Pilgrims Progress – A Homage

Fiona James, Spain

Fiona James teaches freelance in Spain and collaborates with Ih Cordoba in Company classes. She is interested in investigating ways to motivate students into meaningful communication. She enjoys writing poetry and creative text, although this is the first article that she has submitted for publishing. Her current interests are music and drama and their potential role in our classrooms. E-mail: fionajames@hotmail.com

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Introduction
Article – Pilgrims Progress – A Homage
Conclusions

Introduction

After initiating my teaching career twenty years ago I moved away from this field after a few years to work in business in the south of Spain where I have my permanent residence. After many years in the business environment I discovered that my heart was no longer in what I was doing and that I needed to move towards a more satisfying future in a caring profession that would involve a more humanistic approach to working with others and provide long-term self-development.

Having detected an acute lack of communication skills during my years in business, I resolved two years ago to put my heart and mind to helping people that needed to develop both their communicative competence in English in a wider context of acquiring effective communication skills, without which they are at a clear disadvantage in the global economy in which they have to compete.

Although I am not exclusively working with adults in ESP, it is a natural field of expertise, where I enjoy teaching immensely and feel I can relate to my students after so many years of being in a similar position. Nevertheless, both for this area and for general English, especially after such a long break from the teaching world and so much progress in this field in the past twenty years, my first moral and professional obligation to myself was to retrain in any areas that would provide me with the fundamental skills and the greatest possible spectrum of teaching methodologies and creative ideas that I would be able in turn to transfer to my students in order to foster greater motivation, meaning, creativity and effectiveness and to break down the all too often invisible communication barriers that obstruct understanding and rapport building and which come in the way of satisfying and efficient communication.

I chose to follow the NLP course at Pilgrims, summer 2009, with this objective in mind, but I came away with a much greater learning experience than I had ever felt achievable in only two weeks. Both the NLP course and multiple workshops I attended had the constant effect of my questioning why I am in the classroom and through a journey of self-discovery, all my senses have been carried to a much higher plane of understanding and development, which mark only the beginning of the journey of self-enlightenment that will surely reap multiple benefits for those people I have the good fortune to work with.

My account of Pilgrims in the article that follows comes from the inspiration and insight the experience bestowed on me, transferred to metaphor and which I hope in turn you will be able to transform back into meaningful images and a basis for self-reflection.

Article – Pilgrims Progress – A Homage

Do you remember what a huge and majestic castle looked like when you were come a kid? - one of those set like a fairy tale in the midst of a dense, deep green forest? I’m thinking of one right now and I’d like to invite you to come along with me to discover what lies within, if indeed you feel the inclination to do so……

This wonderful, stone castle is steeped in tradition and has seen the births and deaths of many great minds and hearts floating through its spacious rooms, each one with its own peculiar colour, unmistakable flavor and indescribable texture of the walls that are adorned with scenic tapestries that hold such life and spirit, they could almost come out and mingle with your inner-most dreams and desires.

Walking through each room and having the space and time to breathe in this remarkable essence that lingers way after my initial visit, is itself a joy for the senses.

During my short but intense stay, I have laughed with emotion, cried with joy and my hairs have stood on end with hour after hour of new and fascinating experiences that will surely carry me to a place well beyond where I was when I arrived.

Each window, crooked or straight has shone rays of light, highlighting new opportunities if I may be so bold as to clutch tight their message and surge forward with new found faith and determination in the belief that the power is within me, as it is within each one of us, if only we have the courage to see through the specks of dust that serve only to distort the crystal image that lies behind.

I can see numerous doors of all shapes and sizes, some ajar whereas others are wide open, beckoning my entrance. I am curious to find some of them closed and dare to knock bravely to see if I am allowed entry……………

…………Oh my goodness…….Oh what light, what warmth, what depth of emotion envelops my whole being – like sitting quietly at the bottom of a deep, dark well and allowing the occasional ray of sunlight to eclipse the dense, bleak blackness, shedding a new light on what was before. The cold, my core is softened and empowered to look with new eyes, unhampered by what has been and hopeful for what is to come.

Cobwebs spun of gold threads adorn the high beams, their prey a silent audience that claps tentacles and wings of encouragement, willing on each step of progress in this walk of life-learning. The portraits that hang high yet humbly in the main corridor of this unique castle are a true resemblance of the knights of armour and maids of honour who defend knowledge, wisdom and learning like they do their King and Queen and the rest of their Kingdom where Pilgrims progress begins its walk into the land of “I can, I want to, be and let be”

The fingerprints of the dense foliage that surrounds this unforgettable castle bear the warm hands of encouragement and acceptance that I can always find within its walls and I hope dearly to be able to walk these corridors again and travel the rooms of enlightenment for they have spoken silent wisdom to my soul now and always.

I am thankful to life itself and to all those that have studded with lights and hope this walk of enlightenment, long may you continue to defend the ramparts of learning and discovering the truth about ourselves and others, cannon fire that lightens our load and softens our hearts.

Conclusions

This account was written after my first and only visit to Pilgrims this summer 2009; first but not last. My two week stay framed a before and after experience for me and I think that to participate in any one of the available courses at Pilgrims is a wonderful gift to give yourself if you really love teaching and see yourself working towards a life-long career in English language teaching, not to mention the wonderful friends that I made during my stay in Canterbury. Their humanistic approach is personally one I am convinced achieves great things in helping others to overcome their fears and in enabling our students to enjoy the challenge of learning. My dream would be to return every year to this wonderful place and its people and be able to come back to Spain with a new understanding and freshness of ideas that when put into practice create a more dynamic and motivated teacher who can offer better solutions to her students and colleagues alike – I wholeheartedly encourage you to try it out for yourselves, regrets are not on the list of progress.

Please check the NLP for Teachers course at Pilgrims website.