Dear Readers

Welcome to the October 2003 Issue.

This month:

• Presentation on Sathya Sai Education in Human Values
  In the second of series of talks from this year's National SSEHV Day being published in this Newsletter, we include an excellent description of the aims, workings and effects of Sathya Sai Education in Human Values given by Cyrano Ugarow.
  
  
• Ninth SSEHV holiday school & Training Update
  News about the Oxford holiday school due to begin soon, plus other up to date training information.
  
  
• Story: One of the Gang: A short story suitable for older children.

Finally, a reminder that previous month's Newsletters including 24 cross curricular lessons plans are available in the newsletter section of the SSEHV website.

Please do send us an email if you have any feedback about this newsletter, or if you'd like to share your experiences of SSEHV, to: feedback@ssehv.org.uk.

Kind Regards,
The Editorial Team:
Jo Pratt, Carole Alderman

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Presentation on Sathya Sai Education in Human Values
By Cyrano Ugarow

The following is a presentation given to delegates at the National SSEHV Day in Stanmore on September 13th this year.

I would like to begin today by reading a poem.

"The Touch of the Master's Hand
by Myra Brooks Welch'

'Twas battered and scarred, and the auctioneer
Thought it scarcely worth his while
To spend much time on the old violin,
But he held it up with a smile.

"What am I bidden for this?" he cried.
"Who'll start the bidding for me?
A dollar - one dollar; then two - only two:
Two dollars are bidden; say three.

"Three dollars once: Three dollars twice:
Going for three!" But Lo!
From the back of the crowd a gray-haired man
Came forward and picked up the bow.

Then, wiping the dust from the old violin
And tight'ning the loosened strings,
He played a melody passing sweet,
The kind that haunts and clings.

The music ceased, and the auctioneer,
With a voice that was soft and low,
Said, "Now what is bid for the old violin?"
And he held it up with the bow.

"A thousand dollars: Who'll make it two?
Two -two thousand; say three!
Three thousand once, three thousand twice,
Three thousand - gone!" said he.

The people cheered, but some exclaimed,
"We do not quite understand
What changed it's worth?" and the answer came:
"'Twas the touch of the master's hand."

And many a man with soul out of tune,
And battered and scarred by sin,
Is auctioned cheap by the thoughtless crowd,
Just like the old violin.

But the Master comes, and the foolish crowd
Never quite can understand
The worth of a soul, and the change that is wrought
By the touch of the Master's hand.

Human Values Teacher
This poem has parallels with SSEHV. I feel the Human Values teacher is like the master in this poem; he/she can see all the inherent good qualities within a child, despite the outside appearance, and draw it out. The first thing to realise about human values education is that we are not putting anything into the children; we are trying to draw out what is already there.

"The teacher has the greatest role in molding the future of the country. Of all professions his or hers is the noblest, the most difficult and the most important." - Sathya Sai

Present day education develops the intellect and skills, which is very good and necessary, but it is often at the expense of our children's overall development. It does little to develop good qualities, good character. Education should make us fit for life, not for just earning a living.

In SSEHV we give our children information that leads to transformation. The information we give them should make them a better person, this then impacts the rest of the world.

Stories of Nueng & Lek
I'd like to tell you about a child I once taught in the Sathya Sai School of Thailand.

She came from quite a well to do family. She was once home for the holidays and her birthday was coming soon. Her father asked her "What do you want for your birthday? I'll get you anything you want." Now she was being quite noble and she replied, "I don't need anything."

Her father said "Come on, that stuff is just for school, what do you want? Do you want a computer, or a video game?" She replied, "I have enough toys, I really don't need anything."

Her father was being very persistent and kept pushing her: "I promise you whatever you want, I won't say no, ask me for anything." So she said, "Will you really give me anything?"

"Yes, yes!" he said.

"For my birthday I would like you to give up smoking."

Well her father was quite stunned but he couldn't do anything, he had got himself into the situation, and he quit. His wife had been trying to get him to quit for years; it had been the cause of many arguments between them. But with one word from the child it all stopped. This incident actually bought this family much closer together. So this is the way in which children can help to change the world in which we live.

Another story illustrates the point even more vividly. A girl who grew up in the slums of Bangkok had had a really rough time; physical and sexual abuse. She was rescued by one of the teachers at the Sathya Sai School and came to live there. One day she told this teacher that she'd decided what she wanted to do with her life. "I want to work with slum children and give them a chance of a real life, the same way you gave me a chance."

