Tag: <span>education</span>

22 Feb

Problems With The Education System In Pakistan

Pakistan, a nation in Asia with a population of 182.1 million. 40% of this population, aged 10 and over cannot read or write. If we examine this from a gender perspective, 31% males are illiterate, and 55% female. On average Pakistan has an unemployment rate of around 6.00%.

This is concerning, as neighbouring countries such as India and China have become part of the 4 BRIC economies (Brazil, Russia, India and China). Their development over the decade has been phenomenal. Pakistan has developed, however only the top 8% of the economy has developed.

8% of Pakistan’s population can afford to study at English Medium high standard schools. These schools teach using foreign curriculum, often the English or American. They sit CIE’s, (Cambridge International Examinations) and thereafter A Levels. This means they are able to easily study at a higher ranked university in Pakistan, or in England. This is all down to their wealth, as their parents could afford such high standard schooling for them. They were educated in pure english and so as a result their intellect was equal, if not higher to those studying in the UK, as they were educated in the same manner. This means that they were educated on a world class level and have developed on a great scale.

In contrast, a great proportion of children are unable to receive such education and attend government schools. These schools are Urdu medium schools, and so the children learn in Urdu. Already this creates differences between the children in Pakistan, as the English medium students may feel superior to the Urdu medium students. In addition to this, the curriculum is often shocking. They are examined based on their memory. During my previous visit to Pakistan I spoke to a child from a Urdu medium school who had a science examination in a couple of days. In order to revise he was learning off by heart a passage his teacher had provided him with which included the entire Cardiac Cycle, which in the UK we often learn about in Year 9 Biology, and this child was being examined on at the age of 11. He told me he needed to memorise this passage and write it down in the test, and that is it. He would have passed this examination and progressed to the next academic year. All they need is to memorise texts and passages from books and that’ll get them that pass. This continues all the way through to their Matric examinations. For families with low incomes, they can only educate their children up to the age of sixteen. Few make it further into colleges, and even if they do, the curriculum there isn’t anywhere near the level that English Medium students receive. These students therefore do not develop essential skills that employers demand, and so this can result in unemployment for those.

Many families on low incomes have one or two breadwinners. Their sources of income come from small family businesses such as shops. Females who have jobs in villages often turn to teaching as this is more “respectable” but even then they may not have the right qualifications to teach but still turn to teaching. Labour work however is the most common, and when the father of the home becomes older and less able to earn, the children must start earning instead and this cycle continues. This is how illiteracy is still existent in huge figures even after all those years.

As well as this, there are still narrow minded people who believe that the only education they need is Islamic education, so send their children to Madrassa’s which only teach Islamic based information. This results in extremist views, and possibly very oppressed females in particular.

So, how can we tackle this issue?

The main problem that can be identified here is the inequality. There is gender inequality, and inequality between the different classes. The upper class receive high standard education, and the lower and middle receive very basic muddled education, which means only the upper classes are able to progress and access top jobs. There are of course exceptions where families sell off a lot of their resources to educate their children, or children receiving scholarships, however again this is not a common case. The first thing, therefore I believe is that all children should have equal access to education of a good standard. This means that the curriculum should be in line with those of the developed economies, so children gain vital skills as well as knowledge rather than being able to master the skill of memorisation. There are many schools in one area, and parents send their children to these schools thinking they’ve done their duty however the level of teaching is unacceptable. Therefore there could be fewer schools in one area, but fewer with excellent quality and standards of education. This will make it easier to monitor the schools, it’ll work out cheaper, and the children will receive a good education.



Source by Kainat Ali

19 Feb

A Brief History of Nursing Education

When people think of the history of nursing education many immediately think of Florence Nightingale. However, nursing goes back even further than that. In fact, during the 18th century a slave named James Derham was able to buy his own freedom from the money he earned as a nurse. Nobody knew back then that a nursing education could be obtained in any other way than simply hands on through an apprenticeship. But, today there are many ways to study and learn more about nursing. Great examples of these are online nursing education and nursing continuing education.

But, it took a long time for these nursing programs to develop. And, they are descendents of the first nursing program that was established in the 1850s in London. Japan’s first nursing institute was established in 1885 and the first nursing institute for blacks in the United States followed the next year. The field of nursing was growing rapidly with the influences of individuals like Florence Nightingale and Claray Barton who established the Red Cross.

In the late 1800s the idea of visiting nursing was established by Lillian Wald and she began teaching a home nursing class. The American Nurses Association held its first meeting and the topics discussed helped further nursing education. Nurses began to be regulated on a national basis by New Zealand in 1901 and then other countries around the world began to follow suit.

The first nursing education that was established in the United States on the basis of education rather than the needs of hospitals was at Yale University in 1923. The Yale School of Nursing had its own curriculum and students were required to meet the educational standards of the university in order to graduate. This really set the stage for the future of education and since then universities across the nation have developed nursing programs of their own. Then, in the 1950s Colombia University offered a master’s in nursing and was the first university to do so. This really changed the nursing environment and allowed for nursing continuing education and nurses to grow in their chosen profession.

Now, more than 80 years later, a nursing education is available at college campuses, via online courses, and even through nursing continuing education. Men and women who want to become nurses can do so around their schedule and take advantage of all the study options for this amazing profession. There are many choices when it comes to an online nursing education and prospective nurses should really compare all of the programs to ensure they are studying from the best online university and are learning as much about nursing as possible.



