Poetic Knowledge: Dendrites and Intercession

I haven’t even finished the chapter but I had so many thoughts I had to get down! Now I feel frozen and unable to articulate all I thought and said aloud in the shower.

Sigh.

I remembered some of what I learned in high school about the brain, in particular, dendrites. I recalled that dendrites are the branch like structures that connect our brain cells. The more we have the more “connected” our brain is. We can grow dendrites by learning.

Then I thought of Shields and how it wasn’t until he worked on a farm that mathematical principles made sense to him. I wondered if doing and learning certain things will grow the dendrite connections in certain ways. I theorized that I could use the scientific method to prove my idea that “the order of poetic knowledge” along with the rhetoric and dialectic degrees of knowledge are elements of a complete knowledge set to make one wise and whole. Those who implement all the order of reasoning will have greater dendrite growth and connections that they would not have if only focusing on one type of reasoning. This is why, the poetic senses Shields used in his farm work allowed him to comprehend the mathematic principles he was taught in school. There was no other way for him.

I also pondered Godly communication and how he likes to use symbol and parable to teach the faithful. In this way the mysteries of God can be revealed to those who are prepared and ready for such knowledge and wisdom while those who are not ready simply hear a story or see a mark – understanding and insight can be gained only if we are prepared.

We need to work and participate in wholesome recreation such as “traditional crafts that endured up to preindustrial, pretechnological times” to cultivate the poetic knowledge attributes within ourselves and those we teach.

As I had these notions fly through my mind I thought about the new (to me) gardening method I’m working on - square foot gardening. This will be a great way to teach arithmetic in a whole knowledge sense verses a textbook and worksheets. This will allow myself and my children to “get” math and math “get us”, among other subjects. I have recently taken an interest in sewing and knitting and although I have not yet taken up knitting (waiting on my ordered supplies) I am sure it will expand my mind in more ways and areas of knowledge then just the craft itself. Surely these things will help us to “relate…facts into ideas.”

This assurance stems from my earlier idea that Godly communication is in symbol and parable and what better way to gain more symbol and parable fare then through beautiful creation and work? The more we allow ourselves and our children to delve into the 4 degrees of knowledge the more complete we will be and the more prepared to receive of the “mysteries of God”. Sadly the trends of our society and public schooling system only endorse one method and, as Taylor pointed out through Verhoeven we will be, “condemned to lifelong mediocrity” unless there is intervention.

I testify to you that we are the intervention! Our teaching our children and learning and growing with each other and them are the intercession!

With all the advantages of our day how much more could we know, have, and be if only most of us would balance these areas of knowledge? What could someone contribute to the good of all if they worked hard in providing for themselves through more means then just employment for the almighty dollar, say a garden and raising some animals too? What if that same person practiced homeopathic medicine, nature studies, a craft or trade, and was well read in a broad range of areas (yet deeply in their chosen topics)? How about if that person was one of Godly principle and virtue, who pondered and served their fellow brothers and sisters in the Lord?

What is our potential really?

What is our children’s potential?

So often I feel that despite all our technological advances and “civilization” we are a world full of back-sliding barbarians.

May we do the following:

Six days shalt thou labour, and do all they work:

But the seventh day is the sabbath of the Lord thy God: (Exodus 20:9-10)

And as all have not faith, seek ye diligently and teach one another words of wisdom; yea, seek ye out of the best books words of wisdom; seek learning, even by study and also by faith.

Organize yourselves; prepare every needful thing; and establish a house, even a house of prayer, a house of fasting, a house of faith, a house of learning, a house of glory, a house of order, a house of God;(D & C 88:118-119).

Amen…

P.S. “The renowned brain researcher Dr. Marian Diamond…poetically describes it [dendritic growth]: We began with a nerve cell, which starts in the embryo as just a sort of sphere. It sends its first branch out to overcome ignorance. As it reaches out, it is gathering knowledge and it is becoming creative. Then we become a little more idealistic, generous, and altruistic; but it is our six-sided dendrites which give us wisdom."

Who created the dendrites? I testify it was our Father in Heaven.

…and Amen.

Poetic Knowledge Ch.4 Part 2

Taylor covers Rousseau:

"Love childhood, indulge its games, its pleasures, its delightful instincts....Why pave the way for future regret for yourselves by robbing them of the short span which nature has allotted them. As soon as they are aware of the joy of life, let them rejoice in it, so that whenever God calls them they may not die without having tasted the joy of life."

Even so Rousseau "fails to see the real purpose of them [the senses] as they are integrated with the emotions, will and intellect--the emotions (via the senses) moved by wonder; the will, naturally attracted to the good; and, the mind inclined intuitively to the truth."

"Rousseau's Naturalism...is unnatural in that it rejects the natural human faculties of the will and intellect...example...'Let the child do nothing on anybody's word. Nothing is good for him unless he feels it to be so.'"