The Goals and Aims of SSEHV
The goal of SSEHV is Human Excellence. This achieved by:

1. Developing excellence of character.
2. Drawing out the inherent goodness in children.
3. Developing discrimination between right and wrong.
4. Knowing who we are.
5. Developing an attitude of service toward humanity.
6. Giving children a sense of peace and happiness always.

The Sub Conscious Mind
To help explain how we meet these goals I want to use a mind diagram. I will go into this quite deeply but by the end it will all be very simple.
In all of us we have a conscious mind, a superconscious mind and a sub conscious mind. We all have this subconscious mind and it is essential but it can cause a lot of problems because we aren't taught how to understand it.

We receive information through our five senses, mainly our eyes and ears. To understand something we are seeing we must compare it to something we've seen before, and to do that we must go to our sub conscious mind. Our sub conscious is a vast unlimited memory bank. It stores everything we have ever seen, done or felt.

Suppose when I was a child I went to London Zoo and I saw a large snake pit, I discovered on that day what snakes look like. Now one day I'm walking along and my eyes receive some information, they see a slithering green object, it's long and thin. My conscious mind says "Subconscious Mind, I'm seeing this thing, do you know what it is?" The subconscious mind checks its memory banks and says "Yes, we saw that at the zoo once. It's a snake."

Now suppose the time I was at the zoo when I was a child I fell into this snake pit and experienced the most traumatic frightening experience of my life. What will happen when my conscious mind says, "I'm seeing this object, do you know what it is?"

I will experience abject terror. I will be utterly paralyzed with fright. So this is a way to simply demonstrate that along with the memories, the sub-conscious mind will bring up emotions associated with these memories. This has massive implications; anything a child has ever seen, felt or experienced will be stored in the subconscious mind and will create patterns determining how they react to a given situation.

So if a child is considered 'bad' or has aggressive behaviour, we should realize that this is due to what they have been exposed to. This may range from personal experiences of violence or just simply what they watch on TV. A study was done in America; in one year the average child sees 15,000 murders in their own home. Whilst we know this is not real, 30 years worth of research shows a definite relationship between viewing violence and aggressive behaviour. It is estimated that 25% of 13-15 year olds in England are TV addicts.

Discriminate
Our subconscious minds are filled with a lot of negative emotions and thought patterns. How does SSEHV help overcome these emotions? By putting more positive messages into the subconscious. If a child sees two other children fighting in the playground, we should not get angry and say they are "bad children". We should use this as an opportunity to teach, and ask, "Do you like what you see?….No…..So if you don't like this, tell yourself, 'I will never fight with other people, I will never quarrel with other people.'" In this way children learn from the information they receive and a positive message is put into their subconscious. Obviously the children that were fighting need to be spoken to also.

It's the same with TV. If children practiced this whilst watching TV, if every time they saw an on-screen murder they said to themselves, "This is terrible, I will never hurt anyone ever again!" then it would cancel out this negative message and reinforce the positive one. This is why TV is so dangerous; people just sit and receive everything they see directly into their sub-conscious.

We are not trying to suppress emotions; that just builds them up until one day they burst out. It's more a case of calming the mind and diluting all the negative messages. Being careful about what we eat also plays a part; some foods are more calming than others. The company we keep is another very important factor. The thoughts and emotions of our friends play a big part in influencing our state of mind.

Company
When I first discovered SSEHV I used to work in a nightclub. I went to do a weeks training in London. I spent seven days in the company of some really loving, kind and caring people. The more time I spent with them, the more loving, caring and kind I felt. I also began to feel more peaceful than I had in a long time. Once this was over I went back to work at the nightclub and felt so depressed, negative and lethargic, the difference was indescribable. Within two weeks I had left my job. This proves to me that our environment and our friends affect our state of mind. Therefore we need to educate our children to choose their friends wisely.

'Silent sitting', which is basically a concentration or relaxation exercise is excellent for putting positive messages into the subconscious. So SSEHV classes always start with a period of silent sitting.

But perhaps the most important ingredient to overcome these negative emotions within our children is to give them lots of love! This will help to create peace.

So just to recap on what I've talked about. By putting positive messages into the sub-conscious, being careful about what is received through the senses, encouraging children to choose their friends properly and eat the right type of foods, and adding the vital ingredient of Love, in essence we are creating a good environment for our children to grow up in. All these will do wonderful things for the children. But all this is simply training the mind, it's not Human Excellence.

