He's a maniac, maniac!!!

In reading Hughes, I found the intelligences interesting, you’ll all be happy to know I have self qualified myself for 6 out of the 8. If you need any help with math or sports, ask Gunnar. I do find though the idea of teachers “personalizing instruction and assessment, to discover what is special about each child,” a little disturbing. Children may excel in certain areas, but they are constantly evolving and absorbing throughout their growth. To limit a child to a field of study that they may have initially excelled in, while leaving out the broad spectrum of curriculum is like moving the “choice of major” to elementary school.


I like that Hughes explored the idea of creativity as therapy and how some works are produced not from drive to create, but the desire to expel. It seems poetic and quite sad that these great masterpieces are to the artist, modes of torment. There is something to be said though for conveying anything coherent to the outside world. As Hughes states “irrational messages lose content when translated into words, and often become unacceptable.” I think this ties into the idea that when interpreting an altered state, there must be a great deal of reason and logic to balance the experiences off of.


In relating to the Walsh readings, I like the idea of a shaman as a “healed madman.” The goals of a shaman are to brace the unknown, understand it, and help guide others through it. Therefore, it seems plausible that they would have somehow mastered mental illness in a way that they can feel the effects but control the reactions.