Marvel at concepts

At this point I'm trying to integrate what I'm learning on my fresh course on ethics (Mussar) and what I know both from previous knowledge and experience. In science I learned not to be original except for the discussion part which was my prefered part. Originality I see as the fringe of knowledge, where knowledge has no shape yet for us to understand it. I guess like a child I like to marvel at concepts.
Is the meaning of the word that I think it is really true or is the truth slightly different? Would another shape explain it better? I like to compare my ideas to that of others.

Juggling with selfishness

What I regret most is that I've pushed others away and chosen to be selfish. It is healthy to put up boundaries between myself and others, but at the same time we are a unity of souls. I tried to retract from this. This paradox of the tension between healthy boundaries and healthy unity puzzles me. What is my place? Am I conscious of the world, am I humble? It feels as if I'm juggling with this in relationships and when I think of world news e.g. on poverty.
How can I be with boundaries and less selfish, open to the world at the same time?

scaffolding integrity and mindmapping with numbers

The idea that logical thinking is a prerequisite for integrity was challenged when I tried my concept of scaffolding integrity using natural numbers and mindmapping. The child associated concepts with one and anavah, which means humble in Hebrew (humility,...). One exercise was to draw the number one in different sizes, from big to small. Then the child was free to draw whatever he wanted, and drew a war scene. A tank shooting at an individual. I asked him to write 'not modest' under it. He agreed.
We like to think children are unwritten sheets, but war may be in their mind.
Another child associated on bitachon, which means trust in Hebrew (relate,...). He drew a swann, because of the similarity of shape with the number 2, a road between two houses, two birds and a mirror. I didn't think of a mirror. It opened a thinking path for me. It made me think about the relationship with yourself as two.

integrity and numbers

Thinking about scaffolding integrity and mindmapping with numbers I resolved to write a booklet for children that combines both. I had pages in my head but am afraid to forget what I imagined. I should sit down and write. It gives children useful concepts.

scaffolding integrity and the unconscious

What do you mean by unconscious, my husband asked this morning. The unconscious is not one thing. One is not homogenic, I thought, thinking of the complexity of an organism or a society. I think about integrity and ways to teach children about it when my unconscious gives topics that I don't associate with children like war. The unconscious is the realm of repressed feelings and thought and I'm busy with a spiritual make-over? So I started out trying to teach and find my own conscience on the way. First, how is it that we can communicate with each other? that we have a world of ideas to begin with. Are we not that discrete?
I try to understand how music can have meaning as if I was a child and it was explained to me for the first time.
The music is analogical to a story, music expresses or offers a projection screen for thought or visualisation.
In dreams and prethinking, themes arise, food for integrity. What choices have I made or will I make? Am I living up to my wishes of integrity in my fantasy? Or am I going in opposite directions. A plait consists of opposite directions and is nevertheless a unity. Is music a pleasant model for the building of integrity? Like perfume and belief systems?
Meanwhile a lesson synthesised itself in my mind. Maybe it helps to be artistic to show integrity.

école buissonière

More than a year ago I watched the dvd école buissonière that depicts a school between two world wars at the tipping point for letting children express themselves in the classroom. Today the expression of children in the classroom differs when schools increase working with standard materials and try to much to fix life on measures, leaving not enough room for the particular beauty of the momentary occurence not yet catched in words.

mindmapping with numbers

A new schoolyear started with mindmapping and numbers. This time I left the books of numbertheory and mindmapping at home and gave my lesson à l'improviste to about thirty children. We divided in groups with different numbers. "Natural numbers" a child remembered from last year. Free association showed me that most associations with the numbers are in images, some are actually related to the number. Children learned how their brain remembers well concepts with which they associated freely. Hopefully this will help them learn. I don't know yet where to go from here. I have a week to decide what to do with the harvest, a pile of paper with free associations in children handwriting. I want to show a possible direction.
In my thoughts sounds 'logical reasonning', 'categories', 'nature', 'music', 'ethics'... but the child associates to four: cows.