GREGORC ASSOCIATES INC.

Presentations

Piercing, Inspiring, Tactful, Provocative, Pragmatic, Therapeutic, Entertaining

These words are expressed when discriminating minds encounter the mind and thoughts of Dr. Gregorc in lectures, workshops and training sessions. His captivating and honoring approach reaches even the most recalcitrant minds. And he stimulates all to look at new possibilities and the increased responsibilities that accompany them.

Gregorc combines personal experiences with the direct study of Nature and the cultural contributions of present, past and ancient spiritual and secular teachers. His unique perspectives, insights and recommendations reduce naivete and self-defeating behaviors and promote authentic, life-enhancing conduct.

He lectures, teaches, conducts workshops and consults throughout the world. His views, findings and recommendations have comforted the anguished and anguished the comfortable. They also induce a higher level of consciousness and the requisite "loss of innocence" for making real, substantial and timely changes.

Below are titles and descriptors of some of his speeches/keynotes:

Speeches & Keynotes

The Mind & Its Styles

The mind is the instrument by which and through which we interact with the world. It is the primary medium for the learning/teaching process.

The aspects of the mind grow from the psyche just as the roots, stems and leaves grow from a seed. Similarily, the mind serves the psyche so that the awesome potential can be de-veloped (un-folded) and offered as fruit (gifts) to the environment. The mind is also dependent upon specific environmental provisions, circumstances and conditions for proper growth and success. Nurturant, not barren nor hostile, environs are necessary for realizing one's purpose in life.

Knowledge of the mind's nature, functions, requirements, maintenance needs and protective devices is essential for educators. This lecture offers a brief view of selected aspects of the mind through the vehicle of their outward characteristics and appearance called style. Using information gathered from over three decades of personal research, Gregorc shares portions of his phenomenologically-based Mind Styles Model.

Among the topics discussed are:

• Anatomy of the Mind
• Mind vs. Brain
• Guidance by Natural Laws
• Mind Quality Assessment using CS/AS/AR/CR channels
• Influence and natural biases of teaching styles, methods, and products (books, computers)
• Free Will to misuse and abuse minds

Environmental biases influence educators in and out of the classroom. Therefore, the demands made by parents, administrators and peers are investigated along with the ramifications of the "one size fits all" philosophy inherent in many teaching process decisions. The Procrustean Bed Approach is exposed as detrimental to the mental development, achievement level and psychological orientation of those who do not "fit" its standard measurements.

The lecture concludes with suggestions for honoring, nurturing and protecting the commonalities and inherent diversity in minds without driving teachers out-of-their-minds in the process. Self-understanding is stressed along with the theme, "as goes the mental health of the teacher, so goes the mental health of the learner."

Designing the Schools Again for the First Time

Schools exist for two reasons: (1) To imbue the students with their vision, philosophy and ideological principles, and (2) To provide ways and means of bringing these abstractions into concrete reality through specific practices and behaviors.

Religious schools indoctrinate their pupils with their theology and the requisite language, symbols, customs, rituals and rules of conduct. Golf, tennis, martial arts and computer training schools instill and train. And schools that prepare citizens in every nation link the national ideology to the preparation of its people. The schools in socialist nations turn out socialists. Communist nations train communists. And democratic nations prepare their citizenry to apply democratic principles to their lives.

The United States ingrains the citizens with the tenets of its unique democracy. Americans are imbued with the constructs of the American Dream through the national mottoes, "In God We Trust," E Pluribus Unum, Annuit Coeptis, and Novus Ordo Seclorum. We learn the spiritual meanings that underlie national symbols such as the Eagle, the Eye of Providence, the Unfinished Pyramid, and the Stars and Stripes. And we are inspired by fundamental principles such as Natural Laws, unalienable rights, all men being created equal, and every citizen's right to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. From the visionary foundation of America, we are then provided specific ways of bringing the Spirit of America into practice in daily life.

