Monday 8 August 2011

A shift in education

FM Alexander, the name-giver to the Alexander Technique, held high hopes for the future of mankind. He considered his technique a 'method for psycho-physical re-education' and as a tool for the evolution of mankind. Concerned by the World Wars of the last century, he conceived that humanity get on a less violent path if psycho-physical re-education became part of regular education.

Today, more than half a century after his death, the vision to integrate AT in normal schools continues to exist. Other alternative education approaches that emerged at a similar time, like Rudolf Steiner's approach, are nowadays much more wide-spread, only one school, the Educare Small School, integrates FM Alexander's ideas into a different way to educate children.

Schools are meant to provide pupils with the skills needed to become a productive member of society, and by and large do so. The skills required in the 21st century, in the Information Age, differ a lot from those for the Industrial Age. The job I earned my first money with didn't exist when I started school, and the specific job title might no longer be in use already. Traditional crafts and industrial production underwent some changes, yet these areas seem static in comparison to those of the Information economy.

I can't tell when the first 'web designer' position was filled, but certainly the school system from which this first web designer emerged didn't take his/her needs into consideration. Besides, of course, transferring basic numeracy and literacy skills. In Germany, it takes 13 years to qualify for university study. When I started in uni, I noticed the change in learning style. We were supposed to have learned 'how to learn' already, and were simply given massive amounts of new information, basically to be regurgitated at a higher and faster level than in school. Learning how to learn, however, was never really taught in the schools i went to.

Instead of finishing uni, I decided to do an apprenticeship in the just emerging IT area. The goals for the exams along the way were much clearer, and related much more to the job I took up afterwards. By that time, I had spend already a whopping 18 years in various education systems, yet finally had some formal license to earn money with a 'real' occupation, instead of just make little money out of casual jobs.

Most of the things I needed to know at various exam times were gone, and seem in retrospect like an utter waste of time. I still appreciate the decent level of literacy and numeracy I came out with, and learning a second language, yet especially the 'science' part was probably outdated when it was taught, most of it certainly is now.

That comes only as a little surprise to me now. Most teachers specialise in a couple of topics for a specific age group. Once they have their 'license to teach', there is little need to update their own topical knowledge, after all, they have to follow a given curriculum. If a teacher deviates from the curriculum, it disturbs the scheduled learning process, overall, there's little room for creativity. I do remember some incidences during my school time when I was punished for thinking for myself, luckily, I had some other teachers fostering individual reasoning.

Asking the wrong questions was considering as going against the flow. In a way, that holds entirely true - pupils need to follow through an artificial curriculum that require the repetition of more or less arbitrary data set. The basic skills of reading, writing and calculating are still taught, yet more and more children manage to leave school without mastery of these basic cultural skills.

So what should an education system result in? Can we identify specific goals to reach in public education?

Humans are excellent problem solver, and the accumulated solutions available provide the future of society. We manipulate symbol systems (words, numbers) to solve problems, considering experiences derived from others or our own experiments. This is an inherently cooperative process, and the quality of social interaction thus influences the fruit of any cooperation.

Any education system needs the development of
  1. basic cultural skills like reading, writing and calculating
  2. basic social skills like cooperation to solve problems
  3. the ability to obtain topical knowledge by proxy
  4. the ability to obtain topical knowledge by experiment
  5. the ability to apply topical knowledge to train problem solving skills 
  6. self-awareness to incorporate problem solving skills in a healthy way
The last item might come as a surprise, and all of these items are subject to discussion. I just consider it difficult to agree on any kind of educational reform until simple goals are defined. This list shifts the focus more towards the development of skills than to 'knowledge transfer', which seems the current focus. The inclusion of self-awareness reflect the call to have a 'responsible' young adult coming out the mills of the education system, and Alexander Technique can help to integrate this area.

Although we are primarily social beings, the education system still prefers 'each for themself' approach. Even worse, with skilled manual labour more and more diminishing in 'economic' importance, schools train the 'mind', with a bit of Physical Education patched on top, to cater for the need and want of movement, especially in young people. 'Sit still' might be less important in the school life of 2011 than it was just 30 years ago, yet the 'body' gets ignored while the 'mind' is trained. 

Yet a nervous system wired for social interaction, equipped with mirror neurons to mimic movement patterns, doesn't stop to learn how to adapt. The body language of a teacher transmits often more 'knowledge' than his/her words, most of the time entirely subconscious, and definitely ignored in any curriculum I know of.  Being a school teacher is just a job like any other, with very passionate people, and as well with very frustrated people following a given structure that exhibits some obvious flaws.

We developed standards to 'measure' the quality of education, obsessed with scores fitting nicely into bell curves. 'Mental' abilities set the standard, body awareness and social skills develop as well, but mainly ignored as part of the curriculum. The 'one size fits all' approach breeds mediocrity, and provides little to those how fail the average, which seems to steadily drop in overall quality. 

Someone who spends lots of their own attention in places outside the presence will have a hard time giving attention to a bunch of school children. The little bit left for the classroom situation suffices for those in favour, and a strict curriculum prevent creating a learning environment driven by interest. 

