TAOIST PEDAGOGY IN EDUCATION

Kier Miner
B.A., Simon Fraser University, 1995
B.Ed., University of New Brunswick, 1996

THESIS
SUBMITTED IN PARTIAL FULFILLMENT OF THE
REQUIREMENTS FOR THE DEGREE OF

Master of Arts
in the Faculty of Education

0Kier Miner 2004

Simon Fraser University
March 2004

All rights reserved. This work may not be

reproduced in whole or in part, by photocopy
or other means, without permission of the author
 APPROVAL

NAME Kier Miner

DEGREE Master of Arts
TITLE Taoist Pedagogy in Education

EXAMINING COMMITTEE:
Chair Charles Bingham

T _ _ _ - _ - - _ _ - - - -

Heesoon Bai, Associate Professor I

Senior Supervisor

........................
June Beynon, Associate Professor
Member

__________I___

Allan MacKinnon, Associate Professor, Faculty of Education

Examiner

Date March 31,2004

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 ABSTRACT

At best the current education systems in North America are a rational

enterprise. At worst the current educational systems are also a rational enterprise.
In contemporary education a profound force is driving an ever increasing level of
bureaucracy, regimentation, and order. The banking model, factory model, and
technocratic metaphor of education are all being accentuated by the recent
fascination with computer technology and cyberspace. A prominent result has
been a standardization of education apparent in curriculum and teaching
approaches. In the face of this standardization there is now more than ever a need
for philosophies and practices that evoke inventive styles of learning. A Taoist
pedagogy of education offers a new perspective through its recognition of yu-wei
(logical action) in relation to wu-wei (non-action) and the need for balance
between these two kinds of thinking. Several possibilities and alternatives are
demonstrated in a case study of Inglenook Community High School, which is
examined through a Taoist perspective on knowledge, educational resources,
teacher-student relationships, and meditative possibilities.

iii
 ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

This project could never have been completed without; Heesoon Bai
imposing rigor and gentle encouragement, June Beynon guiding and critiquing,
Heather Elphick assessing and correcting, my two children loving and

understanding, Taoist inspirations, Rob, Bob, the Inglenook community, Randy's

Tai-chi instruction, and my Mother's wu-wei oppositions, my Father's yu-wei

sensibility, alternative students who demand change, hip hop music, enlightened
friends Dan and Murray, T e and Pi for their warmth, Oma and Opa R.I.P.,
Grandma and Grandpa for their seeds, and natural inspirations. I thank you all

for your support and inspiration.

 CONTENTS

Title Page ................................................................................................................. i..

Approval .................................................................................................................. 11
...
Abstract .................................................................................................................... 111
Acknowledgements ................................................................................................ iv
Table of Contents .................................................................................................. v
Photographs and Illustrations .............................................................................. vii

Chapter 1
Forward ....................................................................................................... 1
Introduction .............................................................................................. 2
Cyber-Schools........................................................................................... 9
Knowledge ...................................................................................... 10
Resources ....................................................................................... 12
Relationships .................................................................................. 14
Time ................................................................................................. 17
Taoism ........................................................................................................ 21

Chapter 2
Introduction .............................................................................................
A Taoist Pedagogy ....................................................................................
Taoist History ................................................................................
The Yin-Yang................................................................................
. .
Four Pedagogical Principles ....................................................................
Knowledge .....................................................................................
Student and the Teacher .............................................................
Resources ......................................................................................
The Meditative ..............................................................................
Meditative Knowledge .....................................................
. .
Meditative Resources .......................................................
Meditative Teaching .........................................................
In the Pursuit of Learning ....................................................................
Chapter 3
Introduction ...............................................................................................
The School Symbol....................................................................................
Defining Inglenook ...................................................................................
Small School .................................................................................
Community History .......................................................................
Alternative Schools .....................................................................
Inglenook and Taoism .............................................................................
Knowledge .....................................................................................
Learning Relationships ...............................................................
Resources ......................................................................................
The Meditative ...............................................................................
Meditative Knowledge .....................................................
. .
Meditative Resources .......................................................
Meditative Relationships ................................................
In the Pursuit of Learning .....................................................................

Chapter 4
Introduction .............................................................................................
Taoist Methodology for Research and Teaching.................................
Rob Rennick .................................................................................
Bob Prichard .................................................................................
Research Methodology ............................................................................
Knowledge and Method ..............................................................
Finding Knowledge ........................................................
Resource and Method .................................................................
. .
Flndlng Resources............................................................
Relationship and Method ............................................................
Refound Relations ...........................................................
Meditative and Method ...............................................................
Returning to the Root .............................................................................

Appendix A .
Ethics Approval ........................................................................................ 114

Appendix B.
Sample of Outreach Projects .................................................................. 118
 Photographs and Illustrations

Illustrations
Static Yin-Yang ........................................................................................ 28
Balanced Y in-Yang .................................................................................. 29
Fluid Yin-Yang ......................................................................................... 30

Photographs
Inglenook School Sign.............................................................................
Inglenook School......................................................................................
Student Lounge ........................................................................................
Rob .............................................................................................................
Rob's Classroom .......................................................................................
Bob ..............................................................................................................
Bob's Classroom ........................................................................................
 Chapter 1

Foreword
My greatest fear is that the word school might become monosemetic, which
means "a word with only one definition". The definition, I fear, looks like this:
students are wired to a central computer answering questions in uniform response
at the exact same time with the exact same set of answers. In schools where
learning is reduced to empirically verifiable propositions, creative, ethical,
emotional and natural knowledge will be abandoned. Instead of concentrating on

people, communities and learning, schools have focused more and more on
procedures and predictable routines. From my own teaching experience, and
twenty years working with alternative and "at-risk" youth, I know the intelligence

and exceptional talents that many of these students possess. Rigid structural and

linear approaches to knowledge attainment do not appeal to these students'

desire to learn. What is missed is that, in many ways, these youth have an

incredible ability to question the worth and value of routines and procedures. It
has been my experience that when placed in a learning environment that values
their knowledge and interests, these students can thrive.

For decades, educational theorists and practitioners have pointed to the

problems of procedure and mechanical reasoning in educational institutions.
Despite these traditions of concern, there has been a recent growth in
standardized testing, a globalization of curriculums, and an expansion of
educational bureaucracies. For example, currently in British Columbia, there has

been the introduction of grade ten standardized testing as part of new graduation
requirements. This increase in educational process is only one of many possible
examples of how schooling is moving towards a single modality. In response, a few
schools, an occasional teacher, a handful of academics and a great number of
students have been demanding innovative forms of schooling. It is in these diverse
practices that hope rests for a return to the idea of school as having multiple

definitions.

Introduction
The premise of this thesis is to set out and to examine the possibility of
initiating a Taoist Pedagogy. The following chapters will explore potential
pedagogical principles, methodology and the case study of an alternative high
school. However, before entertaining these discussions, it is necessary to answer
the question, Why do we need this perspective? In reply, four educational
theorists are presented as an attempt to locate Taoist Pedagogy in contemporary

educational discourse. The first of these four authors is Ivan Illich whose notion
of the factory model of education sets the groundwork for each of the following
theorists: Paulo Friere who proposed the banking concept of education, Elliot
Eisner who identified hidden curriculums, and Neil Postman who is concerned
with the expansion of technocratic reasoning. From these authors, four principles
of education are identified as contemporary concerns. In order to bring these
discussions together, each are examined through the theoretical case study of
cyber-schools. Discussions surrounding the construction of knowledge, the
influence of learning relationships, the value of educational resources, and the
mechanization of educational time are current educational concerns which
suggests the principles of a Taoist Pedagogy.
Over the last two decades, the dominant metaphors for the critique of
educational institutions have been the factory model and the banking concept of
education. The first metaphor, the factory model, places students, teachers and
knowledge in an assembly line of production, a perspective which arose in the early
1970's. During this period the work of Ivan Illich was paramount as he defined

schools as factories which turned learning into a commodity.' As a metaphor,

students are the raw product and they are molded according to factory standards.
The idea that schools are treated as factories has become even more explicit over
time. Larger high schools across North America now service several thousand
students at a time. In most districts, the trend has continued to be for larger and
larger sites of educational production. These sites of information manufacturing
have expanded their factory tendencies beyond the scope of Illich's initial analysis.
Since he proposed the factory model, a profound change has occurred in the
economies of the western world. Factories have left the Americas at a rapid pace
and in their place high technology and service sector jobs have emerged. Despite
the economic shift to smaller work place sites, schools have continued to follow
the practices of factory education. Even though most students will never see a
factory, let alone work in one, this dislocation between economic reality and
' Eisner, Elliot. Educational Imagination: On the Design and Evaluation of School Programs. pg.
77
educational practice appears to be expanding.

In many ways, another metaphor for education, the banking concept, has

more relevance to contemporary economics. Paulo Freire initially invoked the bank

as a metaphor for defining the relationships between students and their teachers.

In his book, Pedagogy of the Oppressed, Freire outlines the banking model of

education as one where:

(a) the teacher teaches and the students are taught

(b) the teacher knows everything and the students know nothing
(c) the teacher thinks and the students are thought about
(d) the teacher talks and the students listen-meekly
(e) the teacher disciplines and the students are disciplined
(f) the teacher chooses and enforces his [her] choice, and the students
comply
(g) the teacher acts and the students have the illusion of acting
through the action of the teacher
(h) the teacher chooses the program content, and the students (who
were not consulted) adapt to it
(i) the teacher confuses the authority of knowledge with his or her
own professional authority, which she and h e set in opposition to
the freedom of the students
(j) the teacher is the Subject of the learning process, while the pupils
7

are mere objects.-

With time, the processes that Freire envisioned have become more and more

entrenched. The current movement towards standardization has enabled the

banking model of studentlteacher relationships to be widely embraced particularly,

Freire, Paulo. The Paulo Freire Reader. pg. 69

4
through the increase in large scale testing practices. In addition, educational

attainment and lack of academic success are also examined as transactions. With
little regard for the students' desires and hopes, routinized processes are
prescribed and technical solutions are advocated. In schools, these dictates of
economic reason are becoming highly transparent and have been the subject of
much study based on Freire's inspirations.
Like Freire, Eliot Eisner also points to a plague of economic and
technologically driven thinking in schools in his book Educational Imagination: On
the Design and Evaluation of School Programs. In the chapter entitled "The
Three Curricula That All Schools Teach" he outlines educational practices which
permeate educational institutions. H e adds the idea of "hidden curriculums" to
the pervasiveness of mechanical thought in schools. His claim is that the
architecture and the internal structures of schools are just as important as the
curriculum, buildings, furnishings, color schemes, bell systems, and class
arrangement which all work together to create a "hidden curriculum". Eisner's
conclusion is that a tragedy is occurring in the modern school. H e surmises that a
common model of education dominates contemporary schooling and is designed
to promote repetitive tasks, efficient thought, and compliant behavior. For Eisner,
the impact of the "hidden curriculum" and large scale standardization is to
discourage initiative taking and to deny what it means to be fully human.
Neil Postman, in his book, Technopoly, has considerations which parallel
the concerns of Illich, Freire and Eisner. His perspective is that North America has
fallen into a near religious devotion of technology and that this belief system is
responsible for drastic changes in social and political institutions. Postman's
Technopoly describes a culture transfixed with the rules and dictates of
technological innovation and his analysis has a distinct commonality with the

banking and factory models of education. In a Technopoly, people place technical

calculations and considerations before human interests. Just as Freire, Eisner, and
Illich lamented the expansion of instrumental thinking, Postman has similar
concerns:
the uncontrolled growth of technology destroys the vital source of
our humanity. It creates a culture without a moral foundation. It
undermines certain mental processes and social relations that make
human life worth l i ~ i n g . ~

What is unique about Postman's theory is that he applies his analysis to the digital
era.
In Technopoly, Postman recognizes how central computers are to the
reconstruction of our social frameworks. As evidence, he outlines how many
current educational practices would not be plausible without the advent of

computer technology and that these changes have had a profound impact on how
we view education.

It is important to remember what can be done without computers,

and it is also important to remind ourselves of what may be lost when
we do use them.4

The concern for Postman is that rather than creating new ways of understanding,
technocratic school systems have had a tremendously narrowing effect on human
possibilities and potential. Through regulation and standardization, schools have

reduced the possibility for natural human learning desires and creativity. H e
Postman, Neil. Technopoly. pg. xii
Postman, Neil. Technopoly. pg. 120
further argues that with the influence of technological thought, school
curriculums, grading mechanisms, and learning processes are surrendering our
diverse cultural experiences to the demands of technocratic reasoning.

Together Ivan Illich, Paulo Freire, Eliot Eisner, and Neil Postman portray a

Western educational system transfixed by a mechanical paradigm.s Illich recognizes

the movement of factory driven processes into educational institutions. Freire

identifies the importance of human relationships in a banking model and fears an

extension of economically driven thought. Eisner returns to the factory model and

explores hidden curriculums that result from the structural resources used in

education. Postman's analysis points to the growth of technology and the

development of a culture which reveres these innovations. At the center of each of

these arguments rests the idea that instrumental tools, both mechanical and social,

are having a profound impact on the western world and our education systems.

Currently, a new kind of machine is dominating the technological paradigm

and is having a phenomenal impact on the restructuring of social and economic

processes. The advent of cyberspace through global networking technologies has

begun a new era which extends the influence of computer systems as a worldwide

instrument for monitoring information and knowledge networks. While

computers can contain a wide range of information, there are certain kinds of

knowledge which are particularly easy to manipulate in cybernetic systems. In

Western in this context does not specifically relate to a particular geographical area.lnstead, it
refers to the global spread of economic,political, social and educational values which have been
claimed to have a "Western" origin.
Hubert L. Dreyfus and Stuart E. Dreyfus's book Mind Over Machine they describe

computer systems as preferring mathematical and sequential knowledge such as:

hypothesis formulation and testing, control of variables, estimation,

logical deduction, combignorics, data collection, data organization,
decision making, and pattern identification.*

Essentially, information that is technical and calculable is ideal for computer

systems and is expanded by cybernetic processes. Cyberspace can contain images of

art, passionate e-mails and information that is not necessarily calculable or

technical. However, cyberspace could never recreate the feeling of rain on a face,

the intensity of human to human eye contact, or the grandness of an art gallery. In

The Child and The Machine, Alison Armstrong and Charles Casement explain

that computer programs are restricted to standardized and predetermined

responses.' The result is that everything in cyber-space is detached from its natural

environment and decontextualized through a restricted number of signs and

symbols. While this distinction between the abilities of cyber-space and the realities

of the world should be left in the hands of science fiction writers, for this

discussion of contemporary schooling it is the phenomenal ability of cyber-space to

reinforce and accelerate the practices of standardized reason, the banking concept

of education, and the factory model which is of the utmost concern.

Dreyfus, Herbert L. and Stuart E. Dreyfus. Mind Over Machine. pg. 126
' Armstrong, Alison and Charles Casement. The Child and The Machine. pg. 202
Cyber-Schools
With the dramatic influence of cyberspace in economic, political and social

realms, it might be argued that schools are now under tremendous pressure to

produce students capable of working with cybernetic information systems. A

hidden influence in this process, comes from the way that cyberspace links school

systems across the globe. In an educational culture transfixed with instrumental

tools, cyberspace expands the comparative possibilities of educational databases

and provides a platform for the increased influence of standardization. The

spread of computer use and the bias towards standardized practice reminds us

that, as Postman and Eisner previously identified, the tools that we use have a

profound impact on who we become, how we think, perceive, feel, and how we live.

Having embraced the cybernetic revolution, schools are moving toward an

increasing digital connection between the classroom and curriculum. While there

are schools which claim to be actual cyber-schools, for this theoretical exploration
8
the claim is that most schools are being pressured into cybernetic convergence.