We want to take things a step further. Remember SSEHV is Information that leads to transformation.

The Superconscious Mind
So where does this transformation take us? We are trying to touch what we call the superconscious mind. We are trying to raise our conscious minds towards the superconscious. The superconscious can be called many things; the higher mind, the conscience, or personally I like the heart. All the things I mentioned already help to raise the conscious mind bit by bit, but they are not enough to reach the superconscious.

Values Inherent in All
The beginning of the transformation takes place with the values. When we teach our children anything we need to bring out the values. In SSEHV lessons in which we use a combination of silent sitting, songs, quotes, stories and group activities which may be used in citizenship classes or after school clubs this is easy as all these songs, quotes and stories are full of positive values and messages. But SSEHV can be used in any subject. If we're in a science lesson and we're learning about water, we don't stop at water is H2O. We think about what the usefulness of water is, what the value inherent within water is. Since water keeps every living thing alive, we need to treat it with respect. We need to use it wisely, we need to take care of it, and to learn not to pollute it. This is the value of non-violence, looking after our environment.

This is right conduct, don't waste water, use it wisely.

Everything can be linked back to values. Almost every piece of information has some inherent value. As this is demonstrated to children they begin to understand these values and can put them into practice in their everyday lives.

So this is how children learn about values. However values cannot actually be taught, they can only be experienced. It's essential that we do teach them about values, they need to have that understanding, but in order to live the values, they need to practice and experience them. How do we do this? There is no set way, but I'll give you an example.

Experience the Values - Story of Group 8
Whilst in Thailand I taught a group of 14-15 year olds for 6 months. They are a wonderful bunch of children but they had some problems. They had no unity in their class, they liked to fight each other and have arguments. If you look at their histories, they all came from very problematic backgrounds.

I tried to tackle this problem and to begin with I wanted them to have a lot of fun so I decided I would play a lot of games with them. Every game involved the students working together as a team and contained physical and mental challenges that they needed to complete together.

They enjoyed these games a lot but I wanted to have the students think about what they'd done, to teach them to go within, to introspect. Introspection is vital.

So the last class of the week when we all came together, I asked them questions about the weeks' events. They would write down what they thought or felt. Afterwards we had a short discussion.

After one week of playing co-operative games the students wrote some beautiful things but a comment made by the class teacher was the most telling: this was the first week she could remember that there had been no fights in the class.

Camping Trip
Many other things happened during this study, but it culminated with a three-day camping trip. Self-reliance was a strong focus as the children were involved in planning from beginning to end. Living and working together was very important also. During the trip itself the students did all the work themselves. Again, the theme was always teamwork.

We went hiking together up a mountain. It was tough going and they complained a lot, but they all helped each other and eventually when they reached the top they all loved it, they were so happy. We even did a little ritual where we threw a rock off the top of the mountain and it symbolized letting go of something in yourself that you didn't like.

We had meetings around the campfire, we talked about their behaviour, we played a lot of trust games. What really affected the students was the working, sharing and living together. I began to see more love between them than ever before. They experienced being part of a loving community. Upon getting back to school I asked them to write what they had learned from the trip. I'll just share some of it with you:

This came from a girl that was often extremely moody and angry: "I learnt that teachers want to tell students many things. Teachers want students to live together and love each other more and more everyday. I'm not angry and I should be relaxed and be forgiving, we will be better more and more."

Another said: "I can see my friends flourishing and learning about good will. I know I can have good will and can help others. I can sacrifice something for my friends and look after them when they are sick. I can understand everybody; we can live in society happily. We can bring harmony and love."

In addition other teachers began to notice changes. One girl was not liked within the class. She often gossiped about other people and would be left out of things. A few days after we got back she began to cry at dinner, she went into the kitchen to be alone. After a moment another of the girls followed her and then all the others went in as well. They all stayed together in the kitchen hugging and comforting her. This had never happened before.

One child who was the biggest problem of the class, had a reputation for picking on younger kids. I saw him with a tiny three-year-old girl on his lap and he was making her laugh and laugh. He was later seen trying to teach good behavior to a six-year-old boy.

So this is one way that we can help children to experience values. Another very important way to help children experience the values is to introduce the idea of serving others.

Service
"Service is to experience the values so that they become real. It is the passage from knowledge to wisdom."

I'll tell you another story. We did a small service project in our English class. We had taught them how to make orange juice using only verbal English directions. Their service was to teach the younger children in the school the English and how to do it.

