Published: December 2021

Keywords:
Humberto Maturana, Ward Maillard, Love, Learning, Children, Trust, Self-respect, Self-love, Identity.

Humberto Maturana

Humberto Maturana Romesín is a Chilean biologist and epistemologist. Along with Francisco Varela, he developed the concept of autopoiesis. He is also the author (with Varela) of The Tree of Knowledge: The Biological Roots of Human Understanding. Maturana received a Ph.D. in biology from Harvard and worked with Jerome Lettvin at MIT. He is co-founder, with Ximena Dávila Yañez, of Matriztica de Santiago. With her, he is the co-author of The Tree of Living: Toward a Cultural Transformation, now in press.

Ward Mailliard

Ward Mailliard is one of the founders (in 1978) of the Mount Madonna Center near Watsonville, California, and Vice President of the Board of Mount Madonna School, a K-12 school committed to "whole child education" integrating intellectual, emotional, social and creative learning.

He has been engaged in creating the "Values in World Thought" curriculum at Mount Madonna High School since 1992 in cooperation with Bill Moyers, whose ground-breaking interviews with anthropologist Joseph Campbell on the Power of Myth captivated Ward. Rooted in dialogue and the art of the question, the Values in World Thought program aims to develop capacities of self-awareness and to support an ongoing inquiry into the values that inform actions in order strengthen students' ability to engage in positive and mutually beneficial relationships with each other and with their communities.

Ward has served for 35 years as President of the Hanuman Fellowship, the non-profit corporation that sponsors Mount Madonna Center and that is a vehicle for the teachings of Yoga and for the variety of projects that have been developed by the Fellowship Members. He is Vice President of the Sri Ram Foundation that sponsors Sri Ram Ashram, an orphanage and school in Northern India where he spends two months each year. Ward resides with his wife Kranti at Mount Madonna Center in Watsonville California, and has been a student and teacher of Yoga for the past 40 years.

Mount Madonna School

Mount Madonna School (MMS) (https://live.mountmadonnaschool.org/) is committed to providing a safe school environment that allows all students equal access and opportunities in academic and other educational support programs, services, and activities.

We are a diverse learning community dedicated to creative, intellectual and ethical growth. We support our students to become caring, self-aware, discerning and articulate individuals. We believe a fulfilling life includes personal accomplishments, meaningful relationships, and service to society.

As we are dedicated to the education of our children.

We Value:

• Our learning community, which includes our students, faculty, administrators, staff, families, alumni and local, national, and international peers communities
• Each individual, and all of their unique qualities - including race, culture, religion, gender identity, sexual orientation, ability status, and socio-economics - which weave into the tapestry of our shared humanity
• Continual exploration of how our students learn
• Creating a responsive and equitable learning environment where diverse perspectives are explored
• Intellectual inquiry that fosters a love of learning, open-mindedness, curiosity, self-discipline and perseverance
• The transformative power of the creative process
• Experiential outdoor learning that prioritizes an interconnectedness with nature, individual and collective well-being, and environmental stewardship
• Development of relationships based on self-acceptance, openness, empathy, honesty and respectful communication
• Experiences that cultivate a sense of belonging and visibility
• Commitment to practices that support equity and racial, social, economic and environmental justice.

Abstract

One more piece from the Interview with Maturana by Ward Maillard. Maturana talks about the impossibility to know what the other hears from what we say. Then he talks about children as loving beings.

Warm thanks to Ward Mailliard for the permission to post excerpts on Metalogos at the discretion of the Editorial Board.