From this convergence I am proposing four areas of educational process which

have been deeply affected by cyber-space: the valuing of specific forms of

knowledge, the commonality of educational resources, the increased

standardization of student and teacher relationships, and the hyper-acceleration

of instructional time.
Mark, Karin. "Yennadon tries cyberschool" Maple Ridge-Pitt Meadows News. pg. 3
Knowledge

The value of information has been deeply impacted by the networking

capabilities of cyberspace. In oral cultures, knowledge or information distribution

was limited in scope, and a desirable commodity. With the advent of books, access

to information became widespread and initiated changes in the structures of

societies. Through the creation of cyberspace, information has become abundant.

In Thomas Hylland Erikson's book, Tyranny of the Moment, he states that

through limitless access to information, information has become noise. The impact

of this infinite expansion of information has been the desire to focus on

instrumental forms of learning. The recent growth of standardized testing and

concise curriculums points toward a desire to contain these expansive knowledge

possibilities. The computer and its bias towards information that is standardized

and calculable also promotes instrumental processes in information systems.

While the promises of cyberspace are exponential global information networks,

the actual information in these networks is highly contained. As Dreyfus and

Dreyfus illustrate, the backbone of information systems, the computer, serves as

an ideal tool for coping with knowledge abundance by creating micro-worlds. The

Dreyfuses fear these processes will encourage knowledge that stems from drills

and repetitive practices.

 Under such pressures mathematics might degenerate into addition
and subtraction, English into spelling and punctuation, and history
9
into dates and places.

In cyberspace, the biases of computer structures and concerns over expansive

knowledge possibilities leads towards a favoring of knowledge that can be

quantified, scored and ranked.

Beyond promoting knowledge that is calculable, instrumental and easily

transferable, cyber-space also allows for the monitoring of information systems. In

Technopoly, Neil Postman emphasizes that the private nature of computer use

and the kinds of information computers prefer has a unique effect on educational

practices. Through large scale digital testing, the outcomes of learners and

educators can be compared with tens of thousands of other classrooms in an

instant. This innovation places students, teachers, schools, districts and even

countries under a form of surveillance. Mixed with a technological bias towards

standardized information, the increasing influence of testing and accountability

places pressure on educators to promote learning that enhances knowledge of

numerical and ordered processes. Through the globalization of cyberspace and its

increasing use in schools, the future of schooling appears to be a movement

toward knowledge that is structured, uploadable, and instrumental in assessment.

Dreyfus, Herbert L, and Stuart E. Dreyfus. Mind Over Machine. pg. 133

11
In the following chapters, this trend will be compared with Taoist principles that

highlight the value of knowledge that is unordered, spontaneous and non-active in

intent.

Resources

In current educational practices, the dictates of knowledge systems tend to

favor particular kinds of resources in classrooms. Cyberspace promises an

instantaneous access to an infinite collection of possible resources. Support for

this claim rests in the millions of books, videos and articles that are available on the

Internet. Cyberspace potentially places all of these resources at our finger tips.

The paradox is that cyberspace also acts as a tool for reducing the range of

resources. Since computers promote information that can be easily assessed and

ranked, certain kinds of resources are positioned as more valuable than others. In

education, teachers can identify resources that maximize specific learning

outcomes. In turn, the growth of standardized testing and the pressure to "teach

to the test" or to "follow the curriculum" proven lesson plans, mass produced

work sheets and repetitive activities, increases in stature.

In 1979 Eliot Eisner judged that across America the vast majority of

schools were already teaching identical subject matter with similar resources even

before the explosion of computer technology. In addition to the "hidden

curriculums", he recognized a hegemony in math, English, science and social

studies.'' With the global digital revolution, these curriculum guidelines have

expanded their influence, since highly instrumental versions of these subject areas

are ideal for testing. At the present moment, it is not unimaginable that a class in

Texas might be using the exact same curriculum, textbook and lesson plan as a

class in Quebec. The problem is that these curriculums suppose that knowledge is

fixed and that there is one way of representing knowledge that can be favored

above all others. In addition, standardized curriculums divorce students from their

local contexts, alienate them from the natural world around them, and create

monotypical understandings. The danger with the standardization of educational

resources is that it reduces ways of knowing. Standardized information whether

distributed through cyber-space or the textbook, encourages knowledge that is

routinized and neglects localized, emotional and social forms of knowledge.

'O Eisner, Elliot. Educational Imagination: On the Design and Evaluation of School Programs. pg.
86
Relationships

With the current growth of standardized knowledge and resources through

cyber-schools I foresee a future where digital systems could begin t o take the place

of teachers in many educational structures. Yet, while digital education platforms

are clearly expanding, it appears that human teachers are still central to the

process. Global curriculums and cybernetic testing continue to need human agents

as carriers of information. Although digital systems have not yet replaced teachers,

they are beginning t o influence the way that teaching occurs. What the digital

systems d o quite well is control the actions of teachers through testing that

promotes instrumental forms of knowledge. Curriculum guidelines, testing, and

the over-valuing of technical knowledge requires teachers t o evoke educational

techniques that follow standardized practices. By networking through cyber-space,

specific kinds of teaching that have the greatest impact on test scores and

curricular expectations are promoted. In cyber-education, innovative forms of

teaching are as risky as students' scores and external measures of success hold

teachers accountable for a specific kind of learning. Instead, required resources,

predetermined lesson plans and instrumental teaching tools are the only secure

option.

Concerns over the management of schooling, the ordering of structured

knowledge, and learning relationships have a tradition prior to the digital era.
Before cyberspace came into existence, Paulo Freire invoked the bank as a

metaphor for studentlteacher relationships. In many ways, the influence that

cyberspace has had on education increases the kinds of relationships that Freire

outlined. Interactions between teachers and students have varied little with the

advent of information technologies. However, there are some differences. Take

for example, item (h) previously listed as a characteristic of Freire's banking model:

"(h) the teacher chooses the program content." In this area a shift of authority

has occurred. While teachers continue to assert their professional authority, it is

the designers of cybernetic evaluations who determine program content. With the

expansion of standardization and testing, teachers spend much more time

"teaching to the test". These tests and the knowledge content contained in them

are bound by the limitations of the computer system. In essence, it is the demands

of network systems and computer knowledge which dictate much of the classroom

activity. It is for this reason that the banking metaphor needs to be adapted. The

concept of the bank places students as empty vessels to be filled by their teacher's

knowledge. In a cybernetic culture, this process continues but teachers are also

viewed as empty vessels who need to be filled with authorized knowledge and

techniques. Theoretically, students become hard drives, the teachers are the

programmers, but the software has been developed outside of the classroom.

Teachers are now viewed not as content programmers but as technicians

delivering knowledge systems through highly mechanical teacher-student

15
relationships. In my own experience, I have noticed that following the

announcement of grade 10 standardized testing in British Columbia, immediately

teachers began to consider ways to adapt their lessons to fit the forthcoming tests.

Cyberspace is a brilliant tool for arranging and ordering information but it

is also highly effective for determining quality control and expanding the

surveillance of knowledge distribution. Even before the explosion of cyberspace

technology, Postman recognized the ability of computers to regulate learning in

educational environments. What he asserts is that as more information is collected

II
from schools, then powerful external bodies are able to examine this data. The

concern is not that cybernetic systems survey, but that they survey for a particular

kind of educational experience. Schooling practices that are instrumental become

a priority for surveillance; as monitoring increases, so does the value of these

kinds of knowledge. The cybernetic surveillance of instrumental reason does and

will continue to have an effect on teaching practices, resources used, and place

both the teacher and the student under the authority of mechanical knowledge. In

a Taoist approach, emphasized particularly in chapter three, educational

relationships are presented as more adaptable and the roles of teacher, student,

and the authority of knowledge more fluid than fixed.

" Postman, Neil. Technopoly. pg. 10

 The increasing mechanization of education time, over the last one hundred

years, has demanded the regulation of educational relationships, the promotion

of the authority of knowledge, and standardization of resource types. Neil

Postman and Eliot Eisner both examine the effect of time in schools and point to

the theories of Lewis Mumford for inspiration. It was Mumford who exclaimed

that beyond telling time, clocks also create and mediate social interactions. H e

posited that through establishing time-based social phenomena, humans came to

12
be controlled by the dictates of time. In schools, mediated by schedules and bell

structures, learning has been given shorter confines. Eliot Eisner explains that:

Every fifty minutes, an entire school population of two thousand students

and sundry teachers plays musical chairs.''

The impact of this procedure is that regardless of subject or curricular area,

schools are limited to teaching knowledge in small chunks of time. For Eisner,

being confined by time is a tragedy and he argues against contemporary schooling

which overemphasizes left brain activities. When time is short, the left brain works

best with processes that are sequential, bound by classification, habitual and time-

ordered. Unfortunately, this means that schools are moving away from knowledge

that is visual, metaphoric, poetic, unfamiliar, and independent of time constraints.

Postman, Neil. Amusing Ourselves to Death. pg. 1 1

l2

Eisner, Elliot. Educational Imagination: On the Design and Evaluation of School Programs. pg.
l3

78
Neil Postman discusses a similar concern and demonstrates how there has been a

hyper-acceleration of time due to the technological change from the printing

14
press, to the radio, to the television, and finally with computer technology. The

tragedy, as Postman sees it, is that with this hyper acceleration of time the values

of wisdom, age and looking backward have been lost.

The demands of time have increased greatly with the advent of cyberspace.

Accelerated time by information networks is creating an even larger disdain for

anything slow, and in cyberspace the hyperactivity of time accentuates the forces

that Eisner has lamented. Processes that are sequential, bound by classification,

habitual and time ordered become even more influential over processes that are

metaphoric, poetic, and independent of time constraints. The trouble is that a

hyper-acceleration of information turns knowledge into a kind of noise. On an

advanced computer system, a potential user could be watching a movie, searching

rapidly through a host of internet sites while downloading a file larger than an

average phone book. With this access, cyberspace changes information from a rare

commodity to an informational abundance. In response, larger and larger

categories of informational learning are being established and demanded in

educational facilities.

l4 Postman, Neil. Technopoly. pg. 46

 In schools, there is a fear that time will run out, that there is never enough

time, and students are often accused of "wasting time". The priority is that

students are actively receiving information, a perfect example of Freire's banking

concept of education. H e defined the process as an "effort to turn women and

men into automatons" which are part human and part machine entity.15The

history of automatons comes directly from the mechanical innovation of keeping

16
time. In the banking metaphor, time is something to be measured and

transaction rates are to be monitored. The demands of time and the

mechanization of particular kinds of learning were a great concern for Freire

because he recognized that liberating forms of education take time. Creativity takes

time, innovative thinking takes time, wisdom takes time, and developing greatness

takes time.

In his book, Tyranny of the Moment, Erikson lists the values of slow time;

in particular, he mentions that without slow time metaphysics would be lost." For

Erikson, slow time requires consideration. H e reminds us that some of the

greatest thinkers have often taken up to fifty years to fully develop their thoughts.

In addition, he highlights that creativity and innovation depend on the gaps

between fast time. The greatest tragedy of the contemporary school system is that

students participate for a minimum of ten years, during which their learning is

l5 Freire, Paulo. (2000) The Paulo Freire Reader.pg. 70

l6 Gonzalez, Jennifer. "Envisioning Cyborg Bodies." The Cyborg Handbook. pg. 269
l7 Erikson, Thomas Hylland. Tyranny of the Moment. pg. 154
dominated by twenty minute lessons. It is almost unheard of t o find schools or

classes which embrace projects that take an entire year, an entire month, an entire

week, or even an entire day. Knowledge and learning processes that rest in slow

time are quickly being lost in cyberspace. In response, to the hyper-acceleration of

schooling, slow time needs protection.

In the field of education, the cybernetic revolution has been a

hyperextension and hyper-acceleration of previous habits. Illich, Freire, Postman

and Eisner outline earlier perspectives about education, and cyberspace

accentuates their concerns at an alarming rate. As a possible antidote the

philosophies of Taoism will be presented in the following chapters, particularly

with an emphasis on slow or meditative time. By questioning the very nature of

knowledge, scrutinizing standardized resources, forwarding different student-

teacher relationships and confronting the hyper-acceleration of time, Taoism

offers a new perspective on some old questions and concerns.

Taoism
For historical reasons, Taoism has little to say directly about the impact of

cyberspace, the factory model, the banking concept, and technocratic processes on

educational practices. Taoist philosophy was developed long before the creation of

these ideas. Yet, what Taoist philosophy does offer today's world is a long-term

understanding of the nature of machines and their impact on humans.

Tzu-kung [a disciple o f Confucius]traveled south to the land

o f Ch 'u. On his way back, he passed through Chin and along the
south bank o f the Han river. There he saw an old man going to plant
his field. He had dug a [diagonal] tunnel to reach the water down in
a well. He entered this tunnel clutching a large jug and then came
out again to bring water for irrigating his field. It was a hard job that
required much effort for a meager result. Tzu-kung said to the
gardener:"There's a tool for this kind o f work; in a day you could
irrigate a hundred fields. It demands but little effort for a big result.
Wouldn't you like to have one?"
The Gardener looked up and squinted at the speaker, saying:
"What is it?"
"All you need is some wood with holes drilled in it and then
assembled like a machine [a lever] that is heavy on one side, light on
the other. By moving it up and down, you can draw up water in a
constantly flowing stream. It is called a well sweep. At these words,
 the gardener turned red with anger and said with a 1augh;"I have
heard my master say that where there are machines, there will be the
problems o f machines, and these problems will produce people with
hearts like machines. With a heart like a machine in your breast,
there will be a lack o f pure whiteness. The gods o f life [of the body]
will be disturbed and there will no longer be a place for the Tao to
dwell. It is not that I do not know your machine. I should be
ashamed to use it!'"

In Taoist philosophy, the relationship between people and their machines has

been acknowledged for many generations. From the use of well-sweeps to the use

of cyber-space, Taoist wisdom suggests that tools produce people that are like the

machines that they use. As an educator with a profound interest in natural

learning desires I, too, frequently struggle with the results of educational

machines. Due to classical conditioning, when a bell rings or the curriculum is in

jeopardy, I often suppress natural or spontaneous learning moments. While my

conscience reels, for the student, I too become as cold and heartless as the

machines I work for.

In education, a Taoist perspective provides options for reviewing and

reassessing unbalanced educational practices and mechanisms. With an

understanding of Taoist philosophies, the works of Ivan Illich, Paulo Freire, Eliot

Eisner, and Neil Postman compel a revisitation. From a historical distance, Taoists

have also pondered the construction of knowledge, kinds of educational

resources, parameters of teacher-student relationships and the dictates of

l8 Schipper, v. Taoist Body. pg. 197
educational time. While contemporary conditions are much different than the

position of Taoist philosophers, the desire to understand the impact of our tools

is similar. In the above parable, the old gardener does not reject all technology,

instead he views certain kinds of machines as having an undesirable impact on the

human condition. As a solution he opts for a less efficient tool and is creative in

how he uses it. In the contemporary struggle over interpretations of education the

Taoist perspective rests closer to humanist interpretations. However contrary to

divisive dualism, the preference is to examine models that support Taoist

principles and maintain the vitality of the human spirit. Instead of simply rejecting

standardization, a Taoist analysis of contemporary educational practices promotes

processes that compliment as well as critique.

 Chapter 2

Introduction
A Taoist Pedagogy is one potential solution to the ever expansive
standardization of knowledge which now dominates contemporary practices in

schooling. From traditional educational technologies t o the recent introduction of

cyberspace, school has been primarily defined as a process which contains

resources, establishes authoritative teacher student relationships, and relies

heavily on the dictates of time. Taoist philosophy questions the use of these tools

and their profound impact on human relations, and instead proposes unique
educational alternatives. For educational practitioners, a Taoist Pedagogy

introduces the idea that structures and instruments of education have a limiting
effect on what it means to school. By utilizing restrictive knowledge, limited

resources, one directional studentlteacher relationships, and highly ordered

management models, schools have lost touch with the human desire to learn. In

this chapter, a Taoist Pedagogy will be explored in relationship to the critiques of

education presented in the first chapter. This chapter will present a philosophical
exploration and develop a foundation for a Taoist Pedagogy. Constructive

solutions will be explored in the third and fourth chapters.

