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Miscellany of Topics – Robert Mijas

CONTENTS

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Miscellany of Topics – Robert Mijas

Introduction `

his collection of diverse articles reflects a personal interest in important yet

sometime neglected issues in modern society. Most of the articles are available

for free at the Knowledge Wealth Centre, and they encompass many topics related

to the underlying causes of some social dilemmas.

The purpose of this e-book is to implant a seed that instigates personal reflection in

order to raise awareness in some of the presented areas.

I would like to thank for the great support and input of my family and all those who

have made this project possible.

Please consider supporting our work by donating at Knowledge Wealth Centre. All

donations are greatly appreciated. Thank you.

-Disclaimer-

The health related information in this document is not presented by a medical practitioner

and is for educational and informational purposes only. The content is not intended to be a

substitute for professional medical advice, diagnosis, or treatment. Always seek the advice

your physician or other qualified health care provider with any questions you may have

regarding a medical condition. Never disregard professional medical advice or delay in

seeking it because of something you have read.

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Miscellany of Topics – Robert Mijas

How to Become an Excellent Teacher

“A teacher affects eternity; he can never tell where his influence stops.”

- Henry Brooks Adams

here is something incredibly satisfying about working with a true professional

in any line of work. When you have a professional on the job in any area of

specialization, watching that person in action is like watching a work of art, or

what some experts describe as to be in the zone. The in the zone level of

unconscious competence is what most people strive for when perfecting a skill.

According to various experts and student surveys, an excellent teacher should

possess the following qualities:

Enthusiasm/Passion/Confidence - top

teachers love what they do and they know

this in their heart. Students almost

immediately see when you love your job as

the positivity is catchy and rubs on their

learning. You should also possess the

confidence and belief in yourselves in times

of difficulty and do not take things personally

or get upset so your performance is affected.

Compassion/Empathy - the best teachers genuinely care about their

students as individuals and want to help them. If necessary, take the time to

discuss subjects outside your teaching, care about students beyond the walls

of your classroom.

Patience/Sensory Acuity/Flexibility - you must possess a great deal of

patience and be comfortable working with learners with diverse capacities

and needs. Sensory acuity means seeing, hearing, feeling (physically and

emotionally) what is going on around you. This skill is important in the

classroom so that you are aware of feedback/information that indicates the

extent to which you are on or off target in achieving your teaching outcomes,

awareness of your students‟ actions and reactions to certain situations/stimuli

and enough flexibility to change or adopt your teaching style is vital.

Understanding Learning Styles - learn the different learning styles of your

students, some learn visually (V), auditorily (A), or kinesthetically (K), and

take that into consideration when lesson planning for your class. Also

understand that other things affect our ability to learn, such as: the weather;

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the temperature in the classroom; the time of day; attention spans of learners

and maturity (for more infomation on learning styles questionnaires refer to

any NLP books).

Good Rapport - it is important you have a great rapport with your students as

it vital to achieve your objectives. Good rapport can help you better express

your ideas and understand the thought processes of your students. It can also

assist in avoiding conflicts, misunderstandings and arguments. Basic rapport

skills are based on 'mirroring and matching' techniques. For more information

refer to any N.L.P. material.

Knowledge/Preparation - students can tell the difference between someone

who knows what they are doing and someone who does not, as your body

language gives clues. Your knowledge and preparation gives your students

the confidence and a sense of security. A professional should always knows

what to do both long and short range, so dedicating an hour or two to your

preparation not only makes you a better teacher, but it lets the students know

that you are serious and committed about your teaching. A prepared teacher

is able to respond to interruptions and disturbances calmly, address them

rapidly and be back on the task.

Safe & Challenge Environment - as a teacher you must provide a safe, non-

threatening, and welcoming environment that nurtures each student. This

helps in building healthy relationships with your students and your student's

parents. Your classes should also be challenging enough for students to

maintain curiosity and interest and really see that whatever they are learning

they can apply in real life situations.

“What the teacher is, is more important than what he teaches.”

~Karl Menninger

Dedication to excellence - good teachers want the best from their students

and themselves. They encourage and motivate students through various

techniques to think for themselves and to be good people. They want students

to learn and be able to apply what they learned, not just be able to pass tests.

