NEED FOR SILENCE
Our whole functioning as individuals — as social beings, as spiritual beings — presupposes that we have open unstructured time…that we have silence. What happens in the silence is that we assimilate and integrate our experience, whatever it may be. We grow from it.
COMMUNICATION
The process of communication can be beautiful, if we see it in terms of simplicity and precision. Every pause made in the process of speaking becomes a kind of punctuation. Speak, allow space, speak, allow space. It does not have to be a formal and solemn occasion, but it is beautiful that you are not rushing.
AN INTEGRATIVE VISION
A more balanced approach [to education] understands that the well-being of the individual is essential for the health of a society and reciprocally, a healthy society invites the flowering of diverse human potential. I think we can find some real agreement around these two fundamental ideas and unpack an integrative vision. As part of that vision of the individual is the need to develop the inner life.
CONTEMPLATION
Contemplation is the highest expression of man’s intellectual and spiritual life. It is that life itself, fully awake, fully active, fully aware that it is alive. It is spiritual wonder. It is spontaneous awe at the sacredness of life, of being. It is gratitude for life, for awareness and for being. It is a vivid realization of the fact that life and being in us proceed from an invisible, transcendent, and infinitely abundant source.
THE NEED FOR TEACHER TRAINING IN SEL
We’ve learned over the past two decades that teachers are like the rest of the world – not trained in the skills of SEL. When teachers have effective strategies to manage their own emotions, including stress, they are better equipped to teach and model the skills for students.
