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THE
SPIRIT OF PLAY How does one tap into the creative spark, which
each one of us possesses? Where does imagination come from? And what is it
that keeps us blocked from our imaginations. Music,
meditation, relaxation, yoga, writing or journaling are effective means of
accessing our own creativity. Classical music, especially Mozart and
baroque composers like Bach, Handel, and Vivaldi can produce a powerful
effect on our creative powers as well as our ability to learn new
material. To
access the world of imagination, children don’t need to enter an altered
state, listen to classical music, relax in the Alpha state, journal or
meditate. They play, explore, discover, make-believe. Even if a child were
deprived of the world of store-bought toys, she or he would take whatever
is available, a stick, some bugs, a piece of paper, a blade of grass, and
create an endless number of imaginative activities. Just
watch a group of pre-schoolers: jumping, shouting, running, laughing,
building, singing, humming, chasing, pounding, dressing up, pretending,
drawing, doodling. Then watch
a group of adults! In a classroom they would be sitting and taking notes.
In a committee meeting they would be discussing or brainstorming. In a
conference room they would be outlining and designing, solving problems.
In a courtroom they would be arguing or debating. In the park or at the
beach they would most likely be reading a book. With adults, laughter is
minimal, silliness is rare to non-existent. St.
Exupéry’s well-loved classic The
Little Prince tells the tale of a small boy who travels to the Earth
from a faraway asteroid and visits many different planets before landing
on the Earth. He describes the people he has met, the mathematician, the
businessman, the tippler, and the geographer, who count money, drink, or
collect things, and are only interested in numbers and serious matters. He
says adults as serious people who put their attention on all the wrong
things . Why
is it that when we become adults we put our attention on the wrong things,
and cast away our playfulness and the joie
de vivre that is innate in us as children? Why can’t adults be more
like children? They
can, in an Accelerated Learning classroom.
Accelerated Learning is a method used not only in teaching foreign
languages but also in teaching or training adults at corporations. The
students master large amounts of material in a short period of time with
much higher retention than that of traditional “listen and write or
repeat” approaches used in training and school classrooms. One of the
key elements in the learning process is “infantilization.” The term
sounds like a psychological problem or diagnosis. It actually means
becoming playful and child-like in order to get our focus out of our
analytical heads, where serious matters are stored, and into our
imagination. |
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