We would always ask the children after this type of activity, "What did you do? How did you feel? What did you learn about yourself" For her last answer sne childe wrote, "Sometimes I feel my life is worthless, today I learned I can use my life to be useful for others."

Nearing the end of our journey
So we are nearing the end of our journey. Let's just recap; we put positive messages into the subconscious mind, we bring out the inherent values in all information, silent sitting exercises help to calm and focus the mind, singing brings joy, we teach children to discriminate between right and wrong for the good of all, we get them to experience the values through activities and service, and of course we give them lots and lots of love.

Through all this we are raising their minds higher and higher towards the superconscious. This is the place within us all that knows automatically when something is right or wrong. Initially we have to teach our children to discriminate, is this right or wrong? If you are in touch with the super-conscious mind you know automatically. You begin to understand the truth that for better or worse we are all on this planet together, we are inextricably connected. When we start to realize this unity we automatically get a lot of love for all life.

But there is one more thing that is the most important element of all and if this is missing everything else we have talked about is useless.

Role and transformation of the teacher.
"Teachers are remembered more for what they were than what they taught."

Do you agree? If you think back to a teacher who had a big impact on you, what do you remember most about them? What they taught you, or what they were like?

As a teacher there are two vital rules you must understand:
Rule No1: Be a good example
Rule No 2: Go back to rule number one

This doesn't just mean in front of the children you must speak and act properly. Obviously that is very good but it goes much, much deeper than this.

If you have just had a fight with your wife, and you come into the classroom feeling angry and begin to talk about peace, it will show that you are not peaceful. The children won't believe what you're saying. Even if you are the best actor in the world, your thoughts and emotions will be transmitted to the children. This is why it's vital for teachers to have unity of thought, word and deed. If you don't feel something, don't say it, if you're angry, don't talk about peace. If you do, you are sending the children mixed messages, which will only serve to confuse them.

If we have love in our hearts and thoughts, we help transform the children because we are radiating love. The way to inspire other people is by giving love. This is the secret of teaching values. You can help children experience them and help them understand them but they cannot be taught from head to head, they must be taught from heart to heart.

This means we must speak from our hearts, but more than that, our hearts need to be full of love always, all our actions need to be saturated in love. We must be living the values in everyday life. We must raise our consciousness towards the superconscious.

I have just talked to you for quite a while about these values, discrimination, the subconscious mind, and the superconscious mind. This can sometimes make SSEHV seem very complicated but in reality it's very simple. If you remember nothing else from this talk today, remember this. EHV. is really 3…H...V...

3HV
The 3 H's are head, heart and hands. The SSEHV aims to develop unity between the head, the heart and the hands. What this means is that every time a thought or feeling comes into your head, send it to the heart for approval. If your heart approves, only then should it go to the hands. Only then should you act upon your thought. If the heart doesn't approve, discard the thought.

Your heart knows automatically what is right and what is wrong, it's where all the values reside. So remember 3HV. Anytime any thought comes into your head, send it to the heart for approval before you act upon it.

I would like to finish today by reading a poem which demonstrates this point quite beautifully:

"The Man in the Glass
by Dale Wimbrow"

When you get what you want in your struggle for self
And the world makes you king for a day,
Just go to the mirror and look at your self
And see what THAT man has to say.

For it isn't your father or mother or wife
Whose judgment upon you must pass;
The fellow whose verdict counts most in your life
Is the one staring back from the glass.

Some people may think you a straight-shootin' chum
And call you a wonderful guy,
But the man in the glass says your only a bum
If you can't look him straight in the eye.

He's the fellow to please, never mind all the rest,
For he's with you clear up to the end.
And you've passed your most dangerous, difficult test
If the man in the glass is your friend.

You may fool the whole world down the pathway of life
And get pats on your back as you pass,
But your final reward will be heartaches and tears
If you've cheated the man in the glass.

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Ninth SSEHV holiday school & Training Update

Oxford Holiday School
Around twenty children are expected to attend a half-term weekend holiday school in Oxford on the 1st and 2nd November. Organised by Lesley and Joely Hayes and Joyce Power, the camp is the ninth to take place in the UK this year, and a first for Oxford.

For more information, and to obtain an enrolment form, please contact Lesley Hayes on 01865 249975.

First Parenting course begins
Also in Oxford, the first ever SSEHV parenting course begins on 28th October. Around fifteen students are expected to attend.

