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The Alexander Technique and Educare Small School Why?Understanding how we function is essential to ensure the well being of our children now and into adulthood. The Alexander Technique teaches us how we are meant to function and how to ensure that we use ourselves in such a way as to allow this functioning to happen. For Teachers and ParentsWe need to provide the optimum conditions for our children to feel safe, to find balance and to feel nurtured. If we understand how the self comes into balance when the head, neck, back relationship is flowing correctly we can create conditions conducive to this flow. In this balanced state the child is free from stress and able to function efficiently. A happy learner is a good learner. For ChildrenLearning how to allow the self to stay in balance and how to re-find that balance when it is lost is the most amazing and unusual skill to possess. It should be taught to every child in every school. It is far more important than any other skill because if you have this ability in place it makes learning everything else much easier. If you are functioning well it is axiomatic that you can then perform well at whatever you are doing. You may not become a genius or champion runner for example, but you will be much more likely to feel good about yourself and your achievements while accepting happily that you can’t be the best at everything! How?The principles and practise of the Alexander Technique teaches us that giving attention to the way in which we perform a task/respond to a stimulus is more important than focusing our attention on the end result we are aiming for. This is completely logical. The means you employ to gain an end determines your success or not in achieving that end. It also creates your daily experience. In other words, your quality of life is determined by how you respond to the various stimuli that bombard you. These stimuli may be self-created e.g. a goal you set for yourself, or they may be external e.g. something that happens to you. We have limited control over these stimuli but, potentially, enormous control over how we respond to them. Fear arises from trying to control the stimulus (often impossible) and paying no attention to – or having no knowledge of – how to control the response to the stimulus. Responding with good use of the self is usually the best option as this provides us with the most pleasing experience and the best results. In The ClassroomAt Educare we teach children how to not interfere with – and thus activate – the free balancing mechanism that is located at the point where the base of the skull meets the top of the spine (the atlanto-occipital joint). When this mechanism (called by Alexander ‘The Primary Control’) works correctly the head balances freely on the top of the spine. This enables the rest of the body to be balanced and to start to function optimally. The whole self is affected, not just muscles and bones. In order to remember to activate the Primary Control in all situations we start to teach the children to put in a STOP between the stimulus and the response to the stimulus. We STOP in order to re-organise ourselves to ensure that the Primary Control is allowed to work. Then we respond. This can be taught as a part of any activity. To aid all this teaching we also make sure that the classroom environment is conducive to good use of the self. More information about Educare Small School can be found at the school website: www.educaresmallschool.org.uk
Much more information about the application of the Alexander Technique to children is available in my booklet "Primary Schoolchildren and the Alexander Technique". This can be read online Here
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