A Taoist Pedagogy
A truly Taoist Pedagogy would have to begin with the disclaimer that there

can be no Taoist Pedagogy. Tao is the root of Taoism and is commonly translated

as "the way"- a universal force which interconnects all things. Infinite in scope,

Tao cannot be defined.

Tao called Tao is not the Tao.

Names can name no lasting name.'"

If Taoism is all things, then a Taoist Pedagogy must also attempt to bring the ideas

of diversity and unlimited possibilities into education.

In contrast to Tao the unlimited, stands the idea of Te which can be

interpreted as the actual. Taoism is not simply about metaphysical universality, it

also rests in the moment and the actual. However, central to the understanding of

Te is that the actual always rests under the influence of the Tao. Like our universe,
education can also be viewed as both unlimited and actual. It is through this

understanding and a historical exploration of Taoist texts that four clear

educational implications emerge and will be explored in this chapter. First, the

Taoist understanding of the nature of knowledge will be examined in relation t o

the learning process. Secondly, the worth of students, and their learning interests,

will be examined in relation to the contemporary model of teaching critiqued in the

earlier chapter. Thirdly, in the spirit of Tao itself, the ideas of the universal and

unlimited will be examined in relation to learning resources. Finally, the Taoist

l9 Lao-tzu. Tao Te Ching. translated by Stephen Addiss and Stanley Lombardo. pg. 1

25
notion of meditative time will be introduced in order to reexamine the ideas of

educational resources, school relationships and the nature of knowledge from a

Taoist Pedagogy.

Taoist History
The birth of Taoism is in many ways unclear and has been a source of

dispute among historians. What they do agree upon is that Taoism originated

from an oral tradition passed down through generations and that, some time

during the third century B.C., an unknown author penned a book without a title

and gave birth to a written tradition in Taoism. Over the centuries this first text

has been assigned the title Tao Te Ching and attributed to the author Lao-Tzu

(the "Old M a ~ t e r " ) . ~From

' this seminal work has flowered a Taoist philosophy

which now constitutes approximately fifteen hundred sacred t e x k 2 'The Tao Te

Ching has been a source of inspiration not only to Taoists but has had a profound
impact across the globe.

Over the centuries, the culture of Taoism has spread to influence both

eastern and western traditions. Eastern understandings of Taoism have a long

history of trial and consideration. In the west, the introduction of Taoism has

been evident for centuries in the ideas of science, philosophy, psychology,

literature and the arts. During the past few decades, these writings have grown in

the scope of their consideration. From metaphysical and poetic explorations,

Taoist literature now covers everything from self help books to administrative

leadership manuals. Yet, despite the diversity of their application, these texts hold
20 Chung, Tsai Chih. translated by Brian Bruya. The Tao Speaks. pg. 11
Schipper, Kristofer. Taoist Body. pg. 5
true to one common foundation of Taoist philosophy, all Taoist texts incorporate
and consider the nature of binary systems. Through a consideration of the balance

and struggles between opposites Taoism has had its greatest impact and offers

possible alternatives to current regimens of technocracy.

The Yin-Yang
As an expansive philosophy, Taoist writing has encompassed a phenomenal
number of subjects and areas of interest. However, there is one common theme

based in the paradoxical relationship between opposites. This concept is

symbolized in Taoism in the form of the yin-yang. The origin of this symbol is in

dispute as having either Buddhist or Taoist origins." Yet, this symbol has spread

beyond both of these traditions and can now be found around the globe in a
variety of locations. In Taoism, the yin-yang symbol has a foundation in the words
of the Tao Te Ching which primarily concerns itself with the interplay between sets

of opposites.

22 Little, Stephen with Shawn Eichman. Taoism and the Arfs in China. pg. 131

27
 Static Yin-Yang

At a basic level, the yin-yang represents a balance of white and black, a

symbolic representation which can include a wide range of opposites such as cold
and hot, male and female, and hard and soft. Split in half the yin-yang
dichotomizes a universal tendency that favors symmetry. In humans, this balance
can be seen in our bodies with our propensity to have two eyes, two arms, two legs,

two ears, two nostrils and two lungs. In addition, many parts of the body which

appear singular still have a center of reflection. For example, the mouth is
symmetrical and the brain is split in two hemispheres. The human body is an

example of the universal preference for the binary and can be expanded to animal

life, plant life, and even the polarity of earth itself.

However, opposites can be considered to have an antagonistic relationship

as well, where two extremes have a potential for conflict. The yin-yang represents a

struggle between cold and hot, or men and women, or even left and right brain

thinking. This kind of interpretation fits well within a western view of opposites

that pits extremes against each other. The above diagram of two polar forces could
be understood as a representation of a perspective which pits extremes against

each other; a model where dualisms duel. In academia, one example can be found

in the assumption that positivists and humanists have separate and antagonistic
relationships. Yet, the Taoist belief in the yin-yang goes beyond these one
dimensional understandings of opposites and recognizes that opposites not only

conflict but they also exist in an interdependent relationship.

Balanced Yin-Yang

In the above representation of the yin-yang the two binary forces contain
pieces of each other. In the black side there is a white circle and in the white side

there is black circle. These represent the reliance opposites have on each other.
For example, there could be no right brain without the left brain, no

understanding of night without day, hot could not exist without the experience of

cold, and humanism could not exist without an understanding of positivism. What
Taoists recognize and add to Western ideas of binary is the notion that polar
opposites require each other and that one could never exist without the other.

In traditional literature the yin-yang is expressed as both the extremes of

the universe and the interplay between these polar opposites. Taoist teachings do

not end here. There is also the middle ground where binary forces meet. Black

meets white to make gray, night meets day to make dawn, and cold and hot merge

to make warm. It is this liminal space between opposites that is often ignored. The
above representation of the yin-yang identifies a highly balanced relationship
between opposites. However, the interplay between yin and yang generally favors

one side over the other.

Fluid Yin-Yang

In this model there is not simply hot, cold and warm but a unlimited range of

temperate waters. It is this fluid and dynamic representation of the yin-yang

symbol which offers a visual model for the unlimited possibilities of the Tao.

Open-ended potentiality and the Taoist desire to achieve balance in extremes

informs the four pedagogical principles which I have identified; the Taoist

perspective of knowledge, Taoist teacher-student relationships, Taoist resources,

and the unifying principle of Taoist meditation. In the contemporary school

system, which favors order and standardization, the role of these principles is to

forward oppositional perspectives in order to promote an expansion of

possibilities.
 Four Pedagogical Principles

Knowledge
Your life has a limit but knowledge has none. If you use what is
limited to pursue what has no limit, you will be in danger. I f you
understand this and still strive for knowledge, you will be in danger
for certain!"

A universe filled with unlimited possibilities has its roots in two distinct

kinds of knowing for Taoists. This yin-yang of knowledge is represented through

the forces of wu-wei and yu-wei. Defined as "willful, intentional or unnatural

activity,"24yu-wei is designed to control and manipulate the natural world. In

educational theory, yu-wei exists as the banking model, works through

technopolies and favors the factory paradigm. While educational theorists fear
that these modes of thinking move us away from what it means to be human,

Taoists warn that an absolute favoring of yu-wei philosophies results in a drastic

movement away from the order of the universe. While not rejecting yu-wei

entirely, Taoism offers a desire to pursue wu-wei principles in order to achieve

balance.
It is difficult to find reference to the idea of yu-wei in Taoist writing,
instead references to wu-wei fill the pages. It appears that during the historical
origins of Taoism, there also existed social conditions which favored yu-wei
paradigms. It is for this reason, that Taoism offers an ideal philosophy for an
antidote to increased regimentation, standardization and order. Recognizing the
TZU,Chuang. translated by Watson, Burton. Chuang Tzu Basic Writings.. pg. 46
23
Ames, Roger T. "Putting the Te Back into Taoism." Nature In Asian Traditions of Thought.
24

Essays in Environmental Philosophy. pg. 121

human desire for structure and order, Taoists maintain that being human means
also following the ways of the natural world. In order to move beyond
standardized responses, Taoists advocate living in the moment and responding
spontaneously to external forces. As a solution wu-wei is advocated, and often
defined as "non-action". However, this conventional definition ignores the Taoist
notion that non-action does not necessitate sitting still.

We find Confucian standing by the banks o f a powerful waterfall. So

treacherous are the currents that not even fish can survive in them
long. He sees a man jump into the swirling waters and, afraid that he
is committing suicide, orders his disciples to pull him out, only to
find the swimmer quite unscathed by the incident. "May I ask ifyou
have some special way o f staying afloat in the water?" Confucius
inquires. "I have no way...," the swimmer answered. "I go under with
the swirls and come out with the eddies, following along the way the
water goes and never thinking a bout myself." The swimmer merely
flows with the water, never thinking a bout how or why, forgetting
about himself. Likewise, the sage flows with the Tao, wandering
through life and never knowing how or why he does what he doexz5

In this story, the Taoist notion of non-action does not translate as non-movement.
Instead, unwillfully or unintentional activity may require movement that follows
the order and rhythm of natural forces.
The yu-wei paradigm dominates schools. In an era of government exams,
specialized curriculums and bureaucracies, there appears to be little room for
anything that is not logical and ordered learning practice. The idea that schools

have a yu-wei tendency is not a new concept for educational theorists. However,
despite the dominance of yu-wei, wu-wei moments continue to find their way into
schools. In every classroom, the news of the day, an insect flying into the class, or
25 Oshima, Harold H. "A Metaphorical Analysis of the Concept of Mind in the Chuang-tzu."
Experimental Essays on Chuang-tzu. pg. 68
sudden changes of the weather allow for natural and spontaneous learning
moments. Many teachers and schools stuck in yu-wei philosophy attempt to resist

these intrusions. However, as the yin-yang symbol identifies, opposites exist in a

relationship and for this reason natural and spontaneous interruptions will
continue. From a Taoist perspective, it is unwise to rest solely upon yu-wei
philosophies. Instead, it is through pursuing wu-wei practices and attempts to
encourage spontaneous learning in natural and social contexts that a balance may
be achieved.
First it is important to stipulate that advocating wu-wei practices does not

mean eliminating yu-wei principles. In fact, sometimes in order to pursue wu-wei

activities, it is necessary to follow the highly rule bound and ordered processes of
the natural world. Benjamin Hoff, in his book The Tao of Pooh, highlights the
distinction between wu-wei and yu-wei knowledge.
When you work with the Wu Wei, you put the round peg in the
round hole and the square peg in the square hole. No stress, no
struggle. Egotistical Desire tries to force the round peg in the square
hole. Cleverness tries to devise craftier ways of making pegs fit where
they don't belong. Knowledge tries to figure out why round pegs fit
round holes, but not square holes. Wu Wei doesn't try. It doesn't
think about it. It just does it. And when it does, it doesn't appear to
do much of anything. But Things Get one.'^

'"off, Benjamin The Tao of Pooh. pg. 75

Student and the Teacher

Therefore the good person

Is the bad person's teacher,
And the bad person
Is the good person's resource

Not to value the teacher,

Not to love the resource,
Causes great confusion even for the intelligent

This is called the vital se~ret.~'

From this section, entitled Vital Secret, two points emerge with regard to student
and teacher relationships. First and foremost, comes the obligation of Taoist

teachers and their position in relation to the authority of knowledge.

Therefore the good person Is the bad person's teacher,

In teaching, there is always a desire to reward and focus upon the highly
motivated students. However, the Vital Secret introduces the notion that high test
scores and high levels of knowledge acquisition might not be the most important
feature of teaching. Instead, Taoist educators have a larger responsibility.

27 Lao-tzu. Tao Te Ching. translated by Stephen Addiss and Stanley Lombardo. pg. 27

34
 The sage has no mind o f his own.
He is aware o f the needs o f others.

I am good to people who are good.

I am also good to people who are not good.

Because Virtue is goodness.

I have faith in people who are faithful.
I also have faith in people who are not faithful.
Because Virtue is faithfulnes~.~~

The Sage, a Taoist practitioner, and Taoist teacher are required to act for the
benefit of those not good. A virtuous teacher is required to have faith in both the
good and the bad students. The problem for Taoist educators is that the
structures of education are designed to resist virtuous acts. It is hard for a teacher
to be virtuous and these acts are rarely noticed in the institutional schools.
Grading, based on an externalized authority of knowledge, demands high test
scores. Professional prestige favors teaching to those who are the best students.
Yet, despite these pressures, a Taoist Pedagogy demands that good teachers find
a way to work with "bad" or academically unsuccessful students.

Not to value the teacher,

...Causes great confusion even for the intelligent

The standard approach to working with bad students has been a desire to
make them into good students. A Taoist Pedagogy, however, questions whether

bad students even exist.

Lao Tsu. Tao Te Ching. Translated by Gai-Fu Feng and Jane English. pg. 49

35
 I f a man follows the mind given to him and makes it his teacher, then
who can be without a teacher? Why must you comprehend the
process of change and form your mind on that basis before you can
have a teacher? Even an idiot has a tea~her.'~

If every person can be their own teacher then how can bad students occur?

Even "idiots" have an innate desire to learn and pursue knowledge. Bad

students occur only when the knowledge and authority of learning is

externalized.

The solution that Taoist tradition offers is to devalue the teacher, not to
eliminate, but to question the teacher's relationship with the authority of learning.

Knowledge that is considered linear, going from teacher to student, entertains

only one kind of teacher student relationship. Yu-wei conceptuality suggests that

linear relationships work best with factual and standardized forms of education. In

contrast, there is also the possibility of teacher student relationships which

support wu-wei forms of knowledge. Non-active teaching is that which facilitates

the intrinsic desires of students to learn, and takes no-action or appears to be wu-

wei in intent. Devaluing the teacher, in Taoist Pedagogy, does not mean

eliminating the teacher, instead the hope is that by reducing the authority of the

teacher and supporting internalized knowledge, good students will thrive and bad

students will cease to exist.

29 TZU,Chuang. translated by Watson, Burton. Chuang Tzu Basic Writings. pg. 34

36
Resources

Therefore the good person

Is the bad person's teacher,
And the bad person
Is the good person's resource

Not to value the teacher,

Not to love the resource,
Causes great confusion even for the intelligent

This is called the vital secre

It is the Vital Secret which illuminates much of what it means to follow a

Taoist Pedagogy and informs not only studentlteacher relationships but explains

the nature of teaching resources. The tools educators use and the authoritarian

structures of schools, are resources which need examination. A Taoist Pedagogy,

not only provides an opportunity for critiquing resources but also proposes

solutions. A Taoist solution never discards what is already in existence. Bad

student, and even bad educational systems have potential if they are treated as a

resource.

And the bad person

Is the good person's resource

It is the bad student or low achieving student that Taoist teachers have a

moral obligation to view as a resource. In wu-wei or non-active teaching these

students act as vital sources of knowledge and have hidden talents. Aside from the

good and beautiful, the bad and ugly also have hidden benefits. In one Taoist

parable, this value is assigned to an old gnarly tree that has grown for centuries
30 Lao-tzu. Tao Te Ching. translated by Stephen Addiss and Stanley Lombardo. pg. 27
near a local temple. In the story, a traveling carpenter is the main character and

upon seeing the enormous tree admires the length of its shadow.

"What tree is this? It must certainly have some extraordinary

usefulness!" But, looking up, he saw that the smaller limbs were
gnarled and twisted, unfit for beams or rafters, and looking down,
he saw the trunk was pitted and rotten and could not be used for
coffins. He licked one o f the leaves and it blistered his mouth and
made it sore. He sniffed the odor and it was enough to make a man
drunk for three days. "It turns out to be a completely unusable
tree," said Tzu-ch'i, and so it has been able to grow this big. "Aha!-it
is this unusableness that the Holy Man makes use of!'"

