Advice for Parents

Kindergarten at LWS — Portal to Lifelong Happiness & Success

Why Kindergarten Counts

by Living Wisdom School Director Emeritus Helen Purcell

(Helen Purcell served as director of Living Wisdom School for more than 30 years. She retired in 2024.)

Can kindergarten influence your child’s chances of success and happiness in later life?

Most definitely! – but perhaps not in the ways you may have imagined.

What kind of education do you want for your child?

Living Wisdom School Director Emeritus Helen Purcell

I would like to make a case for a complete, well-rounded approach that takes into account not only the child’s physical, mental, emotional, and spiritual well-being, but their individuality as well.

Play & Learning – Essential Partners

When we’re talking about a four or five-year-old, the first thing we need to consider is that children of that age absolutely need a playful, loving approach to learning. It is the single most important key to preparing little children for success now and in the years ahead. Once we have that playful, happy foundation, we find that the children feel inwardly free to achieve amazing things.

Many of our parents have come from rigid school cultures where the children were forced to sit at their desks most of the day and allowed very limited playtime. That model is neither creative nor realistic. As a result, it utterly fails to produce learning in the most efficient and natural way because it doesn’t make use of the child’s natural enthusiasm. Instead, it pounds information into young brains without opening their hearts to receive it. But that is not how children are made. Nor does this approach draw them into the learning experience in a way that helps them absorb learning naturally and efficiently.

 

The day begins with Circle Time, just before math class. The children sing, share, and practice breathing exercises to calm themselves and focus their attention. Priceless skills for all of life!

In his wonderful book Where You Go, Is Not Who You’ll Be: An Antidote to the College Admissions Mania, Frank Bruni, a long-time New York Times columnist and feature writer, laments the tragic failures of the traditional approach of forcing children into a system that ignores the way they are made. He excoriates today’s approach which is oriented toward improving the children’s high school grades and SAT scores and preparing every child to be accepted at Harvard or its equivalent. I think it is a wonderful sign that St. Francis High School in Mountain View, for example, has made Bruni’s book required reading for every parent.

I often talk with parents of kindergarten children who are deeply concerned about this very false and misleading kind of rigor, which fails to tune into the child’s actual needs at each developmental stage, and which, in kindergarten, must include play.

In the very early years, children should be learning that learning is fun and that mastering academic challenges is exhilarating. At this age, they are very open to whatever is going on in the classroom and at school. And an instructor who can bring together the twin threads of learning and play, and do it in a happy, loving way, will be very successful. As we demonstrate in our book, Head & Heart: How a Balanced Education Nurtures Happy Children Who Excel in School & Life, our kindergartners are not falling behind their Harvard-acceptance competitors. Quite the opposite, as a direct result of the playful approach, some are even able to absorb concepts at more advanced curriculum level.

During the first months of PreK-K, the students learn that learning is great fun when they are challenged at their own level. Once they have reached that understanding, they are able and eager to spend time learning quietly together – a most unusual and happy accomplishment for a classroom of four- to six-year-olds!

When learning is delivered in a format that matches their natural development, children become deeply engaged. Thus – believe it or not! – you will find four or five tiny tots working silently together, heads bowed in deep concentration.

We are intent on helping each child to be comfortable and happy within the school environment. With this goal in mind, a practice that helps us greatly is the inclusion of yoga and meditation at the start of the school day. If we can help children discover an enjoyable state of calmness and concentration within themselves – a state of happy, relaxed mental attention – they will be gaining a powerful tool that will help them to be successful throughout their school years.

At Living Wisdom School, children start the day with yoga and meditation, and then, most days, they go right into math class. When the teacher sets a tone which makes them comfortable and at ease in the environment, a great deal becomes possible in math, phonics, writing, art, and science. In fact, anything is possible when the children’s hearts are open and eager to dive into the day’s lessons.

 

The Incalculable Benefits of A Stress-Free Learning Environment

When you can give a child an experience every day at school of being comfortable and relaxed in the environment, they will inevitably gravitate toward the joy of learning.

When the learning environment is also alive with inclusivity and friendship, instead of cliques and competition, children are happier and learn better. In other words, learning and joy go together.

It is well documented that generalized stress at school interferes with learning. In a Washington Post article, “How Much Does Stress Affect Learning?” (June 10, 2011), education and foreign affairs reporter Valerie Post quotes Catharine H. Warner, a lecturer in sociology at the University of Maryland:

“Our findings indicate that stress in the classroom environment affects children’s likelihood of exhibiting learning problems (difficulties with attentiveness, task persistence, and flexibility), externalizing problems (frequency with which the child argues, fights, disturbs ongoing activities, and acts impulsively), problems interacting with peers (difficulties in forming friendships, dealing with other children, expressing feelings, and showing sensitivity, or internalizing problems (presence of anxiety, loneliness, low self-esteem, and sadness in the child). These findings suggest that stress – in the form of negative classroom conditions – negatively affects the way children pay attention in class, stay on task, and move from one activity to another.”

 

During partner walks, the youngest children spend time with the older ones, forming happy bonds of respect and caring. (Click to enlarge.)

The tremendous energy that we devote to creating a calm, peaceful, joyful, accepting classroom and school environment frees children to be exactly who they are. When you’re allowed to be who you are, and when you’re challenged at exactly that level, you will have daily successes that will give you a joyful experience of learning. By contrast, just trying to meet someone else’s rigid demands and requirements all the time, at someone else’s level creates a tension that prevents learning by shutting down energy and enthusiasm.

As a teacher for more than fifty years, it has been my experience that tension is never a positive factor when it comes to learning. On the other hand, feeling free to make mistakes, and to have those mistakes accepted as a natural part of the learning process, is an amazing, blissful, and extremely helpful experience for the child. It fuels an exhilarating learning process.

In our school, we achieve that freedom by combining learning with play, and by making sure our kids have free time. We fight against the misguided compulsion to structure every minute of the child’s day.

Children Can Be Happy and Successful in School

Krunal focuses on his math classwork. The photographer held his video camera less than a foot from Krunal for more than 30 seconds, yet Krunal remained entirely focused on the task at hand. It was not a rare or a posed event! It is simply part of the natural flow of the day, once the children become deeply engaged with the curriculum. A fringe benefit is that discipline problems become rare, even at this young age.

Parents and educators who visit our school invariably remark on how every child is completely him- or herself, and how they show a remarkable level of maturity and confidence. Our children are typically centered in themselves in a natural and real way. And when they do become scattered or upset, they are given the tools to catch themselves with the support of a discerning teacher.

