Harmen Jacobus Kooreman

Harmen Jacobus Kooreman (1943) is een Nederlands onderwijskundige.

Carrière

In 1970 studeerde hij af in de onderwijskunde aan de Universiteit van Leiden en werkte tot 1973 aan de Technische Hogeschool Twente. Hij gaf ook les aan de MO-pedagogiekopleidingen in Hengelo en Enschede. Tot 1995 werkte hij op het Pedagogisch Centrum in Enschede, waar hij de leertheorie van Gal’perin toepaste op het leren lezen en spellen. Kooreman gaf de methoden Letterstad en Spellingland uit.

Van 1989 tot 1991 werkte Kooreman op de Universiteit Twente aan de toepassing van ICT in het onderwijs. In 2008 begon hij met het ontwikkelen van programma’s voor het digitaal leren lezen en spellen. Zijn uiteindelijke doel was om een leerling zonder enige hulp van buitenaf, dus volkomen zelfstandig, lezen en spellen te leren. Hij verzamelde in Hengelo een aantal mensen om zich heen die het digitale leren lezen en spellen programmeerden en uitprobeerden.

Onderzoek

Kooreman deed onderzoek naar het leren lezen en leren spellen. Hij introduceerde hiervoor een speciaal systeem. Dit didactische systeem is gebaseerd op een onderscheid tussen drie soorten woorden: hakwoord, klankvoetenwoord en woord in een woord.

Zie ook

• Lezen en spellen in Letterstad

Harmen Kooreman en A Course in Miracles

Harmen Kooreman (1943) schrijft momenteel twee boeken over A Course In Miracles.

• A deep structure of A Course In Miracles
• Levels, circles and cycles

Hieronder leest u in het Engels de voorgeschiedenis die tot het schrijven van de twee boeken heeft geleid.

Harmen Kooreman (* 1943), is a Dutch educational psychologist who studied in Leiden. Since 5-31-1991 he is a student of A Course In Miracles (ACIM). In the nineties of the last century he was a long distant student of Robert Perry of the Circle of Atonement. He became a teacher and facilitator of A Course In Miracles groups in the Netherlands. In 2002 he had a vision of entangled circles which fell down as 'stand alone circles' and formed a pattern on the ground. The vision made him clear that the Course has an underlying deep structure. In 2013 a series of revelations inspired him to a new approach of studying the Course, which he called the LCC-tool: Levels, Circles and Cycles. At the moment he is writing two books about the Course:

• A deep structure of A Course in Miracles
• Levels, Circles and Cycles

The last book is a textbook with exercises about ACIM.

How the Course found him in 1991

"... meetings are not accidental,..." (M-3.4:4)

"The pupil comes at the right time to the right place." (M-2.4:4)

In 1988 Harmen Kooreman met Ruud Snel. Towards the end of june 1989 he told Huib, a friend, that he did not really understand what Ruud was talking about. It was too theoretical for him. As an educational psychologist he was used to apply theory into practice and not to dwell with highly abstract ideas. The friend advised him to talk with Ruud in order to understand him better.

The next week Harmen, his wife and his two sons left for France in the caravan. At the camping site in the Jura, he took a walk to the toilet. In the wooden surroundings behind the toilets, he saw, to his amazement, Ruud walking with his wife and three daughters. At that time he did not have much experience with chance encounters and miracles. After years of going to Austria on climbing holidays with his family, he had decided to go to France, a country with thousands of camping sites, and there was the man he had to talk with according to Huib.

Ruud told him that he had drawn the I Tjing just before he had gone on holiday and had received the message: 'The discussions carry on and continue. no matter where you go.'

During the holidays he had several conversations about Ruuds very abstract ideas, in which he gained more and more insight. Their lives ran a parallel course and continued to do for some time. When Ruud parted from his wife, Harmen's wife parted from him. One day it was his intention to gather some tips about the finalization of his divorce, the amount of alimony that he would have to pay and the paternal access he could have with his children. Ruud, however, had other ideas: 'We are only going to speak about spiritual subjects,' he said.

The life of both still kept together in parallel. Ruud returned to his wife, and Hamen returned to his wife in 1989. Ruud and his wife parted definitively and Harmen followed this action sometime later. Then Ruud lost his job and became homeless and was living on a camping site. On the 1st of May 1991, Harmen decided to pay him a visit. He set off on his bicycle to go and see him. On the camping site he asked: 'How are things with you?' Ruud answered: 'We only discuss spiritual subjects.'