Source by Natalie Aranda

20 Jan

Education Funding Options

As the cost of higher education continues to rise, many parents and young people struggle with how to cover the cost of college education. Costs of in state and private schools. What are your options when planning for education funding?

529 Plan- These types of plans allow you to contribute after tax dollars that grow tax free. Qualified withdrawals from the plan are not taxed when used for qualified education expenses. You can choose a savings plan that works similar to an IRA, which allows the student to attend a school of his/her choice. Or, you can choose a pre-paid plan that allows you to pre-pay part or all of the costs of an instate public college education.

Life Insurance – Some types of life insurance build cash value and also provide a death benefit. If funded properly, you can access the cash value at the time the child attends college. Keep in mind that accessing the cash value, could also affect the death benefit provided under the policy.

Student Loans- Student loans can be helpful but it is important to remember that students may have to divert funds in the future to repay loans. These are funds that could be used to be used to accomplish other financial goals. If borrowing becomes a necessity, parents could also take a home equity loan and deduct the loan interest at tax time.

Transferring Funds to Children- As of the 2017 tax year, parents and grandparents can gift up to $14,000 to each child without gift tax consequences.

Tax Credits- The American Opportunity Tax Credit and Lifetime Learning Credit are tax credits available to full time students. Household income guidelines do apply, so be sure to check the IRS website to see which option might work better for your family.

Education Savings Account- Parents, guardians, or other qualified individuals can contribute up to $2000 per year on behalf of eligible students under age 18. Withdrawals from the account are not taxable if used for qualified education expenses. All funds must be distributed within 30 days of the participant’s 30th birthday.

The cost of funding higher education can be daunting! It is important to consider many options when thinking about how to fund the cost. All of the above options are various mechanisms available to do so. It is also important to consider what types of grants might be available when selecting educational funding options.



Source by Sara Bruns

27 Dec

Celebrating Presidents Day: The Education of Our National Leaders

As the leader of the most powerful country in the world, the President of the United States must responsibly manage both domestic and international affairs. Lucky for us, though many Presidents did obviate the traditional college and university system, each did clearly possess the willingness to educate himself. So in honor of President’s Day, let’s examine some of the more unique educational paths to the Presidency.

Presidents

George Washington, our very first Commander in Chief, attended the College of William and Mary to obtain his surveyor’s license. Even though the early death of his father abruptly halted Washington’s formal schooling, he remained an enthusiastic proponent of education. In his will, he provided resources and funds to support three different educational institutions.

Many people overlook the fact that Thomas Jefferson was an intellectual. It wasn’t that he just smart a President, he was an exceptionally smart person. At the age of 16, Jefferson enrolled in President Washington’s alma mater, the College of William and Mary, where he studied mathematics, metaphysics and philosophy. Jefferson graduated after only two years, with highest honors – and proceeded to earn admission into the Virginia State Bar some five years later.

Seven score and eight years ago, Abraham Lincoln delivered the Gettysburg Address, proclaiming a birth of freedom and equality in the nation. Through his conquests on a less beaten road, Lincoln personified the American Dream-in total, Honest Abe received approximately 18 months of formal education, most of which was provided by unqualified instructors. Lincoln was mainly self-educated and a self-guided reader, spending countless hours digesting every newspaper and book that came his way.

Three prominent individuals reached presidency from military-educated backgrounds. Ulysses S. Grant and Dwight D. Eisenhower claimed their stakes at the U.S. Military Academy at West Point. And even though President Eisenhower’s parents rejected militarism, they couldn’t say no to a free education. Before Jimmy Carter’s stint as a successful peanut farmer and one-term president, he bested hundreds of other midshipmen at the U.S. Naval Academy, graduating 59th in his class of 820.

Not only did Teddy Roosevelt and Franklin Roosevelt share the same last name, they were fifth cousins and Harvard College alumnus as well. Teddy was an ambitious reader with a photographic memory, earning Phi Beta Kappa honors and admission into Columbia Law School-he dropped out of law school after only one year to pursue a career in politics. Better known as FDR, the younger Roosevelt followed Teddy’s footsteps. FDR was also admitted into Columbia Law School, but dropped out after passing the New York State Bar.

Some of our more recent presidents are no slouches either. Bill Clinton earned his Bachelor of Science degree in Foreign Service from Georgetown University, received a Rhodes Scholarship to study government at Oxford, and acquired a J.D. from Yale Law School. Contrary to the opinion of many folks on the left, George W. Bush is no dummy. George W. is a Yale alumn, and he is currently the only president with an M.B.A.-from Harvard Business School, no less. Our prevailing chief executive, President Barack Obama, graduated from Columbia College with a degree in political science. He is also the second president to have earned a J.D. from Harvard Law School.

As evidenced by the contrasting degrees of education among our presidents, no standard institution or instruction is needed to ascend to the highest office in the land. Although many of our previous leaders earned degrees from highly-ranked universities and colleges, many others emerged from humble, unassuming beginnings. Success is only limited by self-imposed restrictions. Pay homage to our presidential predecessors and celebrate your potential triumphs as well.