You can see their ease in their eyes and in how they carry themselves. A child will walk into the principal’s office, not at all intimidated, and say, “Helen, I need an ice pack for my friend.” Someone is hurt, and they are eager to help, without fear or hesitation. Or they’ll come in to share a birthday treat with me.

If it’s a difficult situation…they aren’t feeling well, or someone needs to call a parent, they’ll come in with absolute trust. In fact, they will be at ease with every adult in the school, including all the classroom and PE teachers, music teachers, and math tutors – because there is a family atmosphere that is consistent and consciously cultivated every day.

Theater Magic – An Extraordinary Experience of Learning and Growth

Our theater program includes every child from grades TK through eight. It creates an extraordinary atmosphere for learning, and for cultivating personal success qualities. The kindergarten children are on stage, rehearsing and performing with the older children, and they develop a level of comfort and confidence that is far beyond what most kindergartners get to experience at school. When they can engage easily and confidently with an adult or an older child, even in a playful way, they feel empowered to walk in the world in a very different way. So, Partner Reading and Partner Walks and play with older children are an extension of the confidence-building practices the children experience every day.

Young elementary children dance during a Theater Magic performance.

Our methods come to fruition most clearly, especially for the youngest children, during spring quarter, when you can watch a child get out of the car in the morning, brimming with confidence, the same child who wouldn’t look at you six or seven months earlier, or who would cringe with shyness and hold their mother’s hand tightly.

I’m thinking of a child who was extremely fearful at the start of the school year, and now when her father says, “Have a great day!” she will turn and look at me with a big, confident smile and say, “Good morning, Helen!”

It is a maturation made possible because at Living Wisdom School there is a definition of self that allows for the inclusion of everybody, not just one’s own classmates and teachers, but every single teacher and every single child.

Choosing Happiness

We don’t have an intimidating or fearful culture. This morning, I was explaining to a parent that the fundamental principles on which our school is based are most clearly expressed by two of our School Rules: “Choose Happiness,” and “Practice Kindness.”

To Practice kindness means learning to be considerate and loving with one another and to recognize that doing so helps create a loving and safe atmosphere.

To Choose happiness means learning that you have the power to choose how to respond to life’s challenges. The children learn to focus on the positive rather than the negative, to control moods, and to raise their energy to meet difficulties that arise.

These two rules define the culture of the school. If you choose happiness, it means that you don’t have the right to take out a bad mood on anybody. Rather, you have an obligation to use your will power and understanding to turn the energy around with the ready and willing help of both teacher and classmates.

It is amazing to watch the rules in action. For example, a child might come to school, and maybe they aren’t feeling well. Maybe they are feeling a little moody or even snarky, yet everybody is sympathetic. The teacher might say, “I’m so sorry you’re not feeling well. Take a moment on the pillows in the corner, and don’t forget to take your teddy.” So, there’s sympathy, but there’s also an expectation that at some point— and it should be soon—the child needs to choose to be happy.

And they do because they are shown how to do it. They are given the specific steps to take in order to be kind and choose happiness. They learn that they have the power to choose positive feelings and behavior. Because all the children in the school know each other and because the older ones sincerely love to help the kindergarteners, the older ones become role models.

 

Partner reading. All of the children in the school know each other well, and the older ones love to help the kindergartners.

The right behavior is constantly modeled for the little ones, and the teachers deliberately take time to give them instructions on how to choose happiness every time the need arises.

Over several months, the older children work with the younger children at play rehearsals, and they learn to be very sensitive to the well-being of the little ones. They want to take care of them, to help them, and guide them in the spirit of friendship. Thus, they develop a sense of responsibility for others, especially the little ones.

Four and five year old children can be especially selfish and self-involved. They need to grow into a sense of the other. To see exactly that constantly modeled for them by the adults and the other children in the school environment is a priceless gift. For such young ones, it is an invaluable foundation for acquiring the maturity that we must all achieve to be successful at every level, and it is an awareness that we instill in them starting on the very first day of kindergarten – an awareness of another’s reality.

Does Living Wisdom School Over-Emphasize Soft Skills?

Parents often ask a huge question about our school: “You have a wonderful school culture, but how does it translate to grades and test scores?” And, of course, the proof is in our graduates’ high school and college acceptance and grades, and in their adult success.

In our book Happiness & Success at School, there’s a wonderful account of how, in the military and in sports, individual attention, individual freedom, and individual acceptance create a culture based on what’s best for the individual and produce the highest success. We are not simply spouting wishy-washy, unrealistic ideas that we haven’t tested and that don’t work in the real world. The interplay of happiness and success is a real-life experience for our graduates who have gone on to major universities and corporations.

Constant individual attention and encouragement help the youngest children learn to love learning. TK-K intern Ava Magholi encourages a young math student.

I received an application recently from a parent of a fifth-grade boy. Unfortunately, that class was full, so we were unable to take him. The parent was sad because the child’s predisposition to self-judge made him afraid to try anything. His fear precluded success. By contrast, our school culture supports an attitude toward learning that includes the ability to “fail happily” on the road to success and then try again—a wonderfully liberating gift.

In the late 1980s, a professor of computer science at MIT, Seymour Papert, published a book called Mindstorms in which he pointed out that the most wonderful lesson children can take from learning to program computers is that mistakes are a natural and necessary part of the process. He pointed out that professional programmers make, on average, at least 10 mistakes per hundred lines of their first code drafts.

Papert called it “the debugging approach to life.”  Kids today have so much stress around success and on getting it right the first time. There’s a tremendous competitive and comparative emphasis in the typical approach to learning which results in children asking, “Am I as good as somebody else?” as opposed to, “What am I learning?” and “Was it fun?”

In our school, the children know who excels in this or that subject area, because we celebrate those successes. But we also celebrate the small, daily successes that lead eventually to greater mastery as the most important kind of success for every child. Included in those celebrations are our children’s beginning mastery as artists, poets, singers, scientists, dancers, and mathematicians.

Success builds upon success. I’m thinking of a boy who had some very significant challenges at school until he began rehearsing for the all-school play, whereupon he flourished amazingly. The success he enjoyed in the theater program translated to an ability to self-regulate in class in order to do well. He was motivated because he had experienced what it feels like to be successful.

Each of us has an inborn drive to experience happiness and to be free from suffering. The universal spiritual law is that whenever we expand our awareness by learning something new or by overcoming a challenge, we experience a corresponding inflow of joy. And if you’re having happy learning experiences every day, you’re going to want more and more of them.

The Straitjacket of Modern Education

I often wonder how our culture went wrong when it failed to take into account the link between learning and happiness. Children are so elastic, so ready to learn, especially when it comes to learning which thoughts and actions will give them joy. Instead, they too often find themselves bound in straitjackets of expectations that may or may not be realistic. Tragic.