The two of them spoke to each other, and just before Harmen left in the late afternoon, Ruud told him that he was studying A Course in Miracles. Then, from behind the inside of his folding caravan, Ruud came out with three blue books of various thickness. Harmen took hold of them and looked them over. At that moment he was completely unaware that these three books would change and determine the rest of his life.

He rode back home on his bicycle. After spending time under a hot shower, he sat at the table with a pile of books he had bought recently. He took the upper book. The title was: From Darkness to Light by Jerry Jampolski and in it he read that the citations quoted were from A Course in Miracles. Then he realized that something important was taking place. From two completely separate sources, he had become aware of the existence of ACIM. Moreover he understood that he had to pay more attention to signs giving him direction to his spiritual journey.

On Friday, 31th of May 1991 his eldest son, with whom he lived together, became 19 (!) years of age. He reminded himself that it would be better to order A Course in Miracles now to be able to read it during the holidays. The book had to come from the United States of America and in these days that could take weeks or even months. He phoned to his bookstore and was put through to the foreign book department. He said: 'Good morning, I would like to place an order for a book with the title A Course in Miracles. The voice on the other end of the line said: 'That's a coincidence, according to my list a book with that title has just arrived in the post. Actually it is meant for internal use, but... if you really want it, you can have it sir.'

Half an hour later, he was on his way to Ruud with a copy of the book in his bag. He told him the story and Ruud answered: 'The book was ready and waiting for you.'

On the 27th of August 2002, Riet, a member of one of his Course groups said how much she enjoyed attending the group sessions. She liked the people and the discussions, but found the Course too difficult and was unable to get grips with the Text. She had been confused about all these abstract words like truth, reality, holiness, worth, glory, wholeness, oneness, to extend, eternity etc.

The same moment Harmen wanted to answer her cry for help he saw a criss-cross of chaotic circles raveled together. Then, one circle separated, loosening itself from the heap and fell down as a 'stand alone circle'. More circles loosened and the ravelled circles that fell down made a pattern on the ground.

The next months he received more indications, signs and inspirations until in the midst of November 2002 it suddenly stopped to his great disappointment. The message, however, was clear: The Course is like a ravel and he had to unravel it. Or to say it in a more popular way: The Course is like scrambled eggs and he had to unscramble them. Or more exciting and more thrilling: The Course is like a zipped code and he had to unzip the code.

During the following years he tried to discover the meaning of the circles.

The inspirations in 2013

Another 11 years later on the 3rd of October 2013, Harmen Kooreman gave a lecture called How I am healing myself. The end of the lecture was bound to be at 12 o’clock, but he was still answering questions and discussing with the audience. At exactly 12 o’clock Johan came to him, tapped some times on his watch with his right hand and said to him: ‘It’s twelve o’clock.’ He took it literally and said: ‘But you can go if you wish.’

At home he told his wife what Johan had said and at the same moment he understood the symbolic meaning. It was not five minutes before twelve, not even one minute before twelve. It was 12 o’clock. The time had come. How could he ever have thought that he could heal himself?

(P-2.IV.5:1-2) At best, and the word is perhaps questionable here, the "healers" of the world may recognize the mind as the source of illness. But their error lies in the belief that it (the mind) can cure itself.

In the next months he received a lot of inspirations very early in the morning, which always stopped at exact 5 o'clock with a sudden surprising insight. At the end of the year the regular inspirations were over, but insights kept coming from time to time. His mission was clear. He said: Making the Course more accessible was now his purpose.

On the 16th of November 2014 his Armenian wife Laura had a dream. Laura's grandfather was – at the age of 5 – the only survivor of his whole family during the Armenian genocide in 1915.

The rescue boot

Laura and Harmen are on (an is)land. They are pursued by snakes. They run to save their lives, arrive at the coast and wade through the sea. The waves are coming towards them and they wrestle against the flow. The very moment it becomes really worse Laura cries for help. A rescue boat arrives and they are saved. The captain of the rescue boat happens to be a Turk.

Interpretation

After having killed more than one and a half million Armenians during the Armenian genocide in 1915 the Turkish government still denies the genocide and calls it the Armenian 'issue', a reframing or in Course terms reinterpretation of genocide. Knowing this you can see the parallel between the Turk and his rescue boat and the good Samaritan in the New Testament. In the basic diagram to clarify the deep structure of A Course in Miracles it looks like this:

Bronnen, noten en/of referenties

Bronnen, noten en/of referenties