We create space to experience and think freshly. In this approach to observation we do not discount our previous experience and memories. We neither dismiss all the valuable theories and skills in management, development and methods nor ignore the important lessons from working with particular children. All intellectual skills such as speculation, theorizing, problem solving, and judging information are useful as long as they do not close us to the fullness and unexpectedness of the situation. Teachers who are stuck in some abstraction that doesn t reflect the present situation experience anxiety.
Children can tell when teachers see a situation clearly.
When we pay attention to our senses and thoughts, we open to our natural emotional faculties. Upon entering a learning environment, we experience a rich interconnected whole. The senses serve as receptors for that wholeness, transmitting the raw information of whatever we are drawn to, are repulsed by, or overlook. This invokes our emotional responses. Working with emotions is perhaps the most challenging dimension of contemplative education, becuase it often seems inconsistent with our ideals of compassionate and effective teaching.