The Human Odyssey

Campaign for a Commercial-Free Childhood Targets Child Exploitation in the Media

I've just returned from the 8th annual conference on early childhood education held in Monterrey, Mexico.  There were a number of excellent presentations on early childhood development, but in particular I was impressed with the work of  Susan Linn, author of The Case for Make-Believe: Saving Play in a Commercialized World, who described her work with the Campaign for a Commercial-Free Childhood (CCFC), which has been attempting to stop corporations from using characters like Sponge Bob Square Pants,Sesame Street's Elmo, and cartoon movie figures to advertise everything from sugar-rich cereals and unhealthy McDonald's "happy meals" to fish food and worthless technological toys.  I thought it was interesting when she described how certain advertising companies had developed techniques to get young children to improve their "nagging skills" in asking their parents to purchase products for them.  Thanks to the efforts of the Campaign for a Commercial Free Childhood, Scholastic Inc. will no longer be promoting the highly sexualized Bratz brand in schools. They have just published a press release directed at toy marketers to suspend holiday marketing aimed directly at children during the current economic crisis and target parents instead.

Book Review of David Marshak's The Common Vision

David Marshak, emeritus professor in the College of Education at Seattle University, has written a book, The Common Vision:  Parenting and Educating for Wholeness (Peter Lang Publishing), that integrates the developmental ideas of three esoteric thinkers from the early 20^th century:  Rudolf Steiner, Hazrat Inayat Khan, and Sri Aurobindo.   As the title indicates, Marshak examines the common threads that run through these visionaries work when it comes to the education of the child.  Each of the three believed that the child was more than a physical body, but also inhabited other planes of existence.  Although they gave different names to those planes, they ultimately agreed on the essentials related to these three major non-physical planes of existence that interpenetrate the physical:  a vital plane of life-force, a higher plane of mental existence, and a still higher plane that exists at the level of spirit.  Each of these thinkers (along with their followers), developed a comprehensive rationale for educating children according to these different planes of existence, and also according to their developmental level.  Marshak does an excellent job of explicating in meticulous detail these developmental theories, showing differences as well as similarities.  He also grounds the ideas of each of the three thinkers in special chapters that show how the ideas have been applied in concrete learning environments.  For Steiner’s ideas, he visits a second grade classroom at a Waldorf School (a system of education Steiner developed in the 1920’s and which still exists in the U.S. and around the world today).  To show Aurobindo’s ideas in action, Marshak travels to India and visits the Sri Aurobindo Ashram, giving details of the children’s school established there.  Finally, Marshak interviews Murshida Vera Corda, a follower of the Sufi musician and mystic Hazrat Inayat Khan, who describes the Sufi Seed Center, a school for children based on his principles that ran in San Francisco from the late 1960’s to the early 1980’s.  Marshak’s book integrates a huge amount of information from the voluminous writings of these three thinkers, and saves readers a lot of time from having to find often hard-to-obtain publications, and synthesizes it in a way that can provide practical strategies for parents and educators seeking to help their children learn.  What Marshak emphasizes, perhaps more than anything else, is that the child has an “inner teacher” that is the source of inner motivation and learning, and that this inner teacher cannot be forced or manipulated into action, but rather trusted, listened to, and awakened by the outer teacher as facilitator and role model.  Marshak’s book is a great contribution to the literature on child education, and provides a positive counterpoint to the usual “kill and drill” or “testist, bestist, westist” approach to learning that seems to predominate, especially in the United States, at this particular time in history.  Each of these three thinkers provided a view of life that extended far beyond education, but Marshak has done the work of focusing attention on their views regarding the practical aspects of parenting and educating children, so that we can all benefit from the wisdom of these pragmatic mystics.

Today is Pub Date for Paperback Edition of The Human Odyssey

Today is the publication date for the paperback edition of The Human Odyssey:  Navigating the Twelve Stages of Life by Thomas Armstrong, Ph.D.  This book takes readers on a wild ride through the life course from prebirth to death and beyond, providing information about the key features of each stage of development:  prebirth, birth, infancy, early childhood, middle childhood, late childhood, adolescence, young adulthood, midlife, mature adulthood, late adulthood, death & dying, and beyond death.  Written in a reader-friendly way, this is not a textbook, but would make an excellent supplementary text for any course on life-span development or human development.  It includes appendices listing movies, books, and organizations keyed to each of the twelve stages of life.  A substantial notes section provides hundreds of sources to lead the reader to further explorations in the field of childhood and adulthood development.  With a retail price of $14.95, the paperback book is available from Amazon.com for $13.18 or can be purchased from Barnes and Noble for $13.45 (members pay only $12.10).  Whether you're a parent, looking for solid information about the stage of life your child is now in, or an adult wanting to know more about your own current stage of development, or a student taking a course in human development in  high school or college, you'll be sure to want to order a copy of The Human Odyssey, today!