Learning by rote and by drill no longer needs to be the foundation of a child’s school experience. What is necessary is the cultivation of imagination, resourcefulness, and creativity, starting at the earliest age. We need to support the children who are learning at the bottom end and take the limits off each child’s horizons. That way they can surprise themselves and keep growing every day.

We had a first grader whose artistic ability was beyond all imagining. He made several sketches of a ship, beautifully executed with lots of fine detail. We put one of them on the cover of our annual literary magazine. Traditionally, an older student was awarded that honor. We had a choice – to celebrate excellence, or to abide by a more rigid standard. But it was clear that what that little boy had achieved was not equal. So, he got the cover!

Everybody in the school acknowledged and celebrated the boy’s talent. The older kids were saying, “Whoa, who did that cover?” The truth is that we don’t shy away from celebrating every child’s success, and we ensure that there are plenty of successes to celebrate by having children operate at the edge of their ability all the time.

A girl who came to us in the fall absolutely flourished in the school play. She took to her role and developed it beautifully. That talented little girl had been very unhappy in her former school, but when she came here and felt embraced by the energy, she realized that she could let loose and be as creative as her abilities allowed.

Once I spoke with parents who are brain researchers at Stanford. The father was educated at a very progressive school in Israel, while the mother had a more standard education. They chose our school because they have friends whose children go to our school, and they recognized the level of acceptance and individuality that exists here and which results in the happiness of the children. More than anything else, they simply wanted their children to be happy during their time in school. This kind of prioritizing is truly refreshing.

Yet, sometimes, it is hard for parents to hold on to the idealism that brings them to Living Wisdom in the first place. When their children reach third or fourth grade, they’re tempted to buy into the culture that is constantly pressuring them to think, “Oh my God, how am I going to get my child into Harvard, Stanford, Yale, or Princeton?”

The parents I spoke with above understood the theoretical and practical aspects of our system, but they really didn’t want to talk about that side. They wanted to tell me how the families of children in our school had told them that their kids have never been happier, and that as brain researchers they knew that a great deal of learning goes hand in hand with a great deal of happiness.

It is really that simple. Happiness and school success are not mutually exclusive – in fact, the opposite is true: happiness is indispensable for the most efficient learning to take place.

We need to help children leverage their natural gifts. Maybe the process won’t be as linear as our culture would prefer, and maybe we won’t always be able to quantify it with numbers, but our successes have proved our methods year after year in terms of where our graduates go to high school and college, and their adult successes.

Follow this link to view a list of high schools and colleges
that have accepted our LWS graduates,
and examples of their inspiring careers.

Learning Priceless Personal Success Qualities

Another factor that makes our kindergarten so special and powerful is that from the first day, we practice leading with the heart. We teach our children what it feels like to appreciate another person’s reality, and how happy it makes them feel.

If a kindergartner gets some place first, it is their nature to let everyone know that it’s their place. They can be very territorial…It’s my toy, my place, my pencil. Yet, they can also have very open hearts if they are allowed to. By showing them that the greatest happiness comes from being unselfish, together we create a wonderful learning environment. Whether in the sandbox or on the tricycle, relating to a reality other than their own is something even the youngest children are learning at Living Wisdom every day. In fact, it is a priority.

Two children were arguing over a bike, so we did a conflict resolution, and one child said, “Okay, how about five minutes for him and five minutes for me?”

The teacher said, “That seems reasonable.”

The other child thought about it and said, “Well, what if we had it at the same time?”

The teacher said, “I don’t think that’s possible.”

He said, “Oh, yeah, it is, because one of us could drive and the other could stand on the back and then we could switch places.”

It is a defining story which illustrates how, once they understand the principle of conflict resolution, children can be creative and take it a lot farther than we might imagine.

We help our children have many experiences of happiness, and we teach them how to find it for themselves. Then, they begin to look for it all the time, and they become very expansive. Once, I was talking about something with one of the eighth graders in my office, when he suddenly said, “Oh, hey, Helen, I gotta go!”

I said, “Well, we’re not quite finished, are we?”

He said, “I know, but the younger kids are about to show up, and they want me to hide the ball for them.”

This eighth grader, RJ, a big, strong, athletic six-foot tall boy, was truly connected to the younger children—tiny kindergartners and first graders, and he wanted to honor that connection based on their game in which he would hide the ball somewhere on campus, and they would have to find it.

For an older child to hide the ball might be considered hostile, but not in our environment. Here, it was an expression of friendship. The little tots adored RJ, and he was willing to break off a lively conversation with me to indulge them.

“No Bullying!” – More than Just Empty Words

The principals of two of our local high schools were in conversation with me and asked me about the culture at our Living Wisdom High School, because I’m on the school board, and the high school was up for certification, which it did receive.

The conversation came around to what makes our school different, and I boldly and truthfully said, “We do not have bullying at our school.” Immediately, I noticed a sudden change in the atmosphere. They sat quietly, and I intuited why – because they couldn’t say the same about their schools. The issue of bullying comes up quite often in my talks with prospective parents.

I always say, “It is not allowed, and it’s not that we have to come down punitively in order to enforce that rule because we have actually created a culture of kindness. Our children understand from the inside out that practicing kindness, one of our school rules, gives them the highest happiness.”

living wisdom school rulesI would say that at least 50 percent of the parents who come to my office are trying to escape a culture of bullying at another school.

I think that bullying comes from the highly competitive atmosphere in many schools today. I’m not talking about sports; I’m talking about grades, social advancement, and test scores. Unfortunately, a constant, brutal sense of competitiveness permeates so much of the social culture in schools today, particularly high schools.

Many parents in Silicon Valley have had to struggle to get where they are, and they naturally value material success. So, when you have an efficient and balanced environment such as we have here, one that brings the whole child, not just their will power and intellect, into the educational process, we can initially look a little suspicious, especially when there is anxiety about a child’s chances of getting into a “good college” – even though we can hold our heads high when it comes to our graduates’ successes.

Our supportive culture frees a child to do extraordinarily well. I’ve seen extremely introverted and fearful children, who were not able to thrive in the highly competitive cultures of other schools, blossom when they come to Living Wisdom School where they are respected, accepted, and naturally part of the group.

I’m sure that we will reach a tipping point in this country when parents will wake up to the simple truth, one we have demonstrated for many years – Children can be highly successful at school and be happy and well balanced at the same time.

 

 

 

Happiness & Success at School

Living Wisdom School of Palo Alto is overjoyed to announce the publication of a new book: Happiness & Success at School.

