User:John Bessa/Empathy in education and therapy: My learning and experiences

Written in 2012, this became hidden from the web because of permission changes made to Google docs, and no one requested read permission. It has classic original statements. It was hurriedly written as I was entering my psychology masters program because I wanted to preserve my original, observational ideas before they would be replaced with academic information. I recently edited it considerably to make it more readable, and was reintroduced to some ideas I had forgotten--such as Vygotsky's constructivism. Chances are good that I will reduce it further to purely-original thought.

Self-actualization

My first reading in psychology was Carl Rogers' On Personal Power.  In this book he explains the concept of "self-actualization;" every child's personality, he says, is within the child, and from within every child springs forth an effort to make the best of every day.  Rogers says in his writing that every animal has this energy, and even every plant.  Abraham Maslow, who was close to Rogers, extended self-actualization with the existential idea of "being," creating the "B values" that show that children naturally develop interest and responsibility, and that the children who are ultimately most successful, who have self-actualized the best, are the ones who develop their interests independently and from within, and do so at the earliest age.

Empathy

For me, the self-actualization concept is simultaneously spiritual and technical; it is evolutionary.  The spiritual aspect is empathy obviously related to compassion, the most noble human expression.  Empathy is a highly technical topic as well; in my writing about empathy as emotional communication, I attempted to link the recent neurological research that is showing that empathy is a key component of thinking, understanding, developing social relations, and collaborating socially on projects.  Empathy is taken for granted by most people I know as the basis of their humanness, and the more technical understandings of it have been with us as the ideas developed by Darwin, the Humanists, and even Aristotle.  Empathy as a religious concept is linked to medicine; compassion in life is directly linked to health.  In many ways empathy is mapped simultaneously as a biological necessity, to the religious concept of the "spirit."

The idea of layers, or levels

Tying together ideas so apparently different was helped by my information engineering background; I adapted the abstract concept of "network layering" that links different abstract approaches to Internet communications.  The different layers describe all the various aspects of network communication abstractly ranging from the user's applications, through addressing and routing protocols to a physical layer that describes the wires and electrons.  For every interaction on the Internet, each layer is utilized and they all work towards the same purpose but each layer describes, abstractly, a different aspect of the communication linking process. 

Empathy, as emotional communication, can likewise be described in layers as every empathic action has many facets, perhaps even more than Internet communications protocols.  Immediately apparent is an idea of scale that follows each aspect of an emotional communication from birth of ideas and emotions within individuals at the neural level that are communicated through expressions, to the wider reaching effects that these communications have on social relationships, and even society.

This adaption of network layering helps me conceive of how every emotional communication event "hits" on every level.  In the education of children, for instance, happy emotions "hit" their surrounding world through positively constructive activities because they spring forth from healthy neurons.  It is entirely misleading to think of any empathic event in isolation.  Empathy is what the world needs more of, and on a worldly scale, empathy is the most profoundly human concept.

Education

Structured Education

Schools are typically among the most structured parts of our society, and are becoming increasingly structured every day.  When I initially started on an education career, I realized that I would have to keep to myself my belief that children develop best in their own natural way; at best I could implement my belief only subtly.  Joel Spring in American Education explains that education works almost exclusively to create "human capital" or, as Lewis Mumford says, "human parts for a machine."  There have been attempts to modify the existing common educational model to help with problem-solving strategies, but the top-down didactic framing model remains intact throughout the world and is giving no indication that it is adapting to the new neurally based ideas: conformance to it will be mandatory for the foreseeable future.  Students are not alone; teachers are typically forced to spend their evenings grading papers and tests -- an activity that helps no one.

Project Science and group learning

Significantly influential for me was "What Children Bring to Light" by Bonnie Shapiro.  Since reading her story about an early implementation of project based learning ideas, knowledge construction ideas, I have focused my research to find ways to extend science learning throughout communities.  In my writing about middle school education, I attempt to show how to enjoin student groups and their local communities with the community of scientists so that they can participate directly in the scientific process.