In this tale the unusable tree is left to grow and over time has become of great

benefit to its surroundings. The expansive shade from the old tree symbolizes the

potential contained in all things bad and ugly.

A Taoist approach reveres the bad and ugly in relation to the good and

beautiful. Yet, this outlook is not just based in a notion of equal value. Instead,

Taoists have pity and concern for the fate of the good and beautiful. The above

story of the carpenter continues that night when the carpenter goes home and

falls asleep. This time the tree is personified in his dream and speaks to him about

the tragedy of being good and useful.

"Areyou comparing me to those useful trees? The cherq apple, the

pear, the orange, the citron, the rest o f those fructiferous trees and
shrubs-as soon as their fruit is ripe they are torn apart and subject to
abuse. Their big limbs are broken off,their little limbs are yanked
around. Their utility makes life miserable for them. ""

" TZU,Chuang. translated by Watson, Burton. Chuang Tzu Basic Writings. pg. 61
'' TZU,Chuang. translated by Watson, Burton. Chuang Tzu Basic Writings. pg. 60
This story illustrates the concept in Taoist Pedagogy that not only is the bad a
resource, but the good is to be pitied. In education, it is the bad student who
resists being twisted and abused, who stands as an asset for Taoist educators.
These bad students have been treated as an unrecognized resource. Through
resistance, bad students have demanded that teachers improve their lessons,
asked for more relevant learning, and have offered tremendous educational
resources through their demands for alternative educational approaches.
In education, we have an abundance of unusable or bad students. Schools
are saturated with students who resist in degrees the educational structures and
the tools that are used. "Trouble makers" and "anti-authoritarian students" are
often looked at with disdain and punished for their actions. However, much like
the unusable tree these students have a hidden impact on education. T o begin
with, educators and their teaching methods are continually adapting and
responding to the demands of these students. Bad students have been pressuring
educators to improve their lessons, to offer more diverse classes, and to make
curriculums more relevant. In addition, across North America, thousands of
alternative education programs have been created in response to the bad student.
While credit is given to teachers and institutions that succeed with bad students, it
is in actuality the bad students who have demanded the changes and determine
the success or failure of any program. For a Taoist Pedagogy, it is these bad
students and the changes that they have made in education that rest as a valuable
resource for educators.
 Not to love the resource,
Causes great confusion even for the intelligent

The greatest impact of the bad students in education has been a revaluing

of the resources and tools we use in education. If it were not for the bad student,

schools might never change or adapt to new circumstances. Once again the

paradox of the yin-yang symbol appears. After recommending bad students as a

resource, the Taoist Vital Secret asks us not to love our resources. W e are

reminded that it is important not t o become too transfixed with o n e way of doing

things; focusing exclusively o n the bad student and their demands can also be

problematic. Taoists d o acknowledge that in addition to the natural desire to learn

there is information that people ought to know. It is finding a balance between

internalized authorities and the construction of knowledge that is the greatest

challenge for a Taoist educator.

T h e advice t o not love our resources reminds us that wu-wei and yu-wei

practices need t o occur mutually and asks educators to question the balance of our

resources. In education, it is with the yu-wei resource that most classes begin, and

with the influence of cyberspace this trend is expanding. Before there is a teacher,

students, and even a school there is a formalized curriculum, imported from a

central computer console. At present, these curriculums are derived and limited by

the demands of computer based technology. The danger is that with this bias these

curriculums constrict knowledge types. Through a technical approach to

education, these documents favor standardized forms of knowledge which prefer

testable and accountable forms of education. If, as Taoists claim, knowledge is

unlimited and universal, then the favoring of specified learning resources becomes
problematic in a Taoist Pedagogy. The binding and restriction of knowledge into
curriculums, textbooks, and lesson plans promotes yu-wei structured schooling
and focuses resources away from wu-wei and non-active forms of learning.

The great scholar hearing the TAO

Tries to practice it.
The middling scholar hearing the TAO
Sometimes has it, sometimes not.
The lesser scholar hearing the TAO
Has a good laugh.
Without that laughter
It wouldn't be TAO'"

The Meditative

Considerations of knowledge types, resources, and teacher-student

relationships culminate in the Taoist notion of the meditative. A common
association with meditation is being slow of breath, deep in metaphysical thought,
and unmoving. In Taoism, these processes are ideal but not necessarily the only
way to be meditative. Instead, Taoist meditation is primarily about the human body
and the mind's action over time. Despite proclaiming the benefits of wu-wei (non-
action), Taoists recognize a fluid range of degrees of non-action. A Taoist
perspective on meditation explores non-action in its relationship with action
through the yin-yang.

3 3 T ~ Chuang.
u, translated by Watson, Burton. Chuang Tzu Basic Writings. pg. 41

41
 It is not wise to rush about.
Controlling the breath causes strain.
If too much energy is used, exhaustion follows.
This is not the way o f the Tao.
Whatever is contrary to Tao will not last long."

Tao means a universality of option and possibility. T o rush about and to

control one's intent is contrary to following the Tao. Since energy use is generally

focused and limited, it is far from the notion of unlimited possibility. In Taoism,
the physical act of rushing stands in stark contrast to meditative time. The

meditative is not only about being non-active but searching for ways to slow down
the body and mind over time. Tai-chi, a Taoist form of martial arts, is the

embodiment of this principle. In Tai-chi people empty their minds and follow a
series of physical movements with the goal of slowing down as much as possible. It

is this idea of slowing and not rushing which informs a Taoist meditative

perspective.
It is virtually impossible to find examples of slow meditative behavior in

contemporary schools. Instead, hundreds and thousands of students fill large

factory modeled schools that promote a Taylorist inspired work ethic. If you have
ever experienced the break between classes at a large factory high school you will

have noticed the frantic pace with which students literally run from classrooms.
This desire to rush is not a typical teenage response to schooling. Instead, these

students are responding to a model which expects them to keep busy. Reinforced

by the authority of administrators and teachers, the culture in most schools is

similar to a fast food restaurant where students and teachers pretend to be busy at

34 Lao Tsu. Tao Te Ching. Translated by Gai-Fu Feng and Jane English. pg. 55

42
all times. This culture of getting things done, is reinforced through school
management systems which train students and teachers t o rush around; the bell

system, highly prescriptive curriculums, and authoritative relationships demand

the appearance of busy activity. Education that is based in rote memorization,

repetitive activities and standardized testing becomes ideal in these environments,

as these learning techniques involve the appearance of hard work. The tragedy is

that these learning conditions are contradictory t o certain kinds of knowing which
are also important. These kinds of learning will be exemplified in depth,in chapter

three, during the case study of the Outreach program at Inglenook Community

High School.

Meditative Knowledge

You have heard o f knowledge that knows, but you have never heard
o f the knowledge that does not know. Look into that closed room,
the empty chamber where brightness is born! Fortune and blessing
gather when there is stillness. But ifyou do not keep still-this is
called sitting but racing around. Let your ears and eyes communicate
with what is inside, and put mind and knowledge on the outside."'

Meditative knowledge is that which transcends highly active forms of

understanding. Action o r thought which requires highly conscious activity and

involves rushing the mind, contrasts with the Taoist notion of the meditative.

Instead, wu-wei knowledge is much closer to meditative forms of thinking, through

the idea of mindless or non-active participation. It exists when a person is engaged

in an activity to such a extent that they appear t o become one with the object or
35 TZU,Chuang. translated by Watson, Burton. Chuang Tzu Basic Writings. pg. 54
knowledge they are engaging. Examples might be found in a painter, or crafts
person, or even a musician who has become one with their instrument or canvas.

In Taoist educational literature, knowledge has been defined as walking in the

woods. During these wu-wei moments, the learning involves non-active intent as
the participant simply appears to be in a trance like state. In Taoist practice,
meditative forms of knowledge may still require mindful action but it is the intent
of intensity with which this action occurs that defines the meditative.
There is presently a fixation with learning that focuses on active minds and

bodies in the field of education. The domination of willful or intentional activities

stands in stark contrast to meditative forms of learning in classrooms. In defining
meditative knowledge, it is the action, not the specific knowledge type, which is of
the most importance. Instead of categories of knowledge, it is the physical and
mental state of alertness which defines the meditative. Education that invokes
stress and demands intentional activity runs contrary to the demands of meditative
knowledge. Meditation demands internalized will, as it is impossible to learn to
meditate without internalized desire. The difficulty for educators is that this kind
of learning is highly individualistic and diverse in nature. What might induce

natural learning desires in one student might induce anxiety and stress in another.
It is in the tradition of Tao itself that meditative knowledge becomes unlimited and
unbounded. Yet, more important than the kind of knowledge is the way that
knowledge is approached. Meditative knowledge is that which is internalized, non-
intentional and demands little rushing of the mind.
 On his way back from the K'un-lun Mountains, the yellow Emperor
lost the dark pearl o f Tao. He sent Knowledge to find it, but
Knowledge was unable to understand it. He sent Distant Vision, but
Distant Vision was unable to see it. He sent Eloquence, but
Eloquence was unable to describe it. Finally, he sent Empty Mind,
and Empty Mind came back with the pearl.'6

Meditative Resources
The notion of space and time is essential for an understanding of Taoism.

Time, particularly the idea of slow time, is the most important feature of a
meditative resource. To meditate takes substantial amounts of time. First it takes

time to learn to meditate.Then it takes time to practice meditation. And, finally,

once learned, meditative talents get better with time. Beyond this obvious skill
based notion of time, meditation by its definition is to go beyond time. It is an an

act where the participant leaves notions of time and space behind in order to
transcend the minute to minute demands of life. Evidence of achieving meditative
time rests in the experience of returning. This occurs when a person who has
experienced meditative time realizes that they have been absent from time
constraints. This kind of time experience is not specific to meditatioqand can
happen in a variety of locations and activities, walking in the woods.
Meditative time and activity relies on the idea of a meditative space. Full is
the opposite of this kind of space and occurs when there are distractions, high
levels of activity and human contact. In contrast, it is the idea of the empty which
informs the concept of a meditative resource.
36Hoff,Benjamin. The Tao of Pooh. pg. 144-145.

45
 Thirty spokes join in one hub.
The wheel's use comes from emptiness.

Clay is fired to make a pot.

The pot's use comes from emptiness.

Windows and doors are cut to make a room

The room's use comes from emptiness."

Being empty evokes the unlimited possibility of Tao. Empty rooms and empty pots
contain unlimited potential for fulfillment. For meditative resources, this same
emptiness is crucial for the universal potential of meditative processes.
Empty rooms and inactive moments are quickly identified, organized and

structured in schools. Here, yu-wei driven knowledge demands that resources be

categorized and intentional in their outcomes. In contrast, meditative resources
are those which evoke wu-wei knowledge forms that are unintentional and natural
in intent. As discussed above,wu-wei knowledge is diverse in its possibilities, as it is
not the knowledge but the appearance of non-action or non-intent which defines

wu-wei. This means engaging in forms of learning or doing in which the student
might not even realize they are learning. Just as important, meditative knowledge

demands that learners be intrinsically motivated to learn. In contemporary schools

almost all rooms have a specific function, each moment of time is designated as a
particular learning moment, and learning is demanded and asserted on the
learner. These conditions are highly contrary to supporting wu-wei forms of

knowing.

37 Lao-tzu. Tao Te Ching. translated by Stephen Addiss and Stanley Lornbardo. pg. 11

46
 Instead of actively filling schools, time and classroom activity, it is the
emptying and promotion of non-action which informs a meditative perspective.

This idea of being empty relates to meditative resource in two distinct ways. First,

empty can be a resource in itself. In the above quote, the empty spaces between the

spokes of the wheel must stay empty in order for the wheel to function. Meditative
resources are ideally the kind of space where nothing exists as a function. The

second area of relationship between the empty and the meditative resource comes

from the analogy of an empty pot or room. In these void spaces there is a wide
range of potential uses. An empty pot can be filled with a wide range of substances

for a variety of purposes.It is the empty space which makes the pot so useful. In
schools, these meditative spaces would occur as rooms that can be filled with a

wide range of activities, a room that is not a science lab, or grade two classroom, or

a warehouse for books. Instead, a room may host a large variety of activities and
may even appear unused for an extensive amount of time. The school gymnasium

offers a meditative space as it is regularly used for a variety of activities, meetings

and assemblies. However, this is only an introductory example of a meditative

space. A true meditative space or resource, following the idea of meditative

knowledge, must involve the learners intrinsic motivation to attend or engage the

space. It is hard to give a contemporary example of this kind of space or resource

in the current school system as they are highly managed and unfavorable to
meditative conditions. In chapter 3, the case study, a student lounge is given as an
example of a meditative space where learning can occur across a wide spectrum of

possibilities, a space which could be filled with a flurry of activities but also could

be, and is used, as a room for quiet meditative contemplation and activity.
Meditative Teaching

Therefore the sage is devoted to non-action,

Moves without teaching,
Creates ten thousand things without instruction,
Lives but does not own,
Acts but does not presume,
Accomplishes without taking credit.

When no credit is taken

Accomplishment endures."

Meditative teaching begins with empty resources and through non-action

promotes the natural learning desires of students. This is a most difficult act for a

Taoist teacher, since non-action overrides the authority over knowledge which
defines the profession. However, being located outside of the authority of

knowledge does not mean being invisible to the learning process. Knowledge
obtainment that is based on the intuitive and internalized desires of students

might need support. Non-action on the part of teachers does not necessitate no-

action. Instead, it is intentional and willful instruction that is to be avoided.

Questions and answers which arise naturally and spontaneously are those which
Taoist educators should embrace and support with non-action.

Similar to knowledge types, resources that are dictated and intentional in

activity are contrary to meditative practices. Instead, meditative teaching needs to

promote diverse resources and knowledge possibilities. In the field of educational

psychology, academics have argued for decades over the number of human
intelligence types. Meditative teaching understands that beyond one, two, three or

seven kinds of intelligence, there are ten thousand more, and each one needs an
38 Lao-tzu. Tao Te Ching. translated by Stephen Addiss and Stanley Lombardo. pg. 2

48
unique kind of resource. For this reason, Taoist teachers need to promote endless
possibilities of resources. The benefit of this kind of practice comes when
unlimited knowledge and resources are combined with the non-action of a
teacher. Instead of petty knowledge categories, schools would promote a
movement from knowledge towards wisdom and from this, accomplishment would
endure.

In the Pursuit of Learning

The ideas of meditative knowledge, resources and teaching methods rests
as the foundation of a Taoist Pedagogy. For Taoist educators, these principles

contrast the current expansion of mechanized standardization. Schools,

curriculums, lesson plans and testing are only half of a Taoist understanding of
knowledge. Through the Taoist tradition of the yin-yang, inspired teachers need
to promote oppositional forces. Instead of simply denouncing what is wrong, the
Taoist teacher should forward the possibility of a balanced approach. Despite the
difficulty of this task, there is hope if a few key principles can be incorporated into

the school environment. A Taoist Pedagogy demands that educators scrutinize the
balance of knowledge types in schools, open classrooms to a world of resources,
examine teacher-student relationships and pursue activities that promote
meditative forms of learning. At the heart of this search rests the idea of Tao

itself-the universe is a diverse and limitless place and even ten thousand kinds of
thinking could never encapsulate its magnitude.
 In the pursuit o f learning, every day something is acquired.
In the pursuit o f Tao, every day something is dropped..

Less and less is done

Until non-action is achieved.
When nothing is done, nothing is left undone.

The world is ruled by letting things take their course.