Our director emeritus, Helen Purcell, says, “It’s a wonderful book and fun to read. I hope that all parents who are seeking an education for their children that includes a balance of academic excellence and the development of indispensable personal qualities that will help to ensure their success in school and for all their lives will read this book.” (Helen Purcell served as director of Living Wisdom School for more than 30 years. She retired in 2024.)

How to Read Happiness & Success. You can read the chapters online (see table of contents below), download the book as a PDF (2nd Edition, July 2022; 6mb), or purchase a copy on Amazon.

Table of Contents

1. Introduction

2. What Do You Want for Your Child?

Happiness & Success in the Real World

3. Happiness and Success at Google

4. Ancient Secrets of Happiness & Success

5. Happiness and Success at Harvard

6. Happiness and Success at Stanford and MIT

7. Happiness and Success in Math Class

8. Happiness and Success in the History of Education

9. Happiness, Success, and the 5 Stages of a Child’s Development

10. Happiness and Success: the Love Plant Approach

11. Happiness, Success, and Academic Achievement

12. Happiness, Success, and Education for Life: Grades Tell the Story

13. Bill Aris’s Truth: Happiness and Success in Sports & the Military

14. How to Improve Schools Using Coaching Principles

15. Sir Ken Robinson on Creativity at School

16. Happiness, Success, and Feelings: A Brief Photo Essay

The Science of Happiness & Success

17. Happiness, Success, and the Science of Positive Feelings

18. Happiness, Success, and the “Social Brain”

19. Two Kinds of Feelings

20. How Raw Feelings Interfere with Learning

21. It’s Time We Started Raising Organic Children

22. The Super-Efficient Classroom

Meet the Teachers

23. A Conversation with Former LWS Second Grade Teacher Kshama Kellogg

24. A Conversation with LWS Kindergarten Teacher Lilavati Aguilar

25. Rose Atwell: LWS Alumna, Teacher, Actor, Chef

26. Can the Arts Help Children Excel Academically?

27. Happiness, Success, and the Curriculum in Grades TK-8

Meet the Parents

28. Meet the Parents: Esther Peralez-Dieckmann

29. Meet the Parents: Jack Dieckmann

Testimonials for Living Wisdom School

30. Living Wisdom Graduates Enjoy Varied and Exciting Careers

31. More Testimonials for the Living Wisdom Schools

32. Final Thoughts: On Choosing Your Child’s School

Appendices

Appendix 1: Education for Life Resources

Appendix 2: Education for Life and the Living Wisdom Schools

Appendix 3: Research that Supports Education for Life

About the Author. George Beinhorn serves as our school’s web content manager. A graduate of Stanford University (BA ‘63, MA ‘66) he has been associated with the Living Wisdom Schools since 1976. George has enjoyed a long and fruitful career as a writer and editor with clients in technology, publishing, and academia. (Among his more interesting projects, he edited the “Best doctoral dissertation in computer science in 2008 at Stanford University.”) He is the author of The Joyful Athlete: The Wisdom of the Heart in Exercise & Sports Training.

Appendix 3: Research that Supports Education for Life

To obtain a PDF copy of this book with clickable hyperlinks, visit the website of the Palo Alto Living Wisdom School: www.livingwisdomschool.org. Follow the links to articles that support the principles and practices of Education for Life.

Most education research focuses on how teaching methods affect academic performance. But forty-five years of experience have shown us that practices that enhance a child’s inner development can powerfully contribute to their academic success.

(If you come across supportive research, please let us know. You can send us a message through the contact form on the website of the Palo Alto Living Wisdom School: www.livingwisdomschool.org.)

 

Teaching/Academics

Education for Life online teacher development: http://edforlife.org/courses/. For teachers-in-training, and for continuing teacher education.

Active Focused Learning Approach. Quotes: “I’m not really held back anymore, just sitting in class waiting.” “There’s not a lot of lecturing, which makes it easier to stay focused.” “I really like working with other students.” Students spend more time working in groups. The strategy is getting more students to achieve better in class.

Longer school day and year failed to improve test scores.

Task to Aid Self-Esteem Lifts Grades for Some.

Crisis in the Kindergarten: Why Children Need to Play In School (PDF)

The Heart in Holistic Education. (PDF) Educational programs based on new scientific discoveries about the heart lead to improved emotional stability, cognitive functioning, and academic performance.

Tutoring Tots. MSNBC News feature.

10 Ways to Improve Schools Using Coaching Principles. An important article by Tony Holler, a public high school honors chemistry teacher and football and track and field coach (Plainfield North HS, IL). Living Wisdom School has followed Tony’s 10 recommendations throughout its 40-plus-year history. And because we’re very clear that they’ve played a large part in our success, the principles are engrained in our school’s philosophy.

We’re destroying our kids — for nothing: Too much homework, too many tests, too much needless pressure. A Salon article argues that we’ve gone overboard on academics, destroying the enthusiasm in kids that’s essential for academic success. The result? “Children are born curious, and it’s pretty easy to facilitate that, to groom it,” says Vassar College neuropsychologist Abigail Baird. “We’re doing the opposite. We’re squishing their desire to learn new things. And I think that’s a crisis.”

Impact of Homework on Academic Achievement (PDF).

Going in circles puts students on path to better choices. Quotes: “The goal is not so much to punish as to get students on paths to make better choices, to understand the impact of what they do, to deal with people better”… “We’ve become more like a family and not just kids who go to school together,” said freshman Leah Brito. “We’ve grown up big time in the last few months.” “One result of the new approach is that kids are giving more thought to the effect what they do and say can have on others,” she said. “In eighth grade, the he said/she said stuff was horrible when many of the students were together at Audubon middle school,” Brito said. “This year, there is much less of that.”

Is Test Prep Educational Malpractice? In many elementary schools there is little or no time for non-tested subjects such as art, music, even science and history.

Preschool Controversy – Academics or Play? Quotes: “People who attended play-based preschools were eight times less likely to need treatment for emotional disturbances than those who went to preschools where direct instruction prevailed. Graduates of the play-based preschools were three times less likely to be arrested for committing a felony.”

Why I pulled my son out of a school for ‘gifted’ kids. In this Mashable article, a mother tells how her son thrived after she transferred him out of an elite academically oriented elementary school in New York City. “If you are privileged enough to be selective about what schools your children attend, please consider how they are learning and not just what they are learning. School isn’t only about cramming as much as possible as quickly as possible into their little brains.”

