The word INTEGRATION in the context of human learning

“Comprehension and learning are inseparable. I shall refer to this continual process of relating the unfamiliar to what is already known as: making sense of the world.” – from Comprehension and Learning, by Frank Smith

In human learning, comprehension is deeply intertwined with the learning process. Comprehension means to understand the meaning, context, and nuances of information. When we learn we do so by making connections between the new information and existing knowledge and experiences. Comprehension involves more than just memorising or processing data; more than just learning flights of text by heart, copying words into one’s notebook, or imitating movements; it involves understanding concepts, context, relationships, and meaning.

Next to the term comprehension, integration could be terms with similar meaning. All these terms not only refer to contextual understanding, but to the process of melding, blending or mixing various new pieces of information, ideas, experiences, movements or knowledge with existing ones.

In human learning, comprehension or integration involve not just memorising or understanding isolated pieces of information but connecting them to one’s existing… body… framework… mental framework; drawing relationships, forming interconnectedness, creating a deeper and more holistic, unified, cohesive and interconnected whole self.

Ok, ChatGPT, what do you think about my blog post? ChatGPT:

Your blog post is thoughtfully crafted and presents a clear exploration of the interconnectedness between comprehension, learning, and the integration of new information into existing knowledge. However, there are a few areas where you might consider refining or expanding upon your ideas for clarity and depth:

  1. Transition Phrases: Consider using transition phrases to smoothly connect ideas between sentences and paragraphs. This aids in maintaining the flow and coherence of the content.
  2. Clarification: In the last sentence, it seems there might be an incomplete thought or a hesitation. You mentioned “whole self” or “whole” without fully explaining or integrating it into the previous discussion. It could benefit from further elaboration or clarification.
  3. Elaboration: You might want to expand on how comprehension, amalgamation, or integration contribute to the formation of a “whole self.” This concept could be intriguing to readers, but it might need further explanation to tie it back to the overarching theme of learning and understanding.
  4. Consistency: Ensure consistency in terminology and expressions throughout the post. For instance, choosing between “mental framework,” “body,” or “whole self” should be aligned with the overall context and message.
  5. Engagement: Consider engaging the reader by posing questions, providing examples, or using anecdotes to further illustrate the points being discussed.

This can create a more interactive and relatable reading experience.
Overall, your post delves into essential aspects of learning, comprehension, and the integration of knowledge. By refining some areas for clarity and coherence, you can further enhance the depth and impact of your message.

Alfons here again:

Yeah, the whole post is kind of unreadable and has no clear message. From my point of view it lacks purpose, mojo, punch and charm. With mojo and charm being the same thing I suppose. It started as a ChatGPT chat, and ended up being a sorry looking semi-intellectual mess. I will post it anyways.

What does schooling have to do with teaching?

About once a month someone approaches me to offer their services in growing online business. They suggest that I create a membership website, an email list, grow an online business. Tik Tok. Big audience. Sell online courses. Sell tickets to live video classes. Make money.

Yet I resist.

I can’t quite explain why. It’s just a feeling. Something is amiss. It’s not what I want to do. I don’t want to go that route that everyone is going. I can’t quite put my finger on it. What is it that I don’t like about downloadable, life-long-access online courses and Zoom video classes? What is it that I don’t like about schooling and certificates?

I know that there was once a master-apprenticeship system. I admire it. There once was a teacher called Moshé Feldenkrais, who was like a master to his apprentices. Some of these apprentices grew to become masters themselves, with their own brands and businesses. For example,

  • Mia Segal (Mind Body Studies),
  • Anat Baniel (Anat Baniel Method),
  • Ruthy Alon (Movement Intelligence, Bones For Life)
  • Thomas Hanna (Hanna Somatics)
  • Chava Shelhav (Child’Space Method)

But not everyone wants to be an apprentice and grow a business. How can I reach people who just want to feel better, become a bit better at moving themselves, and become more knowledgable at touching and teaching others?

In addition to the apprenticeship system (or even mentoring), I do believe in the symbiosis of teacher and student. Both depend on each other. The students support their teacher directly, without a controlling institution that issues standardisation and certification, and the teacher cares deeply about his students. And with modern tools like Patreon this actually seems to work. A little flame that is keeping the human part of humanity alive.

To finish this blog post I quote John Taylor Gatto, from his book “The Underground History Of American Education.” In reading this book I keep discovering things that I can’t quite explain. For example, I didn’t know that adolescence isn’t a biological fact, but a political and industrial product of social engineering.

