David Marshak, emeritus professor in the College of Education at Seattle University, has written a book, The Common Vision:  Parenting and Educating for Wholeness (Peter Lang Publishing), that integrates the developmental ideas of three esoteric thinkers from the early 20th century:  Rudolf Steiner, Hazrat Inayat Khan, and Sri Aurobindo.   As the title indicates, Marshak...Read More

I’d like to recommend an amazing film entitled Bodysong.  It chronicled the entire human condition through hundreds of video clips taken from many cultures, many historical settings (back to the very beginnings of the history of film), and most importantly, from each stage of the human life cycle.  It begins with images of conception, and then, in...Read More

A map of the human life cycle that is associated with the Islamic middle ages and a philosopher/scientist named Al Biruni (973-1048 C.E.) is called Firdaria.  It is a system of astrology based upon specific planets that influence our lives at different stages of life.  The Sun rules the first 10 years of life (ages...Read More

 A recent book by developmental psychologist David Elkind is entitled The Power of Play, and I would recommend it to parents, educators, psychotherapists, and anyone else who has an interest in play and children.  David Elkind was a disciple of Jean Piaget, the great French structuralist thinker who changed people’s conceptions of how children think.  In this...Read More

The word “alignment” has many meanings:  there’s wheel alignment, body alignment, road alignment, and many other kinds of alignment.  But when the word is used in the field of education, that should be a red flag to educators and parents.  Beware!  Usually the word is used in reference to the curriculum at different age and grade levels. ...Read More