CHAPTER
I
"imagination is more important than
knowledge" einstein
a personal journal
This quotation came to mind as I sat in
my first class of the first course in my venture back to Academia. A major
activity in the course is to involve a daily, on-going journal of personal
knowledge linked to course content and professional experience. All of
this, however, is to be done in such a way as to reflect my own character
- to find my own voice - and to take the venture as far as my imagination
and creative abilities can stretch. The daily ramblings are to be fodder
for a final paper - format of my own choosing. The style and spirit of
the resulting paper owe much to the thinking tool PO proposed by Edward
De Bono. This is totally unlike any assignment I have ever attempted under
the "education umbrella - you hold the culmination of this effort in your
hands.
first steps
Little China-Li often begs to go for a walk
through the cow pasture down to the ravine so we can play on the big round
bales. The innocent excitement of a four-year-old is a remarkable dose
of therapy anytime, so I never fail to put down my work for a while and
off we go exploring with our Pyrennese/Newfoundland pup Mya. If only I
had the wonder, grasp and retention for new things that this little marvel
has. A pre-requisite for every teacher should be to bear and spend time
with his own child - it gives an emotional outlook and tolerance far surpassing
that from any other experience in life. The ultimate PO generator. There
is no experience quite like such a walk in a fantastic, cool, sunny day
with an energizing west wind. Fall is so bitter-sweet - so much like going
into middle age.
PO and children
"it is a wise father that knows his own
child" Shakespeare... For a while, a long time ago, we wrote down the words
from the mouths of our babes. We stopped. I don't know why. We must have
been too busy. I think we may even have lost the book. I hope not. It would
be a tragedy if we have. I have written nothing better or of more import
in my life. Funny how the really important things in life distill down
to that which is most simple...and so fleeting...
Our China-Li is four...Robin is nine...and
Ja-On is 12. Coincidentally each falls within one of the three intellectual
ages of man as described by De Bono. He would be reassured to learn, I
am sure, that China is our 'why-girl'. It seems that every phrase, every
look is permeated with "Why Dad?" But it is a two-way street, as I feel
I have as much to learn from her. I long to crawl into her magical world
where everything is filled with wonder...to relive a past I have long forgotten...to
break down the most profound into little phrases...to have heroes to look
up to...to have someone wipe my nose - or dab a tear. Robin creates. He
puns and funs. Our house is filled with drum rolls, piano arpeggios, fridge
drawings, inventions, books, rocks, junk, tears of frustration, 'why not's...
and laughter. Ja-On has been through seven years of school larnin', peer
pressure, and goodnight hugs. He is also the eldest. He is grown up. Ja
protects and explains things to the little guys. But really, the little
guys are protecting him...they are holding him back from the jaded years
of adolescence... I'm glad. God I love them
music of the spheres
A love of and association with music can
be vital part of one's whole being and it has a direct bearing on how a
person thinks, acts, talks, teaches and writes. Despite the fact that I
have tried to keep the two careers separate (it saves hassles from school
boards, administrators and even some parents) I have sometimes shared my
song writing with students - but, my innate shyness usually takes over
and I seldom go too far with the venture. Writing is such a personal thing
- far easier to play-act the interpretation of a song on a stage, looking
into blinding lights and role-playing to an anonymous sea of faces.
the morning stars
sing together
Creative scholarly writing and PO application
have much in common with writing a song - an activity with which I am perhaps
more familiar. Good songs usually have a hook - title - turn of phrase
- pun - metaphor - analogy - riff - and even the jargon of the genre. Every
word must count but within the confines of rhythm, rhyme and convention.
Indeed, many progressive writing teachers often assign precis assignments
emphasizing these elements to be done on 3x5 cards - the similarities to
songwriting, and the value of both activities in the ultimate writing of
'more serious' papers becomes more and more obvious.
the colour PO
What colour is Po?... White - Black - Gray
- Purple - Sunburst Gold...?... PO is Insolation White - the light which
comes from the source of life - Sol...our star...our sun. Light which is
made up of all colours of the spectrum - rainbow burst - all melded to
form white...... .......but imagination is the prism......
juxtaposition in
art
I have had to shift gears many times recently
to accommodate the many demands of writing styles required in my Master's
courses. One of my favourite tasks has been the creation of creative analogies.
A silly comparison kept coming back to me until I decided, for want of
a better idea, to try to do something with it. Eventually it developed
into a rather interesting exercise: a personal comparison to a guitar string.
