Introduction
This piece explores how Stanford’s visionary Paced Education model echoes the transformative perception in Elytis and Blake’s poetry offering a blueprint for mindful living.
Stanford Paced Learning – an opening
Several years ago I was reading about trends in Education and I discovered Stanford University 2025 Paced Learning . One of the things I discovered is that learning is non linear, you tend to examine the same thing at a higher octave each time until its assimilation becomes almost unconscious.
In line with this I re approached recently Paced Education from a different angle this time. I was inclined to let its relationship with poetry reveal it self to me.
Poetry and nature patterns
Poets often write about correspondences to be found in nature
One famous such poem is William Blake’s ’ Auguries of Innocence ‘. An opening which suggests that patterns are embedded within small natural forms is the following:
To see a World in a Grain of Sand
And a Heaven in a Wild Flower
Holf Infinity in the palm of your hand
and Eternity in an hour
Having said these, I would like to start with Paced Education movement and say a few things about it.
Paced education
Paced education was a 2014 school project – a speculative exploration of future undergraduate experiences . It is a thought experiment , not an implemented program. It is an educational model which encompasses 3 stages :
Calibration (6-18 months)
Calibration offers short (one day to one week), immersive, introductory experiences to various disciplines
Elevation (12-24 months)
Elevation takes students deep into a content area with a singular focus. In this phase, intellectual rigor is paramount.
Activation (12-18 months)
After learning how to acquire deep expertise in elevation, students translate their knowledge into several real-world applications throughout the activation phase.
Paced Education and Willman Blake Poetry (1)
In line with William’s poem however underneath this structure lies a deeper pattern. Perhaps paced education was designed to inter alia, intimate students to the art of presence.
Calibration
During the calibration phase students discover which disciplines make them feel alive, it wakes up their perception. From another stand point it helps them discover their filters as they approach several disciplines with resistance. This phase helps them discover that they tend to have a specific model for problem solving but it is not applicable to all situations.
Its aim is to expose you you to various disciplines so that no mental model can dominate forcing your mind to release automatic interpretation and perceive before reaching fast conclusions.
Elevation
During the elevation stage, after they have discovered their filters they are initiated to the art of depth, they stay long enough with a particular subject so that they are no longing controlling an experience This time they are allowing it to reveal it self. While during the calibration, they are inside their thought about a moment, in elevation they are inside a moment before thoughts take over, this is presence
Activation
After the elevation phase comes experiential learning where students apply what they have learned in their every day living.
William Blake poetry ( 2)
If were to treat Paced education as a macrocosm we can approach Elytis poems as a microcosm. Of course we are welcome to play and see their relationship the other way around. Either way , let’s see how Elytis poetry invites us to master presence
Odysselas Elytis poetry inner logic
When you read ordinary text like
The Mediterranean climate produces saline humidity
you brain follows the arc
word> recognise> interpret> classify> close : Your brain closes the experience using a label.
You analytical brain takes over immediately.
However Elytis doesn’t do this
His is deceptively simple. What I mean by this is that he uses simple concrete language without elaborate explanations. He uses words such as sea Summer – salt- wave -light, but these words are not information ones they invite sensory perception. Moreover, he uses parataxis ( and….and…and ) as well as wave like syntax to slow down perception.
From another stand point Elytis pairs sensory images ( sea with light , salt with Summer) he uses verbs and images that feel timeless ( the sea breathes, light arises) so that he makes the poem feel alive in the present moment. He uses the aforementioned words so that poem is not only understandable intellectually but felt bodily.
Let’s trace parallels with Paced Education movement
Let’s take an excerpt from the poem Axion Esti
A little white chapel by the sea
moon standing still
The light writing on the water
At first you are into the calibration stage. The first thing you do when you read the word is to activate a personal memory, you are in congitive autopilot. You read about a little white chapel by the sea and this activates personal associations and memory of your holidays where the white chape triggered an emotionally stimulating experience.
But then he presents another image and another image. When you read about the moon standing still, the light writing on the water personal associations weaken you no longer have specific personal associations for light writing on the water AND moon standing still AND a little white chapel.
It is at this stage that many readers give up , but the patient ones ( Elytis himself cultivates patience by delaying revelation of meaning through parataxis and wave like syntax) if they stay long enough with the poem and reflect on its inherent relationships ( pairing light with the sae Salt with the wind ) and on the underlying levels of interpretation- a single image might have ( Light in Elytis poetry is metaphysical , ontological, Greece, nature, Orhtodoxy) become recipients of insight. The poem rewards them by revealing its structure , its inner logic, the patterns. They acquire wisdom and vision as opposed to knowledge.
They perceives the poem as a field , they comprehend with their whole awareness.
Poets pair this this the visitation of the Muse, beauty trusting you enough to reveal it self. Archimedes called it mathematics to those approaching it with pure love, Robert Greene in his well known book Mastery calls it is deep learning.
People who stay with a subject, that touches their Soul, long enough deferring interpretation , Richard Rudd wrote a relevant book about the art of contemplation, are the ones who live the way Albert Einstein has suggested
There are 2 ways to live a life as though nothing is a miracle, or as though everything is a miracle.
It is a mixture of surrender, child like curiosity and awe, a life lived in wonder rather than routine
What remains crucially important that even with pattern revelation pattern recognition remains incompelete , questions remain deliberately open…..