Also known as nursery education, early childhood education is the process of teaching younger children, usually through play and exploration, that prepares them for more formal school education at a later stage. It is a branch of educational theory that has been built on since the so-called Age of Enlightenment when European educators were looking at ways to improve literacy rates among the population. In modern times, early childhood education has tended to be standardised in the western world. Many of the professionals working in it require a higher level of education and registration under an official inspectorate that aims to maintain standards.
The term eating disorders covers a number of specific conditions which all impact on a person's ability to eat normally. This can be due to an issue with their physical health which impairs normal eating, but it is more common for it to be associated with mental health conditions nowadays. Individuals with anorexia nervosa, a mental condition, will frequently view themselves as unhealthily overweight and consequently restrict their diet abnormally, for example. It can lead to them becoming underweight, sometimes dangerously so. Eating disorders are known to affect women more than men in the West, although both suffer from them. In numerous cases, these disorders are combined with other issues, such as substance abuse, anxiety and depression and even abusive relationships.
Born in 1948, Eckhart Tolle lived in Germany, Spain and England before settling as a Canadian resident. He says that his early life alienated him and he was generally unhappy growing up in the war-ravaged town of Lünen, near Dortmund. In his teens and young adulthood, he suffered from bouts of depression. However, also at this time, Tolle moved to Spain and began to read works by the German mystical teacher, Bo Yin Ra, otherwise known as Joseph Schneiderfranken. His words had a profound and long-lasting impact on him. Later still, while working in the UK, Tolle started to study spirituality and philosophy more deeply, enrolling - but not completing - a postgraduate course on it at the University of Cambridge. In 1977, Tolle would experience something of an epiphany, or realisation, that helped him to overcome his negative thoughts. He has since devoted much of his life to explaining this 'inner transformation' to others in the form of books, DVDs and lectures.