Before learning is channeled among ideals of society, it's mere fun. The first words, the first steps of a human being bring immediate and massive pleasure for all involved, and the amount of skills we develop before any formal education can be staggering. In a global society, the problem that need solving require a lot of creativity, which is all to often quenched in the process of socialisation in school.

The fixed sets of subjects taught in school only reflects the needs of the past industrial society, but fails to create an understanding of the interconnected reality of the contemporary global society. It will require individual flexibility on the teaching side to foster an interest-driven education. As a result, someone able to take responsibility for themselves together with an others, capable of solving problems that make life easier and more enjoyable for most of us will leave the education system.

At the moment, cultural knowledge seems much more important than applicable knowledge, and I think we need both to achieve to provide children with a basis to live, work and prosper in the modern age. Dissolving a fixed curriculum would require teachers to facilitate learning, instead of imposing it. Alexander Technique provides the tool to make this happen, to give educators the ability and flexibility to teach children skills for life in alignment with their talents and weaknesses. If we learn how we do the things we do, we can learn what we want to do.

Sunday 20 March 2011

Ends and means

FM Alexander brought a method into this world to teach people how to move more easy through life. The best of way of learning this more efficient way of moving happens in one-on-one lesson with an experienced teacher. Alexander himself demanded from his own students to read his books first before he used his hands to demonstrate what he wrote about. When we apply the Alexander Technique, we change how we think about movement, and bring sub-conscious habit into our awareness.

What we think about human beings and ourselves influences our movements through life immensely. Alexander promoted a holistic view of human existence, and used the term 'psycho-physical unity' in his books for this concept. When we imagine ourselves as split into body and mind, we lose the ability to rely on our perceptions to a certain degree. The mind develops an image of our body that does no longer reflect its actual structure, movements become complicated and inefficient.

Alexander identified one important 'cause' of what modern psychology calls 'body-mind disassociation', and termed this principle 'end-gaining'.
When the end is held in mind, instinct or long habit will always seek to attain the end by habitual methods. The action is performed below the level of consciousness in its various stages, and only rises to the level of consciousness when the end is being attained by the correct “means whereby".
The attentional focus shifts to an desired outcome, while the neural loop between motor control and sensory feedback happens automatically. The ability to automatically execute coordinated movement (motor learning) serves a useful purpose, dexterity certainly contributed to the evolutionary success of mankind. Whenever we consciously engage in learning motor skills, we switch this 'auto-pilot' temporarily off, which allows our movement to become more refined in what we want to learn.

Our auto-pilot allows for multi-tasking, so we can walk and talk simultaneously. We can 'layer'  complex motor skills, and easily forget how much time it took to learn any skill initially. The human auto pilot system can only be switched off to limited degrees, the Alexander Technique focuses mainly on the functions relating to the control of our musculo-skeletal system by intention.

The 'means-whereby' Alexander subscribes simply mean to move according our evolutionary design, by minimising our deliberate, yet sometimes subconscious, interferences with our anti-gravity responses. How can you achieve this? By directing your attention to how you do what you do, instead of focussing on 'getting things done', especially in learning situations.

Most of us spend the first years of their life like this, before we started imitating less efficient learning attitudes around us. The focus on the 'mind' in our culture quite systematically neglects the holistic aspect of any human activity, we lose touch with our human nature.

To a certain degree you can claim that Alexander Technique belongs to the cornucopia of 'back to nature' movements, yet not with a revisionist but an evolutionary approach. Instead of bemoaning the good old times, attempting to a recreate hunter-gatherer society or any other variation of the 'back-to-the-cave' idealism, AT teaches to deal with our ever faster changing environment in modern times.

Back to nature according to the AT merely means using our structure in 'natural' ways, refining our instinctual reactions consciously so that our habits serve us, and not harm us. Mankind survived under many different circumstances, often in communities with limited specialist medical knowledge and scientific interest. We tamed (or extinguished) the wild animals around us, reduced the need to toil for a living by technology, and forgot for a while that we're only part of nature, neither master nor slave of it.

'Security in numbers' provides a successful evolutionary strategy, and human history provides a lot of examples how this principle helped as well as hindered the evolutionary progress of mankind. In affairs of society the 'ends' still have more importance than the 'means'. The current 'war on nature' in its emanations as 'war on drugs', 'war on terror', 'war on anti-social behaviour', etc. reflects the obsession of society as a whole with the illusion of mankind and nature as opposites.

Similarly, end and means always go together. The primary focus determines whether an activity is done in an 'end-gaining' fashion or under consideration of the proper 'means-whereby'. When I get up from a chair in an Alexander session, my intention might be: Impressing the teacher, getting over and done with it, figuring out why I can learn something with such a simple procedure, planning my dinner, wondering if I switched all lights out, having a better look on a distant object, or even using my anti-gravity reflexes for most efficient movement.

If we attempt do something consciously, we still pursue a goal. Only the importance of this goal changes. By removing the fixed focus of attention on the end we stand a better chance to move in a more balanced way. If we stop caring for some moments about getting out of a chair, we become able to observe the quality of the movement involved, and gradually improve this quality towards ease and efficiency.