Source by Lela Saz

21 Dec

Special Education – Placement, Is Inclusion Best?

The IEP is written and now there should be some discussion about placement. What options are there and what is best for your child? Those are the questions for the team. Like the IEP, the placement decision is very important to the success of your child. IDEA, Individuals with Disabilities Education Act, is very specific about what should be provided to students with disabilities. IDEA says that your child should be educated in the least restrictive environment (LRE) where they can make effective progress. Below we will look at some of the options available for placement of students with disabilities.

LRE – Least Restrictive Environment

What does that mean? Well, historically kids with disabilities were segregated from attending school with their typical peers. They were either kept at home or sent to “special schools” or they were put in basement classrooms and weren’t allowed to socialize or participate with everyone else. Plus, they weren’t taught what everyone else was taught, like math and science. Education Reform changed that and subsequently IDEA was reauthorized in 2004. IDEA says that students should be educated in the least restrictive environment with the services and supports necessary for them to make effective progress. Whenever possible children should be with their typical peers and attend their neighborhood schools. They are to be provided with the same curriculum and are required to maintain the same standards for academic requirement. The terms mainstream, integration, and inclusion, are the new catch phrases to define when kids are provided LRE.

Inclusion

There are many placement options, so what does that mean for your child? When you start to talk about placement, the first potential option should always be the class where your child would be if they didn’t have a disability. The team should consider what accommodations, services, and supports your child would need to be successful in that environment and then provide for them on the IEP. If it is determined that your child will not make progress in the regular education classroom, other options can be considered. The goal should always be full inclusion. Inclusion is not a specific place but the pursuit to include students in classrooms and in environments with typical peers to the maximum extent possible through out their school day.

Partial Inclusion

Some students will be provided with what is termed partial inclusion. Perhaps they attend some regular education classes but go into a separate classroom for math or reading. Maybe they attend a resource room or academic support class once a day to assist with all academic subjects. Whatever it looks like, it should provide for the students needs and assist with their effective progress.

Substantially Separate
Some students will need to be in classrooms with small number of students and specialized teachers. This is a substantially separate setting. The goal should be to transition or integrate out of that classroom and into the regular setting as much as possible. The benefits of socialization and peer interaction experiences in a regular setting have to be balanced with the benefits of academic success and progress in the smaller setting. A lot of IEPs have a mix of both to allow for the unique needs of students with learning disabilities but need social experiences to develop socially.

Out of District

Some students attend school in private schools or collaborative schools that specialize in working with students with specific disabilities or sets of needs. This should always be considered a last resort and only when all other options have been tried and been unsuccessful. It is important to balance the needs for a student to be provided with what they need as well as the opportunities they miss by not being educated in their neighborhood school.



Source by Lynne M Adams

21 Nov

Types of Special Education Schools and Classrooms

There are a variety of special education schools and programs in both a private and public settings. Since every child has unique requirements, there is not a one-size-fits-all solution. With proper planning and support, your child’s education can be a positive and successful experience.

Full Inclusion Classrooms

In this type of setting, a special needs child will learn right alongside other children that do not have a learning disability. The child is not singled out as being different, since none of the other students know about his or her special needs. There is usually a special education teacher present in the classroom right alongside the regular teacher. The teachers will share tasks and instruction – helping all students.

Inclusion classrooms allow each student to learn at their own level and pace. Even children who don’t qualify for special services, but are struggling to keep up, will benefit from this type of classroom. Although this type of learning works well for most children, some will have trouble dealing with the stimuli of a regular classroom full of students.

Self-Contained Classrooms

Self-contained classrooms are separated so that a special needs child can receive more one-on-one instruction. These types of classrooms usually group together a small number of children with similar learning needs. Depending on the size of the school, the ages and levels of the children within the class can vary.

Most education experts feel that spending time with peers is an important part of learning. Because of this, some special-needs children enrolled in self-contained classrooms will share equal time in a regular classroom each day. Depending on the child, a Paraeducator may accompany him or her while in the regular classroom.

Children who need one-on-one help in order to keep up with grade-level work, but do not need the structure of a self-contained classroom, may benefit from a resource room placement.

Out-of-District Placement

In cases where a special-needs child requires a higher degree of classroom structure and instruction, an out-of-district placement may be the best option. These types of classrooms can be in residential, private, or public special education schools. In order to participate with funding from the State Board of Education, the family must go through an application process first.

Private Special Education Schools

Private specialized day programs and residential programs are generally for children who are not succeeding in any of the other types of special education classrooms. Although, sometimes education services in the private sector will also serve infants, toddlers, or even adults.

Before choosing a private school program for your special needs child, you should visit and spend time there. This will allow you to get a genuine, first-hand feel for the school in order to decide if the atmosphere, activities, courses, opportunities, and provisions will meet your child’s needs.

Other things that you may want to consider are staffing, facilities, healthcare services, visitation policies, meals, and how well supervision is handled.

Your special needs child deserves the best education available to him or her. Don’t forget to ask for your child’s input during your research and planning process. Once placement into one of the special education schools has been made, continue to monitor and be involved in your child’s education and care. And remember, you can always make changes if something is not working out.



