Teachers as Spiritual Mentors, pt. 1

I long ago questioned the difference between  a "regular" teacher and a "spiritual" teacher if one is Integral.  From another article in Encounter magazine, my question is re-explored.  This article concerns James MacDonald's embrace of Jung's collective unconscious, although I am indebted to Ken for his re-examination of this phrase.

I would have to look at the article written by Kathleen Kesson, Vol. 16, No. 4,  thru the AQAL lense, since her article is  post-modern, and thus almost but not quite Integral.  When she speaks of MacDonald's individuation process, we need to take it one step beyond, and rename it Integral: to expand the boundaries of conventional thinking about the professional development of teachers to include the integration of inner and outer realities into an Integral framework.

Unfortunately, by having to langauge her article about Jungian archetypes to the methodology of the LR, she's weakened her thesis considerably.  By keeping with Ken's 8 indigenous perspectives, by looking at zone #1 and zone #2, we can clarify her attempt to persuade us of the need to include the zone #1 experiences in teacher professional development.

Too bad that she has no acquaintance with AQAL, since her plea, while laudable, is weakened by her confused argumentation.  She mentions the fragmented sense of the psyche, quoting from Fordham 1966:
"To be whole means to become reconciled with those sides of personality which have not been taken into account.... no one who really seeks wholeness can develop his intellect at the price of repression of the unconscious, nor, on the other hand, can he live in a more or less unconscious state." p. 77

An interesting observation is her advocacy of confronting the Shadow as a result of having to compromise the Self with cultural norms.  Both teachers in training as well as HS-aged students should be introduced to this concept, since their personas veer away from their authentic selves as they conform to the edicts of their sociocultural groups.  The Shadow, when suppressed, finds its own expression, often with dire, uncomprehensible ways to the youth, who then retrets into a sense of failure at his core.

Quoting Singer, 1973, 215, he sttes that the shadow is a moral problem, since it takes considerable moral effort to become conscious of it.  How interesting!!  This brings us full-circle to character education.  The gross body needs to conform behavior on Kohlberg's line,, but the subtle body needs to account for Shadow on a higher moral level, 5 or 6.

Now back to spirituality: "Spirituality is a dynamic, exploratory process and religion is a structured form that emerges to contain, and to some extent, control the process"., 27.  Great quote. I can see that any spiritual content runs head into the Blue-coded religions as anathema, as opening the door to heresy.  So how to enter it into a public school realm?

Thru the back door, perhaps, within such courses as psych, soc, creative writing, art, music,  and other blended courses that permit the 4 Qs.  Yet, by introducing the 4 QS, and the 8 perspectiv es, it is possible, I berlieve, for the individual to have the space, permission, and guidance for experimentation within the inner, zone #1, dminesions that can lead to spirit unfolding.

And why not permit this within the substance abuse program?  Wouldn't parents prefer that kind of exploration over substances to achieve the same inner voyage???  And what if IS is explained to parents/administrators at progressive schools??

How might we do this?  I agree that beginning with teacher-training programs, we could open up those students to experiment with zone #1 and to see the benefits to themselves, and their expanding container of care, as transferable to their students.

How wonderful if we could explain AQAL to all educators, how great to permit them to self-reflect, to journey into their own depths.

"Jung believed that the relationship between teacher and student was of primary importance to teaching and learning". Fordham 1966, 111.  Great observation as well.  And what IS the subtle effects of the unconscious mind of the teacher on the student???  How's THAT for a critical question on ttest score results?

(not done yet, more later)