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The
Brain Box
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In the last ten years there have been great advances in our understanding of how our brains work and how mind, body and spirit are fundamentally linked. This new understanding challenges us to now re-define how we look at learning and educational systems. Here we hope to provide you with some of the current thinking in this field. |
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The brain is a truly extraordinary instrument that we are only just beginning to understand. The hundred billion or so neurons that go to make up the brain still make it the most complex structure on earth. Nature has designed our brains to work as fully integrated units in which the various parts can work seamlessly together. The synchronicity and timing of the integration seem fundamental to overall efficiency. Such integration is not just a function of mental activity, but also encompasses our physiological and energetic states. We are beginning to see that loss of integrated brain function is the key factor in our understanding of learning difficulties and that the emotional state of anxiety is both a direct result and a precursor to further problems. The left brain's primary functions are opposite and complimentary to the right's. The left side is concerned with 'doing', the right with 'being'. The primary characteristics attributed to left brain function are speech, literacy, abstraction and numeracy. The primary characteristics of the right concern images, holism (perceiving things in an 'all at once' fashion) and the reception of music. Natural learning allows the learner to develop the capacities of the brain in a balanced, all-encompassing way that is integrated with other dynamic biological systems. Unnatural learning encourages the development of one side to the detriment of the other and results in states of imbalance and disharmony. F2be.com promotes the holistic integration and development of both sides of brain function enabling every learner to grow to his or her full potential. |
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Here
are some web-sites and things to read that will
help you to understand the new thinking on brain functions. |
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Web Sites |
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Interesting things to read Open systems. Open Minds, by Bob Samples, In Context Magazine, Winter 1988 Stories: The Brain-compatible Way of Teaching Humans, by Renée Fuller, Ph.D., 1999. |
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There is now beginning to be a recognition that we are not simply composed of physical bodies, but that, instead, we are surrounded and interpenetrated by at least four other types of subtle energetic body that exist at different levels of vibration. When we look at any of the physical processes of the body we are really only seeing the outward response to a multi-dimensional process that encompasses the mental, emotional and spiritual self. The neurological acitivity of the brain is therefore also that generated by a greater consciousness. Although scientists can map the activity of the brain and understand sensory processing and integration, thay have yet to explain where truly original thoughts and inspirations come from. There is clearly a level of intuition and awareness that lies outside of current forms of scientific measurement. To limit children to any form of learning that does not recognise and honor such rapidly amassing evidence is to deny them the opportunity to be all that they can be. To measure them only against systems that have been developed with an incomplete understanding of the importance of whole brain integration, and the greater context of the nature of consciousness itself, risks falsely categorising so many as failures within such systems. We are designed to be natural learners. Our inbuilt nature is to seek out innovation and challenge. We are designed to 'flow' with natural curiosity that allows us to achieve our individual potentials. When in flow we are happy. motivated people, in touch with ourselves, our community and the world at large. It is only when people interefere with our natural flow that inner conflict arises and out of that we experience fear, anxiety, anger and confusion. In order to satisfy the demands of others we turn away from our natural inner guides and, instead, replace them with external reward systems. Once this becomes a regular pattern we increasingly lose touch with our true nature and learning becomes a chore rather than something that nurtures us. On entering traditional schooling systems most children rapidly lose the spontaneity so clearly seen in early childhood and from then on see work and play as distinctly different things, with work associated with something that is externally imposed and play as a reward or an avoidance of work. THIS IS THE OPPOSITE OF HOW WE HAVE BEEN DESIGNED TO BE. F2be.com is calling for the love of work to be re-instated as a fundamental human right. We suggest that any system that turns us away from a love of learning cannot be right and that we must create learning systems that nurture each and every child as a unique individual, full of potential that needs only to be recognised and encouraged. In our opinion only then will we see a natural balance and harmony return to both individuals and society at large.
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Here
are some web-sites and things to read that will help you to understand
the new thinking on mind, body & spirit connections |