5. The writings of FM Alexander

[Meets AUSTAT Standard Stage 1 Module 2 Element 2]

There is a lot of controversy and criticism of FM Alexander’s writings. To our modern sensibility his language is dated and reflects world views that are seen as intolerable by some. Alexander was a man of his time and this should be recognised by us as being of great significance. At the time that Alexander was writing the world looked as if it was going to be saved by the miracle of science and education. The scientific approach in hand with a newly established pedagogy of general education promised to deliver the world from inequity, poverty, disease, social upheaval and all the ills that had been endured during the 18th and 19th centuries. The beginning of the 20th century offered hope for humanity.

Alexander was definitely a part of that aspiration for a better future but he saw that, without a change in mindset, humanity was doomed to recycle destructive patterns of behaviour in ever worsening cycles. He called those patterns a constant influence and realised that in order to beak that influence one had to create a constant influence for good in the world. Many famous people of his time were inspired by his words. Luminaries such as John Dewey the famous educator and philosopher, Aldous Huxley, George Bernard Shaw to name but a few.

Alexander’s writings go past the stereotypical sexism and white privilege of Edwardian England. Alexander speaks to us from the past, with his strange Edwardian vernacular but look past all of that to the fact that this man has identified a method for introducing plasticity in mindsets, human functional systems and health and wellbeing outcomes. He has described a very different model of human functionality that is as radical and useful today as when he first realised it over a century ago.

We will visit Alexander’s writings with open minds and begin to journey with this great mind to an experiment of discovery for the ages.