Creating Balance

Thinking about the four aspects of the person has challenged me to think about how the “damage” to each area I have heard about in my interviews could also lead to new possibilities for literacy work. A focus on body, mind, emotions and spirit could be far more than just addressing “damage.” It could lead to a process where each aspect of the person was fully engaged in a creative learning process. If literacy could be more holistic, it might support a woman's process of “healing,” of integration, and lead to a highly successful educational process.

Creating models for such programming would be a challenge. A further question remains: whether such models should be offered only as an alternative in literacy, leaving the mainstream unchallenged, or whether such shifts should influence literacy learning for a wide range of learners.

Possible Actions:

• Conceptualize a fully holistic program that incorporates mind, body, spirit and emotions.
  
  
• Create curriculum for such a program exploring incorporating movement, playing with intellectual mind games, working with feelings and awareness of feelings, activities which recognize the spirit and rebuild a sense of value and worth.
  
  
• Explore the impact of creative use of space to help learners “take up space” and feel safe in the learning centre.
  
  
• Try out new courses or support groups to help learners which could focus on issues such as learning to learn, looking at what hinders learning....

Acknowledgments

I have already spoken of the impossibility of listing the names of all those who spent time talking to me in interviews. There is not space here either to acknowledge by name all the members of my advisory committee who coped with difficult and lengthy E-mail communications, the staff at CCLOW and NLS who believed in the work and made it possible, or the friends who listened to me spin ideas and supported me as I struggled with this material. I can only offer a collective “thank you” to ALL the people who are part of this work. I take responsibility only for any mistakes or errors. Many people contributed their genius and inspiration to the process which brought together the ideas and analysis on these pages.