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1979 - North Shore News

Today Jim McDowell continues with his
| thoughts on what could loosely ~be called the

: uniqueness of the child.

-This time around he is
pointing. out the — secret
section of all our lives and
_ the lives of our. children that
is uniguely our. own; that

thing which makes us’ dif- "

ferent from everyone else.

He also points out the
dangers of treating all
children in a classroom the
same, in assuming that a
‘single method will work
equally wellforall. —

And while~Wwe are never
able to penetrate that ‘secret
self, the. need for parents
and teachers to be aware of
this wonderful corner of a

person is crucial to his or her -.

growth and development.

north shore

news

1139 Lorisdale Avenue
North Vancouver,
V7M 2H4

B.C.

OFFICE/NEWS
(604) 980-0511

CLASSIFIED
986-6222

CIRCULATION
‘986-1337

Gu SN

Publisher
Peter Speck
Associate Publisher
Bob Graham
Editor-in-Chief
Noel Wright
Managing Editor
Andy Fraser
News Editor
Chris Loyd
Photos
Elisworth Dickson
Advertising Director
Eric Cardwett
Tratfic Manager

na Champion
Production
Tim Francis
Faye McCrae
Classified
Bom Hitlard

Administration
Andrew Watters

Accounts
Syivia Sorenson

North Shore News, founded in
1969 as an independent
community newspaper and
qualified under Sch je 191,
Part 111, Paragraph 111 of the
Excise Tax Act, is shed each
Wednesday and

distributed to every door on the
North Shore Second Class Mail
Regiatration Number 3665

VERIFIED CIRCULATION

49,503

Entire contents 1878 North Shore
Free Prose Lid, All rights reserved.

, eee

THE SECRET SELF —

By JIM McDOWELL

“Every child of five knows

everything there is to know,”

says Lyall Watson in his
book, Gifts of Unknown
Things, “but when they turn
six ‘we send them to school,
then the rot sets in.” Watson
yearned for a way to
reconcile formal schooling
with natural knowing. He
saw our inability to do this as
a waste of our most valuable
resource -- our common
senses which give “a fund of
knowledge, a different kind
of information, common to
all people everywhere.”

One example of that .

natural knowing is .an in-
cident I observed recently
involving an 11-month child
who was not yet talking, and
apparently not counting, but
she had—a solid sense of
equality.

After Christmas dinner
our hostess was passing
around homemade cookies.
Her twin girls toddled right
over. to get their share. As
the mother continued
chatting with the adults in
the room, she inadvertently
gave two cookies to one of
the girls and just one to the
other.

The twins walked off
munching their treat. But
immediately the one who
had been shortchanged
camo back with a concerned
look on her face, tugged at
her mother's skirt, and
uttered pleading cries of
complaint. The mother took
one look, recognized the
problem, and handed the
child another cookie. Away
went the little girl to join hér
sister, a smile of con-
tentment on her face.

Beneath this natural way
of knowing is a sense of
rightness that could be
threatening to many aspects
of a culture which too often
dominate independent
thought. At the same time
such a solid centre could
serve us well in a time of
transition and indecision
that threatens to cngulf
individuality.

When my son David was
five I knew he had his own
sense of rhythm, his own
way of working, resting,
dreaming, learning. All
young children do. But, too
often as a teacher, I’ve tried
to force all the children I was
with to five and work ac-
cording to a strange rhythm
that was neither theirs nor

mine -- a rhythm that was
foreign to all of us. Yet I felt

compelled ‘to follow this -

alien rhythm that did not

come from within me or my -
students. _ It

came from
outside -— from the fast,
busy, frantic, often empty

world surrounding our
private lives. It makes
Strangers of us all.

David’s private rhythm is
another vital part of his
secret self. It’s a part I could
share, feel into, if I could
just slow down and be silent,

wake up, and listen before I

speak; before I tell him all
about “how it is”.

David needs me to let him
learn by doing, by
developing his own
Strengths, his own way of
seeing things, his own
measure of when he’s “had
it”. He needs me to let him
try things out on his own,
learn the confidence that
comes with triumphing again
and again over problems,
frustrations, and mistakes.

‘Then he may be flexible

about the world outside, not
easily put-off by it, ready to
grab it this way and that.

“He will tend to see things |

as they present themselves
on their terms,” says Ernest
Becker in The Birth and
Death of Meaning, “and not
as he wishes them to be or
fears that they might be.”
With this firm basis for
natural knowing, David
might be able to develop a
true sense of his potency, his
power: the ability to live
with contradictions -— to
expect them, delight in their
appearance, support them,
and study them playfully
with his common senses.

-I can take’ photographs of
David, record his work and
play, write biographical
stories about him, make
reports about him, analyze
him -- describe him in many
ways as he appears from the
outside. But I can never map
that secret part of himself
that makes David unique;
that secret self that is, and
always will be, the only one
of its kind in the cosmos.

It’s an amazing and
wonderful accident that any
two of us ever share even
small fragments of the secret
self we cach own. Within
each child exists an
unknown universe of un-
derstanding, insight, and
truths. It fs his universe to
explore; mine to respect.
When I know how to do this,
I begin to make a difference
as a parent and teacher.

TIME FOR A CHECK-UP.

THE
BEST OF
BOTH WORLDS -

—

- Save on initial cost; get Datsun quality; and
‘GOOD GAS MILEAGE AT THE SAME TIME

make use now of the $500" factory rebate ~—,

and buy either

A brand new Datsun 210 Sunny for as
low as $4290 freight PD1, PST extra.

or

A brand new Sport Truck for as low
_as $5390 PST extra.

P.S.Have you enquired about our
.used car buy back policy this
last while? Itjust may save you a

_ Jot of grief.

Don’ tlet
this happen to youl

This summer come to The Radman for a 12 paint cooling system tune up.

Leressure test the system. 2check B. pressure test
the operation of the water ew.

pump. i Remove the IG\
radiator. "¥.Boil, aa
tush the radiator. Bron a:
teat the radiator. 8. Flush

the block and heater core:

the radiator Cap. q. Analyse
the cooling capacity of the anti

freeze. Doren: the thermostat.
MHeraint the radiator with

—
“" exctuatvely by The Radman
Reinstall the radiator.

“ 5 39% For most cars.

L Check all hoses, clamps and belts.

“‘tocally owned & operated”’
864 W.15th, North Vancouver

(across from Dave Buck Ford)

986-4205

“WE GIVE THE ONLY GUARANTEE THAT HOLDS WATER"

Bring this ad
with you

With ev 12
Point Tune-

Ip we
wit install a now
thermostat al no
charge from now
until June 30