It’s four years since Paul Jacobs and I discussed the germ of an idea – setting up an NLP in Education Network that would:

A lot has happened in this time, including:

Amongst some of the current exciting development are

It will be the first time we’ve held a 2-day Conference, and our plan is:

We will provide a selection of workshops for people connected with and/or working in Education – e.g. students, parents, teachers, lecturers, advisers, managers, leaders, whetherworking in schools, colleges, universities, LEAs, or various organisations connected with learning and

teaching.

Each workshop will focus on a particular application of NLP to learning and teaching. To the greater part, a practising teacher or lecturer will lead each workshop and will include practical examples of what s/he has been doing and the difference it is making

This will provide an excellent opportunity for people associated with our Network – Members and Contacts – to:

In the afternoon we will explore practical ways in which we can promote our work and support schools and colleges – eg seeking funding for setting up action research activities.

Perhaps, like me, you perceive that we live in an age when a wide range of often connected ideas are generated and spread rapidly across the globe – and of course this is an age when we have the technology for spreading ideas via global television. global telephone systems, the Internet, e-mail …

This climate is influencing Education – even given the pressures on teachers and learners to conform - eg to the demands of ‘The State’ through a National Curriculum and its associated ‘feedback/evaluation/inspection processes’.

Concepts that are generating interest in Education include:

The wonders of our brain and how it works:

NLP is a catholic model – in the sense of being ‘inclusive’ and embracing ideas that work. NLP begins with a fascination about ‘What Works’ and seeks answers to ‘How does this work?’ So, as NLPers, we want to learn from and take on-board excellent ideas that make a great deal of sense and are shown to work – and even more excitingly –provide a common understanding to what might, at first sight, appear to be distinct ideas and approaches.

We are delighted to be associated with these ideas.

Readers may notice that New Learning articles often include aspects of what I’ve related to above. For example, in this issue we have fascinating articles relating to Multiple Intelligences in the Classroom, The Learning School, Brain Gym and EFT - Emotional Freedom Technique, derived from Thought Field Therapy (TFT).

As NLPers will know, there are three components to NLP:

It’s a real privilege to introduce NLP to Teachers, especially when we can provide a pragmatic introduction to all three elements. Why a privilege? Because, very often for the first time, we provide a model and some tools for giving teachers a real, practical experience of their own internal processes – when they say they are thinking, or remembering, or being creative, what this actually involves inside their own heads. Very often for the first time, they get an understanding and an appreciation both of what they ‘do’ themselves, and how others ‘do it’. They get an experience of the similar ways in which we construct our experience or strategy - eg how we use our visual, auditory and kinaesthetic senses – plus how each person’s set of representations is unique. This offers an excellent opportunity to celebrate the power and the wonder of the human thinking process - what a wonderful and enlightening experience for anyone who is dedicated to supporting and facilitating the learning of others!

So, as you might imagine, I look forward to running our introductory workshops, especially since I know that attendees are very likely to leave with a sense of wonder and excitement at the new doors and opportunities that have opened up for them, and with the passion that probably first brought them into teaching profession being rekindled.

Not surprisingly, I’m often asked ‘What do you do to make your workshops so good!?’ I’m happy to share that with people. I had planned to do so in this ‘Diary’ but have unfortunately run out of space! So, if you’d like to know and you’re impatient, you’re more than welcome to give me a call. If you can wait, I’ll describe what we do in our next issue of New Learning!

Let’s end this article with a poem of Kahlil Gibran’s that celebrates our children in a delightful way.