It cannot be ruled by interfering.39

39 Lao Tsu. Tao Te Ching. Translated by Gai-Fu Feng and Jane English. pg. 48

50
 Chapter 3

Introduction
The case study presented in the following chapters is about a small inner-
city school, called Inglenook Community High School. It was introduced in
chapter one that Taoist considerations of programs and institutions need t o

recognize how those machines are used by people. For this reason, the programs
at Inglenook school will be compared with the personalities and relationships of
two teachers at the school. T o begin with, in this chapter, the programs and

policies of Inglenook will be associated with educational strategies raised by Taoist

philosophers. In particular, a specialized day of study, called Outreach, will be
presented as an example of Taoist programing, since it encourages wu-wei
knowledge, Taoist resources, unique student-teacher relations, and a meditative
approach to time and space. In chapter four, two veteran teachers behind the
program will be introduced in order to add a human component t o the Taoist case
study. While not an officially recognized as a Taoist institution, the school
structure and educational relationships demonstrate the possibilities of a Taoist

Pedagogy, particularly through their support of wu-wei knowledge, meditative

time, student teacher relationships and Taoist resources.
The School Symbol
Inglenook Community High School, a publicly funded alternative school,

has utilized the yin-yang as the school symbol for over three decades. Over the
years, this icon has adorned official school documents, signs, school t-shirts, hats,
and art which covers the walls of school. At Inglenook the yin-yang symbol is much
more than an icon. Instead, it is a living code with which students and teachers

engage on a regular basis. In classrooms, school meetings, and in discussions

between teachers and students the symbol returns for consideration. Despite this
ubiquity of the yin-yang, at the school there is no dominant interpretation. The
yin-yang is considered from the perspectives of Taoism, Buddhism, Confucianism,
western traditions and a multitude of interpretations. However, it is the centrality
of the yin-yang to Taoism, as discussed in chapter two, which makes the case for
Inglenook as a representation of Taoist educational principles.

Defining Inglenook

Before entertaining a thorough Taoist examination of Inglenook, it is

necessary to impart a historical, political, and educational context. Inglenook
Community High School is a inner-city school in the heart of Metropolitan

Toronto. The school has been operating as Inglenook since 1974 and has
developed a tradition of alternative schooling that has become a source of pride
for the school district.
 Inglenook is a small, friendly, alternative community high school with a
family-like atmosphere. It is housed in a historical building, in the heart of
Corktown, in downtown Toronto. It is the oldest continually operating
school in the Toronto District School Board. In 1994, Inglenook Community
High School was named an exemplary school by the Canadian Education
Association. We offer Advanced level programs from Grade 11 to OAC with
a few Grade. 10 courses.
Students can select from a wide range of Advanced level courses
structured in an interdisciplinary format. Because of our location, teachers
use the rich resources of the city, such as galleries, museums, radio and TV
stations, movie theaters, and a host of other educational sites. All courses
invite active student participation, and both teachers and students find the
often passionate debates in courses to be intellectually stimulating.40

40 Found Document # l . School Profile.

Small School
In many North American high schools it is common to see student
populations well over a thousand. At Inglenook, the quality of a student's
education is directly related to the size of the school. Despite the trend for
increased school enrollment, Inglenook has maintained a population of close to
100 enrolling students for the last thirty years. This desire to maintain a small

school is a defining feature of Inglenook.

ingle-nook n. a nook forming a place for sitting beside a deeply recessed

fireplace. 4'

With a name that hints at the intimacy of gathering around a fireplace, Inglenook
has stayed true to its definition. Encouraging the intimate relationships that would

occur around a fireplace allows for teachers and students to form familial and
community relationships. At Inglenook, size does matter, and is an important
feature in the creation of relationships and the structuring of an educational
environment.
While Inglenook has been aware of size and its impact on relationships for
over thirty years, popular academic literature is beginning to reflect similar
concerns. Extending from several highly publicized cases of high school violence,
such as the Columbine massacre, academics and the mainstream media have
begun to question the value of large impersonal educational environments. The
old argument was that larger schools are ideal because they support a diversity of
programs and increase student achievement. Yet, the value of these proposed
attributes has started to come under question. Instead, as a result of the growth in
4' Found Document #2. Info Nook.
school violence many educational agents are now rethinking the placement of

achievement over community.42 With a rediscovered interest in educational

relationships school districts across the continent are proposing smaller schools as

a solution. The leading advocate is the New York City School District, which has

conducted extensive research into the cost effectiveness of small schools. After

finding that the costs in small and large schools are comparable, the District

supported the creation of 140 new small schools between 1995-2000.43 The unique

quality of the New York example is that the district has not simply added schools,

it has also eliminated several large factory modeled schools. For proponents of
smaller sized schools, and advocates of community, family and friendly

relationships, Inglenook offers an exemplary thirty year history.

Community History
The history of the community and particularly the school site is a great

source of pride at Inglenook Community High school, where documents and

plaques pronounce the historical importance of the school's location.

25 Dollars Reward
The subscriber will give for the apprehension and return of a colored man,
named THORTON, who absconded from our employ on the 3rd or 4th of
July, inst. Said Thorton is about 5 feet, 9 or 10 inches high; stout and of good
address; had on when he left, a blue cloth coat and pantaloons, boots, and a
black hat.
July 7 WURTS & REINHARD44

Raywid, Mary Anne, and Libby Oshiyama. "Musings in the wake of Columbine." pg. 444
42

Stiefel, Leanna, Robert Berne, Patrice latarola, and Nom Fruchter. "High School Size: Effect on
43

Budgets and Performance in New York City." pg. 27

Found Document #4. A Photocopy From an Old Newspaper.
This document and a school plaque tell the story of a slave named Thorton who
fled through the underground railroad t o make his way t o Toronto, where he built
the cities first Taxi company on the school property. This story is a great example
for Inglenook students, who are also often running away from oppressive
conditions and in need of hope and inspiration.
Beyond the school site, the community in which Inglenook is located also
has a long historical importance. Originally called Corktown, the neighborhood
was once a vibrant working class community until an expressway was built through
the main corridor. With time this passage changed the dynamics of the

neighborhood from a residential environment t o a predominantly industrial areae4'

Presently, Corktown is undergoing a revitalization with many artisan studios, cafes

and galleries opening in the neighborhood. It is possible that Inglenook has had a
large impact on this return t o the past. For a school which advocates community
connections, and has a long tradition of promoting artistic talent, it is possible that

after 30 years Inglenook might have had an impact on this reformation of the local
community. For example, a nearby recording studio has recently been established

by a former student who now encourages contemporary students t o apprentice at

the shop.

45 Beattie, Mary. with Margaret Robertson and Suzanne Stiegelbauer. Exemplav Schools Project
Technical Report: Corktown Community High School: Toronto, Ontario. pg. 11
Alternative Schools
As an alternative school with three decades of experience, Inglenook has a

unique position in the history of alternative schooling. Currently alternative

schools and programing are recognized as a vital component of public education.

Yet, alternative programming has its historical roots in the 1960's. During this

early era, a substantial number of academics, teachers, parents and students

became highly critical of the public school system. These critics pointed towards

high drop out rates and low participation rates in what they identified as factory

modeled schools. During the early years of this phenomena dozens of books were

written with an emphasis on the need for freedom in education: Free Schools by

Kenneth Richmond, Free the Children: Radical Reform and the Free School

Movement by Allen Graubard, Organization Without Authority by Ann Swindler,

and Free Schools by Jonathan Kozol. While diverse in study, each of these

readings suggested that large institutional public schools were inherently

instrumental in educational oppression. The list of indictments was extensive: that

public schools used coercion, regimentation, large classes, rigid time structures,

and competition to create competitive factions in society.

In response to the early theoretical work, schools were established to

celebrate alternative learning styles. Initially, a small number of private schools

emerged in the early 1960's, under the banner of the free school movement. The

first were mostly private schools for predominantly middle class youth and these

boarding schools were generally extensions of an earlier experimental school in

England, called Summerhill. In Summerhill and these early alternative schools,

schools were redesigned to encourage student directed learning. The operational

assumption was that students did not need external prompting to learn, and
instead that they would be motivated through their natural desires to learn. To

pursue these passions the curriculum, classrooms and administrative decision

making became the responsibilities of the students. The response from the

students was positive and by the mid 1960's these alternative schooling practices

began to influence the urban public school systems and a second wave of

alternative growth occurred.46 New urban schools introduced alternative

education to inner-city students who also responded to the new models of

education. However, these urban schools, by the nature of their location and

clientele, had to adapt the Summerhill model to their local context. Despite these

adaptions, one central tenet remained with each of these alternate schools, the

principle that disenfranchised students are best educated when they are directly

involved in their own administrative and curricular decision making.

Inglenook Community High School, originally established in 1973 has

maintained some of the early free school traditions. A t Inglenook, the programs

and the structures of the school encourage students to take control of their own

education. With a history of tremendous local success and the recent nomination

as an exemplary school, Inglenook demonstrates the possibilities inherent in

alternative models.47This recognition of the talents inherent in alternative

students adds to academic discussions of what it means to be academically

successful. In a study conducted by Heme Varenne and Ray McDemott, in a book

entitled Successful Failure, the research found that alternative students have
Mintz, Jerry. The Almanac of Educational Choices. pg. 24
46

Beattie, Mary. with Margaret Robertson and Suzanne Stiegelbauer. Exempla~ySchools Project
47

Technical Report: Corktown Community High School: Toronto, Ontario. Canadian Education
Association.
different sets of skills and knowledge than "normal" students. When they
presented alternative curriculum to both kinds of students, Varenne and
McDemott found "failed children succeeding at school tasks and successful
children failing at similar tasks."4aConsidering their study, and the historical

contribution of free schools, it becomes apparent that the unrecognized talents of

alternative students needed a thorough examination. Inglenook is one institution

where alternative students have been encouraged to follow their potential. The
school has maintained a small, community oriented, familial educational
environment in order to enhance the education of alternative students.

Inglenook and Taoism

Knowledge
In chapter two, the Taoist Pedagogical understanding of knowledge was
defined as expanding beyond intentional categories and definitions. Instead, both

intentional knowledge and non-active knowledge, yu-wei and wu-wei, are Taoist

forms of knowledge. However, with a consideration of the yin-yang symbol Taoism

promotes the balance between opposition forces. In chapter one, the
contemporary school system was described as overly concerned with standardized
and ordered knowledge categories, yu-wei. In this chapter, the story of Inglenook
is put forward as an example of a wu-wei inspired system which offers the

4 Varenne, Herve. Ray McDemott. Successful Failure: The School America Builds. pg. 3

61
potential for a balance in schooling approaches.
At Inglenook the mandate is to educate with as much interdisciplinary
study as possible.
Students can select from a wide range of Advanced level courses structured
in an interdisciplinary format. Because of our location, teachers use the rich
resources of the city, such as galleries, museums, radio and TV stations,
movie theaters, and a host of other educational sites. All courses invite active
student participation, and both teachers and students find the often
passionate debates in courses to be intellectually stimulating.4~

Contrary to the highly categorical and systematized approaches to learning

adopted at most North American schools, at Inglenook education reflects the
interdisciplinary realities of knowledge. In Taoism and in the above profile there is
a common understanding that knowledge is not only curricular and categorical, it
is also interdisciplinary and learning also exists outside of the school walls within
the larger community. The belief that knowledge must go beyond basic categories
is a shared vision with a Taoist Pedagogy of learning. In Taoism, the idea of an
education fixated with compartmentalized learning is something to be avoided. In
The Tao of Pooh, Benjamin Hoff discusses this ancient principle in relation to
current scholars.

Far from reflecting the Taoist ideal of wholeness and independence,

this incomplete and unbalanced creature divides all kinds of abstract
things into little categories and compartments, while remaining
rather helpless and disorganized in his daily life. Rather than
learning from Taoist teachers and direct experience, he learns
intellectually and indirectly, from book^.'^

49 Found Document # I . School Profile.

50 Hoff, Benjamin. The Tao of Pooh. pg. 25
It is this common philosophy of interdisciplinary learning and education through
direct experience which Inglenook encourages, a Taoist approach to knowledge

acquisition.

Interdisciplinary intentions and focus on lived experience exists beyond the

mandate and the school profile. It is the class offerings that highlight the

application of these visions into educational practice. At Inglenook, class titles

demonstrate the school's commitment to education which crosses disciplinary

boundaries. The list of course offerings includes a variety of unique titles.

Science in Society, Introduction to Sociology, Anthropology and Psychology,

The Fashion Industry / Fashion in Society, Individuals and Families in a
Diverse Society, Issues of Human Growth and Development, Utopian Cities,
and Cyberpunk Literature.51

Similar to the Taoist understanding of knowledge, at Inglenook standardized and

categorical approaches to knowledge are viewed as limiting and instead

interdisciplinary and relevant forms of knowledge are pursued. In Taoism learning

for the sake of learning is contrary to developing knowledge and eventually

wisdom. Instead a Taoist Pedagogy advocates the idea that students, like trees,

need to be well rooted. T o be rooted means to learn and understand a whole

range of knowledge types.

51 Found Document #5. Course Generator: Student Course Survey.

63
 Well planted is not uprooted,
well kept is not lost.
The offerings o f the generations
to the ancestors will not cease

To follow the way yourself is real power.

To follow it in the family is abundant power.
To follow it in the community is steady power.
To follow it in the whole country is lasting power.
To follow it in the world is universal power.

So in myself I see what self is,

in my household I see what family is,
in my town I see what community is,
in my nation I see what a country is,
in the world I see what is under heaven

How do I know the world is so?

By this.52

Learning Relationships
In chapter two, A Taoist Pedagogy, it was identified that knowledge
possibilities are intricately linked with student teacher relationships, that the
relationships between teacher and student are as important as the information
itself. At Inglenook, students and teachers have a different kind of educational
relationship. At most schools, the standard relationship is one based on the
authoritative position of the teacher. At Inglenook, the standard notion of what it
means to be a student and a teacher is challenged.

52 Lao-TZU.Tao Te Ching. translated by Ursula K. Le Guin and J.P. Seaton. pg. 69

64
 Approximately 130 students (Grade 10 through to OAC) and seven teachers
are housed in a crowded Victorian building of few facilities and enormous
vitality. Walls are festooned with news articles, letters from alumni and ads
for beat poetry readings; students may take their lessons from sofas and
armchairs or with teapot and cup perched on the edge of a desk. Teachers
are called by their first names in attempt to break down any ideas of
hierarchy; kids tend to describe their course load as "Two Robs, a Bob and a
Gretchen.''-

This quote from the Toronto Life Magazine paints a portrait of the educational

relationships at Inglenook, an image where students work in a domestic

environment with the comforts of home, identify and refer t o their teachers on a

first name basis. These three examples of Inglenook's alternate relationship model

are only a small portrait of a much larger picture. While very descriptive the above

article fails to state that the teachers also sit on the couches and learn from the

students. During the research one teacher commented:

"The neat thing about Inglenook is that sometimes I am not sure if I

am the student o r the teacher."

It is through the techniques of equalizing student and teacher power relations that

Inglenook promotes learning that has a foundation in the the Taoist

understanding of the Vital Secret.

In chapter two the Vital Secret poem was presented as showing a Taoist

concern for the authority of knowledge and the need for virtuous teachers who

have faith in both the good and the bad students.

53 Found Document #6. "Inglenook Community High School."

65
 Therefore the good person
Is the bad person's teacher,
And the bad person
Is the good person's resource

Not to value the teacher,

Not to love the resource,
Causes great confusion even for the intelligent

This is called the vital secret.j4

This Vital Secret questions the value of the teacher and promotes the bad person

as an educational resource. At Inglenook Community High School the Vital Secret

has application in the practices of the schools' programs where students are
encouraged to participate in their own education as both student and teacher.
Teachers using their first names and students drinking tea are the result of
an intricate system of programs at the school. At Inglenook there are a wide
variety of rules, practices and governing bodies which reinforce this desire for

students to act as equals in their education. The most active of these programs is a
governing body called C.E.A.S.A (Committee on the Evaluation, Academic

Standards and Admissions). This committee, responsible for the quality of

academic, community life, hiring of staff and monitoring of the community
volunteers, consists of two teachers and two students, each with equal voting

power." As the day to day disciplinary and administrative body of the school

C.E.A..S.A. runs during lunch time when any students or teachers can arrange for

a meeting. The mandate of C.E.A.S.A. is as a problem solving body which attempts

to mediate disputes and to suggest repercussions for administrative infractions.

