E A R T H S I D E
USEFUL TEACHING IDEAS FOR TEACHERS AND PARENTS
Bringing the Body to Balance
We need to know where our centre is before we can really start to learn.
Balance is required before learning can begin. A lack of balance can be exhibited in many ways; the child who swings on her chair, or who cannot sit still; the one who keeps touching his head; the child whose behaviour is markedly different at school compared to that at home.
Lack of balance is often accompanied by an inability to be still. Stillness is required for learning. A child without the ability to bring herself to moments of focused stillness will not be able to engage with her intellectual tasks sufficiently, and will be disadvantaged.
We are never really completely still. Every part of our bodies is in a constant state of rhythmic movement. A child who is even slightly unwell will start to feel and be upset by a lack of rhythm, and will find it harder to still herself sufficiently. Sometimes these states are acute and passing, brought on by ‘failures at the gate’, such as a missed breakfast, a late night party or dehydration after a hot lunch play. A child with chronic imbalance, such as one hampered by retained infant reflexes, will begin every day and every class in this a-rhythmic state, to a greater or lesser extent.
A fine, inner sense of ‘balance’ is required for learning. In some subjects, such as maths and science, we know that balance is essential. A sum cannot be right unless both sides of the equation are equal, ~balanced. Balance in other areas, such as in languages, may not be so obvious. Language nevertheless contains definite and necessary elements of balance. We know, intuitively, that a sentence is not complete if it reads,
Tom kicked the.
We experience, on the one side, the subject; then at the fulchrum, the verb; and then, imbalance, as if some ‘thing’ is missing. The article is not enough, it is (even by itself) out of balance without a noun to attach to. This innate lack of balance needs to be experienced inwardly by the child if they are to employ this inner sense in their reading, writing and sentence formation. It is this ‘sense’ of completion that allows children to notice their own errors and so become self-correcting. In all other aspects of language these subtle aspects of balance exist, right down to the pronunciation of, and stress given to, individual sounds within words and sentences.
The healthy development of the physical sense of balance has direct, and as yet poorly understood, effects upon these inner and subtle balance activities required for higher learning across all areas.
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ES012© Sean David Burke 2010. Free to Copy as is.
Sean is the author of Lighting the Literacy Fire: Creative Ideas for Teachers and Parents
Earthside Blog Index
1. Get a Grip: Starting the Day with a Handshake
3. Teach Something Meaningless
5. The Teacher as a Sower of Seeds
8. A Succession of Memorable Experiences
9. Writing Verses for Your Class