Materials to Use in an Early Childhood Education Program

Increasingly we're seeing early childhood education programs veering toward formal academic learning.  This is a distressing trend, inasmuch as it makes young children do things (formal reading and math, computer instruction) that they are not developmentally ready for, and that take precious time away from letting children be children.  There are no critical periods in early childhood during which a child must have exposure to formal reading and math, or computers, or they will never develop these capacities later in life.  However, there are only these few precious years of life when the child's brain is buzzing away at twice the metabolic level of an adult, and when the young child is open to a wide range of perceptions, senses, feelings, and other experiences.  If you fill the young child's time with academic activities and other preparations for elementary school, then you take away something that can never again be reclaimed:  the magical years of play.  Every early childhood education program should have free play as its central focus.  Anything less than this is developmentally inappropriate, threatens to deprive the child of a solid multi-sensory experiential foundation for all future learning, and causes deterioration in brain connections that are related to art, music, nature, intuition, social interaction, physical expression, and a range of other culturally-valued domains.  Here is just a sampling of the kinds of materials that should be in any early childhood education program.

Linguistic:  children’s books of all kinds, magazines for cut out, alphabet letters of different sizes and shapes, storytelling area, drawing implements and paper to practice emergent literacy; alphabet stamps, dolls that speak in different languages, word blocks, magnetic letters;

Logical-mathematical:  things to count, sort and classify (e.g. buttons, coins, rocks, color swatches), number blocks of different sizes and shapes, scale to weigh things, measuring tape, measuring cups, calendars, clocks, and other time-related materials, cash register, play computer, magnets, lacing, beads, pattern puzzles, pattern blocks, abacus;

Spatial:  pictures of all kinds, drawing, painting, and collage  (paint, colored chalk, pens, collage materials, paste, play dough etc.); easels, puzzles, pegboards, parquetry sets, telescope, microscope, different colored materials to look through, maps, geometric shapes, cameras;

Musical:  percussion instruments, electronic keyboard, drums, auto harp and other stringed instruments, music to listen to, containers with “mystery sounds”; stage for karaoke, everyday materials to create their own musical instruments (e.g. cardboard tubes, oatmeal box etc.), stethoscope to listen to things with;

Bodily-kinesthetic -  hands-on manipulatives;  dry sandbox with age appropriate toys (including bulldozers, small shovels, and other sand processers);  wet sandbox; building materials (e.g. large legos, large wooden blocks, stacking blocks etc.), water table with cups, pans, cans, (to play “sink or float” etc.), gymnastic equipment,  housekeeping toys (e.g. broom, dust pan etc.), balance beam, jump rope, tricycles and other transportation vehicles, ballgames, clay and mud areas, carpentry equipment and work bench, space to run, jump, and climb on ropes, ladders, nets, trees; building materials to create forts and other play spaces, containers with mystery tactile experiences, little doctor’s kit, space to dance, bean bags;

Interpersonal -  household furniture, dress-up clothes for make-believe, doll house, dolls and stuffed animals of all kinds, miniature figures for play, puppets and puppet theater, stage for impromptu drama, board games, materials for creating playing at store, farm, village, or other social institutions;  parachute, huge ball, tunnels, miniature vehicles, action figures, walkie-talkies;

Intrapersonal:  private spaces to be alone, recorder to record voice, mirrors, sand play with miniature people, objects, houses to create worlds;

Naturalist:  aquarium, terrarium, class pet, outside garden, indoor plants, materials for measuring weather (e.g. weather vane, rain gauge etc.), binoculars for bird watching, gardening equipment, miniature farms, and farm animals;

Tasting and Smelling:  cooking and baking opportunities with an adult,  containers with mystery smells; child-sized kitchen play area.