Extending Childhood. From the beginning, there was purpose behind forced schooling, purpose which had nothing to do with what parents, kids, or communities wanted. Instead, this grand purpose was forged out of what a highly centralized corporate economy and system of finance bent on internationalizing itself was thought to need; that, and what a strong, centralized political state needed, too. School was looked upon from the first decade of the twentieth century as a branch of industry and a tool of governance.

I know how difficult it is for most of us who mow our lawns and walk our dogs to comprehend that long-range social engineering even exists, let alone that it began to dominate compulsion schooling nearly a century ago. Yet the 1934 edition of Ellwood P. Cubberley’s Public Education in the United States is explicit about what happened and why. As Cubberley puts it:

It has come to be desirable that children should not engage in productive labor. On the contrary, all recent thinking is opposed to their doing so. Both the interests of organized labor and the interests of the nation have set against child labor.

The statement occurs in a section of Public Education called “A New Lengthening of the Period of Dependence,” in which Cubberley explains that “the coming of the factory system” has made extended childhood necessary by depriving children of the training and education that farm and village life once gave. With the breakdown of home and village industries, the passing of chores, and the extinction of the apprenticeship system by large-scale production with its extreme division of labor (and the “all conquering march of machinery”), an army of workers has arisen, said Cubberley, who know nothing.

Journeys in Somatic Education: Tales of Delight and Healing

I love to read from my viewers and their experiences. Last week I received two comments that showcase in particular not only why I love my work, but what delights me about my work and my self-practice, again and again:

From Shayna Formity

Facebook just reminded me of a post I made in April 2020, it still applies, and I thought you might enjoy it: “In times of isolation, Alfons leads me on fascinating journeys of inner exploration. The landscape is ever-changing, bringing joy and delight, and relief from worry and stress.”

From Tracy

Feldenkrais. Is. Magic. I’m recovering from an ankle injury and most of my movement and exercise sessions these days focus on my ankle recovery, but today I just wanted to have nice movement experience focusing on something else. This seemed like the perfect lesson for today.

All my conscious thought was on my upper body – exploring different ways to use my hands to help lift my head, different ways to place my arms when lifting one shoulder toward the opposite knee to change how it felt to roll across my shoulder blade and upper back. As my torso became more and more pliable, I felt more and more relaxed and balanced as the lesson progressed.

But when we stood up?! Wait…what?! My weight was beautifully distributed between both feet. I don’t need to tell you after a long injury that my body has learned to compensate and I always find myself standing on my “good” leg. But there I was, standing evenly on both feet, feeling light and lifted, *with effortlessly perfect shin and ankle alignment*.

Thank you so much Alfons, for reminding me to trust my brain to place me in good alignment – I just need to get out of the way and allow that to happen. What a beautiful experience.

Learning the midline

Yesterday I started a class with the words, “My plan for today is to learn the midline”. I always loved this phrase, “To learn the midline.” To me it sounds perfectly odd, but at the same time kind of makes sense.

Becoming aware of the perceived midline… whatever that is

It’s for the student to become aware of the midline of the body—which probably isn’t the same as the symmetrical middle, mathematically speaking. It’s for the student to improve

  • proprioception, for example, “Where is your left shoulder blade in relation to the spine, compared to your right shoulder blade? And where do you sense the extreme of the kyphosis of your thoracic spine?”, and
  • the sense for inner tensions aka biotensegrity, and
  • gravitational pull, and

at the same time improve the alignment and position of the midline… whatever that is— the thing to be learned.

If it works out then learning the midline improves posture, the carriage of the head, ease of movement and elegance. It’s wonderful, a small miracle in itself. In my opinion. So I claim.

For the choice of movement sequence… I guess any works just as well as any other. The teaching goal here is learning the midline, and not the movements themselves. These movements are like auxiliary materials…

In factories the use of auxiliary materials are crucial to the manufacturing process but are either removed, consumed, or serve as supportive elements without becoming part of the final product; such as lubricants and oils, cleaning and solvent agents, packaging materials, etc.

In other words- whatever movements fit the class setup… my class was in sitting, therefore I used head and shoulder movements in combination with breathing. A twist of the chest, a glance to the ceiling.

The reason why I’m writing this: This morning I saw an ad on Instagram for a course to learn a movement commonly found in Capoeira, “The Macaco”. An athletic movement resembling a back handspring. You basically go from squatting through a handstand to standing on both feet. I thought the course is very well done and the teaching profound, empathic and passionate… but at the same time I was thinking: Teacher Aaron could have used the Macaco to teach the midline.”