Source by Andrew Stratton

28 Oct

The Importance of Education in Today’s Society

So, do you believe that EDUCATION is absolutely necessary in today’s society? Does being educated make a significant difference in someone’s life?

Education is the process of learning and acquiring knowledge at school from a teacher, receiving knowledge at home from a parent, a family member, and even an acquaintance. Education is a key that allows people to move up in the world, seek better jobs, and succeed in life. Education is one factor that affects job positions people hold, advance in their further career, the income they make, and the title they hold. The more educated a person is, the more prestige and power that person holds.

However, unfortunately we have places in the world, where not everyone has an opportunity or chance to receive formal education. India is amongst the countries, where there is a high population of people who are illiterate. Almost, 55% of the population in India is illiterate. Partly, because most of the country resides in villages and not in cities, where education is more prevalent. Most of the people living in villages spend majority of their time in cultivating crops and harvesting their fields and don’t find it necessary to be educated in order to harvest their fields or to do household chores. The girls living in villages marry at a young age and later get busy with family and doing household chores. According to Indian belief, girls commonly get married at an early age and are advised to stay home and take care of the household instead of studying or working. That’s the reason why lot of parents in India are worried about getting their daughter married rather than her education. I can give you an example in my own life. When I was in India I wanted to get further education and fulfill my dream. On contrary to what society thinks, I wanted to pursue my career in the health care field to serve my own community. The support from my family, especially my grandfather, gave me the strength to keep my dream alive. I was 18 years old when we moved to the United States, and the transition to a country that is different culturally, academically, and politically was not easy. I did not know what I could do with my life when I came to the States. The transition was difficult for my parents as well. The need for finding a business, concern about my sibling’s education and me and adjusting in a new environment was definitely challenging. After doing most of college in India, it was hard for me to start over my college education. My dad’s brother, who is a physician, inspired me to keep my dream alive to pursue a career in medicine. I started my education at the community college, where I struggled with most of my classes in the first year as the educational system was different than the one I was used to. I joined clubs and other organizations at the college to know more about the medical careers. I got the knowledge that I required for pursuing a career in medicine but still, I had never experienced how things are in the real world of medicine. I have done everything that I could to help me fulfill my dream. I am currently an Emergency Medical Technician and I enjoy working in the allied health field.

I think being educated is the most important thing not only for success in one’s life, but the better educated population plays an important role in making a nation more successful and well rounded. Receiving formal education is vital, but to achieve success in life, informal education is essential. One can learn English, History, Math, Science in school, and be “book-smart”. Furthermore, one can learn how to live life by knowing what to say when, acting a certain way in specific situation, and be “street-smart”. You can have all the “book” knowledge in the world about a certain profession, but if you don’t know how to behave with your colleagues and your superiors than having “book” knowledge won’t take you too far. For example, if you are a Physician by profession, you have all the knowledge about the world of medicine and know much about health care, but if you do not have bed side manners and don’t interact well with your patients, co-workers, and the team, than what’s the point of having all “book” knowledge. To achieve success in life and reaching a point in life where people respect you for what you are is what makes a difference, because at that point you excel in both formal and informal education. Education is very important and no one should be deprived of it.

“No nation can leave its security only to the Police and the Army, to a large extent national security depends upon the education of citizens, their knowledge of affairs, their characters and sense of discipline and their ability to participate effectively in security measure.” – Kothari commission

A well educated population represents a well secured, well developed, strong Nation.



Source by Charmi Patel

25 Oct

Parivartan Education Services – Education Facilitation Online Services For Schools

Inside School

Today school education sector is primarily motivated by performance and the intense competition. Categorically speaking, the two important levers of performance displayed in the diagram are performance and feedback into the cycle.

Though not clearly visible, Indian education system is prone to the following gaps:
o Limited feedback of performance
o Lack of awareness of varied aspects of education
o Absence of competitive environment due to small peer size
The primary opportunity for a caring parent to know about his ward is ‘Parent – Teacher Meeting’. Except such meetings, limited platforms exist where the parent can be abreast of regular information about the education of his ward.

Gone are the days when the child used to grow in the cozy and safe environment created by the localized and limited awareness of parents and school faculty. Today, the child is highly exposed to the stiff competition very early in life. If the exposure to the competition is sudden, then it leaves the student confused and clueless about the way out of this situation.

The most important component of any performance appraisal is the peer size and the kind of peer group. Constraining one self to a small group in school adds to the limited growth of the child. Consequently, when the scope of competition suddenly increases during the board exams, the student finds himself out of place. In view of the mentioned concerns, we bring on table a host of services which converge on a single platform to facilitate the efforts of the student for his preparedness for the forthcoming challenges in the competitive environment by plugging the existing gaps in the existing educational framework.

With inputs from the school, we wish to enter into the GeNext of Learning, which will provide an opportunity of global assessment, best-in-class mentoring of the student and the best possible core learning services. Our introductory services of ‘Inside School’ to bridge the existing gaps in the education system are with the help of our three premier services – dWand, Waig and samaWesh.

dWand

What it is?
The milestones of Class X and Class XII Board examination marks hold extreme value in our life. In the ever increasing cut throat competition, any lack of awareness of the competition takes you out of competition.