Pressure Cooker Kindergarten. Quotes: “Kindergarten has changed radically in the last two decades in ways that few Americans are aware of. Children now spend far more time being taught and tested on literacy and math skills than they do learning through play and exploration, exercising their bodies, and using their imaginations. Many kindergartens use highly prescriptive curricula geared to new state standards and linked to standardized tests. In an increasing number of kindergartens, teachers must follow scripts from which they may not deviate. These practices, which are not well grounded in research, violate long-established principles of child development and good teaching. It is increasingly clear that they are compromising both children’s health and their long-term prospects for success in school…. Kindergarten has ceased to be a garden of delight and has become a place of stress and distress…. Blindly pursuing educational policies that could well damage the intellectual, social and physical development of an entire generation…. There’s ongoing concern about American children catching up with their counterparts in countries such as Japan and China. Specifically in areas such as science, math and technology, schooling in those countries before second grade is “playful and experiential.” And youngsters in Finland, where teens consistently score high academically, also attend play-based kindergarten and start first grade at age 7 rather than age 6.”

School starting age: the evidence. An article on the website of Cambridge University. “In England children now start formal schooling, and the formal teaching of literacy and numeracy at the age of four. A recent letter signed by around 130 early childhood education experts, including myself, published in the Daily Telegraph (11 Sept 2013) advocated an extension of informal, play-based pre-school provision and a delay to the start of formal ‘schooling’ in England from the current effective start until the age of seven (in line with a number of other European countries who currently have higher levels of academic achievement and child well-being).”

What Americans Keep Ignoring About Finland’s School Success. The Scandinavian country is an education superpower because it values equality more than excellence.

One in Five Girls in Upper Secondary School Suffers From School Burnout. Quotes: “A sense of optimism during university studies along with high self-esteem tend to predict job engagement ten years later on, while an avoidance strategy tends to predict work-related burnout…. The more encouragement the students got from their teachers, the less likely they were to experience school burnout.”

Explaining Math Concepts Improves Learning. Quotes: “Teaching children the basic concept behind math problems was more useful than teaching children a procedure for solving the problems – these children gave better explanations and learned more,” Rittle-Johnson said. “This adds to a growing body of research illustrating the importance of teaching children concepts as well as having them practice solving problems.”

Social Skills, Extracurricular Activities In High School Pay Off Later In Life. Quotes: “High school sophomores who … [had] good social skills and work habits, and who participated in extracurricular activities in high school, made more money and completed higher levels of education 10 years later than their classmates who had similar standardized test scores but were less socially adroit and participated in fewer extracurricular activities…. “Soft skills” such as sociability, punctuality, conscientiousness and an ability to get along well with others, along with participation in extracurricular activities, are better predictors of earnings and higher educational achievement later in life than having good grades and high standardized test scores…. Schools are increasingly cutting…activities that foster soft skills in order to focus almost exclusively on achieving adequate yearly progress on state-mandated standardized tests.”

Students Benefit From Depth Rather Than Breadth. Quotes: Teaching fewer topics in greater depth is a better way to prepare students for success in college science. Teachers who “teach to the [standardized] test” may not be optimizing their students’ chances of success in college science.

Task to Aid Self-Esteem Lifts Grades for Some.

Teacher Teaming. (Teachers routinely engage in “teaming” at Living Wisdom School, thanks to the integrated curriculum and school environment that encourages teacher collaboration.)

Teaching Resilience With Positive Education.

Ten Steps to Better Student Engagement. Quotes: Students who have been shamed or belittled by the teacher or another student will not effectively engage in challenging tasks. To learn and grow, one must take risks, but most people will not take risks in an emotionally unsafe environment.

Creating Positive Classroom Management. (A teacher developed creative ways to encourage positive attitudes and behaviors in younger students. The method and theory are very similar to the “Rocks in the Basket” game used at LWS and described in this video.) Quotes: “I’d spent years offering students rewards (stickers, tickets, tangibles, intangibles) for good behavior and I’d come to realize how they were often self-defeating…. One change I had already made was … I would celebrate ‘great work’ by reading aloud the child’s name and stating what they had done well. Often their classmates would give an actual round of applause – which was lovely.”

Learning and Motivation Strategies Course Increases Odds of College Graduation.

Recess Makes for Better Students. Quotes: Study finds getting enough of it [recess] each day helps kids perform better in classroom…. Children learn as much on breaks as they do in the traditional classroom, experimenting with creativity and imagination and learning how to interact socially…. Conflict resolution is solved on the playground, not in the classroom…. The more physical fitness tests children passed, the better they did on academic tests…. Walks outdoors appeared to improve scores on tests of attention and concentration.

Algebra-for-All Policy Found to Raise Rates Of Failure.

Lectures Didn’t Work in 1350—and They Still Don’t Work Today. A conversation with David Thornburg about designing a better classroom.

 

Physical Education

Physically fit students do better on tests. Quotes: “Physically fit students … are more likely to do well on … tests and have better attendance…. Fit students are less likely to have disciplinary problems.”

Schools use mind-body relaxation techniques to help kids fight anxiety. Quotes: “Mind-body relaxation, including yoga, can improve self-esteem and boost grades and test scores…. Regular exposure to the [relaxation] training boosted students’ work habits, attendance, and academic performance.”

Physical Activity May Strengthen Children’s Ability To Pay Attention. Quotes: “Following the acute bout of walking, children performed better on the flanker task…. Following acute bouts of walking, children had a larger P3 amplitude, suggesting that they are better able to allocate attentional resources…. The increase in reading comprehension following exercise equated to approximately a full grade level.”

A Fit Body Means a Fit Mind. Quotes: “Cardiovascular exercise was related to higher academic performance…. Regular exercise benefits the brain, improves attention span, memory, and learning … reduces stress and the effects of attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder…. Aerobic exercise pumps more blood throughout the body, including to the brain. More blood means more oxygen and, therefore, better-nourished brain tissue. Exercise also spurs the brain to produce more of a protein called brain-derived neurotrophic factor, or BDNF, which Ratey calls ‘Miracle-Gro for the brain.’ This powerful protein encourages brain cells to grow, interconnect, and communicate in new ways. Studies also suggest exercise plays a big part in the production of new brain cells, particularly in the dentate gyrus, a part of the brain heavily involved in learning and memory skills…. [Many] schools are cutting back on PE and reducing recess hours. It’s a huge challenge with budget restraints and No Child Left Behind.”

 

Joy in Learning

The Joyful, Illiterate Kindergartners of Finland (The Atlantic),  by Tim Walker, a former teacher based in Finland. He now cares for his two young children and writes regularly at Taught by Finland and Papa on the Playground. Research and school experience show that play time is crucial for children’s academic and social development.

How Positive Psychology Can Improve Student Success. An Illinois school district uses a program that encourages a positive outlook to improve academic performance.

