is something about the first light on a summer morning. It could be about trying to discern how many birds are singing and calling back and forth as they wake up. It could be pondering whether the frogs and crickets are harmonizing or more into jazz. Nearby, a wisp of smoke from the smudge bowl is floating along the old fence line, trying to rise, and is dissipating into the trees. It has been many years since I studied psychology at Mercer University in Macon, Georgia, and quite a few since my seminary studies at Emory University. Sitting here before sunrise as I continue to wander through my educational career, I find new authors and new favorites, and often I recall a few days long gone that have significance right now. I have been a fan of Carl Gustav Jung for many years and in my assiduous readings over the past few years have come upon James Hillman, Thomas Moore, Kent Newburn, and James Kavanaugh.

I am reading an article by Mary Aswell Doll for an article I am writing. Doll is known for her work in curriculum and the teaching of literature at the Savannah College of Art. As I read her paper, which is  an introduction to her book “Like Letters in Running Water; A Mythopoetic of curriculum,” it is entitled “Fiction as food.” She referred to Jung, Moore, and Hillman. In my search for further reading and understanding of who I am and why the concept of soul in education came up. Mary Aswell Doll uses the word soul as a medium for learning and growing, almost as an art form.

“In another attempt upon the idea of the 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 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, and fantasy — that mode which recognizes all realities as primarily symbolic or metaphorical.” Thomas Moore, writing about his mentor, James Hillman

Over the past few months, I have seen the word soul used quite frequently, and yet, is it ever defined clearly? Over the years, I have worked with adults and children who I sense ( very scientific term and not research-based) a void, or you could say a vacancy that I have referred to at times as a lack of soul. It is not looking at this in a religious sense, and as Moore infers, other possibilities as well could be drawn. In this sense of vacancy, perhaps learning issues as well could occur. Doll in her writing emphasizes making a connection with content and existence, bringing the two together.

“First, soul refers to the deepening of events into experiences,” Thomas More

Thomas More defines the soul as that piece that becomes a part of your reality, not just a fact memorized and categorized. As I read through Doll’s article, other issues came to mind. I find in today’s educational settings, we as a society attempt to cram as much curriculum into a very specific given space as possible, regardless of whether it will make sense later, and in that, we seem to lose something. Just get a test over with, and I am out of here. I have heard that line from teachers and students many times. I have raised the question of filling a liter bottle with two gallons of information as an analogy. As always, though, where does that lead us? I think Thomas More sees us stripping away any soul we may have, or not taking time to nurture the soul that could be there.

“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

Could it be that we are killing off or siphoning off souls in kids and adults? I was watching Law and Order just before I went to sleep last night. It was an old show about a father who was so enraged with a hockey coach after the game for not playing his son enough; the scouts from colleges his son wanted to attend were there, and he beat him and killed him. His defense was parental rage, 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 cannot accept road rage, parent rage any rage. Then I read Hillman’s statement. What is our self-view? What leads to psychological depression is that 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 our genetic makeup and environment trigger 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.

Is it in this rat race society where being John Wayne, never stopping, emailing till all hours of the night, working 24/7, getting no sleep, and pouring down energy drinks (I tend to like the Celsius green tea noncarbonated) is how we live and feel justified? I remember seeing my first bottle of Coke BLAK, a short-lived coffee flavored Coca-Cola, a few years back as the Coke man was loading coolers at a nearby convenience store. It reminded me that I was the one who stopped drinking Coca-Cola when New Coke came out.

Hillman sees our increase in depression as a response to our competitive society. That we are leaving behind something, perhaps, it is our soul. Hillman authored a bestseller, “Soul Code,” and Moore authored the bestseller “Care of the Soul.” These two men are not just fly-by nights. James Hillman studied under Carl Jung in the 1950’s and Moore, a former Monk studying for the priesthood, has a doctorate in psychology and music studied under Moore. Interestingly, he is a pianist as well as a therapist. Both men are concerned about this thing we call the soul. In Doll’s article, she emphasizes children learning literature in a manner that stirs the soul. By going back to Moore’s first definition, “First, soul refers to the deepening of events into experiences,” John Dewey sought to pull the experience into learning to make 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 have read several of Moore’s books. One thought he referred to often is that primitives die from waterborne disease, and in modern society, the primary cause of death is stress-related illness. That thought has made me think about how we teach as well. Are we taking the soul out, leaving only the content, much like a tape recorder? Children simply give back facts? In Doll’s article, she describes several things to help teach fiction. One is deliteralization and getting back to imagination. Another is letting imaginations run wild. Doll uses the word fluidity, and one statement that is significant for me is;

“…fiction is food, fiction feeds the soul’s hunger.” Mary Aswell Doll

“Second is a teaching method for fiction, probably not favored in survey courses: slowness,” Mary Aswell Doll.