For more information about developmentally appropriate practices for early childhood education, go to the website of the Association for Childhood Education International. 

Subscribe to AARP's Free Newsletter: Human Values in Aging

The American Association of Retired People (AARP) has a free monthly e-newsletter called Human Values in Aging, that provides a rich source of information about humanistic gerotology, including brief articles, books and films of interest, weblinks, calendar of events, and quotations on humanism and spirituality in aging.  It is edited by Dr. Harry R. Moody, author of The Five Stages of the Soul: Charting the Spiritual Passages that Shape Our Lives, former Chairman of the Board of Elderhostel, and currently Director of Academic Affairs for AARP.  To read a sample issue, click here. To subscribe to the e-newsletter, click here.

Podcast Interview with Thomas Armstrong on The Radio Mom Show

Last month I did an interview with Kemi Ingram, the host of The Radio Mom Show, a widely syndicated podcast on the internet.  The interview covers both my work on multiple intelligences (my books In Their Own Way, 7 Kinds of Smart, Multiple Intelligences in the Classroom etc.), and my latest book The Human Odyssey.  To listen to the complete interview, click here. 

New Group Called "The Elders" Brings Wisdom to World Problems

Yesterday I was watching Charlie Rose on TV and he had Richard Branson, the maverick billionaire, on the show talking about a new philanthropic effort that he is supporting called The Elders.  This consists of a group of twelve individuals who have attained world recognition for their work in supporting peace, justice, health, and other positive values around the globe, including Nelson Mandela, Kofi Annan, Desmond Tutu, and former president Jimmy Carter.  The idea is that they can use their "1,000 years of collective experience" to help solve existing problems around the world. Their first project was to travel to the Sudan last year to help with the Darfur crisis.  They have recently concluded a trip to Kenya to help mediate the violent partisan dispute over leadership there.  The group is sponsored by a number of individuals and organizations that have raised $18 million thus far to support their efforts.

This strikes me as an extremely worthy enterprise, because it values the elders of our society to generate solutions to age-old problems.  Historically, cultures have often turned to the elders for answers to life's deep problems.  Unfortunately, in our modern age, we have too often put the reigns of control and leadership in the hands of youngsters who have not yet gained the experience necessary to make good decisions.  This project is an acknowledgement that we need to turn once again to our elders to access the wisdom they have in solving the great problems of our world, including war, poverty, human rights abuses, and environmental pollution.  For more information, go to www.theelders.org.   

The Stages of Life According to Rudolf Steiner

The early twentieth century philosopher and mystic Rudolf Steiner conceived of a theory of human development based upon seven year cycles, and linked those cycles to astrology.  The first seven years of life (0-7 years old) were associated with the Moon. During this time, the psychic forces are working to transform the body of the child from one that was inherited from the parents, to one that represents the full personality of the child.  The second seven years (7-14 years old) is associated with Mercury. At this time, the child's imagination and feeling life takes center stage.  The third seven years (14-21 years old) is associated with Venus, during which time the higher mind of the adolescent takes root, and the psychic development can be disturbed by the strong impulses of puberty.  The next three seven-year segments are associated with the Sun (21-42 years old), and the elements of sentient soul, intellectual soul, and consciousness soul.  The next seven-year segment is associated with Mars (42-49 years old), when the soul works hard to impress the full forces of its personality upon the world.  At this time, the soul has the opportunity to a higher state of consciousness called Spirit Self. The following seven-year segment is associated with Jupiter (49-56 years old), when wisdom is dawning and the ego needs to unfold the Life Spirit. The final seven-year period is associated with Saturn (56-63 years old) when Saturn completes its second "return" (e.g. comes back to its position it had at one's birth), and the soul can manifest an event higher element of Self called Spirit Man.  For more information, see Steiner's Karmic Relationships Vol. VII, lecture two.