The Linux Society: Technology mentoring for youth

My twelve year career in information technology was remarkable as it started at the infancy of the modern Information Society: the development of the Internet into the World Wide Web.  The Synergy experienced across the information engineering community was perhaps the greatest ever.    Beyond the corporate efforts, and perhaps more significant, were the group efforts that led to what we think of as "open source" technology, what I think of as "open systems."

In New York City I had the opportunity to create my own group, the Linux Society; it focused its efforts on mentoring talented high school students.  After recruiting students for the effort, I simply facilitated and guided their learning.   My job was more external, dealing with surrounding issues.  Often I deliberately excluded myself from the group so as to allow each member to grow naturally, both personally and as a member of the group.

We in the Linux Society developed state of the art Internet services, and gave monthly lectures on often controversial security topics.  To accommodate the diverse skills brought by the students, I attempted to emulate the structure of a small development corporation providing a variety of "jobs" ranging from lead developer and lecturer to secretary.  Some in the group were naturally more intelligent than others, so the only "management" guidance I applied was to encourage a social sense of equality; after all, the students had come to the Linux Society initially as school friends.

The Sudbury Valley School model: Self-actualization through educational self-initiation

From the Sudbury School's website, "that all people are curious by nature; that the most efficient, long-lasting, and profound learning takes place when started and pursued by the learner; that all people are creative if they are allowed to develop their unique talents; that age-mixing among students promotes growth in all members of the group; and that freedom is essential to the development of personal responsibility."

I see in the Sudbury model the Humanist self-actualization concepts of the humanists Rogers and Maslow.  Key to the model are trust, choice, and the cooperative governance of democracy.

Another concept I have extended from my technology experiences to society, a concept of trust as it relates to "trusting a system."  In earlier days of the recent information revolution, pioneering huge systems were hard to comprehend, and hence difficult to trust, but to move forward with technology, we had to "trust in the system" at least enough to discover its flaws to be able to fix them.  Today we implicitly "trust the system," especially the Web, even with our money.

In the sense of society, I mean that we should trust "the biological system" of communication, collaboration, and compassion that has been given to us by the evolutionary process, or by God.  It is sound thinking to trust that children will naturally do their best to interact with the environment around them in friendly ways, and will attempt make contributions to society as soon as they feel confident enough to venture their ideas.  The reward for the natural development of successful conceptual understanding and contribution is a sense of joy and enthusiasm that drives further conceptualization.  This is a perfect system; one worthy of trust!  Disrupting this process, to me, is unthinkable and results only in conflict.

Children build their lives from the environment around them; they don't invent their world so much as create a relationship with their surrounding environment; they build their lives from the components that are offered to them.  Offering as wide a variety of learning components as possible to students will give them the best opportunities to build their lives.

Choice is such a natural and ubiquitous idea that it is legally mandated by every healthy society, yet is usually restricted to adults.  Sudbury makes a difference here; because children are ultimately responsible for their own lives, offering them freedom to choose fulfills for them an a natural, and hence democratic, need.  Recent research tells us that children are fully able to make choices as well as they can conceive of them.  Many therapeutic strategies attempt to offer choice as much as is practical, though not to the extent of the Sudbury model.

Safety is another important concept.  From it comes the comfortable environment necessary for self-initiated learning and healthy interaction.  Safety, along with the closely related need for mutual respect, assures individual freedom and is the only reason for interference by staff members.  There are of course the physical concerns for safety, and also the government requires it.

The Sudbury model stresses democracy in school governance, creating what I think of as "cooperative governance."  In governance some choice is restricted just as in common society; students and staff have to cooperate with the "general will" in ways that support each student and the school as a whole.  I see this as different from "pure democracy," and also collaboration, which relates more to the ideas of social and technological development.  From cooperative governance comes safety, both physical safety, and safety from social insensitivity.  Cooperative governance creates the safe and comfortable environment necessary for self-initiated learning and healthy interaction.  Social safety creates an environment conducive to mutual respect; it assures individual freedom, and is virtually the only reason for interference by school staff members.

