Teaching the science of the heart Hocma: coming from the heart

Screen Shot 2015-12-03 at 11.06.09 am“Hocma. It just sounds a great word. When I first heard this word on the radio one day it stuck with me. Hocma …the science of the heart is a Yiddish word in origin. It means coming from the heart. I love it. How do we teach our children the science of the heart though? We teach them to read, to write and to regurgitate information for tests and national benchmarking. But, do we teach them the song of their own heart; their passion, purpose, love and the deep joy of stillness and silence?

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“A child’s mind, once stretched by a new idea, never regains its original dimensions.”

— Oliver Wendell Holmes

I first came across the word hocma listening to a podcast. It came at the end of a speech Bill Moyers gave at Harvard University a few years ago. “The news is not good these days,” he said, arguing that journalism, by providing information about bad news, can be a powerful force in helping us to respond with more than sadness, “Not only to feel but to fight for the future we want. And the will to respond is the antidote to despair, the cure for cynicism… What we need is what the ancient Israelites called ‘hocma’, the science of the heart, the capacity to see, to feel, and then to act as if the future depended on you.” “Believe me,” he told his audience, “it does.”

For many in our families or community, hocma comes through teaching, through the effort that every teacher and parent undertakes each day to strike an effective and personally authentic balance between inquiry, challenge, assessing progress and building relationships.

It comes through helping our children to develop and apply skills, helping them to acquire resilience that can sustain them through the ups and downs, helping them to build a framework for moral understanding and ethical action that will allow them to initiate as well as to respond. This is work with a high purpose; a collective purpose.

It does not always seem lofty in the moment… as our children (and teenagers) challenge boundaries, lose library books, forget their homework, act hurtfully toward others and leave a trail of litter including lost jumpers, ‘misplaced’ assignment sheets and mismatched shoes in their wake.

This can be all we see sometimes, but we have to remind ourselves and our children about our collective purpose.

Our purpose is to educate and provide our children, our future with ‘the science of the heart’ as well as skills, values and processes. Our compassion towards others and acceptance of differences are what define us. Beyond that, I’m not sure actually that we have to do much more than that… just keep our hearts held high amidst the chaos, the pressure, the administration, the days where teaching feels like a thankless job… and be mindful of the purpose of education.

The educational theorist, Jerome Bruner, believed that the process of education should be understood not as a staircase or ladder, but as a spiral. This spiral is full of potential energy, ready to be released, to provide support, to be resilient and to provide a solid base for our kids.

As a result, these children can make a real difference in our world, be accepting of others, be honorable, and live responsibly, loyally and with consideration.

So … a new word for your classroom, perhaps?

Where is the hocma? It is in you, in us, and in every interaction we have with others.

What do you think are the core ingredients of ‘hocma’ for your family, your staffroom, your classroom?

In our frenetic societal fast-paced race to nowhere, let’s take time to stop and slowly teach and engage the ‘science of the heart’. These are the lessons our children, our society and our future desperately need.

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Clark Wright


Clark Wight runs parent and teacher seminars around topics of raising boys through the website OurBoys.com.au. After 22 years teaching boys from Year 1 (he loves that look of awe and wonder on their faces) to Year 10 (he loves that look of angst and bewilderment on their faces) he spent 8 years as Headmaster at Christ Church Grammar Prep School in Perth and then at University School in Cleveland, Ohio. Clark loves a kitchen full of kids and friends, with great music, smells of garlic and a glass of red nearby.