DANCE AT THE STILL POINT

This paper is a handout used to accompany remarks I made at a celebration of the life of my daughter, Katharine H. Baker, who unexpectedly died at age 61. Living her life with passions for reading, teaching, dancing and conversing with nature, “Dance at the still point.” encompasses Katharine’s ultimate message to her students and coaching clients. Her own education with separate degrees in English, British Literature, Communication, Pastoral Counseling and a PhD in Religion, Psychology and Culture nourished her critical thinking and precise verbal, non-verbal, visual and written interactional skills. Having learned herself that lessons are best received and retained through the use of imagination and not just by presenting facts to the rational mind, she made liberal use of quotations, poetry, metaphor, storytelling, fairy tales, myths, and multimedia to generate learning.本文为一份随附讲稿的讲义，用于我在女儿凯瑟琳·H·贝克（Katharine H. Baker）的追思纪念会上的发言。她于61岁时意外离世。她一生怀揣对阅读、教学、舞蹈的热忱，亦乐于与自然对话，"于静谧之点起舞"（Dance at the still point）正是凯瑟琳留给她的学生与辅导客户的核心寄语。她先后获得英语、英国文学、传播学、牧灵咨询（Pastoral Counseling）学士学位，以及宗教、心理学与文化方向的哲学博士学位，这些教育背景锤炼了她的批判性思维，以及精准的言语、非言语、视觉与书面互动能力。她自身深刻体会到：唯有借助想象力，而非仅向理性头脑灌输事实，方能让学习者更好地接收并留存知识，因此她大量运用名言引述、诗歌、隐喻、叙事、童话、神话与多媒体手段，助力学习者获取知识。