...where the Two become the One
“In theoretical, metaphorical terms, the idea I began to explore was this one: that teaching is nothing like the art of painting, where, by the addition of material to a surface, an image is synthetically produced, but more like the art of sculpture, where, by the subtraction of material, an image already locked in the stone is enabled to emerge. It is a crucial distinction. In other words, I dropped […] Read more »
“We” is a powerful and dangerous word. And peaceful people should avoid using it when talking about the actions of violent strangers. Imagine you lived in a neighborhood controlled by a violent gang… What if you started using first-person plural pronouns, like “we,” “us'” and “our” when discussing the gang and their activities, even though you were not in the gang, you didn’t know anyone in the gang, and no […] Read more »
John Taylor Gatto (born December 15, 1935) is an American retired school teacher of 29 years and 8 months and author of several books on education. He is an activist critical of compulsory schooling and of what he characterizes as the hegemonic nature of discourse on education and the education professions. Gatto was born in the Pittsburgh-area steel town of Monongahela, Pennsylvania. In his youth he attended public schools throughout […] Read more »
What is an emotional / energetic block? Quite simply, it is a lack of understanding, which is connected to our emotions and logic. Our emotions, which serve as a type of logic / CPU in a computer, function as a bridge between our perceptions (input) and actions (output). Understanding (our unconscious mind / emotions / feelings) is the bridge between what we think (conscious mind) and what we do (subconscious […] Read more »
It is okay to watch TV, as long as we are doing so with our critical thinking turned on (we use the Trivium), since most programs are meant to bypass our critical thinking and pull at our feelings, so that they can then condition our minds with their programs. Our critical thinking acts as a type of virus protection and firewall against the external programs that seek to make our […] Read more »
One of the major hurdles we run into when conveying certain concepts to others is their inability to understand the logical implications and nuances of our message. Their thinking is clouded by their own self-deceptive logic, so much so, that they are unable to reconcile the facts of a situation when they are presented, and immediately go into denial, resistance, name calling, and argumentativeness; which they support with poor logic. […] Read more »
Over the course of the past few years, a few people have felt that we weren’t open minded, since we were not open to their opinions and reasoning, but this is far from true, as it is our ability to think critically that causes us to accept or reject their opinions. Not all opinions and reasons are equal, as many are built upon emotional attachments, missing knowledge, and/or fallacious (deceptive) […] Read more »
Each person speaks and writes their insights from the level that they are at, and from where their perceptions are in the moment they are conveying their message. If they have not honed their ability to reason, especially with a system of critical thinking that continually asks and refines questions (we recommend the Trivium), then the messages that they are conveying are going to be quite limited, uninformed, and lacking reason. […] Read more »
Genesis 2:8-9; 15-17 (NIV) 8 Now the Lord God had planted a garden in the east, in Eden; and there he put the man he had formed. 9 The Lord God made all kinds of trees grow out of the ground—trees that were pleasing to the eye and good for food. In the middle of the garden were the tree of life and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. […] Read more »
Truth and honesty are not the same thing, as truth is a cyclical process, while honesty is merely an aspect of the overall process of discerning truth. The formula for truth goes like this: Knowledge (information) + Understanding (reason/logic) – Contradictions = Wisdom (Truth) Knowledge (missing, partial, or manipulated information) – Understanding (logical fallacies) + Contradictions = Folly (Lies/Deception) Honesty is part of the knowledge gathering phase of finding truth, […] Read more »
Boundaries are a fence around our being that clearly define where we begin and end in relationship to Self and others, as they show us what is and is not a reasonable use of our value and energy. Our boundaries frame the safe space from which we are able to create the life of our dreams, where we can be as unique and creative as we choose. Enmeshment is where […] Read more »
As you may already know from other articles we’ve written, the Trivium is a method of critical thinking based in asking questions in a specific cyclical order. It comprises the first three of the liberal arts of “grammar, logic, and rhetoric”, where liberal stands for “free man“; historically, the liberal arts where not allowed to be taught to slaves, but only to the “free man”. The Trivium’s order of asking […] Read more »
We often idolize those people whom we perceive are able to “get things done”, who are able to take their strategies and implement them in order to reach their goal. For example, the head coach for a sports team is judged favorably for his wins and losses record, these men and women are able to take the “what” (strategy) in their mind and make a “how” (action) that turns into […] Read more »
The law of attraction is simple, opposite polarities attract to each other, much like the north and south poles of a magnet, or positive and negative poles within a directional flow of electricity. Polarity is found all throughout nature, and creative life experiences are dependent upon it: “Everything is dual; everything has poles; everything has its pair of opposites; like and unlike are the same; opposites are identical in nature, but […] Read more »
Aline and I re-watched the movie Limitless again, since there is a new television series by the same name that picks up a side story based within the original movie’s parameters. Watching the movie reminded us of how we are already “limitless” in so many ways, having exercised our reasoning, and removed many of our emotional attachments through conscious observation. As humans, we do not require an NZT-48 designer drug […] Read more »