How to Parent Like a German. German students excel, yet in German schools academics are balanced by other kinds of learning.

Stay Focused: New research on how to close the achievement gap (The Economist, UK). A review of How Children Succeed: Grit, Curiosity, and the Hidden Power of Character, by journalist Paul Tough, a former editor at New York Times Magazine.

Psychologist explores how childhood play influences adult creativity. Sandra Russ’s new book, Pretend Play in Childhood: Foundation of Adult Creativity reveals how high-achieving innovative adults use methods learned in childhood play to help them achieve success.

Most 1st Grade Classes Not High Quality. Quotes: “Only 23 percent of classrooms could be judged to be of ‘high quality’ in both their instructional practices and social and emotional climate.”

Happiness Contagious as the Flu. Posted on the LiveScience website. At Living Wisdom School, we create a joyful, caring environment among the students. When a new student arrives, he or she immediately feels supported and positively affected. Parents routinely comment that soon after their children enter LWS they seem happier than at their former school.

 

Meditation, Breathing, Yoga, Affirmations

Meditation Program in the College Curriculum. Quotes: “[Meditation] produced significant freshman-senior increases in intelligence and increased social self-confidence, sociability, general psychological health, and social maturity.”

Self-Affirmation Can Break Cycle of Negative Thoughts. A report from the American Association for the Advancement of Science.

Meditation in the Treatment of ADHD. Meditation-training showed significant decreases in levels of impulsivity [and significant improvements in] selective deployment of attention and freedom from distractibility in the behavior of the children.

How Meditation Can Give Our Kids an Academic Edge

Meditation seen promising as ADHD therapy. Quotes: “The effect was much greater than we expected.” – lead researcher Sarina J. Grosswald, a cognitive learning specialist in Arlington, Virginia…. The children also showed improvements in attention, working memory, organization, and behavior regulation.

Faith rites boost brains. Even 10 to 15 minutes of meditation appear to have significant positive effects on cognition, relaxation, and psychological health.

Schools use mind-body relaxation techniques to help kids fight anxiety. Quotes: “Mind-body relaxation, including yoga, can improve self-esteem and boost grades and test scores. Regular exposure to the [relaxation] training boosted students’ work habits, attendance, and academic performance.”

Silence is Golden Mindfulness Meditation study).

Smacking Hits Kids’ IQ.

Smiles Predict Marriage Success. (Many parents report their children smile more after attending Living Wisdom School.)

Vedic Science based Education and Non-verbal Intelligence. (An increase in student problem-solving ability was found.)

Meditation and Assertive Training in the Treatment of Social Anxiety.

Meditation Effects on Cognitive Function. Meditation practice produced significant positive effects.

Meditation Program in the College Curriculum. Quotes: “[Meditation] produced significant freshman-senior increases on intelligence and increased social self-confidence, sociability, general psychological health, and social maturity.”

Meditation Improves Leadership Behaviors. Quotes: “Subjects who learned [meditation]… as a self-development technique improved their leadership behaviors.”

 

Social Skills

UCLA neuroscientist’s book explains why social connection is as important as food and shelter.

Psychosocial stress reversibly disrupts prefrontal processing and attentional control.

 

Music

Adolescents Involved With Music Do Better In School. Music participation has a positive effect on reading and mathematics achievement for both elementary and high school students.

Adolescents Involved With Music Do Better In School.

Music Education Can Help Children Improve Reading Skills. Quotes: “Children exposed to a multi-year programme of music … display superior cognitive performance in reading skills compared with their non-musically trained peers.”

Music Training Linked To Enhanced Verbal Skills. Quotes: “Music training … may be more important for enhancing verbal communication skills than learning phonics…. potential of music to tune our neural response to the world around us…. Music training may have considerable benefits for engendering literacy skills…. (Musicians have enhanced subcortical auditory and audiovisual processing of speech and music.)”

 

Other Articles and Papers

It’s Official: To Protect Baby’s Brain, Turn Off TV (from Wired online). Quote: “A decade ago, the American Academy of Pediatrics suggested that parents limit TV consumption by children under two years of age. The recommendations were based as much on common sense as science, because studies of media consumption and infant development were themselves in their infancy. The research has finally grown up. And though it’s still ongoing, it’s mature enough for the AAP to release a new, science-heavy policy statement on babies watching television, videos or any other passive media form. Their verdict: It’s not good, and probably bad.”

The Human Brain: Wired for Values? This article was published as a sidebar to an article in Mothering magazine that strongly praised Living Wisdom School.

Lack of Playtime Killing Joy of Learning.

Smart and Good High Schools. A “Report to the Nation” from the State University of New York)

The Heart in Holistic Education. (PDF) Quotes: “Educational programs based on new scientific discoveries about the heart lead to improved emotional stability, cognitive functioning, and academic performance.”

After Abuse, Changes In the Brain. Quotes: “Affectionate mothering alters the expression of genes in animals, allowing them to dampen their physiological response to stress. These biological buffers are then passed on to the next generation. [There is] direct evidence that the same system is at work in humans.”

Loneliness Spreads Like a Virus. (At Living Wisdom School, feelings of connectedness and joy spread like a virus.)

Positive Action Program. (The program focuses on helping students be aware of which behaviors are positive and will increase their happiness in the long term.)

National education standards can end up hurting students.

Self-Control Is Contagious.

Nature Makes Us More Caring.

College prep math failure full study. (PDF) Quotes: “This study indicates that artificially pushing children beyond their current capability is counter-productive.”

Studies Reveal Why Kids Get Bullied and Rejected. The researchers’ recommendations for teaching children social skills uncannily reflect how LWS teachers practice conflict resolution during playground time.

Mothering magazine praises Living Wisdom School.

Education in the Age of Energy. Human awareness is becoming less materialistic and more energy-aware. How will schools adapt? Living Wisdom leads the way.

National education standards can end up hurting students.

Nature Makes Us More Caring, Study Says.

When Friends Make You Poorer. Quotes: “Students tend to gravitate to a major chosen by more of their peers. And the students whose choice was driven by their peers were then more likely to end up in lower-paying jobs that they didn’t like.”

Kids Get Worst SAT Scores in a Decade.

APA review confirms link between playing violent video games and aggression.

Exposure to TV violence related to irregular attention and brain structure.

School Starting Age: The Evidence.

 

 

Ch. 21: It’s Time We Started Raising Organic Children

By Nitai Deranja, co-founder of the Living Wisdom Schools

Nitai Deranja today.
Nitai Deranja, co-founder of the Living Wisdom Schools and Director of Education for Life International.

About fifty years ago, a small but dedicated group of people began to challenge America’s attitudes toward food production.

