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We currently offer two online classes plus a special symposium
 The Death of Religion
and Rebirth of Spirit
with Joseph Chilton Pearce
When asked what has driven him all these years, Joe replied, "To understand our amazing capacities and self inflicted limitations." In this extraordinary and provocative work Pearce pushes this quest to its limits.
This is an opportunity to preview Joe's latest work, to discuss its meaning with others and formulate together a series of questions that Joe will respond to.
We expect between 30 and 50 participants. Most will have read at least some of Joe’s past works.
Michael Mendizza will facilitate the process. The symposium will be organized in three sections, each lasting approximately one week. During this time you will have the opportunity to print each chapter and explore questions in a private discussion area with other participants. Building on these discussions we will schedule three, one-hour conference calls, each on a Sunday, June 17, at 12:00 est., June 24 and July 1, where Joe will discuss his views and respond to questions. The goal is to provide participants a preview of this new work.
To encourage them to explore its meaning.
To formulate together questions and to discuss with Joe the implications of this new body of work.
Other online classes:
The Art of Playful Parenting
with Michael Mendizza, based on his and Joseph Chilton Pearce’s new book Magical Parent-Magical Child, the Optimum Learning Relationship. This course creates a direct relationship with Michael Mendizza. Michael will correspond with you personally as you move through each lesson, responding to questions that the material raises.
Starting Date - Open Schedule
and
Playing by Heart
with Fred Donaldson, PhD, based on his pioneering play research and Pulitzer nominated book by the same title.
Starting date - To Be Announced.
Register now, or see below for more information on these two programs.
Questions? Comments? Email info@ttfuture.org or call 805 646-6816.
Overview
Lessons average ten pages of reading. The format is similar to online classes offered by over 1,200 colleges and universities. Registered participants can View or Print each lesson, complete Journal entries online and post questions or Discuss the views of other participants in a special class bulletin board. Rather than a final exam, we host a live conference call for participants and the class facilitator. This adds a personal touch to the experience and provides an opportunity to raise questions and dig more deeply into key concepts. Estimated time to complete the class is thirty hours.
Every few months we will be adding new classes with distinguished leaders in child and human development. The goal is to offer a number of inspired online classes, covering topics not usually found in traditional programs, and to promote these to the national childcare community, to colleges with early childhood programs and Head Start programs.
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The Art of Playful Parenting
Our goal is to apply the psychology of optimum experience, what athletes call the Zone, researchers and the business community call Flow and what children call Play to parenting and to education. The twelve lesson class will redefine the Zone, Flow and authentic Play as “transformational technologies” that optimize learning, performance and well being, at any age, in any field.
Magical Adults nurture and guide Magical Children. Magical Children challenge and mentor Magical Adults. Our goal is to explore this reciprocal dynamic. We will suggest ways to optimize the adult-child relationship, reduce conflict and boost learning and performance on both sides of the equation. We will explore “state specific” learning and performance, optimum states and what prevents them and what we call “the intelligence of play,” and why we believe that this state called original play is nature’s baseline for optimum learning and performance.
Lesson 1 - Optimum Learning Relationships
Lesson 2 - The Learning Channel We Call Bonding
Lesson 3 - Beginner's Mind & The Intelligence of Play
Lesson 4 - The Safe Place
Lesson 5 - Learning & Conditioning
Lesson 6 - More About Play Ages & Stages
Lesson 7 - Punishments & Rewards
Lesson 8 - Focusing on the Score
Lesson 9 - Following the Leader
Lesson 10 - Our Brave New Industrial Mind
Lesson 11 - Principles for Optimum Learning Relationships
Lesson 12 - Principles Continued
Instructor: Michael Mendizza
Michael is a documentary filmmaker and founder or Touch the Future, a nonprofit learning design center. In collaboration with Joseph Chilton Pearce, Michael developed a performance and learning model that optimizes the adult child relationship. Athletes call this Optimum Learning Relationship the Zone, researchers call it Flow, and children call it Play. In Optimum Learning Relationships the adult-child dynamic is approached as a spontaneous, creative act. Formulas, rewards and punishments are replaced by creative intelligence and insight. Learning and development is shared, awakening new levels of sensitivity in both children and adults. Touch the Future is developing projects that cultivate Optimum Learning Relationships between adults and children, including: Nurturing the Early Child, Family & Caregiver, a project which targets communities serving children zero to five; United We Play, which focuses on amateur athletics; and Science, Story & Creativity, a PBS project which explores development of critical and creative skills and the future workforce.
Course Requirements & Recommendations
The course material will be drawn from the book Magical Parent - Magical Child, the Optimum Learning Relationship by Michael Mendizza with Joseph Chilton Pearce. An electronic edition of this publication is included in the class. Other recommended readings include Biology of Transcendence, Evolution’s End and/or Magical Child by Pearce, Punished by Rewards by Alfie Kohn, Flow by Mihaly Cskszentmihalyi, Endangered Minds by Jane Healy and Four Arguments for the Elimination of Television by Jerry Mander.