The best teachers are life-long learners and committed to the profession.

Willingness - great teachers have a never ending willingness to ensure that

all students reach their maximum potential. They don‟t settle for poor grades

if they believe you can do better. A great slogan 'teach to reach' is worth

adopting, which means that you don‟t stop teaching when the bell rings. You

might need to hold extra sessions, to reach out to students after class. Extra

help and assistance can make a big difference. Great teachers realize that

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Miscellany of Topics – Robert Mijas

achievement isn‟t just a good grade on a test, but a feeling of accomplishment

with mastering a subject.

Pride in student’s accomplishments - the best teachers let you know they

are glad you got a good grade and tell you that you did a good job. They

celebrate the accomplishments of students with the knowledge that everyone

is capable to doing well. They are positive and encouraging focusing on how

a student does rather than how well they taught. They may know that it was the

strength of their teaching that helped a student to achieve, but they act as if

the student is completely responsible. The pride that a teacher shows towards

the students can to some degree spark the innate genius within students to do

even better.

Finally, these are some of the characteristics of an excellent teacher, become

conscious of them, study them until you are so good at teaching that you do not have

to consciously think about them, that is to say be 'unconsciously competent' at the

teaching profession.

“Teaching creates all other professions.”

-Author Unknown

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Miscellany of Topics – Robert Mijas

Toltec Wisdom - The Four Natural

Enemies in Life

ost ancient civilizations around the world had a set of beliefs, ideas and

teachings about life and the Toltec culture of Mexico was no different. Toltec

meaning the "craftsman" was one of great empires of the Basin of Mexico

that existed around 900-1200AD. The Toltec empire controlled most of central

Mexico, parts of the Yucatan area, the Gulf coast, and the Pacific coast, with its

capital located in Tula.

They possessed an incredible knowledge of the mind and spiritual philosophy that

incorporated esoteric teachings that allowed them to create very effective systems of

teaching. Their teachings offer one possible path in life, where we raise our

awareness through learning to ultimately become beings of knowledge. This can be

achieved through selecting paths in life that have our heart, and defeating the four

natural enemies in life.

When we embark on our learning experience we come across hardships, caused by

unclear objectives and vague intentions. This is where we discover fear, the first

natural enemy in life. Fear waits for us at every corner, becomes an obstacle in

learning, and is difficult to overcome. If fear stops our learning, we become

defeated, scared individuals, bullies, or fear mongers, who operate out of fear. To

overcoming fear, one needs to continue taking steps until eventually fear retreats

and stops being an obstacle. When fear is defeated, learning no longer is a

terrifying task, instead confidence increases, intent become clearer and clarity fills

the mind.

Clarity is the second natural enemy in life, since it blinds us and initiates

complacency that stops us from further growth. Clarity forces us to never doubt

ourselves and gives us a false sense of security or assurance that we know

everything. When we yield to this imaginary power, we are unable to learn anymore

and stop learning. To overcome clarity, we must realize that clarity is almost a

mistake and only use it to continue taking action. With sensory acuity we must be

able to change and adjust according to every new learning experience we

undertake.

When we overcome fear and clarity, we enter into an area where we are seen as

masters or experts by others. This is where we discover the third and the strongest

natural enemy in life, power. Inability to overcome power, turns us into cruel,

capricious, self-absorbing and important individuals. A being who is defeated by

power dies without really knowing how to handle it. As power becomes a burden

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upon our fate, we abandon learning and become blind to our own errors. To many,

power becomes an addiction, as self importance becomes a higher priority.

“Self-importance is man's greatest enemy.

What weakens him is feeling offended by the deeds and misdeeds of his fellow men.

Self-importance requires that one spends most of one's life offended

by something or someone.”

- Don Juan.

To overcome power, we must realize that the power we seemingly have conquered,

in reality, is never ours. We must handle power carefully and use all that we have

learned faithfully and ethically. In Tao, when we become self-absorbed, power of

modesty is recommended, as it invites loyal alignment with others. To defeat power,

we must treat others with respect no matter what our level of success in life is.

