To listen I have to doodle or do something while I listen. If not my mind drifts. If you see me in a lecture, you will see me drawing football plays. By distracting part of my mind with plays, I can listen and take notes. I actually hear the lecture and retain most of what I hear.
To read slowly and carefully is to retain very little of what I read. My mind wanders and my thoughts overtake my reading. All I hear is the voice in my head shouting in a thousand directions. If I read at 2000 WPM I focus and retain 85% to 90% of what I read. Therefore, I have developed a method of speed reading which enables me to focus and learn.
This same creative kinetic learning is what I teach as I work in the martial arts with others who learn differently. I have a great deal of success with students who suffer with anger, distraction, frustration and chemical imbalance.
This type of creative learning allows me to teach life skills through martial arts. This is what I teach in Africa. We learn self respect, discipline, how to read and study, how to live in community and how to translate our skills into every day success. Through my work we also teach spiritual disciplines.
We have seen grades rise. We have seen gender violence and bullying reduced. We have seen students rise to take control of their lives and ad meaning to their daily walk.
I am leaving next week to resume the work I began in '06 and '07. My goal is to re-establish the program and ad fine arts, theater, music and dance to our outreach. I hope you will keep me in your prayers as I set out for Nairobi on Tuesday. for more information you can visit www.marsforpeace.org or e-mail me at mikeklumpp@yahoo.com.
