Beatitudes of Learning by Patricia Davis

About the book

Beatitudes of Learning answers the question, why are so many children still not learning in spite of more money being spent on education and stricter accountability standards? Most educational programs overlook what the author through her extensive and varied experience has found to be eight essential principals of effective learning.

These eight principles, or Beatitudes of Learning, involve core components of a successful learning experience: safety, flexibility, emotional health, courage, love and respect, attention to individuality and intuition, and application. This holistic approach considers all aspects of the child and invites the teacher to educate the whole child: body, mind, and spirit. By treating the learner as whole and healthy, the teacher creates a dynamic learning experience that extends far beyond the classroom to direct application in the learner's life.

Full of examples and anecdotes of both real life and famous people, this enlightening book provides a powerful resource for anyone seeking to create an optimal learning experience.

About the author

Patricia Davis is a certified educator with over thirty years of diverse experience ranging from public to institutional schools to private tutoring and diagnostic testing and instruction in psychiatric hospitals. Her students have been mainstream as well as those with special educational needs. Over the years in her varied teaching experiences, Patricia became more and more aware of what created an optimal learning situation. In Beatitudes of Learning, her intention is to guide teachers and parents to create nurturing environments that empower learners to achieve their greatest potential.

Patricia's experience includes serving as a general education and special education teacher in public school classrooms. She also worked as a Child Development Specialist and Educational Diagnostician. She has taught and served as a consultant in private institutional schools for the learning disabled and emotionally disturbed, as well as for other disabling conditions. Patricia holds a B.S. in Education from East Carolina University, Greenville, North Carolina, and a M.S. in Special Education from Old Dominion University in Norfolk, Virginia.

While working as an educator in psychiatric hospital schools for fifteen years, Patricia's experience allowed her to see on a consistent basis numerous students admitted to acute care and residential treatment programs for a variety of different problems. Her students included those with learning disabilities, emotional disturbances, social problems, family problems, psychological disorders, legal issues, and drug abuse. She became familiar with what treatments were successful in helping these children in a multi-disciplinary setting as well as what treatments were not. In the psychiatric hospital, she was also the recipient of the Dr. Frist Humanitarian Award.

At the community college level in Monterey, California, Patricia served as an Educational Instructor and Evaluator in the Handicapped Services program, where she helped lay the foundation for the college's new Learning Disabilities Program.

Patricia has been a member of associated teacher organizations. Her interests include nutrition, mental health, physical fitness, and spiritual development. She has been especially interested in studying and writing about enhancing creativity for everyone. Patricia currently resides in Virginia Beach, Virginia with her husband Bill who has been very supportive in her book writing endeavors.