I have been wandering, thinking, and throwing out far too many ideas today. It could be that I have been reading too much over my summer vacation days, even while I have been teaching classes and attending classes for a large portion of the summer. However, a slight change of thought, but very much in line, borrowing from James Kavanaugh, several lines from his poem 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 too gentle for a savage world.
Who dreams of snow and children, and Halloween?
And wonder if the leaves will change their color soon.
There are men too gentle to live among wolves.
Who anoints them for burial with greedy claws?
And murder them for a merchant’s profit and gain.
There are men too gentle for a corporate world.
Who dreams of Easter eggs and fragrant grass?
And pause to hear the distant whistle of a train.”
James Kavanaugh

I wonder if we could slow down or change gears, or maybe find what is missing from so many. I get excited when I read Moore and Kavanaugh, hoping maybe as a society we will find answers. But then I turn on the TV, or pull news on Yahoo, and, for example, a few mornings back, a news story about a high-up official in Homeland Security, who was arrested for soliciting sex with an underage girl over the internet. He had been reported using secured cell phones and computers for his obsession. A crazy what if going back a few years; The Katrina mistakes were because a memo was slipped up during a computer session. I was thinking back to when, every day, it seemed another mega conservative influential person was found being naughty. Now, in a more liberal political setting, and still scandals pop up, I was thinking back to the Governor getting in trouble for trying to sell the Senate seat from Illinois.

Like the parent rage on Law and Order, I am sure someone will say this man has an illness. I would say it was borrowing from Pinker’s thoughts; it was in his DNA. Maybe he just needed something to bring it out, and fortunately, this time it was an undercover officer posing as a fourteen-year-old girl online. But what if terrorists figured him out and got into his secured files? What if it was blackmail? I spent the better part of several hours discussing politics and ethics in schools yesterday with peers. I concluded that a politician, by definition, cannot be ethical. A politician will vote the way someone wants them to vote, not how they know in their heart they should. I might email Thomas Moore, maybe we need a repair book for souls.

Another week ahead and so much going on in the world, I will try and be optimistic and continue to hope for peace. I was at my current favorite store, Kroger, yesterday getting a few provisions for the family, and while standing at the Deli counter, an elderly man and I got into a conversation recalling the old days and country stores. When I first moved into Walton County back in 1978, you would still see mules occasionally plowing fields and an outhouse here and there as well. But a fond memory is the hoop cheese at the corner country store. The elderly man, and who am I to be calling anyone elderly, so I should say two old men got talking cheese at Kroger. I get the Boars Head black wax cheddar, which is very close to the old hoop cheese. Well, as we discussed smoked turkey and how thin it should or should not be, hoop cheese came up, and I got to listen to a story that I will share.

My partner in cheese talks said Do you remember that hoop cheese back in the day and of course, I said we would get it just up at the corner store, a wedge wrapped in wax paper for a few dollars made an excellent lunch. I shared my just-sliced Boars Head black wax cheddar, and it was just about as good, he said. He offered back about fifty years ago, Joe Smith was a kid then and would come up to old Mr. Jones’ store a couple of times a week and ask for a nickel’s worth of cheese. Old man Jones would get out of his chair and ever so carefully slice a paper-thin slice of hoop cheese for that kid. I seriously do not know how he did it. You just can’t slice cheese thin; it falls apart, but that old man could do it. I listened to this story from someone I had never met before, and it hit me how each day we respond to how many people. How often do we find ourselves in conversation seemingly about nothing important, and yet this was a crucial story for this man to tell me. It made his Kroger trip, I would like to think, as it made mine. I find new ideas and new friends as I journey along life’s trail. I thought that I would share with those of you who read my daily droppings and or are reading for the first time. However, I still find it necessary to end by please keep all in harm’s way on your mind and your hearts, and always give thanks, namaste.

My family and friends, I do not say this lightly,

Mitakuye Oyasin

(We are all related)

docbird