Bonsai Philosophy and the Karate Kid

(Guess the end of the world was postponed...)

I didn't know when I first saw a bonsai but I have been fascinated by the miniature trees since I was a child. I thought that there was something mysterious about the art but, thanks to the internet, I found out that it was quite easy to do. Of course, the difficult part is finding bonsai materials..

I have been doing bonsai for almost a year now and I got acquainted with a few people who also engage in the art. Unfortunately for them, bonsai is simply a business. They have none or very little knowledge about the history and the philosophy of bonsai, but they are quite knowledgeable in the process of miniaturization and the training of the trees, and they knew local species suitable for bonsai.

After some googling, I found varied methods of making bonsai which are scientific and surgical and is quite "artificial" compared to the methods used by the Chinese and the Japanese.

If you have seen the movie Karate Kid (Ralph Machio and Pat Morita), Sensei Miyagi used bonsai to teach Daniel the art of meditation. 

Sensei Miyagi teaching Daniel how to clip a bonsai. Sensi Miyagi: "Close your eyes, concentrate. Think only tree..."

The joy of bonsai hunting.  Sensei Miyagi with Daniel hanging on a cliff collecting a bonsai tree. I saw the new Karate kid and I was disappointed to see that the bonsai was replaced by a car. I mean...it's all about inner nature and what could be an apt symbol of the self but a tree., but a car being assembled and disassembled...too mechanical for me. Jackie Chan is too physical for my taste, too.

In the movie, Sensei Miyagi takes Daniel bonsai hunting on a ledge of cliff. For the Japanese, bonsai is a highly philosophical and mystical art. The Japanese hunt for unique trees miniaturized by nature hidden among the giant trees and in the crevices of rocks, and the discovery of beauty is the beginning of the lifelong journey of training and the shaping. So, the search for these unique plants takes on a mystical journey of self discovery, a symbolic search for the inner self and the survival against the elements and the training and forming of the tree as the shaping of the self and destiny.

Of course today and in the west, bonsai has become a hobby which is more concerned with the perfection of the tree. It has become a science that involved a lot of surgical like procedures like grafting and air layering the use of stuffs like enzymes and fertilizers and growth hormones. The gist of the art which is patience and waiting, meditation and self discovery, battle with the inner nature is compromised by the obsession with speeding growth and perfecting form

It is worth recalling that the art of bonsai originated with Buddhist monks in China, who gave the growing of trees in trays an almost religious significance.For them it is a way of establishing link between God, creator of  the universe and nature in all its forms including mankind, striving to follow the divine path by controlling the process of growth and form in trees, though on a human scale.(Pessy)

Good Bye Lesson Plans

The traditional lesson plan was finally phased out by the department. Instead of using the lesson plan, we are now using the daily lesson log. Technically, it is still a lesson plan but it is not as detailed as the traditional lesson plans that had been used by generations of teachers. Lesson logs still require lesson plans or teaching modules, pelcs (Philippine Elementary Learning Competencies), books, etc. as references, but they are not to be re-written everyday on the daily lesson planner as was the norm before. So, instead of re-writing all that stuff, we just write the objectives, lesson for the day, references and materials, the method for the lesson, and the number of pupils who have passed the lesson evaluation and the action to be taken for those who did not, whether they are for remediation or whether the lesson is for re-teaching.   New teachers with below two years experience are still required to use the detailed lesson plan.

When I entered the public school system about three years ago, I saw the time and the effort it required for teachers to re-write lesson plans that they (or we) copied either from modules or from old proto-type lesson plans that they (or we) have used for years. Lesson plan writing was simply an automatic effort on the part of the teachers because it was required and was checked on a daily basis, but in reality, there were no real lesson preparationS; it was just copying--the time needed for “real” preparation was taken by the long and laborious time for re-writing lesson plans especially for teachers teaching multiple subjects which in the case of elementary teachers was the norm. And to be fair for the veteran teachers who from experience have memorized their lessons almost to the letter, detailed lesson plans were superfluous. I thought that the effort was a waste of time--time that the teachers could use for materials preparation and/or for reading related and relevant materials about the subject they teach or simply reading for general knowledge which is a must for teachers.

There are withdrawal syndromes, I think, because for almost three years, I got used to writing on my lesson planner on my vacant time. I am also used to seeing teachers head bowed, writing furiously on their planner trying to finish their multiple-lesson plans as early as possible so that they would not have to write after classes.

Anyway, this is the end of an era, I hope, where teachers have to bring their lesson planners, teaching materials, etc. at home to work on them.

 A relaxed teacher is a productive teacher, if I must say so.