The duration of the five main learning cycles was observed to be about seven years per cycle; meaning, if it were not for unfortunate circumstances that leave some learning cycles incomplete, each would start and mature naturally during the first thirty-five years of one's life; i.e.:

The ability to learn FIRSTHAND would be accomplished during a child's first seven years; the ability to learn SECONDHAND, during the second seven years; the ability to REASON develops during the third cycle (if cycles 1 and 2 were adequately finished); the ability to grasp eternity and evolution (and thereby develop HUMBLENESS) seems to grow during the age of parenthood; and the spiritual understanding that tends to lead us to trust our higher INSTINCTS develops during the last of the seven-year cycles (again, assuming that the previous cycles were adequately completed).

Forty-five years of teaching led me to conclude that incomplete cycles of learning are the major cause of feelings of insecurity and a poorly developed self-image.  The following are five rhymes that, to me, describe these cycles.  The sixth one, SCHOOL ROOM EARTH, is not related but it does depict an overview I consider to be valid.

 

LEARNING FIRSTHAND

Do you allow kids the pleasure to stumble and fall, climb up and down stairs and chase pets down the hall?

Did you, yourself, not play chase in the trees, watch the birds build nests and get stung by the bees?

Why then deprive others, yourself and those dear from learning of life and wood and veneer FIRSTHAND, like Johnny and Jane and Frank and Big Red, who all, though a bit rowdy, were always way ahead. It seems to hold true that the brave, rough, and gruff end up healthy and happy as though made of good stuff.

It's true, and you and I know it only too darn well, a child's quest for excitement is not rooted in hell.

A soul's natural way after each fumble and fall is to smile, then get up, and run after the ball.

LEARNING SECONDHAND

Throughout early grade school good teachers take care not to give information that proves too hard to bear.  So, well-guided and meaning each teacher presents life's golden examples, life's major events.  They explain and then train each youngster in class how to make life worth living without smoking grass.

Also taught to the youngsters these first seven years is that little was conquered by the meek, shedding tears; that the brave and the strong, both young and old, could each tell a story and their story is told.

Educational rhetoric has remained much the same: repeating SECONDHAND knowledge is the gist of the game.

LEARNING TO REASON:

(in self-contemplation)

How exciting!  All this knowledge that was programmed during spring is now mine to use and cherish.  Oh, what pleasures it will bring!  Though, at times, I'll have to mix it with a bit of common sense, some humor and patience or a playful pretense, these assorted bits of wisdom that I stored these past few years have abolished or embellished all my doubts and all my fears.

I thank God and you, his people, whose great wisdom, once retrieved, bore in me the spark of reason.  Oh, what joy to have conceived!

POWERS GREATER THAN MINE

(Learning to be humble)

This is the time to learn how to teach one's own little babes with words that will reach their minds and their hearts without appearing to preach . . . a time for parents to master with ease through playful attention and loving tease the art of coercing and saying please.

At first, I would gloat with proud eyes lit as truth dawned and reached them bit by bit, till finally I grew and learned to admit, powers greater than mine had sharpened their wit.

These years of attempting to do the right thing, though bringing much pleasure, also did bring me back down to earth, where now humbly I work, serve and sing.

NATURE'S COMMAND

Is instinct acquired or has it been tossed by nature at random genetically bossed?

Fanatics take sides boldly labeling this trait; the wise only smile; a few call it fate.

Pure instinct, to me, is nature's command ¾ our God's gentle prodding, our wisdom's right hand.

SCHOOL ROOM EARTH

I believe that all souls had the right to pick and choose their genetic environs, skin color and hues . . . even playgrounds and pastimes and earthbound IQs.

This belief, though not too common, not inscribed on ancient rock, has become a quasi virtue, one I treasure 'round the clock.

I believe that we, each lifetime, are encouraged to sojourn through the playgrounds of the heavens so their lessons we may learn.