What's wrong with this picture? Where are the vision, the philosophy and the ideological principles that form the basis of America? What has been substituted for them? Who or what is served by higher intellectual achievement scores or by emphasizing college prep courses? What are the connections between American principles and privatization of schools, vouchers and the market metaphors (e.g. consumers)? What lies behind the spending cuts for arts, humanities and school lunches?

The intent of this lecture is to explore answers to such basic questions as a first step in promoting real reform. It is time to stop our ready-fire-aim approaches to practices and go to the heart of the matter: the philosophical basis of America and its apparent displacement. We must rectify our ideological focus before trying to reform and restructure our schooling system. Anything less than this can serve the wrong master and continue to place our "Nation at Risk."

A New Administrative Role: The Minister of Defense

Every school has boundaries to help define its purpose and goals, its activities, its needs and products and the types of relationships it must have with the outside world. Boundaries also serve to protect it against invasive and corruptive forces that seek to change its reason for existing, its nature and its operations. Ultimately, boundaries serve to ensure integrity.

Today, the boundaries of schools are being tested and breached not only by salespersons, drug pushers and weapon-toting students, but by far more insidious forces. Schools are threatened by hostile takeovers, value-cleansing, sabotage, and the reallocation of vital resources for the benefit of certain people at the expense of others. Propagandists are also infiltrating to sow ideas and beliefs that engender confusion, dissention, helplessness, fear, revenge and cruelty.

These abating activities are a wake-up call to school leaders. They are prompting a needed "loss of innocence" -- a giving up of that child-like quality of unacquaintedness with evil and hurt. It is time to grow up, serve and protect the school and its inhabitants by defending them against wrongful actions, information and threats.

This presentation offers a rationale for a new administrative team member -- a Minister of Defense. Such a person must know the moral structure of the school, work toward the elimination of internal corruption and abuses and recognize and respect the school's natural limitations (boundaries). The Minister of Defense must reinforce the school's inherent immunity and warning systems, promote its security and respond decisively to violators and violations. System vitality and life and death issues are at stake. This lecture explores the requisite training for this essential role.

Laws of Nature That Unerringly Control the Learning/Teaching Process

Natural Laws are divine forces that obligate and guide every thing to be as it was created to be. They therefore regulate each specific school activity and the entire learning/teaching process.

The Laws of Nature are referenced in the Declaration of Independence and the writings of Plato, Aristotle and Cicero. They are cited in Religious Scriptures, Native American teachings and the Ageless Wisdom revelations. The Laws are woven into children's fables. And, they are the basis of moral laws such as the Ten Commandments and the Golden Rule.

These laws are the timeless, unbreakable "rules of the game of life" set into motion by the Creator. They are, however, known to few people and are often rejected as irrelevant or not appropriate for modern times.

This lack of recognition and acceptance is wrong! Ignorance of the Laws is no excuse and denial does not dispose of them. They work with and without the approval of human beings and due notice of violations appear as "writings on the wall" for those who know and respect the Laws.

This presentation explores the Laws of Nature, the practice of the Laws, and the consequences of abiding by and of violating them in life and professional relationships. A quantum leap in assuming personal accountability for one's Self and for members of the school community can result from this experience.

When Educators Keep Their Words

"In the beginning was the Word (Spirit)," and "the Word became flesh (material)" are phrases that appear in The Bible and in many cosmologies. God created the world via the Word and let Man give names (words) to all aspects of it. And these occurrences continue today.

Words (names) are, by nature, sacred because they are linked directly to the created thing. They therefore must be used with accuracy and reverence. They are alive with meaning and put us in touch with the Creator's handiwork. They are used to stir experience, generate thought, evoke feelings, conjure images, formulate intentions, create causes, direct actions and describe effects. Words are also building blocks for our own forms of creation. And, through the magical activities of speaking and writing, they can promote psycho-social interaction and strengthen community.