Staff members have presumably already "self-initiated" their learning, and hence have self-actualized.  They can provide, by their activity, successful learning as examples, especially social and moral concepts.  Beyond this natural way of passing along concepts, staff simply "facilitate" the students' learning by providing the benefits of a life of learning to help students solve "component" problems that they may face while attempting their own learning.  Staff also do the daily work necessary to operate the school.

Therapy

A home for homeless teenagers near Woodstock, New York

My first practical application of constructivist learning ideas was at the shelter for homeless teenagers. While this shelter attempts primarily to keep life moving forward for residents who are effectively in a continual "crisis mode," I found that the principles behind project based learning applied as equally to these often troubled youth as they would to students in a learning environment designed for project based learning. I found that the conceptual basis of project-based learning, the constructivist idea of a "community of knowledge," provides for them a growth path for both mental strength and a return to their respective communities.

Practical realities

While this shelter attempts primarily to keep life moving forward for residents who are effectively in a continual "crisis mode," I found that the principles behind the Sudbury model applied as equally to this chaotic and sometimes violent environment as they would to the comfortable environment of a Sudbury school. Few, if any, of the residents could succeed in a Sudbury school, primarily because they are accustomed to negative environments; control, criticism, punishment, and even imprisonment are all Ulster County offers these children. For me, the successful strategy was to engage them on their level, and then subtly draw them to "a place" where they could then naturally initiate their own healing.

To do this, I attempted convert "poor behaviors," such as taking food from the candy stock, which was considered stealing, into beneficial activities such as sharing. Rather than punishing a resident for "stealing" candy, I would encourage him to make a nice dish from the "stolen" candy and share it. Hopefully then, the resident would see the benefits of being good to the other residents, spreading a good feeling throughout the shelter. Ultimately, residents whom I helped in this way would have to find their own way, learning to make the best of things in their respectively unique ways. Change, I found, can be quick, happening over perhaps two weeks, and I believe I was highly successful in helping the residents self-actualize. The residents often agreed by naming me consistently as their favorite staff member, as "one of them."

Applying constructivism

An exceedingly important benefit from the construction of a "community of knowledge" is the feeling of accomplishment that comes with the successful construction of knowledge, say scientific learning. The confident feeling that students get from successful learning, which in turn encourages more learning, comes not so much from the development of the knowledge itself, but from the cohesion and mutual support that develops within their group, a community version of "neurological mapping" that Daniel Goleman describes in Social Intelligence. Knowledge construction "maps" the group members' interactions, creating within it an overwhelming emotional desire to construct more knowledge; the group quickly reaches the level of "expert."

This growth concept applies equally to any group of learners, and it can be as beneficial for youth in crisis as it is for the academically successful. For youth in crisis --many of whom are trying simply to emerge from near-suicidal conditions-- almost any group activity can help achieve benefits from the construction of a community of knowledge. The best activities are those that the youth create for themselves, perhaps with prompting from the supervising staff: dancing, chess, mildly competitive sports, and even relaxed chatting. Beneficial activities always bring troubled youth naturally in the direction of developing their lives, just as constructivists would describe for any successful community development.

Synergy in both healing and expert learning

For youth emerging from crisis, the concept of Synergy is also important; youth in shelter communities who are feeling more confident in returning to regular life can "reach down" to provide ideas and support to youth who are confused and depressed.  Synergy when applied to a specifically designed project-based learning environment is seen when more successful students mentor students who are still struggling with the group's conceptual understandings.  The more successful students, those helping the others, are rewarded with recognition from the group; they also develop genuine leadership skills that will be valuable for their futures.

From my experiences I can see how equally group learning principles apply in the diverse layers of society.  It seems likely to me that the students who have grown in group learning environments will be able to apply its basic principles universally, showing society ways to achieve social and economic equality.

Autism school: Reaching the autistic

Another area of interest of mine for constructivism is attempting to help children who have communication disorders such as those who suffer from the various kinds of autism.  I worked in a for autistic children for a short period in New York, and I found that I was able to "reach" many of the students and help them mitigate their behaviors that were blocking their learning progress.  The "reaching" part, what I usually called "emotional communication" was something I was specifically told would not happen, but did.