Need for Parivartan

As mentioned earlier, today a student is assessed on the basis of his performance with regard to the peer group in his school alone. In spite of the true competition being among a widespread national student community, the scope of such benchmarking is near to nil. So, dWand brings the Parivartan by grading the student against students of many other premier schools in the same class. The portal provides full flexibility to the student/ parent to decide the parameters of comparison with respect to school, geography, subject etc.

With a comprehensive set of statistical tools complemented by historic data from the school, we promise to answer all of your questions to provide a judicious and correct method of evaluation.

Waig

What it is?
Caring for one’s beloved kid was never so easy! Waig, the new generation solution puts an end to the distance between you and your child when he/she is at the school. Waig will mark the end of era which had written communication as the only mean of communication.

Need for Parivartan

Because of different existing constraints there are limited opportunities of interaction of parents with the school in regard to the feedback of their ward. The existing feedback reporting is unable to bring the desired result because of the large time gap between the occurrences of activity and reporting. Waig brings the Parivartan of online tracking of all the school activities. With the real time information flow, the update of school activities becomes instantaneous and error free.

With the help of indigenously developed software, schools will have the access of data entry on a PDA/ Computer in the classroom, which translates into summarized SMS everyday for the important messages.

samaWesh

What is it?
We are living in a world where integration of various points is not just a need, but a necessity. Same theory has found wide acceptance in schools too. Samawesh brings to you integration of various learning opportunities at a single place – school. Defying the traditional constraints of schools to provide the curriculum education by the teachers of the school, Samawesh promises to bring learning services of various kinds which would include focused sessions/workshops for specific courses which are normally not covered in school curriculum.

This helps in creating more awareness for the child about the developments in other schools. Also, this would help the school to know about the functioning of the other good schools. It will lead of replication of best practices for learning followed in other schools.

Such integration of services learning opportunities under a single umbrella will create a unique positioning of the school, and attract the best of talent.

Need for Parivartan

Presently the single source of knowledge and information is the school teacher alone; thereby limiting the all round development of the student to a small group. samaWesh brings the Parivartan of sessions and workshops by best faculty from different parts of the nation in your school. Also, it introduces better knowledge exchange of the present faculty with a more experienced faculty.



Source by Ahaskar Kumar Pandey

22 Oct

Somatic Education for Musicians

“To make the impossible, possible, the possible easy, and the easy, elegant”-Moshe Feldenkrais

These words could well describe a musician’s goals in using technique to realize musical inspiration, whether it be refining a compositional idea or perfecting a demanding instrumental passage. Yet they were written to describe the goals of a Sensory -Motor learning method that uses gentle movement and directed attention to increase ease and range of motion, improve flexibility and coordination, and prevent and treat many common overuse and misuse injuries musicians encounter.

Tendonitis, Repetitive Stress Syndrome, Carpal Tunnel Syndrome, sore backs, necks, shoulders, etc. are all too common among musicians. Many conditions require medical attention and it is wise to consult a doctor when pain or discomfort alerts you to a problem. But treating the symptom may not get at the cause. Fortunately, there exist a number of methods oriented toward the development of body awareness in movement which can be used to prevent these injuries and, where they already exist, apply non-medical approaches to improving our functioning. Grouped together under the name “Somatic Education,” these methods address postural and movement issues extremely relevant to musicians but often neglected in the pursuit of instrumental skills.

Its not surprising that movement education is of value to musicians. All music production involves movement, and it follows that paying attention to the way we move to make music will affect the music we make. Exploring this simple connection can have profound affects on biomechanical health as well as developing sensitivity and power in music production.

Historical Roots

Somatic (from the Greek work Soma, meaning “living body”) education might be thought of as a physical education that does not separate mind and body. The roots of the Somatic approach go back to the Gymnastik movement of Northern Europe and the Eastern U.S. during the late 1800’s. These teachers shared ideas about posture and movement, which were at odds with dominant models in classical ballet, physical education, religion and medicine. Gymnastik pioneers rejected the separation of mind and spirit from a mechanistically conceived body, encouraged self-developed values over conforming to an ideal, and approached physical education as a unity of movement, body structure, and psycho-spiritual health. Following the disruptions of two world wars, strands of this shared vision came together as old pioneers and new methods established schools and spread their work. Today thousands of educators practice methods such as Sensory Awareness, the Alexander Technique, Ida Rolf’s Structural Integration, Moshe Feldenkrais’s Awareness Through Movement and Functional Integration, Gerda Alexander’s Eutony, as well as Aston-Patterning, Body-Mind Centering, Trager Work and others. After exploring a few common threads running through these approaches, we’ll look at the two most commonly used with musicians: The Alexander Technique and the Feldenkrais Method®.

Importance of Movement & Awareness

Musicians are familiar with the notion of our instrument being an extension of ourselves; and in a way, the primary instrument is the self. A pinnacle in our species’ evolution of motor skills, playing an instrument demands a highly complex use of the neuromuscular apparatus. But precious little of a musician’s training involves refining one’s ability to move efficiently, sense strains, and attend to more of oneself while making music. Without this training, we unwittingly develop neuromuscular habits that are physically stressful and increase our vulnerability to injury. When the movement is poorly organized, forces are created that generate unnecessary heat in the joints, with shearing and other stresses in the connective tissue and muscles. Done repeatedly over time, damage and injury are more likely to occur. Postural problems from sitting and standing for long periods, instrument-specific problems (such as pain in a picking hand) and simple tension leading to unnecessary muscular contraction are common results of inefficient movement patterns.