Words can have negative effects upon individuals and groups if the link between the name of the thing and the thing itself is broken or corrupted. Ignorance, carelessness, vanity and deceptiveness can result in words drastically changing meaning. Separate and distinct words can come to have the same or similar meanings. Destabilization takes place and the sacred trust is broken.

True understanding becomes difficult. Communication becomes an illusion. Directive power and spiritual effervescence are lost. Vitality wanes. And, security and the sense of community fade. The door is open to misinterpretation, misunderstandings, fraud, breaks in the communication lines, and rips in the fabric of society. Anxiety, fear and the terror of alienation can result.

Our profession is experencing destabilization of many of its foundational words. We don't differentiate among God, spirit, and religion and therefore cannot fulfill our obligation to "In God We Trust," the American Spirit and the First Amendment. We have permitted teaching, instructing, educating and training to be equated thereby losing our raison d' etre and our moral compass. Intellect and intelligence have become synonymous. We have failed to understand the roots of "computer," and have even succumbed to using the word "prestige" to describe high achievement and positive distinction when in reality the word means "deceit and illusion!" It is of little wonder that we, the designated agents for preserving and advancing the culture, are mired in chaos and cannot improve, nor reform.

This presentation focuses on our profession's need to fulfill a major portion of its destiny -- the safeguarding and reverential transmission of words and symbols. Time has come to recognize the derivation, function and roots of words, and to honor their internal structures, meanings and effects. We must also restrain mindless destabilization and confusion through wise and intelligent stewardship of our previous symbolic resources. Our sanity and survival depend upon it.

Giving Ichabod Crane the "Golden Handshake"

Every profession has an icon -- a representative figure, an image, an exemplar, a hero or model personality -- that is known by insiders and outsiders alike. Psychologically, icons have mysterious and powerful conscious and unconscious effects. When activated in the imagination of the human mind, they set whole complexes of predictable thoughts, attitudes and behaviors into motion within both the professional who embodies that icon and in those who are served by that professional.

Education's icon is Ichabod Crane. This is scarcely known. But Ichabod's immense influence and effects are clearly evident and resistant to reform, despite self-congratulatory speeches, intensive staff development sessions, empowerment workshops and cooperative efforts with community groups.

Ichabod means "the glory hath departed" in Hebrew. His inglorious and shadowy figure lies behind our collective image of being timid and easily frightened by the threats and superstitions of headless horsemen and political/religious/self-serving extremists. This personality from Sleepy Hollow leaves us stuck-in-time, out-of-touch with modern technologies and problems, and reactive rather than proactive. His approach to his salary even haunts us today. To avoid being a burden to his patrons' purses, he supplemented his income by making hay, cutting wood, driving cows to pasture, and accepting gifts. Modern day Ichabods augment their incomes by painting houses, selling insurance and real estate, and by seeking grants and free computers.

Ichabod's heroic image undergirds our being viewed as incapable of guiding our own destinies. We are told what to do and how to do it by testing companies, textbook publishers, legislators, Presidents, single-issue pressure groups, parents, "outside" consultants and even members of our own profession who are unencumbered with the experience necessary to advise us. We were not participants in key meetings such as President Reagon's National Commission On Excellence in Education, President Bush's and President Clinton's Summits on Education, and President Bush's No Child Left Behind initiative. And, we show the strength of our educational administration leadership by inviting businesses to "adopt" our schools, manage our programs and finances, and teach us step-by-step strategies that have made Americans materialistic, competitive and entrepreneurial.

This lecture is designed to unabashedly identify and face our icon and expose his control. In Rumpelstiltzchen fashion, Ichabod is honored, yet released. And serious suggestions are given to finding a successor worthy of using the regained power and of representing the "noblest of professions."

Information & Contractual Arrangements

Please contact our office for further information about these topics or inviting Dr. Gregorc to address your group or organization.

The Phoenix symbol, Mind Styles and Gregorc Style Delineator are trademarks of Anthony F. Gregorc, Ph.D.
© 1999-2008 Anthony F. Gregorc, Ph.D.