There were students that I could not "reach," and I believe that they had "emotional communication" deficits.  In one instance I found that I when I "reached" students I was inadvertently reinforcing violent and inappropriate behaviors, and that "backing off" mitigated them somewhat.

All in all, I was very encouraged by the progress I made with the students in the short time I was working with them, and I regret not being able to continue working with them.

I also worked with students to create their own teaching materials that they integrated into the existing picture-based communication materials, called "PECs," using ideas I developed from the constructivist writing in Bonnie Shapiro's What Children Bring to Light.  By having the students help develop their own picture-based and "manipulable" learning materials, their matching scores instantly went from low to very high, and the students expressed self-fulfillment from their progress.

The success I mentioned was with a non-communicating young man, who could not self-initialize his actions.  I was able to increase his scores for geometric shapes from 50% when using the materials in the class, which is failing, to 100% by applying "constructivist" ideas.  The math exercises utilize geometric shapes; he and I made the materials together from "play dough" such as circles, triangles, and squares, stars, crescents, and lines.  Together we outlined the shapes on paper to create "matching puzzles."  Because he had "constructed" the knowledge behind the materials, he had a much greater understanding of the underlying concepts, and hence scored a 100% with his first matching attempt.  I carefully kept the materials within the scope of his planned curriculum.

Also significant was Mark's visible sense of pride from his success in achieving a high score.  I believe that increased self-esteem is crucial for Mark because of frustration he feels from the difficulties he faces every day.  In particular, he lacks the ability to initiate his own actions.  Reinforcing self-confidence may bring him to the first step of being independent.  Also, the beneficial feelings of pride from his successes may also help him reduce his occasional aggressive tendencies.

In another earlier matching exercise with Mark, I attempted to implement the picture-based communication materials into a "situated environment;" this is also a constructivist idea.  With a sheet of paper I created a background "landscape" so that he could associate the "PECs" symbols with his surrounding environment, which were mostly geographic and astronomic.  With the addition of the "landscape," his matching score immediately went from half, which also is failing, to about two thirds.

Mapping the mind with the autistic

While working with Mark and the other students at this school, I started to develop a "mental mapping" approach to autism.  I found that autism sufferers all seem to be missing a few of the basic human facilities that we take for granted, such as talking and the self-initiation of action.  I started thinking that these basic facilities are built from collections of neural constructs, and because of the complexity of the brain, we can't really know what all these constructs are.  To help understand this, I borrowed an idea from pure science much like the technology ideas that I adapted to social understanding.  In the history of chemistry with the mapping of the periodic table,  chemists who understood the structures of all atoms could predict the behaviors of elements that had yet to be discovered.  We can predict the contributions of neural constructs that we have yet to discover simply by understanding the supports that are necessary to contribute to the functions of our various facilities.  We can see the variety of missing facilities in autistic sufferers, we can map their constructs that are missing, and try to find ways to help them find alternate neural constructs to compensate for their disabilities.

Capital and government realities in therapy

Unfortunately the world is not built around purely democratic and naturally beneficial communities; those are usually only found isolated from modernity, for instance in the deep forests of the Amazon.  The world is structured around capital and economic growth on one hand, and on bureaucratic control on the other: corporations and government.  The controlling nature of government has made it nearly useless for therapeutic organization; the Willowbrook institution will stand forever as an example.  Therapy since the closure of the worst of the government institutions has tended towards privatization, or corporate control.  These corporations are usually not-for-profit but corporate all the same; nowhere in any corporation do we find democracy, except perhaps during stockholder rebellions, which cannot happen in not-for-profits as they have no stockholders. 

The capital structure that defines corporations is a pyramidal human structure, with the best paid and fewest at the top, and the lowest paid and most at the bottom.  It is those at the bottom who directly care for the disabled, and in today's economic structure direct care workers tend to come from poverty-stricken neighborhoods and impoverished nations.  It is in those communities and nations where control is at its highest and that the worst off, the disabled, are at greatest risk; in many nations the autistic are simply left to die.  Only the most exceptional and altruistic direct care givers can be expected to be able to share enlightened knowledge.  While educational programs can conceivably offset the isolating effects of poverty, including mass drug addiction, corporations are not about enlightenment; they view their employees as any other asset: exploitable and replaceable.  Corporations work within business law (and ethics) for the benefit of their owners, managers and investors.

