Storytellers developing side by side in Languages One and Two.

Owen and Alan started their preschool years at Caillou Home Holistic Kindergarten in Jinan, China with only 3 months or so of difference. The former is a pale white blond that despite being Costarican by birth, like his father, can't get rid of the overwhelming gringoness that seems to be think in our gene pools unwilling to give way to confusion. Alan on the other hand is a beautifully golden brown, dark-haired, round-faced Chinese boy. Owen grew up in Costa Rica with English as his first language and Alan in Jinan speaking Chinese.  

Below you will hear footage recorded this past week that serves as a point of comparison and analysis for the language development process the kids of our pre-school program are going through regardless of it being their first or second language. Both boys are being challenge to enrich their language skills above and beyond their peers that miss out on the richness that stems from Curricula soaked in story.

But please, hear for yourself and share your thoughts in the comments below

OWEN

ALAN

Henry Can Fly!

Henry is a star. I am convinced of this. If we really do things right he could be the next in line to beat Javier Sotomayor's high-jump record of 2.45meters set in 1993.

Henry getting an early start
on his Parkour career.

But before we get too carried away by these dreams of penta-Olympic-rings-of-glory, let me take you back to an iconic story I stumbled upon when first stepping out and into alternative approaches to education. In his renown talk, Schools Kill Creativity, Sir Ken Robinson, tells the compelling story of Gillian Lynne former Broadway Ballerina and and in her later years Dame Commander of the Order of the British Empire. In brief the story goes like this:

"Lynne's gift for dancing was discovered by a doctor. She had been underperforming at school, so her mother took her to the doctor and explained about her fidgeting and lack of focus. After hearing everything her mother said, the doctor told Lynne that he needed to talk to her mother privately for a moment. He turned on the radio and walked out. He then encouraged her mother to look at Lynne, who was dancing to the radio. The doctor noted that she was a dancer, and encouraged Lynne's mother to take her to dance school" (from Wikipedia. For the full talk visit: HERE)

I think of this every day that I see Henry. You see, I believe that Henry can fly. 

One year ago, when Henry first joined our kindergarten family, it became quite clear that Henry had a fascination and furthermore a skill for jumping. Rather than coerce him into walking around like the rest of us, our class routines and dynamics began to change, drastically, in order to accommodate a more Tigger-approach to life; rather than meditative yoga stretches to start off our morning we did dance steps that stressed a big jump on the four; rather than three-legged races we focused on leap frogging; the tug-o-war rope became a giant jump rope and every staircase our Mulberry-Street-see-what-you-can-see walks became a stage for Henry to perform for us upon. Indeed, Henry can fly to the stars.

Thinking back to the success story of Gillian Lynne however, I believe it is key to empathize with the many difficulties her parents may have faced when taking on the alternative advice on pushing for Ballet school rather than a prescription drug. What does it look like to full-heartedly accept such seemingly radical advice? What does it feel like to holistically commit to a decision like: my daughter is a dancer!!?? It all sounds fine and dandy upon reaching Broadway status, but what about the haunting voices of doubt that were bound to have paid them a visit or two all along her long tread journey to stardom: "A dancer? You can't make a living off of dancing? You must focus on what's important!"

Henry's parents, I believe, are blessed with a similar challenge. You see, I believe that Henry is a jumper. And it is our duty as school and parents to foster who he is and avoid at all costs melting Henry into becoming like the rest of us. We need to be outside jumping with him, not inside doing everything we can to contain his love for jumping into the amalgamated version of the status-quo for a "normal" 4 year old. 

Author, Mythologist and Storyteller, Michael Meade speaks out against this mistaken concept of education and lures us gently towards a more ancient idea of what education and culture should offer each of us, Henry included:

"[In the past] the purpose of education was to unveil and make more clear the GENIUS in each of us. This was one of the essential roles of culture: to bring out the genius in each person".

He goes on to remind us that: "every child born brings genius into the world and the culture's role is to help the child find it, so that they don't wind up in despair hurting themselves or hurting others."

It is within the dimensions of this ancient wisdom that I am doing my best to take everything I have learned and make it work for Henry and each of the children I have the blessing to work with. But the challenge parents face in REALLY accepting the genius and uniqueness of our children is no small matter. 

I believe Henry can fly. Do you?

Oral Tradition - The forgotten corner stone of modern literacy programs

Once upon a time all flickering from every fire was muffled out by the steady whispering of a good fairy tale or myth. Our ancestors honored the multi-layered wisdom that sprung, like Jack over the candlestick, through Jade Rabbit's ears and into the heart of each orphaned Listener circling the teller in that special nook by the fireplace. But the fires to gather around are now few and far between. The villages are skimpy and scattered. The tales are in ashes. The tellers are an endangered specie. 

