Our journeys require time for assimilation
LISTEN TO AND RESPECT THE INNDER SELF
“Thought of the Week” for October 16, 2000
The inner self requires ample time to pass through each of the steps it takes to assimilate experiences, memories, former irritations or addictions into the not-yet formed behavior. Rushing headlong into some pre-conceived, intellectual notion of what we “should” be not only implies disrespect for the self, but we then wrongly assume to know what we need better than the inner self. …Perhaps we can better know our life’s direction if we become sensitive to our dreams, slips of the tongue, incomprehensible inner images and intuitional learnings than if we assume an “expert’s” idea of what is right for us.
Marsha Sinetar. (1987). Do What You Love, the Money Will Follow. New York: Dell. (p. 49)
Comment:
Respecting the Self:
Taking time for assimilation
by Reg Harris
Copyright © 2000 by Reg Harris. All rights reserved. Updated October 7, 2007. All rights reserved. Apart from properly cited quotes and short excerpts, no part of this article can be copied or used in any form without written permission from the author. For permission to use, please contact me.
This, to me, seems an argument for a more open curriculum in schools, a less rigid “stage” process of learning. To assume that each of our students will assimilate experience and knowledge at the same rate is not only foolish, but disrespectful of the student and their needs. Standards and standardized tests reduce the process of human growth to a series of predictable, controllable “shoulds,” which ignores the reality of the human experience and the individual Heroic Journey.
When I was in sales, we learned that we might have to approach a prospective client or customer at least three times (flyers, phone calls, and visits, etc.) before we could make a sale. We learned that the chances that the person would be in a position to be receptive to our message on a single visit were very low. We needed to keep letting them know about our message until their perception of their needs matched our presentation of a solution.
If the same is true of education, that true learning will occur when the students’ perceived needs coincide with our presentation of a solution, then we may need to present something many times in many different ways. No pre-determined timetable can predict or account for this variable. In fact, predetermined schedules and outcomes may actually hinder the process, especially now, when students are bombarded with so many stimuli and decisions.
Agreed that there are logistical concerns that prevent us from “customizing” education, but the current movement toward standards and outcomes and validation-through-testing is dangerous in that it disrespects the child’s individual Journey. Each child needs, as Sinetar writes, “ample time to pass through each of the steps it takes to assimilate experience, memories, former irritations or addictions into the not-yet formed behavior.”
There is a great risk involved in learning, and we must acknowledge that. To agree to learn something which contradicts what one has believed means giving up the security of the known for the promise of the unknown. It also means admitting that a part of the structure of our own narrative story (personal myth) was wrong or ineffective and having the courage to adapt or replace it. This kind of “leap of faith” can only be accomplished in steps, even when the revelation is sudden. Adjustment and assimilation take time.
To acknowledge the truth in Sinetar’s words is to acknowledge individual differences in growth, assimilation and understanding. To continue to function out of the mechanistic paradigm, which is not just outdated but pathogenic, is to disrespect the both individual and the learning process.
The Hero’s Journey: Respecting the Self
Our journeys require time for assimilation
LISTEN TO AND RESPECT THE INNDER SELF
“Thought of the Week” for October 16, 2000
The inner self requires ample time to pass through each of the steps it takes to assimilate experiences, memories, former irritations or addictions into the not-yet formed behavior. Rushing headlong into some pre-conceived, intellectual notion of what we “should” be not only implies disrespect for the self, but we then wrongly assume to know what we need better than the inner self. …Perhaps we can better know our life’s direction if we become sensitive to our dreams, slips of the tongue, incomprehensible inner images and intuitional learnings than if we assume an “expert’s” idea of what is right for us.
Marsha Sinetar. (1987). Do What You Love, the Money Will Follow. New York: Dell. (p. 49)
Comment:
Respecting the Self:
Taking time for assimilation
by Reg Harris
Copyright © 2000 by Reg Harris. All rights reserved. Updated October 7, 2007. All rights reserved. Apart from properly cited quotes and short excerpts, no part of this article can be copied or used in any form without written permission from the author. For permission to use, please contact me.
This, to me, seems an argument for a more open curriculum in schools, a less rigid “stage” process of learning. To assume that each of our students will assimilate experience and knowledge at the same rate is not only foolish, but disrespectful of the student and their needs. Standards and standardized tests reduce the process of human growth to a series of predictable, controllable “shoulds,” which ignores the reality of the human experience and the individual Heroic Journey.
When I was in sales, we learned that we might have to approach a prospective client or customer at least three times (flyers, phone calls, and visits, etc.) before we could make a sale. We learned that the chances that the person would be in a position to be receptive to our message on a single visit were very low. We needed to keep letting them know about our message until their perception of their needs matched our presentation of a solution.
If the same is true of education, that true learning will occur when the students’ perceived needs coincide with our presentation of a solution, then we may need to present something many times in many different ways. No pre-determined timetable can predict or account for this variable. In fact, predetermined schedules and outcomes may actually hinder the process, especially now, when students are bombarded with so many stimuli and decisions.
Agreed that there are logistical concerns that prevent us from “customizing” education, but the current movement toward standards and outcomes and validation-through-testing is dangerous in that it disrespects the child’s individual Journey. Each child needs, as Sinetar writes, “ample time to pass through each of the steps it takes to assimilate experience, memories, former irritations or addictions into the not-yet formed behavior.”
There is a great risk involved in learning, and we must acknowledge that. To agree to learn something which contradicts what one has believed means giving up the security of the known for the promise of the unknown. It also means admitting that a part of the structure of our own narrative story (personal myth) was wrong or ineffective and having the courage to adapt or replace it. This kind of “leap of faith” can only be accomplished in steps, even when the revelation is sudden. Adjustment and assimilation take time.
To acknowledge the truth in Sinetar’s words is to acknowledge individual differences in growth, assimilation and understanding. To continue to function out of the mechanistic paradigm, which is not just outdated but pathogenic, is to disrespect the both individual and the learning process.