“As long as a man feels that he is the most important thing in the world, he cannot

really appreciate the world around him. He is like a horse with blinders; all he sees is

himself, apart from everything else.”

- Carlos Castaneda.

When we have no more fears, no impatient clarity of mind, all power is in check, a

strong desire to rest surfaces and our last enemy makes an appearance, old age. Old

age is the cruelest enemy that cannot be completely defeated, only delayed for a

while. With our permission, old age can cut us down into weak and feeble old

creatures, slowly draining our body's life force.

To overcome old age, we must implement a

physically and mentally active lifestyle that allows

us to live an active life for life. Only then,

according to the Toltec wisdom, we can truly

become beings of knowledge.

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Miscellany of Topics – Robert Mijas

Source: Awareness Through Time

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Miscellany of Topics – Robert Mijas

The Toxicity of Competitiveness

“You were placed on this earth to create, not to compete.”

-Dr. Robert Anthony

n our present social system, a large percentage of people are driven in order to

win. Many people think that being competitive is a natural way to be and

something we are born with. This short article looks at competitiveness and how

it undermines success at personal and professional levels.

The main aim of a competitive person is to come out best in every part of their life.

According to many philosophers and psychologists competitiveness is an inherent

biological trait which comes with the human‟s urge for survival. It is also a trait

common among perfectionists, who tend to be demanding of themselves, and those

around them.

Plenty of research has been conducted to study the

effects of competitiveness on human life. Doctors say

they have found several patients becoming extremely

angry due to the irresistible urge for winning

everything at any cost that it has become a severe

problem in their life. The problem clearly is denoted by

neurotic competitiveness, which means patient with

such problems suffer from an indiscriminate need to get

success at all costs. This problem causes further

aggression in their behavior, addressed in the Frustration-Aggression Hypothesis.

Perfectionists develop an obsession to order that eventually alienates those around

them. This is known as a paradox of perfection.

One underlying factor to being competitive is a lack of self esteem, which tends to

be projected onto others, demonstrating distrust of capacity of others. Another factor

is a lack of empathy. These two factors primarily cause lots of stress in personal and

professional relationships.

One study has been conducted upon the effect of competitiveness on the mental

health of adolescent. It highlights two types of competitiveness, one is competing to

win and another is competing to excel. Competing to win applies when a person

wants to control and outperform others. While competing to excel signifies when a

person wants to perform well and outshine the personal targets that he had set for

himself. The study reveals that students who always compete to win are suffering

from severe frustration, social isolation, and stressed relationships. But at the same

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time the students who are competing to excel, has been proven to be advantageous

for their well-being.

The fundamental duty of the education system is to encourage students in excelling

their performance rather than chasing only for success. In the present educational

scenario many parents are concerned about competition at school levels and it is

having a bad effect on their children.

Though moderate competition is good for the students, but excessive competition

can spoil the mental health of a child. Since children are not born with an innate

competitive desire, they learn everything gradually. Over competitiveness causes

physical or emotional damage, or both. Sometimes it causes a negative effect on the

mind of the child if he fails to succeed. Parents should also understand that winning

at any cost makes them stressed and they can suffer from low self esteem and fear

from social humiliation.

Alfie Kohn, who has written enumerable articles on education and parenting, has

criticized this type of human behaviour that is leading our younger generation into

utter devastation. According to Kohn, competition undermines character, produces

inferior results, and fortifies a notion that we are only successful when we have

defeated other people. One man's loss, other man's gain scenario. This tends to

generate a perpetual state of disease and anxiety.

Some argue that little competition is healthy and necessary to produce growth and

progress. However Kohn states that competitiveness is not only unnecessary to attain

success but also its absence maximises excellence and increases the levels of

success. He further recommends that people should put more emphasis on

teamwork instead of competitiveness, because this is the most effective method to

produce real superiority. In this type of system people feel more encouraged to

work in groups as part of a team and to help each other to grow.

“Trying to be number one and trying to do a task well are two different things.”

-Alfie Kohn from No Contest: The Case Against Competition

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Cultural Diversity - Focus on the

Importance of Tolerance

“You have your way. I have my way. As for the right way,

the correct way, and the only way, it does not exist.”