5" Lao-tzu. Tao Te Ching. translated by Stephen Addiss and Stanley Lombardo. pg. 27
55 Durno, Elizabeth. Public Alternative Schools in Metro Toronto. pg. 88
C.E.A..S.A., which has a democratic balance between teachers and students, acts in
the role of a traditional principal. It is through this political body and other school

traditions that Inglenook embraces the Taoist principles that relations between

students and teachers should be void of ultimate authority and instead students

and teachers should share in decision making.

Resources
The programs at Inglenook, developed over a thirty year history, have not

gone unnoticed. In 1995, a study was conducted at Inglenook by The Canadian

Educational Association which selected the school for an exemplary schools

project. This study was composed of twenty-one select schools across Canada,

which were identified for forwarding innovative solutions to the challenges and

tensions facing contemporary schooling. In the study, Inglenook was defined as a:

distinctive, alternative high school where the philosophy, pedagogy, and

programme focus on the development of creative intelligence, and which
emphasizes both academic excellence and equity.56

However, there is more than just philosophy, pedagogy, or program that has

informed the school's success.

In addition to structural considerations, for the last three decades, the

participation of the students has been vital t o this success. Students who have

already demonstrated their willingness t o leave other school institutions, excel at

Inglenook, where their participation shows the possibilities behind these kinds of

alternate programming. A t Inglenook the inclusion of student knowledge and

expertise has been an important resource.

Beattie, Mary, with Margaret Robertson and Suzanne Stiegelbauer. Exemplary Schools Project
56

Technical Report: Corktown Community High School: Toronto, Ontario. pg. 4

 Therefore the good person
Is the bad person 's teacher,
And the bad person
Is the good person's resource

Not to value the teacher,

Not to love the resource,
Causes great confusion even for the intelligent

This is called the vital secret.j7

By encouraging the abilities of these students, Inglenook Community High School

demonstrates the Taoist concept of the resourceful bad student and the need to
reconsider what it means to be either a good or bad student. In order to devalue
the role of the hierarchical teacher and to emphasize the possibilities of
resourceful bad students, Inglenook has initiated a wide range of programming.
In school structure, it is the Outreach program that stands as the best
representation of Inglenook's educational practices, and rests as the most likely
example of Taoist principles in the school. Four days of the week, classes at
Inglenook are structured much like the typical high school. The daily timetable has

students moving from class to class where, for the most part, they study
standardized curriculums. Designed for students and teachers, the Outreach
program encourages educational resources that exist beyond these boundaries of
school curriculum and routine. Instead, every Wednesday morning is dedicated to
participation in student designed learning activities, and once a week students and
staff put aside curriculums, standard school routines, mandated knowledge and
structured time.

57 Lao-tzu. Tao Te Ching. translated by Stephen Addiss and Stanley Lombardo. pg. 27

68
 The Outreach program, unique to Inglenook, is mandatory. Each semester,
students choose an unpaid voluntary activity-covering community, career or
personal enrichment-and spending Wednesday mornings pursuing that
choice. They rotate through these three areas and marry their program to a
particular academic component. An Outreach project is worth 20 per cent of
the final course mark. One girl learns Japanese language and culture; a young
man writes and produces a short film and submits his screen play to the
English class.sn

As the main subject for the duration of this chapter, the Outreach program
exemplifies how Inglenook mirrors the Taoist considerations of resource types,
relationships, knowledge categories and meditative possibilities.

ss Found Document #6. "lnglenook Community High School."

69
The Meditative
The possibility of meditative resources, meditative relationships and
meditative knowledge are part of what unites Inglenook High School with a Taoist

Pedagogy. Central to a Taoist understanding of the meditative is the idea of an

uncarved block. Being devoid of external influence, much like a piece of uncut

wood, is the practice of returning to a natural state.

The essence of the principle of the Uncarved Block is that

things in their original simplicity contain their own natural power,
power that is easily spoiled and lost when that simplicity is changed.
For the written character P'u, the typical Chinese dictionary will give a
definition of "natural, simple, plain, honest." P'u is composed of two
separate characters combined: the first, the "radical" or root-
meaning one, is that for tree or wood; the second, the "phonetic" or
sound-giving one, is the character for dense growth or thicket. So
from "tree in thicket" or "wood not cut" comes the meaning of "things
in their natural state" - what is generally represented in English
versions of Taoist writings as the "uncarved block."
This basic Taoist principle applies not only to things in their
natural beauty and function, but to people as well.s9

In Taoism, people are considered natural beings who have their own beauty and

inherent desire to grow. The principle that people can also be uncarved opens
further opportunities for a Taoist Pedagogical approach. The uncarved

potentiality of people can be expanded to the possibilities of uncarved knowledge,

uncarved resources and uncarved relationships.

At Inglenook, several programs are designed to encourage the uncarved

interests of students. The Outreach program, in particular, is the best example of

these practices as it offers a substantial amount of time for students and staff to

59 Hoff, Benjamin. The Tao of Pooh. pg. 10-1 1

focus on natural learning desires. While in the program, students must follow the

categories of community, career, and personal enrichment. These options are

extremely broad and in application are highly transferable. For example, the

production of a short screen play, referred to on the previous page, satisfied the

career category for one of the participants, and satisfied the personal enrichment

category for the other participating students. While there is structure and order in

the Outreach program the most important contribution is that this flexible system

allows for the uncarved interests of the students, learning which also influences

how other classes at the school are taught. On Wednesday, at Inglenook,

students' learning is not bound by curriculums, testing, or teacher mandated

learning and the results of this program demonstrate the possibilities of the

educational approach. A Sample of Outreach Project Titles (from 1996-2001) has

been listed in appendix B. The allowance for contemplative learning is what makes

the Outreach program the ideal case study for exemplifing the Taoist principles of

meditative knowledge, meditative resources, and meditative student-teacher

relationships.
Meditative Knowledge

Banish learning, discard knowledge:

People will gain a hundredfold.

Banish benevolence, discard righteousness:

People will return to duty and compassion.

Banish skill, discard profit:

There will be no more thieves.

These three statements are not enough.

One more step is necessary:

Look at plain silk; hold uncarved wood.

The self dwindles; desires fade.60

The mandate of the Outreach program and informational literature does

not specifically mention or advocate the idea of meditative knowledge. Yet, what I
will argue here, is that this program allows for and encourages a meditative
approach to knowledge acquisition. The evidence gathered during the research
period, includes a data base of 789 Outreach projects completed from September

1995 to June 2001. It is important to note that not one of these projects had the

specific title of Taoism and less than 1% are listed as specifically meditative
projects. However, if the Taoist affiliation with Yoga, Nijitsu, Buddhism, Kung-Fu,
and Tai Kwon D o is considered, then the number of meditative studies rises to
7%. As discussed in chapter 2, the Taoist perspective on meditation is much more
expansive than training oneself to sit and breathe. The act of meditative knowledge
acquisition can also be an active process. In the Taoist meditative art of Tai-chi
60 Lao-Tzu. Tao the Ching. translated by Stephen Addiss and Stanley Lombardo. pg. 19
practitioners are mobile and their body is involved in highly physical movement
while meditating.
The priority from a Taoist Pedagogy is that being meditative involves resting
the mind from endless racing about. More important than the bodies' actions is
that a person's thoughts are at peace and contemplative without external demands
or requirements. In Taoist research the processes involved in being creative and in
artistic endeavors encourage quiet contemplative learning.61 Anyone who has ever

painted or completed a craft project should be able to relate to these meditative

moments where the project consumes the mind and all other external distractions
and ordered thought processes fade away. In Taoist literature, poetry, painting,
dancing, photography, drawing, cooking, drama, and even walking in nature have

all been forwarded as examples of meditative learning. T o return to the Outreach

program, if these categories are included, then 45% of the Outreach projects are
linked to notions of the meditative.
When considering the Taoist understanding that any activity which is not
forced allows for an untrammeled or uncarved mind, the number of meditative

Outreach projects grows.62 More important than the topic of study is the process
of learning which should involve natural learning instincts, where students are
encouraged to explore activities which they desire to learn about. The pursuit of

meditative approaches to knowledge is much more than a categorical

consideration. Meditative approaches to knowledge acquisition are as much about
the processes of learning as they are about the topic being studied. As an example

KUO,YOU-Yuh."Taoist Psychology of Creativity." Journal of Creative Behavior.

61

Simpson, Steven. "A Simple Lesson in Experiencing Nature." The Journal of Experiential
62

Education. pg. 120

of this distinction, consider the difference between a student who has decided to
make a painting, in contrast to a student who is required to make a painting. It is
easy imaging a student being forced to paint, or even forced to meditate, and
hating every moment of the process. This example is intended to demonstrate that
meditative knowledge requires uncarved natural learning desires and cannot be
forced. Instead of categories of meditative knowledge it is the processes of
learning and the conditions of learning which defines whether an activity is
meditative or not.

Meditative Resources
The understanding of meditative resources begins with this segment from
the Taoist poem called the Vital Secret.

Not to love the resource,

Causes great confusion even for the intelligent.

As with meditative knowledge Taoist resources should be expansive in possibility.

In the Outreach program, at Inglenook Community High School, rests a working

model of how schools can encourage a diversity of learning resources. As one

veteran teacher notes, the origin of the program itself was based on this idea of
expansive resources.
"it started with that kind of notion that there is education in the
classroom and there is this whole thing outside and trying to
combine the two in some kind of form and that was called
Outreach."
During the history of the school, this original vision has been enhanced by
structural and procedural elements that support the desire to explore learning
resources outside school boundaries. Through the Outreach timetable, students
are inspired to engage a wide range of community resources not normally available
in a school environment. In order to support this program Inglenook has
reconstructed notions of school time and school space, which together help define

the possibilities of meditative resources.

At Inglenook there is a room called the student lounge which was
established for an infinite number of purposes. On regular school days or
Outreach days the room may be used for a place to meet, to relax, to escape, to
play music, to paint, or to design and initiate projects. It is also the largest space in
the school where all school meetings, celebrations and performances occur. The
uniqueness of the student lounge is best demonstrated on an Outreach day. The
following photograph and excerpt from my research field notes sums up the

diversity of interactions which this room facilitates.

I am sitting here in the student lounge on an Outreach morning. At first

there was one student working on the Inglenook archives. But now there is a
wide range of activity in the room. In one corner a group of students discuss
what they will plant in the Inglenook garden. Across the room three students
plan locations for a scene in a movie they are making. In another corner a
student sits behind a set of drums playing slow rock and roll rhythms. And
next to me is a former student who has dropped by the school to get a
transcript and has now come into the lounge to interact with the current
students and reminisce about her own experiences.
 In the student lounge learning is an active process. What makes this room a
meditative space is the lack of learning requirements. It is rare to see a teacher in
the room. Instead, the staff leave the room to support the uncarved desires of the
students. By leaving a room outside of educational demands the empty space left
behind encourages meditative knowledge types.
 Useful emptiness
Heaven and earth aren't humane.
To them the ten thousand things
are straw dogs.

Wise souls aren't humane

To them the hundred families are straw dogs.

Heaven and earth

act as a bellows

Empty yet structured,

it moves, inexha ustibly @ng. '"

The value of the student lounge and its empty space is heightened when

merged with another mediative resource, slow time. In this room, particularly on

Outreach Wednesdays, there is no need to hurry and the pressures of external

demands are reduced. Instead of the routine of one hour classes and twenty

minute activities, which happens at other times in the week, Inglenook students

have every Wednesday for an entire semester to explore one learning activity.
Often, students will extend their projects over two semesters and will pursue one

course of study every Wednesday for an entire school year. It is in these examples
that the Outreach program highlights the need for slow time and open space
during the facilitation of meditative knowledge. Uncarved wood and uncarved

learning take time and room to grow. At Inglenook, the student lounge and the

Outreach timetable demonstrate a meditative approach to the educational

63 Le Guin, Ursula K. Lao Tzu Tao Te Ching: A Book About the Way and the Power of the Way. pg.
8
resources of time and space, and it is through these techniques that the school
demonstrates the possibility of a Taoist approach to education.

Meditative Relationships
As with meditative resources, the contemplation of meditative relationships
begins with a segment from the Taoist poem, the Vital Secret.

Not to value the teacher ...

Causes great confusion even for the intelligent,

With meditative knowledge, meditative resources and meditative relationships the

definition of Taoism inspires expansive possibilities. The standard role of the
teacher has been to limit and narrow in on specific educational practices. The

Outreach program at Inglenook Community High School models how to devalue

the role of the teacher in order to expand educational opportunity. Part of the
initial Outreach process involves students finding a sponsor for their course of
study. This person cannot be a teacher and instead must be someone who can act
as a resource person to help guide, advise, and facilitate the work being done.
During the time where the students and sponsors are working on their own

curriculum design and learning processes, the Inglenook teachers are involved in
the process of supporting and facilitating the needs of the students and sponsors.
This process places the professional teachers outside of the authority of

knowledge and demonstrates how learning can be encouraged despite the Taoist
Pedagogical concept of "not valuing the teacher".
 During the Outreach program the responsibility for learning rests in the
hands of the student and is only facilitated and encouraged by a wide range of
educators. This challenge to the authority of school relationships and standard

practices placing the teachers side by side with students and community sponsors

encourages unique learning opportunities. The breaking down of authoritative

teachers' roles does not end there. Part of the Outreach program requires that
projects are mingled with standard classroom instructional time, and the students
are asked to introduce their projects into the academic classes they take. The

impact of this expectation, and the wide range of knowledge types which students

explore, is that inevitably the knowledge being presented goes beyond the expertise

of the teacher. Often the students are positioned as the specialists, and as a result

the teachers become the students. One female teacher explains how this process is
highly beneficial for both students and staff:

"At one point I had thought about returning to University but the
amazing thing about the Inglenook environment is that I learn ...It is
like going to University."

Through the Outreach program, and other Inglenook programs, the typical
divisions between student and teacher becomes blurred. Instead, there is the

promotion of a learning environment where the authority of knowledge and

resources is open for consideration.

 The dynamic student-teacher relationships at Inglenook act as an uncarved
block since they are highly transient and the relations are determined by the needs
of the learning activity. It is this lack of authoritative teacher driven processes that
sets the stage for meditative approaches to educa

Therefore the sage goes a bout doing nothing, teaching no-talking.

The ten thousand things rise and fall without cease,
Creating, yet not possessing,
Working,yet not taking credit.
Work is done, then forgotten.
Therefore it lasts f~rever.'~

Meditative relationships begin with a meditative teaching approach, since at

schools educational power continues to rest in the hands of the teachers. T o
circumvent these processes and to promote wu-wei knowledge or non-active

learning, Taoist educators need to be ready for transient learning relationships.

Instead of being the center of activity, non-talking and the appearance of non-
action are essential for promoting meditative knowledge and resources. In the

next chapter, two case examples of meditative teaching styles will be examined in
full. For now, meditative teaching is best understood through the contexts of the
Outreach program, which encourages learning relationships where the teacher is a
less-active participant whose role is to facilitate the natural learning desires of
their students.

64 Lao Tsu. Tao Te Ching. Translated by Gai-Fu Feng and Jane English. pg. 2

81
In the Pursuit of Learning
While not officially recognized as a Taoist school, Inglenook Community
High School, and particularly the Outreach program embodies many of the
principles of a Taoist Pedagogy. First, this school exemplifies the Taoist ideal of
meditative knowledge, wu-wei. Through the promotion of students natural
learning desires and interests, at Inglenook, the stringent yu-wei demands of the
external educational world are reduced. Students continue to pursue yu-wei forms
of knowledge and learning but these experiences are balanced with wu-wei
processes. In addition to this promotion of meditative knowledge, the Outreach
program also exemplifies the idea of meditative resources by encouraging a wide
range of possible topics and means for attaining knowledge. T o support this
process the school has also designed the physical space of the students lounge and
the open Wednesday timetable, which act as empty resources waiting to be filled
with students natural learning desires. As evident from this case study of
Outreach, meditative resources and meditative knowledge also require particular
educational relationships. Teachers at Inglenook are required to move fluidly
between being authorities of knowledge, facilitators of students interests and even
must become students themselves. It is this flux of roles, the emptying of required
resources and the expansion of knowledge possibilities which unites Inglenook
with the uncarved ideals of the meditative.
 In the pursuit o f learning, evely day something is acquired.
In the pursuit o f Tao, evely day something is dropped.