How to register
You may pre-register now for 2005. You will need to log on using the name and password you created when you registered for the class. Once online, you will be able to obtain your lessons, work through the suggested assignments, participate in discussions with your fellow students, and post questions for your instructor.
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Playing by Heart
Playing by Heart is both an all-embracing vision of reality and a practice of kindness, which permeates all of one's relationships. Playing by Heart is to be in touch and to be touched deeply by our authentic human nature and the natural world. Original play cultivates an ever-renewing sense of enchantment and engagement with the world. It develops calmness, awareness and a flexible ability to handle stress, surprise or challenges without aggression. Playing by Heart develops radically different behaviors than those encouraged by the dominant contest culture. The playful response is deeper, more universal and authentic. Playing by Heart begins when the limitations of our cultural identity drop away, revealing our true nature. Playing by Heart cultivates a truly ecological intelligence. This class will explore this optimum state and share how it can be integrated into all aspects of family, community and professional life.
Lesson 1—Come Play With Me
Lesson 2—A Divine Invitation
Lesson 3—Playing With God
Lesson 4—Conceived Playing
Lesson 5—Adulterated Play
Lesson 6—The Duchess' Game
Lesson 7—Remaking Contest Into Play
Lesson 8—Coming Out To Play With The World
Lesson 9—Re-enchantment -The Mind of Play
Lesson 10—Trusting The Spirit of Play
Lesson 11—Touch -The Craft of Play
Lesson 12—Kindness, The Magic Circle of Play
Instructor: Fred Donaldson
Fred is a play specialist, author, aikidoist and internationally recognized for his ongoing play research with children and wild animals. He travels worldwide to play with children and animals, and conduct workshops. He is the author of the Pulitzer nominated book Playing By Heart and has written over 30 articles on original play.
Course Requirements & Recommendations
The course material will be drawn from the book Playing by Heart by Fred Donaldson. An electronic edition of this publication is included in the class.
How to register
You may pre-register now for 2005. You will need to log on using the name and password you created when you registered for the class. Once online, you will be able to obtain your lessons, work through the suggested assignments, participate in discussions with your fellow students, and post questions for your instructor.
Course Mechanics
All twelve lessons will be available to all class participants. We recommend that you print each lesson, review it off-line, make notes regarding each assignment, then return online to log in assignments and participate in discussions. This will reduce time spent at the screen and allow the greatest feasibility in personal scheduling. The discussion area for each lesson will contain the most interesting and provocative questions and comments from past participants along with current inquiries.
Lessons may include assignments to help make abstract concepts more concrete and practical. Assignments are designed primarily for personal enrichment and to provide source materials for group discussions. You have the sole responsibility for evaluating your performance on each assignment, which you many wish to share as part of the discussion with fellow students and the instructor. There will be no exams or grades.
Questions & Discussion
This course can be highly interactive. The level of interactivity is controlled by you. It’s up to you to ask questions when you need help. The entire experience for everyone is enhanced by the quality of questions you and your fellow classmates generate. With this in mind, all class questions will be posted in the discussion areas, corresponding to each lesson. To reach these discussion areas go to the online classroom, and click the word discussion. To preserve your privacy, please feel free to identify yourself only by first name or with a nickname when posting your questions.
Your discussion area questions will serve as a challenge for your fellow students. Someone is bound to have an answer for you. Likewise, you should be able to find questions in the discussion area that you can answer. The discussion area will be open to you and your classmates 24 hours a day and 7 days a week. Please try to visit the discussion area several times each week as you move through each lesson. Please don't be afraid to participate! The instructors will be monitoring the discussion area several times each week (excluding weekends and holidays).
In order to keep this material as up-to-date and informative as possible, instructors reserve the right to make changes to the course content, description, and syllabus at any time and without warning.
Future Classes
Our Distant Learning Center was created to provide accredited continuing education opportunities for parents, childcare providers, preschool, and Head Start teachers.
In 2005 Bruce Lipton, PhD, a cellular biologist, will offer a class on The Biology of Conscious Parenting. Carla Hannaford, PhD, is creating a class on her books Smart Moves and Awakening the Child Heart. Later in the year Stuart Brown, MD, will be offering a class on The Promise of Play, based on his three part PBS series. Mariana Caplan will contribute a class on her book To Touch is To Live. Rahima Baldwin Dancy, author of You Are Your Child’s First Teacher, is planning to participate. So, too, is David Chamberlain, PhD, author of The Mind of Your Newborn Baby, with a class on Very Early (prenatal) Parenting.
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