Upon first reading this I thought of the public school indoctrination of values clarification.

The other thing that stood out to me is Taylors bit on Verhoeven:

"Verhoeven's study of the separation of wonder from philosophy reveals the devastating effects on education....what passes for general education today is actually a barrier to knowledge in the absence of the poetic element of wonder.

'General education is...a substitute for knowledge among people for whom that knowledge is too dangerous and too demanding...It creates and preserves mediocrity. It does not demand that contact with things, the piercing of man's self righteous subjectivity which is precisely the beginning of knowledge....At best it displays mountain peaks, but saves one the trouble of climbing them..........The great temptation of education is to insist that one should memorize the results of science instead of flinging open its sources"

In reading this section I wrote in the margin, "This [mindset] comes about out of selfishness and the false idea of scarcity."

Next Reading and Schedule: As A Man Thinketh

Well, we have read one book and now it is time to put up the schedule for the next book. We are going to have a few weeks break because in that time frame I have two weddings in Anchorage, husbands family visiting, a wood stove chimney install which entails rearranging of the house, and our 10 year wedding anniversary! So hope you enjoy the break and will be refreshed and renewed to tackle this next read which is AMAZING! :) While this book is small and the chapters are small it packs a lot of great pondering bites so we will only do one chapter at a time.

As A Man Thinketh by James Allen

June 16: Forward and Thought and Character

June 23: Effect of Thought on Circumstances

June 30: Effect of Thought on Health and the Body

July 7: Thought and Purpose

July 14: The Thought-Factor in Achievement

July 21: Visions and Ideals

July 28: Serenity and schedule for the next reading

Headgate Last: Real and Reminders

Part of this section fit well with my most recent post on another book I'm reading called Poetic Knowledge. I want to reiterate some of that other post in this one.

Tibbets states, "I am trying to make their lives so real that they can actually recognize and appreciate things of real value when they find them. I want to refine their tastes..."

From my other blog post: "So much of our socially accepted norms of our day work to separate us from this well of knowledge [granted by the spirit] by either telling us it is not important, "only science and math is" or by distracting us from the whisperings of wisdom with constant "noise" from TV, video games, twitter, radio, etc. “The Spirit speaketh the truth and lieth not. Wherefore, it speaketh of things as they really are, and of things as they really will be; wherefore, these things are manifested unto us plainly, for the salvation of our souls” Jacob 4:13

I know that closing wrong headgates is a quick and productive way to guide our children without coercion. I've seen it work in my own home. It provides a way to help our children learn truth and see the world as it really is. Sometimes it's a challenge to figure out what headgate needs closed or be willing to close it but when you do the blessing will come. For example: My children love, love, love to play outside. They will do it all day coming in only to go to the bathroom, eat and get a drink. They will go all over the neighborhood looking for playmates. When I close that headgate they are "bored" for awhile but then they will start pulling out books to learn from (I've already gotten rid of many of the toys, which they are glad of because they don't have to clean them up and our house is cleaner more consistently). I see a refinement within them and a calming when I release them from the almost chaos of unrestrained play time. It has been a blessing to us.

Another quote from Tibbets I like:

The initial purpose of determining right and wrong headgates is that the right ones lead to love of learning, and the wrong ones lead to love of play. Love of play is a wonderful and necessary part of childhood, but children already have a love of play. We do not need to purposely provide activities for them that help keep them in perpetual childhood any longer then necessary. We're not trying to make adults out of our little children. We are trying to let them be little children while they are little children, in such a way, that they can stop being little children when they become big children. The right kind of play lands them into Love of Learning when they become old enough.

I was glad to read this again and be reminded of the chart Tibbets created to help determine where our children are in their progression, gauge their improvement, and better guide them to move on when the time is right. I had forgotten about that assistant and will be implementing it again; in fact, I will print up some copies of it to put in my common place book, scriptures, etc. I'm so glad I was able to re-read this e-book, write about, and discuss it. It's been a great refresher, definitely something I should try to re-read every six months or so!

What was something you gained from this reading and is it valuable to you as a classic?

Poetic Knowledge 4.1: Men's philosophies have separated us from what is real

Okay, once again I found this section very applicable to having a negative affect on the understanding of my world view.

According to Taylor Descartes, Hume, Kant, Dewey, Wittgenstein and Ayer all have three things in common:

"One, they all begin with the consciousness, the mind, as the starting point of reality, as opposed to an independent existence outside the knower; two, doubt, as in the modern scientific mode, is the method of procedure to establish, if possible, certitude, or some experimental social agendas; and, three, following from number two, all these philosophies distrust, if they do not reject, the traditional view that the senses, inner and outer, are intimately integrated in the act of knowing with the will and the intellect, and have, as it were, a cognitive power in themselves, a light whose source is the illuminative energy of the mind that knows reality immediately and certainly.