Thursday 27 January 2011

A walk in the park

Australia celebrated today 'Australia day', or how some call it 'Invasion Day'. It's a big family event, with activities and parades sprinkled around Melbourne's center, parades, music, stalls and all. AUSTAT provides the funding for an Alexander Technique stall, so I volunteered with some others to give the public a taste of our work.

For first time this year, I used my hands again, and with complete strangers! Well, with less panic it was rather an opportunity to have heaps of 'first lessons' in a row, meeting the challenge to get the permission to touch someone I just met.

I didn't have much time to foster any negative self-talk, only little time past without anyone coming to our stall. So instead, I gave the most simple explanation of the importance of coordinating movement with a 'free neck' I could come up with, trying to tap into the interests and circumstances the potential students were in. When I got the impression that the 'sales talk' worked, I offered hands-on experience to demonstrate what ever tiny idea I started with.

Of course, there's often the hidden doubt whether the hands will work, as some people can be really hard to move. Although sometimes I noticed changes under my fingers, it doesn't mean necessarily that the student does as well, especially when the changes are quite subtle. So I can't really tell whether I encouraged many of my clients to take more lessons, but most left with contact information for the school, and I passed on my details to some as well.

From a mere business point of view I wonder whether this day in the park deserves the name success - like with any promotional activity there's a delayed response between action and result. But that's just biz thinking. If I ask myself whether it worth spending a day talking to and working with strangers I can only say: yes, yes and yes.

While I was working with charming, yet quite stiff 70 year old, someone observed me in my failing attempts to get him easily into standing. Now it reminds me of the interview I heard on Robert Rickover's podcast, where I think Sandra Bain-Cushion mentions that you sometimes need to unlock the legs to get the primary control working. This very fit fellow had only little movement around his hips, and I didn't manage to connect his head to the sitbones.

However, Jen, who graduated a year before me, encouraged me in doing what didn't seem to work, and after I attempted to explain what happened, the 'silent observer' jumped in. Although Eric had no clue about AT before, he described the blockage of energy he witnessed in terms worthy of an Alexander teacher. He introduced himself as a healer, mainly for emotional energy. We chatted for a while, yet we didn't work together. I get more and more convinced that a healing modality can usefully add to the portfolio of an Alexander teacher.

I got a bit edgy around 4:30pm, half an hour after the official closing time. Yet I felt rather wired than tired, giving half a day of my attention to anyone curious about it. I know I need to 'make money' sooner than later again, yet I learned I need to work to be happy as well, no matter whether money changes hands or not.

I programmed my ego once for modesty, so I might underestimate the ideas my hands left today. So I comment this rather from personal level, not worrying for a moment what I did for others, yet account for my own use.

About two month ago, I broke a metatarsal. About a month ago, after the healing process allowed me using both feet again, I strained my ankle as the lower leg muscles weakened a lot. I started unicycling some few days ago, but there's still pain and swelling around my heel. Today, I could still tell the story that happened to me and my foot, but even during squat demonstrations I didn't feel restricted any more.

No miracles here, enough rest laid the ground work, and getting active helped making my ankle heal. However, staying up most of the day made me forget about the variety of movement strategies that emerged with this handicap. First and foremost I enjoyed being what a want I be, a teacher. We wouldn't survive without curiosity, and anyone stopping at our stall brought some curiosity with them. To direct this instinct towards forward and up poses a challenge, which I happily faced today.

So I'd like to thank all those stepping out of their routine for a moment to inquire about the Alexander Technique. You reminded me to stay connected, and added a bit more meaning to my life. In a way, I got a taste of the right thing happening once I stop doing the wrong things, and I feel grateful for this experience.

Thursday 20 January 2011

A big picture

FM Alexander talked a lot about the 'self', using a term so familiar and vague that it can be difficult at times to follow his written words. In this diagram, I followed his openness for interpretation, offering three basic, interconnected realms that constitute together human existence. Whereas scientists may scruff about the use of the word 'soul', I use it refer to the emotional and spiritual aspects of life.

This diagram also shows the self in the centre as well as in the periphery, assuming that humans present always their self. The brain represents the intersection between body and mind, the heart the intersection of body and soul, and the guts connect soul and mind. Whole-hearted activity, conducted with the body, will arouse emotional gratification. Unprocessed emotions often affect our digestive system, indicating that the whole self needs better nourishment.

Individual awareness can be anywhere in this diagram, or everywhere simultaneously. Specialisation seems popular nowadays, it's easy to spot 'physical', 'mental' or 'spiritual' preferences among many people. At least in the Western world, it's the era of the mind.  Yet, by contemplating this little diagram not only your mind gets engaged- you need your body to receive this information, and your soul might resonate with it.

Other selfs intersect with a single one, allowing for connections between the body, mind and soul aspects in varying degrees. The connection is always between selfs, yet might incorporate only or mainly physical, mental or emotional aspects of life.

When I teach someone about the 'use of the self', this diagram serves as my experimental hypothesis. It covers all aspects of human experience, yet is simple enough to create a little bit more unity.