The first step to recognizing harmful habits is to find out what we do already, that is, become aware of our movement. When we exert a lot of muscular effort, it is impossible for our brain to make the sensory distinctions needed to improve our neuromuscular organization. With this in mind, many Somatic methods use gentleness, delicacy and slowness of movement to notice what is actually happening. It is analogous to the way a slow ballad tends to reveal many nuances of the sound: tone, intonation, and time all become easy to notice when we slow everything down. In the same way, paying attention to subtle distinctions becomes easier when we slow our movement and avoid excess effort and strain.

Mind, Body And Environment-A Functional Whole

Movement occurs through an information feedback process between our senses, muscles and central nervous system. As we move, our senses of touch, balance, sight and sound send our brain information about our position and muscular activity and it responds by modifying the outgoing messages to our muscles. All this occurs in response to the challenges of our environment. You play a note, hear the sound, and make changes or adjustments for the next attack, all while considering the environment or context (the style of the music, the room or audience, other musicians). These elements exist as a functional whole–one never occurs in the absence of the others.

Similarly, the source of a given problem is often a combination of a physical limitation, mental, or emotional attitude, and the special challenges of the instrument itself. Each element may contribute and working in one area will have results in another. The pianist’s sore wrist may be related to one or more of the following: a shoulder that does not move freely, a mental attitude that results in practicing too long without breaks and/or a bench height preventing comfortable arm position. Treatments that focus on one of these elements to the exclusion of the others are often limited in effectiveness.

The holistic approach recognizes that difficulties are often part of a general underlying dysfunctional movement pattern. The manifestation of the problem may be far from its source and improving the general pattern often improves specific complaint.

Finding Our Own Way

Just as different styles of music call for different instrumentation, aesthetic choices, and musical values, somatic educators recognize that context and individuality play a significant role in determining appropriate action. For this reason, Somatic educators avoid general prescriptions for all to follow. Rather than espousing any one ‘right’ way of doing something they encourage individuals’ in developing the ability to sense, discover, and decide what is best for themselves. They promote our ability to trust our subjective and immediate perceptions of ourselves and cultivate the capacity to distinguish between acting to conform to an “external ideal,” and spontaneous natural action born of knowing oneself.

Let’s look at these principles in action in the work of two towering figures in modern education, F.M. Alexander and Moshe Feldenkrais.

Alexander Technique

F. Mathias Alexander (1869-1955) was an Australian-born actor who found himself losing his voice during performances. After doctors were unable to offer anything but rest as a treatment he began a thorough study of himself which continued over a ten-year period. This study revealed that he pulled his head back when speaking which led to pressure on the larynx, and vocal chords and resulting hoarseness. This head and neck position also caused him to lift his chest, narrow his back and grip the floor with his feet. He thereby realized his speech organs were influenced by misusing his whole self. Alexander went on to refine these insights into a more efficient use which he called “primary control”. This consisted of having his head forward and up in conjunction with lengthening and widening his back. Yet in spite of having found a more efficient organization he confronted an obstacle: overcoming the force of habit that continually reinstated movement patterns deep in the nervous system. He saw that focusing on the end result was obscuring the “means whereby” his movement took place. Alexander went on to refine a technique of “inhibiting” all automatic impulses just at the moment of movement and replacing this with “conscious constructive control.” He overcame his habitual wrong use and not only his voice problem but his nasal and respiratory difficulties vanished too. The end of his experiment was the beginning of a lifetime’s work refining and teaching his technique first in Britain and later all over the world. Endorsed and supported by such influential people as Aldous Huxley, John Dewey, and George Bernard Shaw, the Alexander technique proved especially valuable to vocalists (and has been on the curriculum of acting schools and music conservatories for decades.) In a typical Alexander session, the teacher uses gentle manual guidance to increase the student’s physical awareness in basic movements such as sitting-to- standing, and walking. Students will be trained to inhibit habitual patterns and recognize good coordination of the head, neck and trunk.

Gary Burton and the Alexander Technique Berklee College of Music Executive Vice President and vibraphonist Gary Burton credits an injury-free musical career to attention to his own biomechanics and lessons with an Alexander teacher. His interest in these matters came early in his development: “In my teens and early 20s,” Burton states, “when I practiced, I did a lot of thinking about how I was moving and what was moving and noticing tension. Over the years, I made changes as I became more aware of what was involved physically.” After a year of studying the Alexander technique, Burton developed a sense of how to hold his neck and head which felt correct. He developed a lasting body awareness and new habits yielding benefits that go beyond playing the vibraphone. “I’ve always had the unprovable assumption,” he says, “that the reason I’ve never had any back problems, after years of lugging a vibraphone around, lifting it in and out of car trunks, is because I’m quite aware how I move, when I pick something up where the pulls and strains are, and how to do it carefully.”