Less and less is done

Until non-action is achieved.
When nothing is done, nothing is left undone.

The world is ruled by letting things take their course.

It cannot be ruled by interfering.6"

65 Lao Tsu. Tao Te Ching. Translated by Gai-Fu Feng and Jane English. pg. 48
 Chapter 4

Introduction
The technological innovations of the late twentieth century have had an

accelerating impact on a wide range of social structures and institutions. In the

field of education this is apparent in the compartmentalization of knowledge,

reduced teaching resources, mechanical learning relationships, and in the

standardization of time. In response to these conditions highlighted in chapter

one, a Taoist Pedagogy offers the possibility of expanding beyond knowledge

categories, decompartmentalizing educational resources, balancing student

teacher relations, and promoting slow time. In chapter three, the Outreach

program at Inglenook Community High School was presented in relation to the

above four Taoist principles. In order to expand on this case study, chapter four

will also investigate the human influences behind Inglenook Community High

School. This Taoist consideration of the relationships between humans and their

machines will be examined as part of the methodological considerations behind

this study. Ultimately, the influence of people impact both the structuring of

schools and research potential. From this understanding this chapter will forward

the possibility of a Taoist inspired research and teaching Methodology.

84
Taoist Methodology for Research and Teaching
Similar to the introduction of a Taoist Pedagogy, the best place to begin an

exploration of a Taoist Methodology is with the understanding that there can be

no such thing.

To realize that our knowledge is ignorance,

This is a noble insight.
To regard our ignorance as knowledge,
This is mental sickness.

Only when we are sick o f our sickness

Shall we cease to be sick.
The Sage is not sick, being sick o f sickness;
This is the secret o f health.66

In Taoist philosophy, ordered knowledge creates ignorance and leads to mental

sickness, and methodologies have the same potential to be unsound. Since the

literal definition of Methodology is "the system of methods and principles used in

a particular discipline"*', from a Taoist perspective methodologies can be

contagious. Through active or predetermined systems, methodologies have the

possibility of promoting ignorance and the reduction of possibilities. This being

said, the idea of principles informing method allows for the development of a

Taoist Methodology for teaching and researching.

66 Lao Tsu. Tao Te Ching. Translated by John C.H.Wu and edited by Paul K.T. Sih. pg. 103
67 The Collins English Dictionary. edited by Patrick Hanks. pg. 970
 Taoists understand that knowledge is expressed outside of systemic

methods as they distrust theory and predetermined order. As an alternative they

turn towards knowledge that is instinctual and non-active in pursuit. Author

Ursula LeGuin, in her book of translation and commentary on the Tao Te Ching,

expresses this insight when she writes:

What you know without knowing you know it is the right kind of
knowledge. Any other kind (conviction, theory, dogmatic belief,
opinion) isn't the right kind, and if you don't know that, you'll lose
the way."

For LeGuin, and other Taoists, knowledge does not need theory or method to

support it. The difficulty with this approach, for methodological considerations, is

that instead of predetermined methods, the researcher is left to build methods

case by case.

The question arises; what would a Taoist research or teaching

Methodology look like? The waterfall saga, previously presented in chapter two, is

perhaps the best example of what a Taoist approach might look like.

We find Confucian standing by the banks o f a powerful waterfall. So

treacherous are the currents that not even fish can survive in them
long. He sees a man jump into the swirling waters and, afraid that he
is committing suicide, orders his disciples to pull him out, only to
find the swimmer quite unscathed by the incident "May I ask ifyou
have some special way o f staying afloat in the water?" Confucius
inquires. "I have no way...," the swimmer answered. "Igo under with
the swirls and come out with the eddies, following along the way the
" Lao-TZU.Tao Te Ching. translated by Ursula K. Le Guin and J.P. Seaton. pg. 91
 water goes and never thinking a bout myself." The swimmer merely
flows with the water, never thinking about how or why, forgetting
about himself Likewise, the sage flows with the Tao, wandering
through life and never knowing how or why he does what he does6'

This parable demonstrates not only how a Taoist study would look, but through

the character of Confucius juxtaposes a Taoist approach. From the Taoist

principle of non-action the above Sage learns by following the resources of the

water itself and integrating with the natural flow of the subjects. When asked how

he studies, the Sage replies "I have no way." In actuality the Taoist Sage does have

a way, and a set of guiding principles, based on the nature of the subject itself.

A Taoist methodological metaphor would have researchers jumping in to

swim with the subjects. Swimming with the subjects, in this case study requires that

the natural dynamics of Inglenook be introduced. At Inglenook despite the

thousands of students and staff who have influenced the programming, there are

two teachers, both of whom have been at Inglenook for most of the school's thirty

year history, who have had a long term impact on the development of Inglenook.

It is these two influences within the flow of the school who inform both the

structure of this study's teaching and research methodology. In order to proceed

with Taoist methodological consderations it is necessary to first paint a portait of

the two teachers: Rob Rennick and Bob Prichard.

69 Oshima, Harold H. "A Metaphorical Analysis of the Concept of Mind in the Chuang-tzu."
Experimental Essays on Chuang-tzu. pg. 68
 Rob Rennick ...art room Social Sciences, Visual Art
Nickname: Robigor (or is that his real name? Nobody knows....)
Position: Coordinator - Teacher
Major: Weather, Climate, Art, Icons,
Responsibilities: Coordinator, AN, Decorator, Trips, Coffee House, Rants @ Staff
Meetings
Special Interests: Gardens, Mexico, Drawing, Kitsch, Fun fur
Special Powers: Forecasting weather, seeing the grid
Fav Color: Bright Yellow, Bright Pink, Orange
Pet Peeves: Fast food, Bright amber lights at night
Obsessions: Gardening in winter, Hi-Life
Inspirational Quote: "Know thyself and be true, Workers of the world unite."
"w~-w~~-w~"~~

Rob is a teacher who stands out in the school. He has a fascination with

fashion, design, and a teaching technique he calls "theme dressing", which involves

the wearing of iconic attire to highlight lessons and classroom discussions. Theme

dressing is an ideal representation of Rob's teaching methods through which he

values the artistic and embodies the creative.

'' Found Document # 7. Meet the Teacher Night.

89
 The great scholar hearing the TAO
Tries to practice it.
The middling scholar hearing the TAO
Sometimes has it, sometimes not.
The lesser scholar hearing the TAO
Has a good laugh.
Without that laughter
It wouldn't be TAO"

Playful attire is one of a variety of teaching techniques Rob uses to entertain

Inglenook students. Rob promotes learning that begins and ends with laughter by

modeling play and embodying it as well.

In my opinion, Rob's most valuable asset is his ability to teach through play

and in order to establish this educational approach he practices a teaching strategy

based on not-doing. Similar to the Taoist principle of wu-wei, Rob identifies "Wu-

Wei-Wu" as one of his inspirational quotes. This statement is a central theme in

early Taoist texts, particularly in Lao Tzu's Tao Te Ching. In definition, the short

form wu-wei is characterized as being non-active or non-intentional. Wu-wei-wuis

the further extension of this idea and translates as:

wu wei wu: D o not do, Doing not-doing. T o act without acting.

72
Action by inaction. You do nothing yet it gets done ....

" Lao-Tzu. Tao Te Ching. translated by Stephen Addiss and Stanley Lombardo. pg. 41
72 Lao-Tzu. Tao Te Ching. translated by Ursula K. Le Guin and J.P. Seaton. pg. 6
When I talked to students in Rob's classes they regularly commented that they "did

nothing" or "learned nothing" during the course and this is the brilliance of his

Rob promotes learning that does not

teaching methods. Through wu-wei-wu,

appear intentional. With an emphasis on informal class dynamics and

spontaneous activities, Rob teaches without teaching. Having been a student of

Rob's, a student teacher, and a researcher observing Rob I have come to the

conclusion that his ability to teach through non-action is an extremely difficult

teaching technique and a defining quality of Rob's educational approach.

 In the proceeding photograph of Rob's classroom it is evident that students

do not remain idle. Instead, a high level of production and educational outcomes

is clearly evident. Through a non-active approach Rob has made overproduction a

concern as students projects literally spill off the walls and into the hallways, stairs,

school gallery and even into the school yard. Through the appearance of doing

not-doing, wu-wei-wu, Rob provides evidence that the current fascination with

structured and ordered learning environments is only one of many educational

possibilities.

In class I observed Rob as an absent minded professor continually lost

between thoughts. In staff meetings and in adult spaces I witnessed a different

person. From the perspective of students Rob does not do, a technique which is

based in doing not-doing, wu-wei-wu. The strength of this technique is that it is an

empowering practice which puts learning in the hands of the students. Far

removed from the authority of knowledge, Rob acts as facilitator of students'

interests and desires. It becomes the youth's role to identify knowledge pursuits,

to suggest resources and to determine the time allocated t o learning. For thirty

years Rob's educational technique has invigorated the learning desires of

Inglenook students and promoted a profound number of exemplary projects and

educational outcomes.
 Bob Prichar-...is Inner Office....post M O Philosophy
~
Nickname: Dr. Bob
Position: Teacher
Major: Photography, Philosophy, English, Film
Responsibilities: Coordinator, OSSTF rep
Special Interests: Reading, chess, furniture design
Special Powers: Highly telepathic
Fav Color: Black
Pet Peeves: Garlic, Barking Dogs, Poor design
Obsessions: iMac, Elvis, YMCA, Cyber capitalism, Cuba
Inspirational Quote: "Life is Good."73

Bob, Inglenook's resident philosopher, has extensive academic experience,

Doctoral qualifications and teaching experience at the University level. Despite his

high level of qualifications and rigor, Bob has continued to teach at Inglenook for

over twenty five years. With his retirement in 2004, Inglenook will lose an

important personality, central to Inglenook's history of success. Bob, has a

predictable persona and is the yin to Rob's yang. Bob's dress code is static: at all

times he adorns cowboy boots, jeans, a long sleeve shirt and a leather vest. With a

more subtle passion for "theme dressing" Bob also incorporates iconic ties and

shirts into his lessons. His mild dressing manner is mirrored in his actions. Bob is

soft in movement, of voice, and a stark contrast to the energetic youths he works

with. It is this slow contemplative approach that supports Bob's greatest teaching

asset: his ability to reflect the talents of each student.

73 Found Document # 7. Meet the Teacher Night.

95
 Men do not mirror themselves in running water-they mirror
themselves in still water. Only what is still can still the stillness o f
74
other things.

Bob's brilliance as a teacher, has extended from his ability to inspire

academic inquiry in students who for a variety of reasons have been unsuccessful

in the regular school system. In contrast to the classification of these students as

bad or alternative, Bob recognizes their potentiality. In Taoist philosophy the bad

and undesirable are also credited with having hidden strengths and resources.

Bob's comparable outlook became apparent in a discussion over the participation

of bad students in the Outreach program.

"if you mean by bad students one who is unsuccessful in intellectual

activity then there isn't a necessarily good correlation between a
good academic student and a good Outreach student. Sometimes
some of the bad students will d o incredible Outreach projects and
some of the good students, for a variety of reasons, will not."

For Bob, and for Taoist philosophers, the idea of a bad student is a concept

established by external intellectual demands. Instead, the preference for both Bob

and Taoists is to engage learning interests through which students excel.

Taoism as a philosophy identifies the value of alternative and bad students.

Bob provides an example of how to teach towards the potentiality of these

students. For him, the strategy is not to force students into a mold but to

encourage their abilities. His approach parallels the Taoist ideal of wu-wei.

74 TZU,Chuang. translated by Watson, Burton. Chuang Tzu Basic Writings. pg. 65

96
 The wu-wei principle ...can be understood by striking at a piece of
cork floating in water. The harder you hit it, the more it yields, the
harder it bounces back. Without expending energy, the cork can
easily wear you out. So, Wu Wei overcomes forces by neutralizing its
power, rather than by adding to the conflict. With other approaches
you might fight fire with fire, but with Wu Wei, you fight fire with
75
water.

The alternative students Bob works with have a history of rebelling against the

authority of teachers and institutions. T o avoid these conflicts, Bob encourages

the student's rebellious spirits through intellectual considerations. In his

classroom, the main ideas and concepts addressed are those which encourage

intellectual unrest in youth. It is not uncommon for students to become outraged

over ideas and to voice their disdain, but instead of resisting the insurgent nature

of students, Bob invites them to explain their resistance. From my experiences and

my observations his classroom and his demeanor are designed to value students'

voices and their personal interests and to encourage co-operative intellectual

examination. This is an effective teaching strategy.

'' Hoff, Benjamin. The Tao of Pooh. pg. 88

 Students with a history of resistance and reaction against standard

educational institutions are an asset for Bob. To support the voice of these

students, the chairs in his class are set in a circle, a seating arrangement which

promotes the input of the students. More than just class structure, Bob's persona

works to reinforce his educational strategies. As an example, when responding to

students projects it is rare not to hear him say; "good", "great" or "outstanding".

Bob's professional commitment to working with alternative students, his ability to

value students and to promote the often undiscovered talents in alternative

students acts as a demonstration of the Taoist principle of valuing the bad person

as a resource. In the kind of educational program, that most teachers avoid, Bob

excels with students who have resisted other kinds of school systems.

In the introduction to this chapter, a Taoist Methodology was identified as

being linked to the personalities behind a study. In this thesis, the influence of Rob

and Bob as participants and as the primary teachers in the history of Inglenook

Community High School, makes them a resource for the methodology of this

study. In contrast to methodical approaches (yu-wei knowledge types which are

based on predetermined action and intent), a Taoist Methodology needs to be

influenced by the conditions of each study. For this reason, the following

discussions of methodology are based on prominent influences that arise in the

programs of the school and the personalities of Rob and Bob.

Research Methodology

Knowledge and Method

In research methodology, there has developed a polar position between

scientific and humanist approaches. In 1963, C.P. Snow identified the arrival of

this distinction in his book The Two Cultures:A Second Look. He argued that

educational institutions have been divided between two kinds of knowing, a

separation, which for Snow, is based on techniques or methods that have arisen

from scientific and humanist traditions. In research Methodology this opposition

continues today in the separation between qualitative and quantitative methods.

For a Taoist Methodology, and the programming at Inglenook, the preference is

for interdisciplinary approaches. Instead of a distinction based on opposition,

both scientific and humanist methods are considered to have value.

In Inglenook Community High School, the desire for interdisciplinary

approaches is represented in the school's symbol of the yin-yang. Inglenook has a

lengthy history of promoting interdisciplinary practices. In educational research

the interrelation between scientific and humanist thought is a more recent

consideration. In 1993, author Karla A. Henderson began to write about the need

to recognize the value of dualistic methodologic approaches. In order to offer a

visual representation of her ideas she forwarded the symbol of the yin-yang. For

Henderson the yin-yang breaks away from Western notions of divided possibility
between what she identifies as a positivist and interpretive divide. Alternately, she

identifies that;

The value of the yin-yang lies in its focus on "bothland" rather than
"either/~r"~~

She extends this understanding to the research debates between positivists and

interpretivists. For Henderson divisive discussion are irrelevant, since both are

valuable methods which should complement each other. Despite this insight,

Henderson misses an opportunity to link this symbol to a philosophical tradition,

leaving her analysis incomplete. Regardless, from a Taoist perspective her

exploration of the yin-yang stands as a great introduction to the possibilities of a

Taoist Methodology.