- Friedrich Nietzsche

ulticultural communities possess a rich blend of cultural traditions from all

over the world. The differences (or diversity) that come from people enrich

cultures by bringing new ideas. The promotion of tolerance is the key to

managing diversity, and fundamental to human rights, and peace.

Tolerance helps us to coexist peacefully with people from different cultures, races

and religions, different ages, backgrounds, gender, and sexual orientation. It is an

attribute that helps in interpersonal relationships and in having more opportunities

in education, business, and many other aspects of life.

As tolerance is initially learned and modelled at home, it is important for the parents

or caretakers to teach children to respect differences. In fact when children go to

school, their circle of friends is varied as classrooms become increasingly diverse.

This increases the need to tolerate differences.

According to UNESCO:

1. Tolerance is respect, acceptance and appreciation of the rich diversity of our

world's cultures, our forms of expression and ways of being human. It is

fostered by knowledge, openness, communication, and freedom of thought,

conscience and belief. Tolerance is harmony in difference. It is not only a

moral duty, it is also a political and legal requirement. Tolerance, the virtue

that makes peace possible, contributes to the replacement of the culture of

war by a culture of peace.

2. Tolerance is not concession, condescension or indulgence. Tolerance is,

above all, an active attitude prompted by recognition of the universal human

rights and fundamental freedoms of others. In no circumstance can it be used

to justify infringements of these fundamental values. Tolerance is to be

exercised by individuals, groups and States.

3. Tolerance is the responsibility that upholds human rights, pluralism (including

cultural pluralism), democracy and the rule of law. It involves the rejection of

dogmatism and absolutism and affirms the standards set out in international

human rights instruments.

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4. Consistent with respect for human rights, the practice of tolerance does not

mean toleration of social injustice or the abandonment or weakening of one's

convictions. It means that one is free to adhere to one's own convictions and

accepts that others adhere to theirs. It means accepting the fact that human

beings, naturally diverse in their appearance, situation, speech, behavior and

values, have the right to live in peace and to be as they are. It also means that

one's views are not to be imposed on others.”

The presence of tolerance might not always be obvious, the list below shows signs of

tolerance:

Absence of prejudicial language in descriptions of events and people.

Lack of racial, ethnic and gender abusive words or phrases.

Usage of inclusive NOT exclusive language.

Lack of bullying, harassment and teasing.

Intolerance often comes from ignorance, fear from a 'perceived' difference and is

also associated with an exaggerated sense of self-worth and pride.

Patricia Evans published a book in 2002, Controlling People: How

to Recognize, Understand, and Deal with People Who Try to

Control You, which looked at how excessive parental defining

and invalidating produces intorelant personalities in children

who possess emotional deficiency and feel threatened by others

who simply think differently to them. Since intolerance is the

inability to accept differences in others, Evans might be pointing

out an important contributing factor to intolerance, excessive

parental defining.

Intolerance also breeds more intolerance among others, as children see, children

do. Eliminating intolerance, starts with the individual, therefore as a parent, one

should acknowledge the problem, possess an open-mindedness and willingness to

learn, and make a commitment to change. Awareness, education and access to

information are the keys.

Ask yourself the following questions to evaluate your present situation:

Am I or my child a tolerant person?

Do I or my child stereotype people?

Do I or my child judge and reject people who are simply different?

Do I or my child blame my problems on others?

From the above, you will be able to honestly evaluate whether any necessary steps

need to be taken. Many resources exist to show how tolerance can be learned,

taught or increased.

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Miscellany of Topics – Robert Mijas

In today's world, your child's success is strongly related to the ability of

understanding, respecting, and appreciating others, this can only be achieved

through tolerance.

“Tolerance is the virtue of the man without convictions.”

- G. K. Chesterton

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Miscellany of Topics – Robert Mijas

Empathy & Apathy - Focus on Ponerology

& Pathocracy

t was interesting to come across a recent speech by Mr. Nigel Farage on

'Freedom and Democracy' at the European Parliament on the 24/11/10, which

raised many important issues about some of the mentalities leading various

institutions.