SSEHV Foundation Course in Oldham
An SSEHV Foundation Course is taking place in Oldham over three consecutive weekends, beginning the 1st-2nd November. For further information and to register to attend, people should contact Sheila Swift on 0161 633 9625.

Places still available on December intensive course
There are still some places available on the week-long intensive SSEHV Foundation Course taking place in Pinner from 27th December to 6th January (excluding January 1st). If you are interested in attending this course, please contact Pamela Nash on Tel: 01784 244494 or email pamelanash@btopenworld.com. Accommodation for the week can be arranged for those travelling long distances.

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STORY

One of the Gang
by Ann McMail

Grant had been in the Comprehensive school for almost a year now, and it seemed as if it were ages ago that he had felt so nervous about starting and been really worried about the 'taster' day. That was when he visited the new school for a day just to see what it was like. Everyone said that he had taken to it like a 'duck to water'. He loved the freedom, he loved going to different classrooms for each lesson and most of all he loved to race around the corridors when there were no teachers around!

Grant had lots of mates, but sometimes he felt as if he didn't quite fit in with them. They would pick on each other and sometimes he didn't agree with the things they did. Grant joined in with lots of things that the gang did because he was afraid that if he didn't, he wouldn't have any friends. He wanted to be one of the gang so much!

During most of the first year in the comprehensive, Grant 'fitted in'. He joined in with the gang when they teased Kylie Collier. They kept calling her "Cauliflower", and he kept on doing it even though he knew it made her run off with her best friend to have a good cry in the toilets.

Grant joined in lots of other things that the gang did, until one day when they sneaked out of school at lunch time. Now Grant didn't mind sneaking out of school and he enjoyed hanging around with the gang, but this particular lunch time, things got a bit out of hand. They were all having a laugh together when Rhys said, "Let's go up on the bridge and wave at the cars going underneath." Grant went along as he really wanted to be one of the gang. He didn't join in but pretended that he was having fun, until Rhys picked up a small stone and threw it into the path of an oncoming car! Grant had seen enough! He knew that this was going too far, so he quietly walked away, heading back to school.

When the gang returned to school they made fun of him, laughed at him and called him names. Soon after lunch, Grant was called into the Headmaster's office. There he found the rest of the gang. Mr Collins, the Headmaster, was standing by his desk with a large man who looked very upset and angry. It turned out that he was the van driver who had been driving under the bridge when one of the stones bounced off his windscreen.

"Even though the windscreen is not badly damaged, the shock of the sudden noise and my surprise at the attack could have caused me to have a serious accident involving other vehicles!" said the man crossly.

He had recognised their school uniform and had been told by other children that the gang had been seen by the bridge. So he had come into school to see if he could find the culprits.

Mr Collins talked to the gang, making sure that they were aware of the seriousness of the incident. Then he questioned them individually about what had happened exactly.

Grant told the truth, but by now the gang knew they were in deep trouble and they were determined Grant would get the blame for it as well. All the gang lied about him and all Grant could do was to continue to deny that he had taken part, but he wasn't believed and was treated the same as the others, even though he was innocent. He was given detentions and a letter was sent home. He didn't know what to do. The gang bullied him because he wasn't what they wanted him to be and the teachers were disappointed because they thought he had let them down. School was becoming a nightmare for him and he found it difficult to get up each day to go. He was finding it increasingly hard to cope with the situation both at home and at school. His stomach felt as if it were tied up in knots and he didn't even want to eat. Life was a problem for him even though all he had done was to tell the truth. Deep down, he knew he had done the right thing. Although he felt so miserable, at least he no longer had the guilty feelings which he used to have when the gang were teasing and hurting other people.

Eventually, Grant made friends with another group, when they realised he was no longer with the gang. Stuart was the leader and he had a motorbike. His father had some land and Stuart was allowed to go trial-biking at the weekend. After they had been friends for a little while, Grant was invited to join him and Stuart let him have a ride on the motorbike. He rode right round the field and he felt great! Grant found that he had a real talent for riding and he soon learned how to fix any small problem with the bikes. He had found something where he felt right, where he felt confident and happy to help. School was no longer a frightening place to be and he quickly gained a whole new gang of friends with whom he could be at ease and enjoy himself. Life wasn't so bad after all.

Questions
What name would you like to give to this story?
What did you feel when you heard it?
Does it remind you of anything in your own life?
What does this story mean to you?

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