The Future of Education

The material is represented by the physical and virtual world (including the effects of machine learning and smart technology that present pre-packaged decisions to us). The spiritual is represented by our inner voice - the words that come into our heads when our minds stop talking. However, it needs nurturing, encouragement, and role-modelling. How do we encourage teachers to have the confidence to tune into their spiritual voice? And in so doing, how can they model for students how to remain in charge of the decisions and preferences that frame their lives? When preparing classroom lessons for my Grade 8 students, I frontload (plan in advance) the lesson by visualizing their most predictable behaviours and reactions. However, once the lesson begins, I let go of the presuppositions that come along with frontloading. This way, nothing interferes with stilling my mind so that my spiritual voice can speak through me to the students. This means letting go of executive control and trusting that everything said will come from a place of love (which children will naturally intuit). I will reference Dr. Paul Ekman’s research on micro-expressions, and his discussions with the Dalai Lama about the bridging of the spiritual and material world. I will also discuss whether statement analysis can be applied here as a qualitative research method.

Keywords: Spiritual, material, micro-expressions, statement analysis, voice;

References:
[1] Dr. Paul Ekman and the Dalai Lama; https://www.paulekman.com/projects/global-compassion/
[2] Mark McClish on statement analysis; I Know You Are Lying (2001)