Mr. Farage's reference to the obsession or the fanaticism among political

representatives should be an area of great concern. What motivates individuals in

power to implement systems with the capacity to produce 'economical' or 'physical'

genocide across the world and use any means to achieve their objectives? Is it the

lack of empathy?A superiority complex or ignorance?

" Genius with compassion can produce miracles,

but genius without compassion can produce genocide."

- Anonymous

According to Lobaczewski (2005) from 'Political Ponerology, six (6) percent of the

population seem to carry the genes responsible for biological evil or who acquire a

pathological mentality in their lifetime. These mentalities

when in positions of power create a phenomena called

pathocracy, from Greek pathos means “a feeling, pain,

suffering” and kratos, means "rule”. Pathocracy is a form of a

totalitarian government created by a small pathological

mentality minority that takes control over a society or group of

normal people. It has various forms, but it usually tends to

attach itself to any fair system under the disguise of a

democracy and pretends to offer a solution or improvement.

With time, these systems eventually get corrupted and

perverted carrying little resemblance of the original idea or

objective.

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Here are some of the characteristics of pathocracy:

fanatical ideology/excessive, unfairness and rigid laws legislation/rule by

force or fear-mongering.

suppression of individualism, creativity and artistic values.

violation of basic human rights (eg water, food, water, shelter)

the power of decision making is reduced via centralization of power

widespread corruption/intolerance and suspicion to a point of paranoia of

anyone who is different or who disagrees with the status quo.

secrecy within government but surveillance of the general populace.

an attitude of content and hypocrisy of the ruling class towards the ideology

and the citizens they claim to represent.

controlled media domination through propaganda and use of bullying

techniques and corrupted psychological reasoning such as double-talk,

suppression of free speech etc.

extreme inequality between the richest and poorest with arbitrary divisions in

the population based on class, social status or ethnicity, with lower classes to

be considered as a „human resource‟ and to be exploited.

The true nature of a pathological mentality is conscienceless, emotionless, selfish,

cold and calculating and absent of any moral or ethical standards who enjoy to climb

the ranks of social hierarchies. Therefore in a pathocracy dominated by pathological

values, policy makers or CEOs of big business promote a culture of greed and

selfishness as the norm. These mentalities shape the common culture and morality

for the rest of the population. It affects the way we think, how we judge what is going

on in our lives and what is right or wrong. As a consequence many individuals who

are not genetic psychopaths become secondary sociopaths to simply survive or

succeed in this system. They see that their leaders lie and cheat, and they figure that

if they want to get ahead, then they can lie and cheat as well.

Empathy and Apathy

The ability to experience empathy is crucial in all human relationships, and the lack

of empathy is found in apathy. Professor Carroll Quigley in his book 'Tragedy and

Hope' has stated:

“…the apathy and indifference of people in the Western World to the

suffering, torture, misery, bondage and death of millions and millions of

people around the world in the years ahead may be one of the greatest

tragedies of the twenty first century”.

Without empathy there is no basis for trust, and it demonstrates that one side simply

cannot see the humanity, experience and feelings of others. It shows a lack of human

concern and this is what creates human misery, deviancy, genocide and crime.

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Miscellany of Topics – Robert Mijas

People cannot commit acts of evil when they feel empathetic, as empathy acts a

safety switch before deviant acts are carried out. In fact if every single person in the

world was capable of feeling totally empathetic, there would be no war and no crime

in the world. This should be taught at schools so that future generations are able to

develop their empathy centers of the brain and become indignant when acts of

pathological behaviour occur.

Source: Sign-of-the-times.org

Sources

Hare, R.D. & Neumann, S.C. (2008), Psychopathy as a Clinical and Empirical

Construct. Annu. Rev. Clin. Psychol. 2008. 4:217–46. Retrived from

http://clinpsy.annualreviews.org.

Lobaczewski, A. (2005). Political Ponerology: A science on the nature of evil adjusted

for political purposes. New York, NY: Red Pill Press. Quigley, C. (1966 ). Tragedy & Hope: A History of the World in Our Time. New York,

NY: The Macmillan Company.

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Miscellany of Topics – Robert Mijas

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