Process and Beyond!

From: Keith L Pentz
Email: KLPentz@aol.com
Date: June 04, 2008

Comments

Once again I am delighted to see the connections everyone seems to be making to the idea of process. I continue to emphasize that idea throughout because mindfulness/mindful learning can truly only occur as we work through process. As Emily Dickinson said, "Imagination lights the slow fuse of possibility." And Einstein stated that, "Imagination is more important than knowledge."

The Dickinson quote is so magical to me--it truly is indicitive of what we can and should be providing for children. Maybe it's because I am still such a child at heart (yes, even as I approach 54 years of age!), but the idea and challenge of imagination is so powerful and provides the catalyst and pathway for great and wonderful things to happen. Imagination is the process, too!!!

Several of you accepted my prompt and have addressed adult learners and adult learning styles and how that somehow we overlook or abandon what we know is good practice when we work in the "adult arena" of teaching and learning. I travel a lot--a couple hundred thousand miles of flying each year--and again this morning (and even as I write this while on an unexpected layover in Cincinnati) I was reminded of process for adults and how that so much of what we do and learn is based on process and somehow we overlook or negate that process and the learning that surrounds it. Each flight to me is a process--it's the getting from point A to point B that is the learning part of flying. It's not the "product" or the arrival at point B that has much to do with the learning--as one of you stated the other day--point B is really a "by product." The travel from A to B is where you learn about TSA, misplaced luggage, initerrupted flights, mediocre food, spending hours on hard benches and floors (sometimes overnight), personnel attitudes and passenger anger. Now, those pieces may seem negative but they really are informative about the whole flying experience. That flying process is where you learn those things as well as the helpful desk person who understands your dilemma and overrides something and puts you in a first class seat, or the attendant who gives you that extra smile and offers to assist with an oversized bag, or the passenger who you are sitting beside ends up being Martina Navratilova or Peter Yarrow from Peter, Paul, and Mary--now that's part of the process, too. All of the experience is the learning about flying.

And now for the next questions--

Mindfulness and mindful learning are about accessing the executive functioning areas of the brain. Process helps us to reach those areas, too, as it creates the focus and attunement neceassry for mindfulness to happen. However, mindfulness is not being overly attentive but refers more to what is creating the "interest" and spark to ignite learning. As Langer points out, the difference between mindfulness and mindlessness has a great deal to do with what we are attracted to. ADD/ADHD is not necessarily distratability but actually attractability or attentiveness to something that seems more important and significant. If we agree with this concept, what must we do in our classrooms to help all students be able to be more mindful and less "distracted?"

Along with this idea is the idea of choice--Siegel, Langer, and other brain researchers talk about how that without choice, a child can not become self-regulated. In other words, it's through choice that our brains make the necessary neural connections to self-regulate and create a "calm" body--ultimately another body-brain connection. What are some relatively simple or easy steps we can offer to other teachers and childcare workers to help them offer choices? How can classrooms become more "choice" oriented and less "one size fits all" types of environments?

I recognize that last question is volatile and could be a whole week-long discussion itself. However, I'm looking for very practical and meaningful suggestions that perhaps you have found helpful or you have seen work well.

I look forward to additional thoughts, relections, and insights.

Take care--and much mindfulness to you all!

Keith