The divide between knowledge types in Taoism is based on the principles of

wu-wei and yu-wei. These two modes of thinking discussed in detail in chapter two,
77
are much more than just a separation between kinds of knowledge. Instead of a

category of knowledge, the intent of knowing becomes the key distinction for

Taoists. Positivists, interpretivists, scientists, humanists, and any research

traditions that are based on a fixed methodological tradition follow a yu-wei

approach. They are being predetermined in practices that defines yu-wei kinds of

76Henderson, Karla. "The Yin-Yang of Experiential Education Research." pg. 53

77Taoist traditions, despite leaning towards humanist or interpretive approaches, recognize the
value of both positivist and humanist perspectives. Instead of identifying oppositional forces, a
Taoist approach dignifies oppositional perspectives as complementary.
knowing. Conversely, Taoism offers another possibility in the understanding of

wu-wei, or a non-active approach.

When you work with the Wu Wei, you put the round peg in the
round hole and the square peg in the square hole. No stress, no
struggle. Egotistical Desire tries to force the round peg in the square
hole. Cleverness tries to devise craftier ways of making pegs fit where
they don't belong. Knowledge tries to figure out why round pegs fit
round holes, but not square holes. Wu Wei doesn't try. It doesn't
think about it. It just does it. And when it does, it doesn't appear to
78
do much of anything. But Things Get Done.

Through wu-wei, a Taoist Methodology interjects that research methods should

not just focus on technique but on spontaneity and adaptability.

Finding Knowledge
In the original proposals for this study, standard techniques were identified

as the intended research practices. From ethnographic interviews to statistical

analysis the techniques were initiated, implemented and analyzed. At the end of

the case study a host of statistical evidence and qualitative evidence had been

gathered and was assessed. In selection, it was the qualitative information which

best demonstrated the Taoist principles at work in Inglenook. In addition, from a

range of qualitative selections it was the non-active or unintentional research

Hoff, Benjamin The Tao of Pooh. pg. 75

incidents which had the largest impact on this study. As an example, the

photographs of the school and staff were not initially an intended research

method. Perhaps the epiphany came from the abundance of art and photographic

images which adorn the Inglenook walls, or from my own passion for

photography. Regardless of influence, for Taoist methodological considerations it

was the unplanned addition of a research method that is of the most interest.

After the first day of research it simply became apparent that representing

Inglenook could be best achieved with photographic evidence. What a Taoist

Methodology proposes, through the understanding of wu-wei, is that preplanned

techniques, whether qualitative or quantitative, should not be the only

consideration in methodology and that spontaneous and unplanned methods

should be considered an asset in research.

Resource and Method

Unplanned photography is one example a how Taoist knowledge can be

explored and one example of how resources should be initiated into research

studies. As a documentary form, there has been a century old tradition of

photography as a source of evidence. From naturalists, to ethnographers, to

artisans, to nuclear physicists the application of photographic techniques has been

ubiquitous. Taoism, also has a photographic history. In a translation of the Tao Te

Ching, by Gia-Fu Feng, there is the inclusion of landscape photographs by Jane

English, which parallel the poetry of Lao Tsu. Notably all the images are in black

and white. With an aesthetic representation of tonal balance, comparable to the

philosophies of the yin-yang, black and white photography is an ideal resource for

Taoist study. In this example of a Taoist methodological resource, the concern is

less for the kind of resources but how the resource reflects Taoist principles.

A lack of concern for categories of resources does not mean that all kinds

of resources are equivalent in a Taoist Methodology. Through the principle of wu-

wei, unplanned or non-active learning, certain kinds of resources are preferential.

More definitively, wu-wei is also based on the idea of reaction, instead of initiation.

At its highest level, Wu Wei is indefinable and practically invisible,

because it has become a reflex action. In the words of Chuang-tse,
the mind of Wu Wei "flows like water, reflects like a mirror, and
responds like an e ~ h o . " ' ~

79 Hoff, Benjamin. The Tao of Pooh. pg. 85

In a Taoist Methodology, the study of wu-wei promotes a reflexivity in resources.

In academic methodologies, reflexivity is the recognition of researcher's values

RU
impacting the conduct and conclusions of a study. In a Taoist Methodology,

through wu-wei, reflexivity relates to the response of the researcher to the subject.

As an extension, reflexive resources are those that have an origin in the subject

themselves. In this case study my own prior experiences as a student and a teacher

at Inglenook are two example of wu-wei resources. In a sense, my prior

experiences at the school were a reflection of the school itself and greatly

informed my research perspective. This approach is only one example of wu-wei

possibilities and in other studies reflexive resources would change from study to

study as the promotion of any Taoist research resources should reflect the ideals

and practices of the subjects.

Finding Resources
At Inglenook Community High school, both Bob and Rob teach about the

benefits of "found objects": items previously discarded, lost, or left behind by

someone else. Regularly they take students out into the community t o find objects,

and then implement projects around the "found objects". This conceivably is why

the Outreach program requires students to find knowledge in the community and

then bring the ideas back to the school as found knowledge. As a result of both the

Maxwell, Joseph A. Qualitative Research Design An Interactive Approach. pg. 91

105
teaching techniques and the school programs, Inglenook is a montage of found

ideas and objects. Filling the school with educational possibilities are found

objects, found art and found documents which are displayed throughout the

school waiting to be discovered again.

Finding resources in bad or abnormal locations, is one of the many Taoist

principles. The best strategy for finding these resources in research is to follow a

reflexive approach towards resources. In a Taoist Methodology reflexive resources

are those which have an origin or natural connection with the field of study. At

Inglenook Community High School, found objects are of great importance to the

informal functioning of the school. During the research period at the school, it

was an instinctual decision to gather some of these "lost" documents for evidence

and data collection. These non-planned resources, which have a connection with

the personalities and programs of Inglenook, are one example of the value of

found reflexive resources in a Taoist Methodology.

Relationship and Method

In order to facilitate a Taoist approach towards resource development and

knowledge obtainment, the relationship between researcher and participant is

vital. In qualitative research design, questions of relationship have often focused

around concerns over bias, access to information, and the accuracy of

81
observation. Socio Culturalists have extended this field to include concerns over
82
relationships and the nature of dialogue. These discussions are a continuation of

an earlier discourse which began in 1934, with a recently rediscovered book, The

Dialogic Imagination written by Mikhail Bakhtin, a seminal text, which nearly a

century later has continued to carry great resonance. For this study, his

consideration of authoritative discourse has much to offer. A language which he

defines as "religious, political, moral; the word of the father, of adults and of

t e a ~ h e r s . " ~ ~ ~ u t h o r i t ain
t i vtone,
e discourse of this kind is contrary to Taoist

considerations.

Wu-wei, as a prime principle, encourages Taoist researchers to act in reflex,

or as a reflection of the subject. Authoritative discourse does not allow for this

kind of approach. Instead, the dialogical perspectives of Martin Buber, put

forward in the late 1950's, have a closer parallel. Buber introduced a definition of

" Maxwell, Joseph A. Qualitative Research Design An Interactive Approach. pg. 66-69
Ladson-Billings, Gloria. The Dreamkeepers: Successful Teachers of African American Children.
and Casey, Kathleen. I Answer With My Life: Life Histories of Women Teachers Working For
Social Change.
83 Bakhtin. M.M. The Dialogic Imagination. pg. 342
dialogue which necessitates one person living through the encounter from the
84
standpoint of another. The question that arises from this definition is how to

create research relationships that involve one person positioning themselves in the

standpoint of the other. An obvious comparison comes from the ethnographic

tradition of the participant observer, in which a researcher participates with the

people being studied. Instead of participant observer, a Taoist Methodology

would promote observer participants, a grammatical change that repositions the

dominant noun to emphasize participation. Since wu-wei is based in non-action,

the continual emphasis on observation reduces non-active or unintentional

research. In a Taoist Methodology, observation and study can take a variety of

forms of relations. However, the ideal observer is not intent on observation but is

actually living through the experiences.

Roberts, Peter. "Beyond Buber: Dialogue, Education, and Politics." Journal of Educational
Thought. pg. 184.
Refound Relations
The inspiration for this study began well before any official observation and

data collection period. In fact it all began in May 1986, when as a grade 9 student, I

attended an information meeting at Inglenook Community High School. For the

next three years I learned about Inglenook from the position of a participating

high school student and during those three years I was able to gather an in-depth

understanding of the school programs, the personalities behind the school, and

the informal processes of learning at Inglenook. Fortunately this participation

period was not to be my last. In addition, I returned to the school in 1993 as a

student-teacher. During a four month period, I made a transition from the role of

former student to active teacher and expanded my perspective on the phenomena

called Inglenook. It was then that I realized that a completely different Inglenook

existed out of the gaze of the student's eyes and this lesson has come to emphasize

the importance of multiple roles for any observer participant study.

Relations, in a Taoist Methodology, do not concern themselves with bias,

and instead value a highly integrated relationship between researcher and

participant. At Inglenook Community High School I have participated as a

student, teacher, and now researcher. From these multiple relationships I have

gained a wealth of understanding. It was at Inglenook, that I was first introduced

to the philosophies of the yin-yang. It was at Inglenook that I learned the talent of
photography. It was at Inglenook that I learned to teach. And, it was at Inglenook

that I learned to research. This life history with Inglenook might be interpreted as

a potential bias from other methodological positions. However, from a Taoist

approach these experiences are of value.

Meditative and Method

In the two proceeding chapters discussions of knowledge, resources and

relationships have culminated in the concept of the meditative. It would be

awkward not t o continue that pattern. Discussions of meditative research could

involve a wide range of possibilities; including the practices of sitting and being

slow of breath, a more mobile study of meditative movement, o r even an

examination of the meditative moments involved in creativity. Regardless of topic,

the primary distinction for a Taoist philosophy is that meditative methods require

practices that are detached from having a rushing mind. The potential for a Taoist

Meditation approach t o research are exponential and worthy of further study.

Earlier in this paper, meditative knowledge was defined as emphasizing

non-active learning. This kind of education is exactly what Taoists mean by not

rushing minds. Wu-wei learning, in Taoism, has an emphasis on non-action and in

research projects, non-action may involve the unaware study of an observer

participant, a process where the type of knowledge collection becomes less

important than the process of study. For example, a Taoist methodology would

value multiple meditations with either qualitative or quantitative techniques; a

process that does require a lengthy time frame. Therefore, time becomes one

determinant in meditative research techniques. The slow continual study of

knowledge over a lengthy period emerges as a major resource in a meditative

consideration of knowledge.

Age, in essence, becomes a resource for a Taoist Methodology, with a

valuing of meditative learning. In order to encourage reflexive resources,

meditative research involves not rushing the study. With mature study, a Taoist

researcher experiences more non-active moments, in a wider range of roles, and

increases their possibility for insight. Taoist meditation proposes that

relationships should also avoid a rushing of the mind. For example, these

moments might include meandering conversations and even comfortable silence.

To summarize the concept of meditative Methodology it is important to consider

that the development of in-depth and multiple relationships takes time, the

acquisition of intricate knowledge takes time, and gathering extensive amounts of

resources also takes time.

Returning to the Root

Be completely empty.
Be perfectly serene.
The ten thousand things arise together;
in their arising is their return.
Now they flower,
and flowering,
sink homeward,
returning to the root.

The return to the root

is peace.
Peace: to accept what must be,
to know what endures.
In that knowledge is wisdom.
Without it, ruin, di~order.'.~

In Taoist folklore there is the repeated study an old tree, which due t o the

gnarly texture of the wood has remained uncut, yet over time the tree has grown

to become a tremendous resource. At Inglenook Community High School a

generation of alternative students have also been left t o grow, tended by two

teachers, and an intricate system of programming. These roots of tradition

provide an alternative t o current educational fascinations, in particular, the

85 Lao-TZU.Tao Te Ching, translated by Ursula K. Le Guin and J.P. Seaton. pg. 22

112
increased importance of predetermined knowledge, standardized resources,

technical learning relationships and a hyper-acceleration of educational time. As a

counterbalance, the principles of Taoism have been put forward, with a particular

emphasis on slow meditative approaches. Inglenook Community High School is

one school, which promotes a balanced approach to education through the school

symbol of the yin-yang and the schools programs. In addition to these

bureaucratic techniques, the personalities at the school support the promotion of

interdisciplinary knowledge, the existence of empty resources, the development of

reciprocal learning relationships, and the allowance for meditative time. As a case

study, Inglenook Community High School stands as one demonstration of the

Taoist desire for a balanced approach to education.

 Appendix A
Ethics Approval
SIMON FRASER UNIVERSITY
OFFlCE OF RESEARCH ETHICS BURNABY. BRITISH COLUMBIA
CANADA VSA IS6
Telephone: 604-29 1-3447
FAX: 604-268-6185

January 10,2003

Ms. Kier Miner

Graduate Student
Faculty of Education
Simon Fraser University

Dear Ms. Miner:

Re: Taoist Philosophy of Education in an Alternative School

I am pleased to inform you that the above referenced Request for Ethical Approval of
Research has been approved on behalf of the Research Ethics Board. This approval is in
effect for twenty-four months from the above date. Any changes in the procedures
affecting interaction with human subjects should be reported to the Research Ethics
Board. Significant changes will require the submission of a revised Request for Ethical
Approval of Research. This approval is in effect only while you are a registered SFU
student.

Your application has been categorized as 'minimal risk" and approved by the Director,
Office of Research Ethics, on behalf of the Research Ethics Board in accordance with
University policy R Z O . O , h t t o : / . The Board
reviews and may amend decisions made independently by the Director, Chair or
Deputy Chair at its regular monthly meetings.

"Minimal risk" occurs when potential subjects can reasonably be expected to regard the
probability and magnitude of possible harms incurred by participating in the research
to be no greater than those encountered by the subject in those aspects of his or her
everyday life that relate to the research.

Best wishes for success in this research.

Sincerely,

Dr. Hal W e i F g , D i r t o r
Officeof Research Et ics
c: Dr. Heesoon Bai, Supervisor
/]my
 Appendix B

Sample of Outreach Project Titles

Earthroots Exodus fund raising screen writing

Sick Kids Humane Society classroom assistant
photography grade 112 assistant YMCA fitness
art yoga Inglesemester
filming Outreach interior design history of music and film
screen writing Earthroots Humane Society
Kung Fu Exotics Kung Fu in High Park
Computer tech support screen writing men's studies
Kung Fu in High Park Shaw assistantconcierge music CBAM
birth info package YAY Maui Thai
one act play Getting me to Central America gourmet cooking
Kenpo Kung digital music Descartes contest
YMCA fitness Inglenook website digital comic
Yoga video/music production meditation
Coach House Press creative movement YMCA working out
sewing screen writing Menls/Women's group
Kung Fu in High Park boxing meditation
Physio outreach music assisted living-Lew
Annex Harm filming Outreach Shaw
rock climbing cryptology YMCA workout
Metro nebvork Latin dance art gallery of Ontario
SHOUT clinic math tutor and contest violin
native beading Yoga in-patient unit assistant
art studio Animal Alliance Friends of Shopping Bag
Webmaster-Z body image and women www.business.com
filming outreach Teen Sex Info Line found art
saving Oakridge Red Door Shelter climate change and trees
math tutor SHOUT clinic photography of Toronto Port
guitar expansion folk guitar Glassworks
Sistering CBC Counterspin explorations
Claremont vet Toronto Rehab Center turntableism
gifted child website design St. Claire School assistant
cooking with Claire film-Eke's balloons Blackburn History Project
City View Alternative Street Help dig garden foundation
OSSSA Exodus fund raising painting
Food Bank advertising Found Art
filming outreach grow sunflowers architecture
assistant photographer Inglenook gallery curator Latin dance
Native child career Kung Fu in the Park learning to swim
Who's Emma meditation Choreography jam
St. Barnabas day care life in a new land Food Access
Buddhist temple Kensington business photography
assistant baker
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