Alfonso Montuori, one of my professors at CIIS, has identified three styles, or modes, of learning, which he calls the narcissistic, the reproductive, and the creative. From his article, The Quest for a New Education, From Oppositional Identities to Creative Inquiry, narcissistic learning is "an approach to education that sees the source of knowledge as...

Earth --> Day-waking (i.e. 'normal' adult) consciousness  Water --> Imaginative consciousness  Air ----> Inspirational consciousness  Fire ---> Intuitive consciousness   Earth --> Thinking 'about' - object-oriented  Water --> Thinking 'with' - process oriented  Air ----> Thinking 'between' - polarity-oriented, (Brad exemplifies this very well)  Fire ----> Thinking 'as' - whole-oriented   Further, considering that all thinking...

There is often confusion about the differences between Waldorf and Montessori methods of education.  Having been a Waldorf teacher for six years certainly puts me in a biased position, but potentially one that can also offer some perspective on the matter. The Waldorf pedagogy recognizes that how one approaches the child is keyed closely to...

what spirit speaks the heart re-echoes its lofty chambers with choric ringing  twist and fold in timely rhythm the fountain's deep moods springing   unshadowed now, revealed and waking all forge and fire, veils rent aside the swallowed sun, see! - beaming again 'cross the rivers, stride in stride the call's heard round from distant shores the ferryman's change cast far away for the...

If I told you this took me 8 years to complete would you believe me? (Click for larger version)

After working on this thesis for, well, let's face it, WAY too long, I am finally DONE.   It's actually kind of hard to believe, and I'm pretty sure that my wife was thinking that this day wouldn't actually arrive.  I should have made a bet. Basically what this means is that in the next... um,...