They focus on capital development rather than staff improvement; and they will work only to meet criteria provided by the legal system or as a result of pressure from society.  To go beyond their basic criteria, corporations usually present the worst examples of cognition; they develop sophisticated facades to assure the surrounding society that the corporation is moving progressively for the benefit of all, and then corporations typically fall short of the the facades created for marketing.

The Constructivist ideal

Community of knowledge

I have described constructivist ideas.  Constructivism is attributed to Vygotsky, who developed his ideas of how children grow into their surrounding communities by becoming knowledgeable about their workings and interrelations, hence the idea of a "community of knowledge."  Towards the end of my undergraduate studies, I began to extend this idea of "community knowledge" beyond communities themselves and into the surrounding environments.  In the bigger sphere of the surrounding environment, the knowledge that both humans and animals have about the environment is added to the sum of information of the community knowledge, and then the very specific information of life, or DNA, is also added to this sum of knowledge.  This DNA information is known to the thinking animals and humans in practical ways.  Squirrels, for instance, know when to gather nuts; nuts become edible as part of their DNA programming, and hence the squirrels have a practical form of this DNA information as part of their membership in the environment's community of knowledge.  In the sense that I perceive it, each bit of the world's information is a component of the community of all the world's organisms.

Constructivism as a locus for our new thinking

Linux Society

Only in Linux Society was I able to implement this most important component of constructivism, where I created for the students a community environment: a replica of a small software corporation.  The Linux Society preceded my awareness of constructivism; the idea of creating a knowledge-based community came to me naturally, just as the development of the Sudbury Valley model preceded the popularization of Vygotsky's ideas by several years.  From many experiences we have all had, we know that the ideas and energies that spring from within us as self-actualization naturally help us organize socially.  The constructs of information, or common knowledge, that create the social interactions that lead to relationships can always be trusted and allowed to flourish so that we can all become successful at life as a community.  It would seem that Vygotsky's approach was simply a locus for knowledge-based community development; in fact, Vygotsky's approach was more towards the child rather than society or community.

Unfortunately the community that was the Linux Society did not survive the member's high school graduations; I attempted to keep the members together by moving the group from meetings to the Internet, but the students became wrapped either in their college level studies, or trying to make ends meet financially. All of them reflected dismay that their college experiences fell far short of the work we did as the Linux Society.

Vygotsky

With arrival of Vygotsky's writing from the Soviet Union during Perestroika, many societal concepts that were considered alternative became scientifically substantiated.  Perhaps the constructivist concepts were the first to be built deliberately into a community of knowledge; constructivism was used to develop constructivism.  Social science with its sophisticated community organization can help move Science in general to levels of enlightenment that goes beyond its present cyclic tendency to accumulate facts and develop and present isolated conclusions.

Rogers and Beck, community and healing

With my own studies, which were independent, my concepts of community were strengthened with ideas from various sources including the two best known therapists:  Rogers, Beck.  In learning, self-actualization as described by Rogers is key, because learning is really about each student's personal success.  The same is true about Beck's cognitive ideas; where individual learning develops social interactions.  In therapeutic applications I believe that the community is more centrally important, as it is the community that provides the emotional support that is so necessary to healing, and in fact all good emotional feeling.  In some cases, therapy may be more de-constructive than constructive, as a suffering person's ideas may be causing behaviors that are so dangerous as to be lethal.  

The isolation of negation, or ignoring

At the core of many behavioral plans is an idea of "ignoring," and hence of isolating damaging behaviors.  The loneliness caused by rejection felt from the mild isolation of "being ignored" usually mitigates uncontrollable behaviors in just a few days often drastically altering a life of violent distress.  It is the community of knowledge that is missed when someone is isolated as part of mild isolation used in behavior plans. 