I ended up tossing out most of the original comparisons for brevity - hoping
that what I kept wouldn't come across as being too sophomoric. It is always
hard pushing the fledglings from the nest into the real, critical world
but the class seemed to like it.
a personal analogy
In recent months I have found myself approaching
a state of juxtaposition with the ubiquitous guitar string. With mounting
work and study pressures, I find myself being stretched to a tautness akin
to that experienced by a Gibson Special being tightened to playing pitch.
Too many turns and it breaks, but, if not enough pressure is applied, the
string stays too loose and is unplayable, sluggish and discordant. Tuned
to the proper pitch, the string is sympathetic to waves from the ether
and is capable of producing a product which appeals to the player, the
listener... and the instrument Maker.
nothing in the
way
Very often we encounter a different kind
of block in life or in our creativity - a block that occurs because there
is nothing in the way. Because a wide path is available, we are 'blocked'
from taking any other path. The main stream is so well-established that
it is extremely difficult to find an alternative way even if one is already
available.
a metaphoric theory
of the river PO
The creative growth of a person may be likened
to the evolution of a river which passes through stages of youth, maturity
and old age. We all start as little wandering streams but we soon enter
into the straight-ahead, down-cutting regime of a rushing river. Some never
abandon this stage - ever onward - down, down - yes/no - no-Po. One who
shows Po development soon commences to meander laterally and enters braided
channels - abandoning non-productive loops like oxbow lakes. Some people
are completely cut off from the mainstream, to ever wander as parallel
yazoo rivulets on the swampy floodplains of life.
blocked by ideas
we have
This is no more evident than in the field
of education. Old traditional ideas of what is good schooling keep getting
in the way - set hours - set grades - straight rows - stern disciplinarians...
Teachers tend to teach the way they have been taught and the system perpetuates
itself. Universities and teachers' colleges complain about the quality
of students entering their doors so they promptly set about to rectify
the situation by lecturing, assigning essays and term papers, and insisting
on students to fit into their little jelly molds. These paragons of higher
learning are soon emulated and graduates leave the iv(or)y covered towers
so as to recruit another crop for the old alma mater.
intelligence and
education
"Education thrives on tests and measurement."
We have a fixed idea of something called "intelligence."
We too often neglect other concepts such as learning ability, effectiveness,
drive and motivation, thinking ability and creativity - or the whole human
being. The long list of famous people who frustrated teachers and did very
poorly in school includes: Churchill, Einstein, Edison, Darwin, Ford, Newton,
Puccini, and Wellington - a rather illustrious group. a common fallacy
about intelligence and education
"Spaling iz ah mayjer in dick ator uv
1's intellajintz, liter assy und scil." Charlie Farquharson?
Highly intelligent people may be very poor spellers.
Uniformity in spelling is quite a recent development in English, springing
from the rapid increase in printed material since Shakespeare's day. During
the time of Elizabeth I, nobody worried much about "correct spelling."
One wonders how intelligence and literacy were judged back in the days
when England's greatest literary genius was spelling his name Shakespere
on one page of his will and Shakespeare on the next. It was not until the
middle of the eighteenth century that English spelling achieved something
approaching uniformity. Bernard Shaw once pointed out that ghoti can quite
logically spell "fish": gh as in enough - o as in women - ti as in nation.
Today's "logical" or "phonetic" spelling, fixed in form by the printing
press, has become convention whether it "makes sense" or not. In any case,
viewed from the long perspective of the history of our language, spelling
- or more precisely, making a fetish of it - is quite a Johnny-come-lately.
somewhere in time
The PO mind can not afford the luxury of
stalling and hibernating at any point along the time continuum - past present
future. Yes, it is sometimes more comfortable to bask in the protection
of some time warp...many of us put our minds on a shelf somewhere along
the way or live only for today...'wee beasties'... "Still, thou art blest,
compar'd wi' me! The present only toucheth thee: But, och! I backward cast
my e'e On prospects drear! An' forward, tho' I canna see, I guess an' fear!"
