Viewing posts from September, 2010
The Rule of Four is a shorthand for thinking about the archetypal symmetries between mental health challenges, developmental themes (which, in turn, are mostly based on the Bodynamic model) nervous system states, and addictions. The Rule of Four is not a comprehensive system or any kind of research-based manifesto; it’s simply a series of obvious correlations. Use the rule as you wish.
The only way for an adolescent (or an adult) to develop integration, containment, and identity is through mentorship. The impulse of kids to form groups is healthy. In evolutionary terms, groups of young people seek leadership from adult mentors. In the absence of healthy adult mentors, adolescents form a youth gang, which comes to be led by the adolescent among them who is most aggressive, gregarious, or risk-prone. The absence of mentorship for adolescents is the most serious problem in our society today. Absence of mentorship is a primary cause of the addictions problem among both youth and adults, the suicide problem among youth, the homelessness problem in youth and adults, and the depression and anxiety problem of many people.
The landscape of education has changed more rapidly in the past decade than in the previous hundred years. New technologies challenge established norms. Emerging practices promise new modes and methods. Cultural, economic, and social changes encourage (and perhaps even demand) a comprehensive review of what education is, and what it’s for. We are — to put it mildly — living through an age of educational destruction and renewal.