Necessity of community

Extending the idea further, a solid and democratic community of knowledge can become the well-spring for the health of the entire community.  The purely natural desire of individuals to interact socially and become a group member provides incentive to become healthy. 

The group itself presents organizational criteria that prospective members have to meet to become respected and recognized within the group; integrating into the therapeutic community means becoming increasingly healthy, and of course the therapeutic community exists to help the process. 

In many cases, the communities at large group the mentally disabled into homes were they may live for many years; they often have the opportunity to join a community of knowledge that they can live in their entire lives.

Emotional organizations

Society presents us with two options as teachers or direct care-givers: corporate or bureaucratic.  Alternative organizations to these two options are up to communities and parents who can form schools or therapeutic sessions on their own.   But the lion's share of resources has already been taken by the state government through taxes so only financially fortunate parents and communities will be able to develop alternative organizations.  Existing community-based alternative organizations may not actually be presenting alternatives such as the shelter that I worked for, which is a descendant of the first "Hippie drop-in center."  In alternative organizations, empathy may not be practiced or even embraced; I later learned that as a legally "mandated reporter," that I was required to report that organization's extreme control strategies to the state government.  None the less, I expressed dismay about the shelter to its managers as I quit; one manager responded by saying "we don't intentionally set out to hurt anyone."

Buddhist monastery as a therapeutic environment

I search constantly for ideas about empathic organization for therapy, and I got my most promising idea recently as I was hiking.  I thought of photos of a Zen monastery I have seen where the non-monk residents are wild monkeys who wander and play around the monks as they meditate.  The monks care for the monkeys, and as members of an empathic community, I imagine that the monkeys attempt to join the monks' community of knowledge as best as they can, some with more success than others.   Monkeys are empathic and highly organized into communities, yet don't necessarily meet society's expectations; I thought of my autistic students, and saw similarities. 

Most important for the autistic is a sense of safety and a complete absence of violence; the monks certainly created that kind of environment in their monastery.   When meditating, the monks certainly ignore the monkeys, and this reminds me of successful behavioral plans.  To be accepted in the monks' community and to get their recognition, the monkeys would do well to respect the monks' meditation. 

In a therapeutic version of the peaceful community that the monks provide, the autistic sufferers would most likely want to stay close, be respectful, and learn life's skills to initiate self actualization, to help bring them close to being ideal community members.

Capital and government realities in therapy

Unfortunately the world is not built around purely democratic and naturally beneficial communities; those are usually only found isolated from modernity, for instance in the deep forests of the Amazon.  The world is structured around capital and economic growth on one hand, and on bureaucratic control on the other: corporations and government.  The controlling nature of government has made it nearly useless for therapeutic organization; the Willowbrook institution will stand forever as an example.  Therapy since the closure of the worst of the government institutions has tended towards privatization, or corporate control.  These corporations are usually not-for-profit but corporate all the same; nowhere in any corporation do we find democracy, except perhaps during stockholder rebellions, which cannot happen in not-for-profits as they have no stockholders. 

The capital structure that defines corporations is a pyramidal human structure, with the best paid and fewest at the top, and the lowest paid and most at the bottom.  It is those at the bottom who directly care for the disabled, and in today's economic structure direct care workers tend to come from poverty-stricken neighborhoods and impoverished nations.  It is in those communities and nations where control is at its highest and that the worst off, the disabled, are at greatest risk; in many nations the autistic are simply left to die.  Only the most exceptional and altruistic direct care givers can be expected to be able to share enlightened knowledge.  While educational programs can conceivably offset the isolating effects of poverty, including mass drug addiction, corporations are not about enlightenment; they view their employees as any other asset: exploitable and replaceable.  Corporations work within business law (and ethics) for the benefit of their owners, managers and investors.

They focus on capital development rather than staff improvement; and they will work only to meet criteria provided by the legal system or as a result of pressure from society.  To go beyond their basic criteria, corporations usually present the worst examples of cognition; they develop sophisticated facades to assure the surrounding society that the corporation is moving progressively for the benefit of all, and then corporations typically fall short of the the facades created for marketing.