The prevailing view was that vegetables should be judged by their appearance — bigger and redder tomatoes were deemed more desirable. So American agriculture adopted chemical fertilizers and pesticides that would support growing great-looking tomatoes.

But a tiny fringe group, which gradually became known as the organic farming movement, pointed out that the real value of tomatoes lies not in their color but their taste and nutritional value, which were being sacrificed to improve their appearance.

It took a while, but people began to listen. A recent study1 revealed that seventy-five percent of Americans now buy at least some organic food.

Today we face a similar misconception about our children’s education. We all want our kids to succeed — no doubt. The problem is how we define “success.”

As with the misplaced emphasis on bigger, redder tomatoes, many people now assume student success can be measured in numbers, using standardized tests. These tests are mandated in almost all schools, and they exercise an enormous influence over our children’s future.

With such important consequences, it seems appropriate to ask what exactly these tests are measuring. Below are some topics covered in one of the most widely used standardized tests for fifth through eleventh grades.2 As you scan the list, note the number of items you might be familiar with, and how important this information has been in your adult life. (These items are not taken from the more rigorous “advanced” level of the exam, but from the easier, “proficient” level.)

  1. The function of the esophagus
  2. The difference between a stereoscope and a laser light with holograph
  3. The reason fossils are found in sedimentary rocks
  4. The contributions of Hammurabi
  5. The differences between metals and nonmetals
  6. The form of energy released or absorbed in most chemical reactions
  7. The Schlieffen Plan
  8. The Tennis Court Oath.
  9. The Social Gospel movement
  10. The Reconstruction Finance Corporation

The point, of course, is not that the Schlieffen Plan, the Tennis Court Oath, and the Code of Hammurabi aren’t useful in certain specialized fields. It’s that in using such relatively obscure data to measure the overall effectiveness of our schools, we’re making the same mistake people made in judging tomatoes — we’re focusing on superficial appearances at the expense of real substance, measured by actual benefits to the individual child.

When we pressure teachers and administrators to make sure every student is exposed to the “right” facts, the end result is that creativity and enthusiasm are replaced with what’s been called “dead-ucation.”

In a recent New York Times article, a long-time teacher questioned the overwhelming emphasis on standardized testing today:

“This push on tests is missing out on some serious parts of what it means to be a successful human. Whether it’s the pioneer in the Conestoga wagon or someone coming here in the 1920s from southern Italy, there was this idea in America that if you worked hard and you showed real grit, you could be successful. Strangely, we’ve now forgotten that. People who have an easy time of things, who get 800s on their SATs, I worry that those people get feedback that everything they’re doing is great. And I think as a result, we are actually setting them up for long-term failure. When that person suddenly has to face up to a difficult moment, then I think they’re screwed, to be honest. I don’t think they’ve grown the capacities to be able to handle that.”3

A parent lamented her son’s experience of dead‑ucation:

 “I saw the light in his eyes extinguishing…. These energetic, engaged, accomplished six-year-olds turned into 12-year-olds who ask, ‘Are we getting graded on this?’ or ‘Is this going to be on the test?’ That flame they had at age 6 didn’t burn out on its own, we smothered it.”4

And from an administrator at Peking University High School in Shanghai, one of the winners in worldwide standardized testing by the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development:

“Test taking is damaging to students’ creativity, critical thinking skills and, in general, China’s ability to compete in the world. It can make students very narrow-minded. In the 21st century, China needs the creative types its education system isn’t producing.”5

The time has come to ask what an alternative, more “organic” approach to education might look like.

What if our schools shifted at least some of their focus from testing relatively useless facts to include the following measures:

  • How to take initiative and exercise creativity
  • How to concentrate
  • How to cultivate a passion for lifelong learning
  • How to be responsible
  • How to live healthfully
  • How to overcome negative moods
  • How to respect different points of view
  • How to discern the difference between right and wrong
  • How to find peace and contentment within yourself
  • How to know yourself and express your highest potential

How many of these items have you found to be useful in your adult life?

Which kind of knowledge would you deem more important for your child’s success?

Certainly, turning the vast battleship of public education would take enormous effort, but in the long run it probably won’t take much more time and energy than the switch from chemical-based food production to organic farming.

The traditional school subjects — “Readin’, Writin’, ’Rithmetic” — will always be the foundation of a well-rounded education, but our approach needs to incorporate these broader, more nourishing skills.

Much work has been done; we just need to share our resources and insights, and support each other as we make the needed changes.

The fruits of this movement will give our children an enjoyable education and a better guarantee of success.

References

  1. The Hartman Group Study, “Beyond Organic and Natural,” 2/22/2010.
  2. Standardized Testing and Reporting (STAR), www.starsamplequestions.org
  3. “What if the Secret of Success Is Failure?” New York Times, 9/14/2011.
  4. montessorimadness.com
  5. “How Shanghai’s Students Stunned the World,” www.msnbc.msn.com, 11/2/2011.

20. How Raw Emotions Interfere with Learning

In his bestselling book, Emotional Intelligence, New York Times science reporter Daniel Goleman related how the pioneering Russian neuropsychologist A. R. Luria first suggested in the 1930s that the prefrontal cortex was a key brain center for self-control and restraining emotional impulses.

Luria found that patients with damage to this area “were impulsive and prone to flare-ups of fear and anger.”

A study of two dozen men and women convicted of heat-of-passion murders “found that they had a much lower than usual level of activity in these same sections of the prefrontal cortex.”[1]

In 2002, scientists at Duke University used brain scans to verify that raw emotions interfere with concentration, and that mental focus and raw emotions exist in a mutually exclusive relationship. That is, not only does emotion distort our ability to focus, but deliberately focusing attention is an effective way to calm and “neutralize” emotions. As the Duke news release put it, “Surprisingly, an increase in one type of function is accompanied by a noticeable decrease in the other.”

This is interesting news for educators, and for students preparing to take tests, since it confirms the age-old wisdom that deliberately focusing attention tends to calm the pre-test jitters, while uncontrolled emotions are dangerous because they can interfere with concentration and good decision-making. At Living Wisdom School, the students are taught simple meditation techniques that help them focus energy and attention in the prefrontal cortex while studying, preparing to take tests, and dealing with turbulent emotions.

“We’ve known for a long time that some people are more easily distracted and that emotions can play a big part in this,” said Kevin S. LaBarr, assistant professor at Duke’s Center for Cognitive Neuroscience and an author of the study described above.

