In response to Durval's post on recreation of information-
>There is a story by Monteiro Lobato (one of Brasil's most important
>writers and educators, who has written both for children and adults), "The
>Reform of Nature", where books are not only to be read but also eaten.
>This is a nice metaphor for the recreation of information as you
>mentioned.
This is a bit off of the path but Monteiro Lobato's story reminds me of
the way I taught NLP to inmates at San Quentin. As most of you know, I am
sure, we code our experiences through our five senses. Each of us has a
primary way to code be it visually, auditorily, kinesthetically, and/or
through taste or smell. If we want to have folks remember/understand
something, it is important that we present it in as many "modalities" as
possible.
Before each class, I would pass out name tags with gold stars on them and
have them write their names on each. We would call the men, "the re-entry
all stars," because this class was designed to prepare the men to re-entry
into society. It took place once a week for five months, giving us plenty
of time to reinforce new thinking. Anyway, each week, I would sneak oreos
into prison and it became a part of the learning experience. We found a
way to engage all of the modalities, even smell, since the men were so
sensitive to the scent of us women, being deprived for so long of that
scent. We would teach by example, sharing our own trials and tribulations
in life, new thinking such as NLP, we used metaphor(I also snuck in the
movie, "Aladdin," the story of the honorable "street rat" who is really
good and gets the girl et al. in the end.)
We absolutely jammed their senses with the message that change was
possible, life was an experience to be faced with courage and faith
because they could change. The men opened up and felt safe with us and
left the class with hope. We planted things inside them through creative
visualization and everything else would could think of. We did all we
could to give them what they had never experienced before: an
understanding of the ways they could use their brains to change, women who
respected them because they were human beings sharing joysful, fun, real,
heartfelt experiences that opened their minds to possibilities and we did
it on all the levels of learning and experience. Because of the trust
that was built, they shared experiences and feelings unheard of from men
in prison. They even talked about their feelings.
It was as if we created a sacred place within the prison where love could
live and possibility and imagination could thrive.
Diana Mordock
104022.36@compuserve.com
--Diana Mordock <104022.36@CompuServe.COM>
Learning-org -- An Internet Dialog on Learning Organizations For info: <rkarash@karash.com> -or- <http://world.std.com/~lo/>