To summarize, then, in the spirit of Maritain: these modern philosophies stemming from Descartes all violate a primordial disposition of man, doing violence to his very nature as a specific being, who is capable of knowing his world as a whole being, integrated and entire, body and soul, recognizing unselfconsciously and spontaneously, that all is real and good. It is only when an exaggerated and isolated status of the mind is assumed, and removed from its proper integration within the knowing powers, that Descartes and his legacy gain prominence."

Several times Taylor brought up the topic of "first principles" which brings to mind a tenant of my faith which says in part, "We believe that the first principles and ordinances of the gospel are: first, Faith in the Lord Jesus Christ...'. Although, as Taylor says, Descartes "was convinced...his method would lead to truth" we are instead left with "a preoccupation with doubt". Obviously if one practices doubt that is what they will be filled with. If one practices faith, on the other hand, then that is what they will be filled with. Now, I looked up the definition of doubt and faith at dictionary.com. Doubt received 5 definition group results, faith received 0, zip, nada, zilch.

Hmmmmmm........ **

Regardless...here are some definitions for you:

Doubt: to distrust,a feeling of uncertainty about the truth, reality, or nature of something.
Antonyms for doubt: Assurance, certainty, conviction
Faith: "Faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen" Heb. 11:1 KJV JST

So we see that doubt and faith are opposing ideas and Descartes and his Cartesian legacy are against God and faith because those ideas lead to, "the ultimate rejection of the necessary first principles and self-evident truths". How perfectly in line with Satan's desires. He is a fallen spirit (Isaiah 14:12) with no body and tries to do all he can to separate us from the spirit + body = soul connection.

Once again, I am strongly impressed that what Taylor refers to as Poetic knowledge is actually a spiritual inspiration and knowing. So much of our socially accepted norms of our day work to separate us from this well of knowledge by either telling us it is not important, "only science and math is" or by distracting us from the whisperings of wisdom with constant "noise" from TV, video games, twitter, radio, etc. “The Spirit speaketh the truth and lieth not. Wherefore, it speaketh of things as they really are, and of things as they really will be; wherefore, these things are manifested unto us plainly, for the salvation of our souls” Jacob 4:13

I thought this scripture is a good one to ponder in relation to Taylors book and his definition of fear: "And unto man he said, Behold, the fear of the Lord, that is wisdom; and to depart from evil is understanding." Job 28:28 KJV see also verses 12-13, 20-23

In another reading of mine I found this quote applicable: "If the world is to be improved, the process of love must make a change in the hearts of humans. It can do so when we look beyond self to give our love to God and others, and do so with all our hearts, with all our souls, and with all our minds." Gordon B. Hinckley Standing for Something p.9

How can we fully love with all our hearts, souls, and minds when the philosophies of the world separate us from our complete selves?

**When this was originally written on 5/10/11 there were no definitions for faith (I have the screen prints as proof) but by the night of 5/13 there were definitions and today when I checked there are 8 listings. 5/15/11

The Headgate: Close Wrong Headgates

Tibbets open this section by relating a story of a farmer who opens and closes headgates to various fields to water them. This simple action of opening and closing headgates and allowing the water to freely flow within those bounds demonstrates how our children are. The are like the water, seeking progression and fulfillment. When we manage the headgates they will naturally flow to where they need to go to produce the best results.

A right headgate is defined as any activity you would want your children to voluntarily engage in, that would help develop their mind and direct their motivation towards wanting to read. A right headgate is determined by asking the following five questions:

1. Does the fun or the thrill of the play come from the child's own brain, muscles, or voice box?

• If it has batteries then the answer is generally No.



• Examples of lifeless toys that are great for the imagination: dolls, blankets, ropes, planes, cars.



• "This environment is much like the environment our children experience when they attempt to read: substantial effort yielding subtle rewards. Children reared in this natural environment will not think that reading is too hard for what pleasure it yields them."

2. Who was the creative one, the toymaker or the child?

• 
  "...the more creative the toy, the less creative the child will be for having played with it. The less creative the toy, the more creative the child will be for having played with it--the child will have to be creative in order to get any enjoyment out of it."

3. Is the activity using resources, or wasting resources?

• An example of wasting resources is allowing the child to draw, cut, glue, and create all sorts of things that usually end up in the trash a few weeks later. This happens because they have a seemingly unlimited supply of paper, crayons, markers, glue, fancy scissors, etc.



• An example of using resources is having one notebook for drawing and a limited amount of crayons or colored pencils to draw with. It is stored in one area and is only used when the child really wants to be artistic - it also is already bound and kept in a neat unit for the future.



• "When a child is allowed to consume resources there is a false sense of progression beyond the natural thrill the activity should provide." This reminded me that John Taylor Gatto often speaks about how we are trained by the public school system to be consumers. I say we need to work on being producers more than consumers.

