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Balance for Better
In Education for Life we frequently talk about balance. Our focus in the classroom is to support the development of the body, feeling, will and intellect in our students and ourselves. We believe that a balanced person is able to successfully meet life’s challenge when he or she is able to use their innate tools of maturity. This year’s campaign theme for International Women’s Day (March 8th) was Balance for Better. Isn’t that the truth when talking about anything? Balance in equality and opportunity, balance in our ecosystem, balance in our personal lives, balance in our family lives, we could go on and on with examples. There’s also the balance…
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Weathering Life’s Storms
The curriculum at Living Wisdom School consciously develops the four Tools of Maturity: body, feeling, will, and intellect. We all have one area that is our favorite, the most used. If we only focus on that one tool and don’t take time to strengthen the others...
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Teaching as Spiritual Practice
Recently, I had the honor of presenting at the Holistic Teaching and Learning Conference in Ashland, Oregon. It was a very inspiring conference to attend. There were several people there working in schools around Canada and the US who are re-imagining an education that looks at the whole child - not just the intellect. In Education for Life, we work each day to create lessons that...
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Inspirational Testing
In the Primary class, we have started doing a weekly spelling test. We don’t administer many tests at Living Wisdom School, but the ability to stay calm, centered and focused during a test is an important skill. So, we start small in Primary class with a spelling test...
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Willing Us Forward
Bardia Behmard is an intern working at the Living Wisdom School in Portland. Here’s a poem he wrote for the blog about the importance of developing will. “Strength does not come from physical capacity. It comes from an indomitable will.” —Mahatma Gandhi Dear Will Power, Without youWe’d all still be lying in bed,Counting dotsOn the ceiling Without youWe’d still be stuck in our old ways MLKWouldn’t haveDreamed EinsteinWouldn’t haveThought And John LennonWouldn’t haveImagined Without youEvery bookWould be half done,Every homeHalf built,And every mealHalf cooked, Dear Will Power! What would we doWithout you? You willThe human race forward Thank you
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Working with the Will Personality
In the Education for Life philosophy, we see that each person has a natural strength that they are born with. There are 4 basic strengths that we call the Tools of Maturity: Body, Feeling, Will, and Intellect. It is our jobs as teachers and parents to encourage each child to step into their Tool of Maturity with power and confidence, while also doing exercises to strengthen the other Tools, so that they can grow into well-balanced and mature adults. Sometimes, a child who has a strong will is seen as a problem. We use the term “willful child” as though there is something wrong, and many times try to “break…
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Using the Tools of Maturity in the Classroom
As Education for Life teachers, we are always in a process of self-reflection. We ask ourselves what is working and what areas need improvement. It is the practice of yoga; self-reflection for self-understanding. One thing I’ve been working on in my teaching practice has been Balance and making sure that all the EFL Tools of Maturity (Body, Feeling, Will, and Intellect) are represented in my classroom and in each of my lessons. When I planned lessons as a teacher in mainstream schools, my job was to focus all activities on a end goal of demonstrated intellectual learning. As an EFL teacher, I’ve been working to move beyond performance focused lessons. The focus…