The Feldenkrais Method®

Moshe Feldenkrais was a Russian-born engineer, physicist and athlete who worked with Nobel Prize winner Joliot-Curie in early nuclear research. As one of the first Europeans to earn a Black Belt in Judo (1936) he introduced this Martial Art to the West through his teaching and five books on the subject. In the early 1940’s, after suffering a series of crippling sports-related knee injuries, he was given a 50- percent chance that surgery could repair his knees. But the doctors warned that if the surgery failed, he might end up with crutches or in a wheelchair. Feldenkrais chose not to undergo the proposed surgery and instead be began to study neurology, anatomy, biomechanics, human movement development, and systems theory. Using his own body as his laboratory , after two years of research and experimentation, he taught himself to walk again. Feldenkrais continued his studies and tested his ideas with friends and colleagues, treating their aches and pains, muscle and joint problems, and even serious neurological conditions. By accessing the power of the central nervous system and our extraordinary ability to learn, he found he could achieve improvement in people where many other approaches had failed. He continued to refine his ideas into a system known as the Feldenkrais Method, eventually training practitioners in Israel and the U.S. Today, there are thousands of practitioners worldwide and the Feldenkrais Method is taught in numerous physical rehabilitation centers, universities, theater and music programs and community education centers.

While Alexander had focused on the head-neck relationship, Feldenkrais– with his background as a Judo master–was especially interested in how the central, powerful muscles surrounding our pelvis and trunk properly do the hard work while the extremities fine-tune our movement. When, due to rigidities in trunk and pelvis, the smaller muscles are forced to take over work more efficiently done at our center, strain and injury often follow.

The Feldenkrais Method is taught in two formats. In group classes, called Awareness Through Movement®, the Feldenkrais teacher verbally leads students through movements which gradually increase in range and complexity. Based on developmental movements, ordinary activities, or more abstract explorations of joint, muscle, and postural relationships, the emphasis is on learning which movements work better and noticing the changes in your body. As students become more aware of their habitual neuromuscular patterns and rigidities, they develop new alternatives with improved flexibility and coordination the result.

Private Feldenkrais lessons, called Functional Integration®, are tailored to each student’s individual learning needs. Performed with the student fully clothed (usually lying on a table or in sitting or standing positions) the practitioner, through gentle touching and movement, communicates how you organize yourself physically and the student learns how to reorganize his or her body and behavior in more expanded functional motor patterns.

Learning Not Healing

While there are clearly therapeutic benefits to both the Alexander Technique and the Feldenkrais Method, they are educational in nature and achieve their results by tapping our vast potential for self-awareness and self-direction. The learning process used is not goal-oriented but exploratory, and works much like the way we learned as infants to sit, stand and walk–essential abilities that we all learned without a teacher. Without the idea of achievement (and the judgmental activity that accompanies it,) students are free to discover what they are doing (not what they are “supposed to be” doing) and from there explore other possibilities.

Learning this way reduces compulsive, self-destructive movement patterns. Practitioner Paul Linden’s comment shows the results: “he didn’t feel that he had learned a static formula which dictated the right way to play, but that he had increased his awareness so he was better at reading the cues his body and the sound of the music were giving him.”

Both Feldenkrais and Alexander refused to accept the opinion of experts and rejected the Western cultural emphasis on one correct way for everyone. Rather, by paying careful attention to their movement, they learned what they needed to improve their use of themselves. Through the methods they founded they demonstrated their implicit trust in the individuals’ ability to find his or her own way to better coordination.

Any program of treatment for overuse and misuse injuries should take advantage of the power of Somatic Education which is the power of learning that is every person’s birthright.

1 Don Hanlon Johnson, Body 2 Paul Linden Body Awareness Education for Musicians: A Case Study Illustrating Basic Exercises and Principles

Copyright © 1996 by Richard Ehrman



Source by Richard Ehrman

22 Sep

Today The American Education Is Being Reinvented

Today the American education is being reinvented. The assumptions that have governed its structures and power relationships for more than a century are being replaced. This reinvention is breeding all manner of novel approaches to schools, and hybrid arrangements that blur the line that has long separated public and private schools. For example, the best of what have come to be called charter schools possess elements of today’s public and private systems. Moreover, this new model is not an unbridled, laissez-faire, free-market one. The public retains its interest in the delivery of educational services paid for by public funds. Public authorities continue to set standards for educational performance-especially student achievement standards-of all schools receiving public funds and monitor whether those standards are achieved.

– Shift of power from producers to consumers. Public education has long been producer-oriented. The primary beneficiaries of this model are the school and its employees, not its customers. Bureaucrats, experts, and special interests control the system and make decisions within the framework of a public-school monopoly.

New studies show that students want higher standards of behavior and achievement, and that nearly six out of ten parents with children in public schools would send their children to private schools if they could afford to, which the analysts interpreted as “a public poised for flight.”

– Emphasis on results. The second principle guiding reinvention is the primacy of what children learn and how well they learn it-not on what rules schools follow, how they are run, the (worthy) intentions of educators, or what they spend. Administrators should monitor the academic results of education, letting individual schools decide how to achieve them-including yearly calendar, daily schedules, staffing arrangements, student grouping, budget decisions, and so forth.

– Accountability. Schools must establish accountability and create an assessment system that measures results. An accountability system begins with a clear set of learning standards or expectations. There are two types of standard. Content standards define the skills and knowledge students should attain at various stages-what they should know and do. Performance standards-sometimes called achievement levels-specify an expected level of proficiency-what is good enough to advance from one stage to the next.