4. If the child is creating something, what is the end result or product, should this activity continue? Is it something useful?

• I like the idea of having purpose for our creations that are useful. Not only will these be useful for the family but doing these things will refine skills for greater self-sufficiency. Brings to mind the idea of mini-factories that Oliver DeMille talks about in The Coming Aristocracy.

5. What has become of the child after the activity is finished?

• Is he/she improved in more areas then just trivial knowledge? Trivial knowledge can be gained by viewing TV or a movie but will not improve reading comprehension, spelling, punctuation, etc.

Poetic Knowledge: Foundational (Ch.3 part 2)

Taylor states, "St. Thomas Aquinas said poetry occupies the lowest order of knowledge because it is less distinct and tends to be obscure compared to scientific knowledge." I believe this to mean "lowest order" in the sense of foundational - first rung of the ladder rather than low as in degrading, crude, or lacking honour or desirability. This is a very important understanding that does not exist, to the extent it should, due to our society's embracing of scientific knowledge as the only knowledge worth anything.

I was talking to a friend about this yesterday when I had an epiphany. Now, normally I do not do disclaimers but seeing as how I only know most of you ladies through the blogging world and not in a face to face personal basis and I know most of you are not of the same faith I am I will do one. I am not trying to preach or convert, only explain the epiphany. I am a member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints and in addition to the King James Version of the Holy Bible we have The Book of Mormon, Doctrine & Covenants, and Pearl of Great Price as our scriptural cannon to nourish our souls with. Please bear with me my fellow Poetic Knowledge readers as I'd like to share a parable from the Book of Mormon that was a part of my epiphany. It is called Lehi's vision of the tree of life (part of the verses are Lehi talking and part are his son, Nephi, explaining the vision, any emphasis is mine)

[Lehi speaking here]
7...I beheld myself that I was in a dark and dreary waste.

8And after I had traveled for the space of many hours in darkness, I began to pray unto the Lord that he would have mercy on me, according to the multitude of his tender mercies.

9And it came to pass after I had prayed unto the Lord I beheld a large and spacious field.

10And it came to pass that I beheld a tree, whose fruit was desirable to make one happy.

11And it came to pass that I did go forth and partake of the fruit thereof; and I beheld that it was most sweet, above all that I ever before tasted. Yea, and I beheld that the fruit thereof was white, to exceed all the whiteness that I had ever seen.

12And as I partook of the fruit thereof it filled my soul with exceedingly great joy; wherefore, I began to be desirous that my family should partake of it also; for I knew that it was desirable above all other fruit.

13And as I cast my eyes round about, that perhaps I might discover my family also, I beheld a river of water; and it ran along, and it was near the tree of which I was partaking the fruit...

26And I also cast my eyes round about, and beheld, on the other side of the river of water, a great and spacious building; and it stood as it were in the air, high above the earth.

27And it was filled with people, both old and young, both male and female; and their manner of dress was exceedingly fine; and they were in the attitude of mocking and pointing their fingers towards those who had come at and were partaking of the fruit...

33And great was the multitude that did enter into that strange building. And after they did enter into that building they did point the finger of scorn at me and those that were partaking of the fruit also; but we heeded them not.

[Nephi speaking now to end]
34These are the words of my father: For as many as heeded them, had fallen away...

18And the large and spacious building, which thy father saw, is vain imaginations and the pride of the children of men. And a great and a terrible gulf divideth them; yea, even the word of the justice of the Eternal God, and the Messiah who is the Lamb of God, of whom the Holy Ghost beareth record, from the beginning of the world until this time, and from this time henceforth and forever...

35And the multitude of the earth was gathered together; and I beheld that they were in a large and spacious building, like unto the building which my father saw. And the angel of the Lord spake unto me again, saying: Behold the world and the wisdom thereof; yea, behold the house of Israel hath gathered together to fight against the twelve apostles of the Lamb.

36And it came to pass that I saw and bear record, that the great and spacious building was the pride of the world; and it fell, and the fall thereof was exceedingly great. And the angel of the Lord spake unto me again, saying: Thus shall be the destruction of all nations, kindreds, tongues, and people, that shall fight against the twelve apostles of the Lamb.

Now for the epiphany: As I was talking to my friend I told her that poetic knowledge is a foundational knowledge, in fact I really think it is a spiritual intuition, knowing beyond knowing. Our society only values the scientific knowledge - then it hit me! Our society, with it's value and pride in science, is in the great and spacious building that has no firm foundation and will fall.

Be sure to check out the other Poetic Knowledge rabbit trails here:
http://www.pelennorfields.com/mystie/2011/poetic-knowledge-book-club-connatural-intentional-and-intuitive-knowledge-part-2/