The American Re-EDucation Association
The American
Re-EDucation
Association
Re-ED Principles "The Body"
The Body is the Armature of the Self, the physical self around which the psychological self is constructed.
by
Larry Beye
Director of Children & Family Services
Behavioral Health Resources, Olympia, Washington
1995 Washington Re-EDer of the Year
While presenting at the Evergreen State College at the Washington State Re-EDucation conference this last summer I was approached to create a few comments about a principle from Nick Hobbs that has always sort of confused me. That is the one about the body being the armature of the self, the physical self around which the psychological self is constructed.
My presentation was promoting the value of experiential education, specifically the pragmatic uses of adventure-based counseling via portable challenge activities. Before I get into the whole mind-body thing I would like to put in a plug for Experiential Education. The other day a good friend explained it this way: You can read about or show a picture of an apple to a group of people. Or you can give the group a real apple and a knife and ask them to explore that apple. When asked about their respective responses to what an apple is, the response will be quite different. One group’s responses would be surface oriented, the other group’s response much deeper.
When our youth (and adults too) move through space with purposeful activity toward group and individual goals and actually do stuff with their bodies there is a certain process of integration that takes place. The activities are sequenced, starting with ice-breakers, moving through problem solving, communication, and team building toward actual trust. Their bodies, their armatures, actually participate in the process, actually experience these Full Value attributes.
So what about this connection of psychological self to our physical selves? I believe it is much more than body image relating to self esteem, much more than physical health affecting mood and feelings. I believe that if we actually move through the world experiencing activity that reinforces just manageable difficulty, real world challenges, then we truly have an experience. Without experience there is no connection for most of our kids. Without experience language is meaningless. Through our bodies we experience and our psychological selves are developed and attained.
What is mental health for kids? I challenge all of you to come up with an answer to this question. My partial answer is that they must have meaningful and successful experiences, in the real world, with their real movement, with real others.
Respectfully submitted by a Re-EDer trying to figure it all out.