I think teacher Aaron is one of the pioneers in softacrobatics (as he calls it) who blurs the line between having a) the athletic performance and b) a transcendent experience as the ultimate endpoint. Transcendent in the sense of learning something useful about ourselves, that can transcend into daily life and ultimately improve everything we do… from standing to walking to how we see the world, and everyone else.

I, for myself, I have a clear standpoint on the transcendent endpoint (if any.) I am certain that learning the midline is more valuable to more people than learning the Macaco. But I guess seeing someone doing a Macaco (or advertise to learn it) is more appealing than a blog post titled “Learning the midline.” That’s something for me to ponder.

Your immediate vs distant experience

Today I was finally trying to work on my introductory speech for my next video. “Trying to”, grammar point here. Can it get any more abstract?

ChatGPT says, “a grammar point is not an abstract concept in itself, but rather a concrete idea.” For sure, ChatGPT, for sure. But only for you, as someone who doesn’t have to brush his teeth and do a hundred other things to maintain basic physical health.

My intro speech. No progress. And obsolete nowadays, especially on social media. And what’s not counted as social media nowadays? I couldn’t phrase it. I was walking around, turning the sentences in my head. Sitting at the coffee shop, looking through the window at the nearby park, thinking up and down. I thought: first, I should write it down.

But the File > New… stayed empty. I can stare at the trees in a park, but I refuse to stare at a blank sheet of paper. I will turn it around then. I will START with the class right away. And THEN, after filming the class, while my experience is still running hot—through me neurons, bones and muscles—I’ll talk about the benefits and my reasoning. And put that in post in front of the movement sequence. In this way I will talk about my immediate experience, rather than my distant experience. So, let’s see how this will pan out. No last thoughts.

Thou shalt not be aware – traumatised and dissociated

A Somatics class. Position: Lie on your back, have your feet standing.

Instruction: Lift your head with the help of both hands.

Beginner’s reaction: Done. Too easy. What muscles does this exercise target? Can this help me lose weight? This is a good stretching exercise. Will this get me more views on Instagram? My neck is hurting. How can I make this exercise harder?

Solution: Let’s unpack this one movement, together. After about 45 minutes you will see the world with a pair of fresh eyes, and feel inspired, liberated, confident and at ease, like someone who has just embarked on the most marvellous journey. I’m here to help, to guide you, to give you ideas that are key, to invite you to move ever so gently. Let’s begin. Please rest on your back, with your legs extended [..]

Simple enough for everyone to understand

Since years now the views on my Youtube channel have been in steady decline, despite my best efforts. Therefore I recently started to look more seriously into what makes Youtube videos popular. In my research I found an excellent interview with the 18 year old Youtube star Jenny Hoyos. She has hundreds of millions of views on her Youtube Shorts.

One of her main points, something that she highlighted and emphasised strongly, is how important simple language is — so that everyone can understand her videos. She made it sound very positive. She wants to be accessible. Therefore she tightly controls her language to be Fifth Grade and below:

Fifth grade is the fifth year of compulsory education. In the United States, the fifth grade is typically the fifth and final year of primary school, though it may be the first year of middle school. Students in fifth grade are usually 10–11 years old.

This is still topped by, for example, Mr. Beast, one of the most popular Youtube channels with billions of views. As a rule Mr. Beast keeps their language so simple that it can be understood by First Graders.

First grade is the first year of compulsory education. It is the first year of elementary school, and the first school year after kindergarten. Children in first grade are usually 6-7 years old.

Jenny Hoyos said she uses a website called Readability Formulas to calculate readability and make sure that her language is below Fifth Grade requirements. So- I went ahead and checked the language I use here in my blog posts:

AUTOMATED READABILITY INDEX
Score: 17.06 [ = grade level ]
Reading Difficulty: Extremely Difficult
Grade Level: College Graduate
Age Range: 23+

Therefore- if you were able to read and finish this blog post apparently you are one of the smartest humans walking this earth, by Youtube standards. Thank you for reading and holding my hand in my emotional efforts to keep having faith in humanity. 🙏

However- I also had the transcript of my latest Youtube video analysed. After all I try to speak in a language that can be easily grasped and understood by everyone, including non-native English speakers from Germany, South-America, India, China, etc.

It turns out the readability of my Youtube video is graded like this:

AUTOMATED READABILITY INDEX
Score: 1 [ = grade level ]
Reading Difficulty: Extremely Easy
Grade Level: First Grade
Age Range: 6-7

Therefore- the language in my Youtube videos actually is First Grade level, who would have thought? Well, at least that’s settled. Now I can move on to research what point I’m missing, actually.