Source:  Ceol agus Realta

The Stages of Life According to Ptolemy

The ancient astrologer/astronomer Ptolemy (83-161 C.E.), whose ideas of the structure of the universe (based upon spheres), dominated western civilization until Copernicus and Kepler in the 16th-17th centuries, associated different planets of the solar system with particular stages of life:

Moon:  Infancy - 0-4 years old

Mercury: Childhood - 4-14 years old

Venus:  Adolescence - 14-22 years old

The Sun:  Young Adulthood - 22-40 years old

Mars:  Mature Adulthood - 40-55 years old

Jupiter: Retirement and Wisdom - 55 to 67 years old

Saturn:  Old Age - 67+

Source:  Ceol agus Realta

The Stages of Life According to Medieval Islam

A map of the human life cycle that is associated with the Islamic middle ages and a philosopher/scientist named Al Biruni (973-1048 C.E.) is called Firdaria.  It is a system of astrology based upon specific planets that influence our lives at different stages of life.  The Sun rules the first 10 years of life (ages 0-10), Venus the next 8 years  (ages 11-18), Mercury the next 13 years (ages 19-31), the Moon the next 9 years (ages 32-40), Saturn the next 11 years (ages 41-51), Jupiter the next 12 years (ages 52-63), Mars the next 7 years (64-70), the North Node (a mathematical point that takes into consideration the relation between the Sun, Moon, and Earth at the time of one's birth) the next 3 years (71-73), and the South Node the next 2 years (73-75).  After this, the cycle repeats itself starting again with the Sun. This pattern applies to the astrological charts of individuals who were born during the day.  If the person was born during the night, the cycle begins with the Moon and follows the same sequence. According to the blog site Ceol Agus Realta, Al Biruni:  "made contributions to a very wide range of human endeavors, from chemistry to math to astronomy. He knew that the earth rotated on its own axis and knew about both heliocentric and geocentric perspectives. He developed special instruments for astronomical measurements and he is said to have written over 200 books. There is even a crater of the Moon called after him."

From a psychological standpoint, the sequence given above makes sense, at least with respect to most of the planets.  The Sun represents the ego, and the first 10 years of life involve the development of the child's self as it enters society. Venus rules the adolescence years, when romance and passion are at their height.  Mercury represents the mind, and early adulthood is a time when the mind is required to succeed at one's career, in one's relationships, and in becoming a good citizen.  Saturn, which is the planet of responsibility and discipline, rules the midlife years, when it is often necessary to work very hard to master the lessons of life.  Jupiter, which is the benevolent planet, is associated with mature adulthood, when financial and emotional stability make it possible to give something back to the greater community.

Great Quotations on Childhood

I just finished reading a cute book of quotations from Penguin Books called Child: Quotations About the Delight, Wonder, and Mystery of Being a Child, edited by Helen Handley and Andra Samelson.  Here are ten of my favorite quotes from the book:

"Babies are such a nice way to start people."

                            - Don Herold

"In a secular age, children have become the last sacred objects."

                           - Joseph Epstein

"One laugh of a child will make the holiest day more sacred still."

                          - R.G. Ingersoll

"Ah! What would the world be to us

   If the children were no more?

We should dread the desert behind us

  Worse than the dark before."

                        - Henry  Wadsworth Longfellow

"If a child is to keep alive his inborn sense of wonder, he needs the companionship of at least one adult who can share it, rediscovering with him the joy, excitement and mystery of the world we live in."   

                       - Rachel Carson

"My music is best understood by children and animals."

                      - Igor Stravinsky

"When I was younger, I could remember anything, whether it had happened or not."

                     - Mark Twain

"The lost child cries, but still he catches fireflies."

                    - Ryusui Yoshida

"Diogenes struck the father when the son swore."

                   - Robert Burton

"If there is anything we wish to change in the child, we should first examine it and see whether it is not something that could be better changed in ourselves."

                  - C.G. Jung

The "Age 50 Effect" - A Shrunken Heart?

If you're 50 and you plan to give your heart to your honey this Valentine's Day, maybe you should first check to see whether it's gotten any smaller in the last year.  Researchers at St. Francis Heart Center in Roslyn, New York have determined that the human heart undergoes a particularly significant shrinkage around the age of 50.  Their study examined 218 normal individuals aged 20 to 80, who were free of illness, including any cardiac problems.  They used magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) to measure the size of the heart.  Dr. Nathaniel Reichek, director of the study, noted: "It has been recognized for some time that the heart chambers get smaller with age, but what pops out in this work is that there is an inflection point," he said of the 50-year mark, "where rapidly occurring change occurs."  The study leaves many questions, including whether or not it is possible to ameliorate this shrinkage through diet, exercise, or other interventions.  Still, for Valentine's Day, you might throw in a box of chocolates to make up for that extra cardiac shrinkage!