Children around the world are learning to read stories they never heard told.

In a small corner of the Shandong Province of Jinan, however, this is not the case. Our Majesty Story, sits on the throne she once ruled from. She is revered, as Athena herself. One of the many reasons for this is that: 1) a strong intake of oral stories during the pre-reading stages facilitates the process of becoming a reader often trialed in the later stages for those without it.

Little Theo takes his stand behind
the story drum, dressed in the story shawl. 

Not only does listening to stories facilitate the acquisition of readings skills, but it also is an ancient system of instilling a sense of virtue. Lets take HEROISM as an example. Most children in the world will have a basic understanding of what the word means. Nonetheless, a child that grew up with Story will have multiple and vivid examples of heroism to draw from throughout life as they face the many difficulties that undoubtedly await us all in the darker forests and nights of our journeys.

On average, our kids listen to 5 stories each week. Over the span of 8 months they have already heard more than 50 stories from around the world and some of these have been retold more than 50 times each!! This intention and conviction fosters an intrinsic relationship with story itself. Rather than it being a meager/sparse moment of pseudo-entertainment to be depleted that adds to the ever narrowing of the dream years, Story takes on the comforting identity of a friend who will be there in good times and in bad throughout their Hero Journeys that are just beginning.

As a storyteller myself, I cannot be responsible for being a part of a world where many live an entire life without ever hearing a story. So come and join us every Tuesday at 12.30pm our doors are open in the Lingxiu neighborhood in South Jinan.

 

Holistic Program Unit 2 – The Chinese Zodiac

We have started an exciting new Unit within Spotlight’s first Holistic Program: The Chinese Zodiac. What a joy and honor it is for me to run alongside these 9 wild beasts in the beginning of this Great Race into Chinese Cultural Recovery. 

I was overjoyed to kick off Unit 2 with a conversation about The Great Race. To my surprise, the kids were telling me, with considerable amounts of detail, their knowledge of this fantastic Chinese Tale. (a friendly reminder for my readers that this was probably the first time they had ever discussed it in English which is a fascinating demonstration of the integration and delivery capabilities we have and should employ during the process of language acquisition). My experience in the west with Holistic Programs of Cultural Recovery tells me that fortunately there are slivers of culture that are still being preserved and passed down to our kids in traditional education. The tragedy however is that their roots are shallow and due to the linear nature of modern educational models. the lack of revisiting them fosters forgetfulness. Over the next 12 weeks we will be adding richness, beauty and depth to their logical, linguistic, artistic, naturalistic, kinesthetic, existential, musical, intra and inter-personal experience and relationship with their own Zodiac Calendar.

Oral tradition is a key component to the Holistic Model of Learning Originateve is committed to. Today I would like to address the mnemonic wonder that Stories offer when it comes to language acquisition by celebrating the brilliance of its presence in the very tale of The Great Race.

Lets take a look for a moment at the Western Gregorian calendar. There is little to no logic to it. Take for example the month of August which used to be called Sextilis for it was the 6^th month of the year on the Roman calendar. However, in the year 8 BC the name was changed to August in honor of the great Emperor Caesar Augustus. (The West unlike the East is full of conquers and re-conquers that uproot and stifle any possibility of ancestral knowledge or wisdom.) This change altered any cohesiveness to the naming of the months in the Gregorian calendar. August gets even more whack when you learn that the reason it now has 31 days instead of the original 30 is because July which was named after Julius Caesar had 31 and it could not be that the great Augustus would have a month with less days…so 1 day was stolen from February, which as we all know is a odd numbered month. Such is not the case with the revered Lunar calendar, which signifies the cycles of nature in and of themselves!! Oh glorious Chang-er!

Now, lets move out of this labyrinth of triviality back into the beauty and cohesiveness of the story-lined Chinese calendar. The mnemonic nature of the Story of the Great Race allows for even the smallest among us to connect with its characters and grow into the the knowledge and understanding of the virtues they represent. Furthermore, even the order in which they take place can be recalled with incredible ease. Undoubtedly, the Chinese ancestors were aware of the power of story as they meticulously weaved her into the tapestry of their astronomy and understanding of time.

It is high-time that we too, acknowledge these ancient wisdoms and bring back story into the center of our classrooms: at home, school, work, bars or parks. This is precisely what is happening with the kids in Spotlight's very first Holistic program.

Information used in this text was acquired through self-learning motivated reading of: http://www.sacred-texts.com/time/smd/   Feel free to venture further into curiosities behind other months.