If Robert Burns had never experienced the adrenalin rush of the past and
future, the world (and we Scots) would have been a whole lot poorer.
timeshifts
A companion which helps me in timeshifts
is music. I suspect that most people have a favourite piece of background
music which can transport them to certain moods - the sure-fire mixing
ladle for my 'PO pot' is the soundtrack music from the romantic Jane Seymour/Christopher
Reeve film on time travel Somewhere In Time. For some reason, this mix
of an original score with Rachmaninoff's Rhapsody On A Theme Of Paganini
is the catalyst which works for me. Another favourite is Mark Knopfler's
(Dire Straits) soundtrack from the warm, wonderful movie Local Hero. (I
guess it helps too, that all the keyboards and many of the arrangements
were done by regular Dire Straits member Alan Clark who worked with us
on an album we recorded in Durham, England.) Adding to this music-driven
time shift, I believe, is an obsessively eclectic fondness for all musical
styles across all of the decades of this century - dream machines.
perception and
first stage
A popular part of my English courses centers
around improvisational drama. Warm-ups for this involve a zen period of
meditation followed with karate style stretches and loosening exercises
- all done to traditional Chinese music (some of the saddest music in the
Universe) or Ravi Shankar classical Indian ragas. All of this is to free
the mind and body to enter the world of imagination. Improvisational and
scripted mimes lead to improv activities a la the Second City Comedy Troupe
(SCTV). To make this work, the thespian has to forget the idea that there
is only one way of looking at things - a valuable tool a necessary first
step in coping with the ever-more complex modern world. Personally, I have
tried to avoid the obvious path in almost every aspect of my life - and
surprisingly this has usually worked and the result has been a PO pourri
of experiences which have melded in sometimes remarkable ways.
education...difference
Our karate Sensei, Bruce Dunning (Black
Belt) of Virden, has never taken a teaching course but he conducts karate
classes with enthusiasm, skill and dedication that would be the envy of
most school teachers. The discipline - mental, spiritual and physical -
is excellent for kids and adults. Karate is the only sport I can think
of in which whole families can participate together - it has certainly
been a unifying force in our family. Even this martial arts activity seems
to have a strong connection with my educational sphere - all of the Wado
Kai Karate clubs of SW Manitoba and Saskatchewan use school gymnasiums
with full sanction of all the various school boards.
push...pull
Little did I know when I became involved
in karate that many of the principles of this martial art would cross-over
into the other arts. The first realization came when it dawned on me that
many of the moves were very familiar...Elvis was a black belt karateka
and many of his stage moves which dazzled us in Vegas back in the '70s
were a direct outgrowth of his karate training. An even more vital link
was pointed out by Dr. Robin Enns who showed us that one great creative
ploy involves the concept of 'push-pull'. In addition to being the basis
of our style of karate - Wado Kai - this 'philosophy' which involves deflecting
and going with an opponent's power so as to unexpectedly turn it back on
him, can also be used to great effect in everyday life and in the creative
arts. I have seen this maneuver used very effectively in debates, show
business, interviews and teaching - especially in dealing with difficult
students - to shock and throw people off balance. As a variation of this
in my writing or in my career, I often go with the flow or spin to pick
up momentum enough to tangent out of orbit in an unexpected direction and
with unpredictable force.
creativity...judgement
and change
"The PO system explores and creates new
patterns...With it you move away from old ideas to try and find new ones."
It is always a pleasure to talk over old times with Barry Forman, a close
friend, and former band-mate, college classmate and teaching colleague.
He recently delivered a bit of a bombshell - his son Kent, who has been
teaching violin at BU and playing in the Winnipeg Symphony, has put his
music career on hold to go back to University to study law. He has played
since age four and I guess he decided there must be something more to life.
Ponce de Leon Rest
Home Hardware Stores
A tantalizing magic elixir for aches and
pains and squeaky door hinges is cascading through the portals of your
local PdL hardware store. WD-40 - an all-purpose lubricant - is experiencing
phenomenal success lately as sufferers of arthritis and a multitude of
muscle maladies are limping to their favourite ironmonger for relief. Users
of the product swear by its penetrating and pain-soothing properties when
it is used as a liniment. Surely, more relief must be just around the corner
as sufferers discover our cholesterol-reducing STP, Turtle hair wax and
jumper cables for faulty pace-makers.
cures, not complaints
There are so many more activities and programs
for students now compared to when I went to school - there just are not
enough hours in the day for the active teenager. The country seems like
a good place to raise a kid - I believe there are much fewer temptations
and bad influences in a rural lifestyle. It's a pity that there are such
increasing pressures on the "small school" and the teachers who choose
to work there. There is so much which can, and needs to be done to save
our little towns but so few people are prepared to change the "old think"
and do something about the future.
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