Language teaching—embedding the positive and optimistic mind As a Principal, every day I took an hour for English grammar and language. I ...
Language teaching—embedding the positive and optimistic mind
As a Principal, every day I took an hour for English grammar and language. I felt/feel that teaching a language means developing the basic mind that automatically interacts and reacts positively and optimistically. Words, phrases, clauses and sentences create feelings, and when they are positive drilled continuously, the mind develops positive thinking habits. Grammar shall never be mere mechanical engineering that ensures that correct fix between the subject and the verb.
I started with the explanation that a sentence contains a subject, about what the sentence is dealing with, a predicate what is stated about the subject, and verb the manner in which the predication is being made. I explained all the twelve sentence structures starting with the simple present tense.
For me the simple present tense is the most important of all because, it states what is now in general is about any subject or situation. I wanted the present to appear very rosy, promising, beautiful; wonderful...I meticulously avoided all negative sentences, negative words...
I started with the word-Universe. I gave the meaning, the one enchanting wonderful poem---uni-verse. Then I purposefully wrote only positive sentences about the Universe--The Universe is beautiful, the universe is one single melodious song, the Universe is an infinite flow of happiness....From the word Universe, I proceeded to Multi verse, traverse, obverse, reverse, inverse, perverse, versatile, always making it a point to write only positive sentences. As all sciences are mainly written in the simple present tense, I actually took each science, and coined sentences that give a positive feeling towards each science. When I used any text book on grammar, I first examined the sentences written as examples in it. I made the students avoid negative sentences and actually change them into positive sentences. Unfortunately most books on English grammar concentrate only on the correct engineering of sentences and not on the effect of a sentence on the ultimate mentality and character of the student.
I also made the students count the number of positive words and negative words in every essay and grade that essay in terms of its overall effect as contributing to positive feelings or otherwise. I made them collect positive words, phrases, clauses and sentences and grade them in terms of positive effect. The objective of language teaching is to sow the seeds for an urge to develop in the student, his/her mission in life on the basis of their individuality. The student must be able to see the other students and then the teachers, their family in a positive frame of mind. The emphasis is on developing the urge to cooperate, coordinate, harmonize and integrate and not to compete.
Finally I told them, no ,drilled into them that we can see only 00.0037 per cent of the reality as we are restricted to the visible spectrum and that more than 99 per cent of the reality is not and even cannot be known for the simple reason, our language is based on the identifications only in the visible spectrum. I told them that they have to try on their own and actually increase the capacity of the language at least to a little extent into the invisible spectrum, language up which is not even languaged now.
The development of the language, unraveling the phenomena and activities in the invisible spectrum, including the gigantic vacuum, basically needs a very positive mind. A negative mind automatically damns and the very faculty of understanding, by perceiving, through the hormones that suffocate and blind. When a new word is coined, its radiation of meanings depends on the original view. Research must be a voyage in positivism, with the positive yogic mind.
Unfortunately the entire study of the invisible spectrum as well as the Relativity world of planets, stars, galaxies etc, is motivated by military considerations. The motivations are not understanding and enlightenment but the development of new and new weapons of war. The craze for power and domination ultimately is resulting in a very perverse development of new words, words that give extremely negative implications. Besides America and Russia, many countries are busy developing new and new weapons, by exploring into the invisible spectrum. The cost of this gigantic negativism are diabetes, high BP, Kidney, Liver, neurotic…ailments and living a long life with these ailments. God is giving his sentences but we sinners carry on while suffering the punishments. In fact disease inflictions too have developed into the research for the development of new weapons.
The direction of developments of languages by new words is taking very unfortunate directions. The very faculty of communication is developing into an urge to show of personal greatness and not as an effort for collective enlightenment and happiness. When yoga is changed into the research for the development of weapons, only words that give negative meanings dominate communication.
Phil means love. Philosophy means the experiencing of love and the emanations of morals on the basis of that experience. Unfortunately in almost all Universities the faculties of Philosophy have been discontinued. There is only misanthropy that is dominating as the basic motivation.
YM
