7B: Personality Tests and their value in human interactions

What a gift to have these reflections on who we are at this stage in our process of becoming.  I want to begin with the recognition that a human being is never a fixed or finished product.  From before we are born to after we die, we are in process.  You could even say that the human being in itself is a process.  What is amazing is that the process is slow enough that we can actually see it as complete in each of its stages, allowing us to talk about it.  

When we interact with another human being, we are two processes of becoming meeting one another.  We can use the information gathered from a personality test to share something about our process with others who we are meeting.   If I am asked to take on a task, and I know that my conscientiousness rating is low, I can say, I would love to, but I am not always the most reliable. If I am seeking to change this I may follow this by saying "can you please follow up with me to make sure I do what has been asked?" Or I might just say, please don't be upset if this doesn't get done.  Either way, I am letting the other person into my own process. This allows us to build trust and a sense of authenticity in our interactions.

My hope is that through speaking openly about myself I can enter into a relationship of mutual support with another person.  There is something incredible that happens when two people can really meet and discover in that meeting, something about what each person is becoming.  This requires a basic capacity of speaking openly about who we are and who we feel we could be.  When we meet people with this intention we can move quickly beyond personality clashes to really seeing in the interaction an opportunity for becoming more of who we are in the world.

Screen-Based Technologies and the developing child. -Psych Post 6B

This is an interesting post for me.  On the one hand, I refuse screen time for my young one.  On the other hand, we are researching kid's software and if the claims they make are backed by evidence.  It is tricky, because the claims of increasing IQ and expanding vocabulary could be true, without these being healthy mediums of development for children.  The way this question is framed leads to an important question of our times.  When does our focus on specific qualities of things make us blind to the wider of the world in which we live?  

In the case of baby signs, the learning outcome is simple, learning sign language. Early use of sign language has been shown to positively affect children’s development.  However, Barnes points out that these correlations could have other causes.  Children may develop increased self esteem and overall capacities as a result of the signing itself or as a side-effect of increased parent-child interaction.  The question in this case, is not whether learning sign language is beneficial.  It is the unspoken question, how is a child affected by working with a screen?

There is very little research available which seeks to understand the more fundamental aspects of human development and how they may be impacted by screen-based technologies.  We cannot rely on science to provide us with the framework we need to understand these new technologies.  This understanding has to come from within, through our own quest for knowledge, seeking insight into the questions that move us.

References:

Barnes, S. (2010). Sign Language With Babies: What Difference Does It Make? Dimensions of Early Childhood, Volume 38, Number 1. Retrieved from: http://sprechende-haende.de/cms/upload/pdf/Sign_Language_With_Babies_What_Difference_Does_It_Make_Susan_Kubic_Barnes_Volume_38_Issue_1.pdf

Stirring Preps with Four Year Olds

Tomorrow, I will be doing something I have never done before.

Tomorrow, I will walk boldly into the daycare where I work - big, red muck bucket in one hand and a small bag of very special manure in the other.

What makes this manure special?  It has lain cozy in a cow horn over the winter months to ferment and enter into a new relationship with the earth.  The cow horn helps concentrate and direct the earth's energies into the cow manure giving it new capacities of caring for the land.  http://www.biodynamics.in/BD500.htm

What an amazing activity for young ones to participate in.

Together, we will stir a small amount of manure in 10 gallons of water - making vortex after vortex - until the water is alive with the energies imparted to the manure over its time in the earth.

After snack, we will go for a big long walk around the school.  Each child will carry a tiny metal bucket and some kind of coniferous branch with which to spray their special medicine, letting the gnomes and other creatures know we care for them, and helping them in their work of digging paths for the roots of the many plants which grow on our land.

I feel so blessed to be able to explore this mysterious activity with these little ones.  I know that their wonderful will to dive head first into life will be a welcome companion in tomorrow's adventures.  I thank the wonderful designer of life for the gift of young people and all their various and sundry stages of life, each with its own intriguing qualities and gifts.

And I thank you, dear reader for your interest in this sweet little story.