August 29, 2021

#16 Amy Armstrong - Resting in the Ancient

50 minutes

Ms. Amy Armstrong teaches AP Psychology and Major Religions at a private Catholic High School in the San Francisco Bay Area. In Resting in the Ancient we hear how chance, activism, and wisdom powerfully blend together in the dedicated heart of one teacher. Deeply attuned to the global challenges in which her students are coming of age, Amy sheds light on how she seeks to impart wisdom and trust in the deep self as an antidote to culture not interested meaningful identity formation.

Myth, wisdom traditions, cutting edge brain and social sciences are some of the rivers of knowledge that Armstrong relies upon to guide her students who are faced with navigating the passage of growing-up in a radically changing world. In this show we find a moving portrait of how teaching can be a sacred responsibility in the continuity of time which contributes to and fosters a more holistic sense of self for young people. Furthermore we learn how activism, books, and synchronicity pulled Amy into a career as an educator and the wonderful ways she embraces her ‘weird,’ encouraging her students to do the same.

Along the way we learn how many, many years of teaching social justice and Peace and Conflict Studies required effort that once again, by chance, transformed into another kind of mode; that of the mystic. No longer driven to be a warrior dedicated to the hardwork of addressing social justice education, Ms. Armstrong now is turning her teaching toward the deepest part of the self, willing to acknowledge life’s miracles and accept the power of the mystic within.

Always ready to grab threads of value and meaning, in Amy’s personal passage of coming to rest in the ancient as well as being a much needed guide for young adults about to take flight, we find in her a compelling voice for the power of education that blesses young people with the radical notion that they too have a living wisdom within which they can rely on.