“Our study shows that two streams of processing take place in the brain, with attentional tasks and emotions moving in parallel before finally coming together.” The two streams are integrated in a region of the brain called the anterior cingulate, located between the right and left halves of the brain’s frontal portion, which is involved in a wide range of thought processes and emotional responses.[2]

It’s easy to test this finding by holding our attention with relaxation in the area of the anterior cingulate, just behind the point between the eyebrows, a practice that tends to soothe troubling emotions and help us feel more calm, positive, focused, and in control of our feelings.

Researchers now suspect that calm feeling (as distinct from raw emotions) and reason work hand in hand. Contrary to a longstanding prejudice of our western culture which assumes that reason is the superior faculty, the researchers are finding that reason is deeply compromised unless it is balanced by the feelings of the heart.

Neurologist Dr. Antonio Damasio studied patients with damage to the connection between the brain’s prefrontal cortex and amygdala — the two most important centers of reason and emotion in the brain. He found that when these patients lost their ability to feel, they made terrible decisions in their business and personal lives and became incapable of making even the simplest decisions, such as when to schedule an appointment, even though their reasoning powers were intact.

“Dr. Damasio believes their decisions are so bad because they have lost access to their emotional learning…. Cut off from emotional memory in the amygdala, whatever the neocortex mulls over no longer triggers the emotional reactions that have been associated with it in the past — everything takes on a gray neutrality….

“Evidence like this leads Dr. Damasio to the counter-intuitive position that feelings are typically indispensable for rational decisions; they point us in the proper direction, where dry logic can then be of best use.[3]

Clearly, there are risks in trying to make decisions based on feeling alone. Our decisions may be subtly compromised by personal desires and raw emotions — our hearts may not be sufficiently detached to be trusted.

Our feelings are more reliable when we check them against our reason, common sense, and experience. Are our heart’s feelings truly calm and dispassionate, or are we just telling ourselves what we want to hear? Cool, clear reason can help us decide. Our sense of the right decision will more often be correct when we hold ourselves in a state of “reasonable feeling.” It may help to imagine that our awareness is centered in an axis of energy between the forehead and the heart.

In the Living Wisdom Schools, students learn to consult their calm feelings while listening to the voice of calm reason. Learning to access and use these human tools gives them an advantage when it comes to mastering the academic curriculum.

Researchers at the Institute of HeartMath have found that it’s surprisingly easy to prove that intuition exists, and that its accuracy increases when we deliberately calm and harmonize our feelings.

In a study of intuitive ability, the subjects were shown images of soothing subjects, interspersed randomly with emotionally disturbing images. Monitoring the subjects’ EEG (brain waves), ECG (electrocardiogram), and heart rate variability showed that they reacted emotionally to the images five to seven seconds before an image appeared. Confirming the folk wisdom that women are more intuitive than men, female subjects reacted with greater accuracy and sensitivity.[4]

Surely the message for students and educators is clear: expansive thoughts, actions, and feelings have been scientifically shown to boost brain efficiency and happiness.

At Google, at Harvard, in ancient Indian ashrams, and in the classrooms at Living Wisdom School, happiness and success go hand in hand.

[1]Emotional Intelligence. (New York: Bantam Books, 1995) 314.

[2] Duke University press release, August 19, 2002.

[3] Daniel Goleman, Emotional Intelligence (New York: Bantam Books, 1997) 27–28.

[4] “The Sixth Sense—More and More, Science Supports It,” Gabriella Boehmer, Institute of HeartMath; the study referenced is: “Electrophysiological Evidence of Intuition: Part 1. The Surprising Role of the Heart,” McCraty, R., Atkinson, M., Bradley, R. T., Journal of Alternative and Complementary Medicine, Feb 2004, Vol. 10, No. 1: 133–43; “Electrophysiological Evidence of Intuition: Part 2. A System-Wide Process?” McCraty, R., Atkinson, M., Bradley, R. T., Journal of Alternative and Complementary Medicine, Apr 2004, Vol. 10, No. 2: 325–36.

19. Two Kinds of Feelings

By J. Donald Walters, author of Education for Life and co‑founder of the Living Wisdom Schools

How many adults, what to speak of children, recognize the difference between emotion and feeling? Very few. And how many children, consequently, are taught that calm, sensitive feeling is an invaluable tool for the complete understanding of most subjects? Or that turbulent feelings — that is to say, the emotions — and not feeling per se prevent clear, objective understanding? Again, very few.

Few children, again, are taught the extent to which reason is guided by calm feeling, but distorted by the emotions. And few are taught that by developing calm feeling they will improve their understanding of objective reality on every level.

Feeling, when it is calm and refined, is essential both to truly objective and to mature insight. There are ways of clarifying feeling, just as there are principles of logic (already taught in the schools) for learning to reason correctly. Feeling can be clarified, for instance, by learning how to distance feeling from one’s personal likes and dislikes, withdrawing one’s awareness to a calm center in the heart. Feeling can be clarified by directing the heart’s energies upward to the brain, and thence to a point between the eyebrows that was anciently identified as the seat of concentration in the body. Clarity of feeling can be assisted by calming the flow of energy in the spine, by means of certain breathing exercises. These exercises are a priceless contribution of the science of yoga to the general knowledge of the human race. It would be a grave error to ignore them on the grounds of one’s unfamiliarity with them.

Only by calm inner feeling can a person know definitely the right course to take in any action. Those who direct their lives from this deeper level of feeling achieve levels of success that are never reached by people who limit their quest for answers to the exercise of reason. Reason, indeed, if unsupported by feeling, may point in hundreds of plausible directions without offering certainty as to the rightness of any of them.

Children need to learn how to react appropriately. This they can never do if their reaction springs out of their subjective emotions. Considerable training is needed to learn how to harness feeling and make it a useful ally. What children are taught, instead, as they grow older, is that feelings are inevitably obstacles to correct insight. The scientific method is offered as a model. “If you want to see things objectively,” they are told, “you must view everything in terms of cold logic.” I remember a professor when I was in college who boasted, jokingly, that X-rays had shown his heart to be smaller than normal. This, to him, was a sign of intellectual objectivity, which he prized.

Ignored is the fact that, usually, the greater the scientist, the more deeply he feels his subject. Or that, as Einstein put it, the essence of true scientific discovery is a sense of mystical awe.

Feeling can never in any case be suppressed. Shove it out of sight at one point — where you can at least see it and try to deal with it — and it will only pop up at another, often a place where you least expect it. Many times, when long-suppressed feelings have at last burst upon people’s consciousness, those feelings have assumed terrible and unrecognizable shapes. Sometimes they have actually incited to riot.

Right feeling is an important tool for achieving maturity. It must be cultivated, and not merely ignored, suppressed, or treated as something about which nothing “reasonable” can be done.