Students should be promoted and graduate only when they have met specified standards; universities should admit students only when they meet college-level entry norms; and employers should examine transcripts and use them in their hiring decisions. Likewise, teachers, principals, and other responsible adults should be rewarded for success, penalized for failure, and dismissed if they or their schools cannot get the job done.

– School choice. Also guiding the reinvention of American education is the notion that schools can be different from one another rather than identical and that families should be free to choose among a variety of educational opportunities and settings. Schools should fit the differing needs of families and kids-not bureaucrats, state and local regulations, or union contracts. Various current proposals would allow non-government schools and home schoolers to receive money under choice plans: tax credits, tax-free K-12 education savings accounts, publicly (and privately) funded scholarships, and others. Because these scholarship dollars would be aid to families, not schools, they could be used at any lawfully operating school-public, private, or religious.

– Professionalism. The reinvention model holds that those who work in schools should be treated like-and conduct themselves as-professionals. This means deregulating the schools, freeing them from bureaucratic control and micromanagement, and allowing individual schools, educators, and parents wide latitude in decision-making on issues such as teaching loads and methods, staffing, and resource allocation.

– The education profession itself should be deregulated. Recruitment of educators for the reinvented public school should not be limited to graduates of teacher- or administrator-training programs. The teachers’ unions may be an obstacle to such reforms, but even they have shown some hopeful signs.

This new vision of American education is spreading rapidly, redefining public education, and blurring the line between public and private schools. It is creating a radically new system of education in which families choose from a continuum of opportunities and learning designs, with public money following the child to the school of choice. As lines blur and private and public schools become more alike (and different from today’s schools), private schools too will change. Mounting private school opposition to vouchers suggests that some would rather keep their independence than participate in a blurring that is apt to bring considerably more control from others. States, however, already have the authority to regulate private schools; it is thus unlikely that reinvention will destroy their autonomy. The new model allows them to remain “private” in several important ways: they are self-governing, free from most regulations, able to hire whomever they like, in control of their own curriculum, and attended by youngsters whose parents choose them.

The central principle organizing the academic program of most parochial schools is a core curriculum for all students regardless of background and future educational plans. Electives are limited, and required courses predominate.

Students of all racial and ethnic backgrounds respond well to the challenge. The focused core curriculum of a parochial school improves student achievement, particularly among disadvantaged students, and protects against the academic fads that sweep through the education world with such depressing frequency. Schools of the future will require more core academic coursework of their students, particularly socially and economically disadvantaged ones.

Such a structure requires a strong communal organization. Parochial educators view teaching as a vocation, a ministry of service. The schools promote personal interactions and shared experiences among those who work in, attend, and support them. Numerous activities unite staff, students, and supporters-including athletic events, fundraisers, rallies, school plays, alumni gatherings, retreats, and various forms of religious ritual and prayer. Academically, the core curriculum plays this unifying role. These promote a commonality of purpose that supports the school’s mission.

Parochial schools are typically less constrained by centrally controlled bureaucracies than are public schools. Nearly all important decisions are made at the school site, under the leadership of the principal. This allows a school to develop a distinctive character and sensitivity to the unique needs of students and families.

This market responsiveness is moderated by the fundamental beliefs and values that permeate the school. The unique educational philosophy of a parochial school affirms the existence of fundamental truths and includes a special, religiously based respect for the dignity of each person and the sacredness of human community. This perspective determines not only what students know but also the morality they will follow and the moral community the school creates.

Perhaps the greatest difference between the public and private realms is this explicit moral education, character development, and, in religious schools, religious instruction (though public schools in recent years have become more mindful of these issues).

Charter schools-(mostly) independent public schools of choice accountable for the results of student learning-comprise a serious attempt by the public sector to reinvent education along these lines and give public schools full autonomy. Unfortunately, not all charter school laws are equal: some display the facade of freedom but not the reality. Policymakers must resist the temptation to constrain charter operators with the current web of state statutes, rules, collective bargaining agreements, and the like.

As charter schools demonstrate, a public school is coming to mean any school willing to embrace high standards, enroll students without discrimination, and be accountable for its results, regardless of who owns or operates it. Public money follows the child to these schools, and what unites them is a compulsory set of academic outcomes confined to a core list of broadly accepted knowledge and skills.

American “public” schools of the future will not look, feel, or act like “government.” But they are plainly larger than the individual or family. In that sense, they satisfy the classic definition of a “mediating” institution, They are, in fact, examples of what contemporary analysts term “civil society.” They are voluntary institutions, neither compulsory nor monopolistic. They are more responsive to their communities than schools created by large public bureaucracies.

Schools, of course, should play a fundamental role in this process, but today’s conventional public schools are hobbled by bureaucratic constraints against religious education. Of course, in a pluralistic society there are bound to be varying ideas of what this means. Unfortunately, the current system of American public education cannot accommodate such variety. Thus if we are to revitalize our communities, if we are to rebuild the social capital of our families and neighborhoods, if we are to educate our young people, especially those who are most disadvantaged, we must allow families much more choice in schooling, and with it a flowering of variety, pluralism, and freedom. Antiquated laws and attitudes that favor the status quo are the only real limit on the future of American education.



Source by Megan Wilson