Monday, October 24, 2016

Thinking about playing the violin is not playing the violin. Processing Information.

I realize with greater understanding how much of our current system’s practices are backwards.
A question that has come up often in terms of knowing one’s words, is that words should be learned in context, to lend meaning in tandem with learning the word.

As usual, there is a truth to this, yet one must look at the overall design of the system. And why? Because, in simple terms what we are doing is not working. If it works for only a few, then it is not working, The consequences of many behaviors lacking the experience of a state of ease are the markers of inadequacy. When we throw up our arms and accept what is unacceptable, then the same continues. Our children must reach their real potential. This is the only choice.

Let me return to my original statement; that much of what we does is in fact backwards. It is as though the mode of an outcome of cognitive dissonance is created within moving counter to a natural presence that sees more directly this reality.

We have children develop imagination before developing discernment in reality. We tell them about things more often than showing them what we explain to them in real space. The best example of the fault of such a system is to realize, really slow down and realize that thinking, or imagining playing an instrument has nothing to do with actually playing an instrument.

Thus, our use of developing the imagination without practical application, and our system of teaching via the imagination, as memory, is the practice of memorizing a construct and then asking the child to perform. If one piece of that memory development is uncertain in any way, within this model, that child will develop insecurity, because that is what the child will experience. Especially, when asked to perform in real time, something that has been learned via building a blue print without any real physical, or multi dimensional, interaction.

One of the realizations within accelerated learning techniques IS that we retain more when more of our senses are involved. This means that using ONLY the sense of imagination is inadequate. And, it is a means that leads to control of information. 

Without real practical exposure and experience, two people memorizing information about something ONLY, could and would breed endless discussion on details, arguing for one’s ‘ idea’ memory about something that neither have actually lived and experienced directly.

Yet, if two people, for example, had mastered something in real space time, meaning actually walked the degree of awareness and self direction physically, using all senses, then they could have an abstract discussion about what they experienced and even give pointers that might open up worlds. Thus, having a conversation about something, really can only happen once real life experience has lead to a mastery within a given subject. This form of sharing, via describing one’s awareness, is not a starting point of development. It would only lead to confusion and uncertainty.  How and why we ever accepted a system where we learn through memorizing information without any real time interaction and experience can only be because on individual levels we separated from realizing that presence in real time as a starting point has great value. It is necessary before using imagination.  The best example that opens this up, is to realize, that one cannot possible think about playing a violin, memorizing how it is done and then believing that one can play this instrument. It simply cannot work. And it is the same for many things, probably all. Though, we are essentially caught within a hyper-normalization of a practice that is backwards. That this is normalized means that facing this is moving counter to one’s beliefs. And yet, as our fairy tales reveal, because of this backwards system, Humpty Dumpty behaviors exist, and those are a scattered self that is a state of having difficulty paying attention and changing with new information. The sign of someone who has mastered something, is the sign of being in control of one’s self, a sign of being able to incorporate new information in a moment- as one can not only imagine a form and movement, one can translate that into real physical action, with ease.

Another example of this is learning a new language. I had to learn  German as an adult. I was in the actual environment where this language was living around me. At first, as I accumulated a sense of the sounds, I was able to hear the variations in sound.  Then I could hear the individual words, and then I could practice the words.  This learning may have appeared to be slow, yet was it really? Or was I simply moving in a process of differentiation to the point where the natural next step was to generate words myself. At some point, as I had to do this every day, in real life action, I could hear a new word and integrate it much faster, in a way where I could use it in a shorter period of time, because I was beginning to move within a momentum of overall understanding, having accumulated enough experience and self generative practice. If I had to build this through memory, on my own, without the real life experience and practice, it would have taken a lot longer. So, why do we teach through a means, as abstracting information to learn- to build blueprints, that has the flaws of being in imagination only, that has the flaw of taking longer to learn something, that has the flaw of creating huge imaginative forms of information that cannot replace real space interaction?  Again, there is no way imagining playing the violin can replace actual real live playing of the violin. Again, how can we accept the way we are teaching children as the present system of using memory, as building understanding through imagination - that by design is SLOW?

And also, since we become what we practice, we begin to move at the processing speeds we practice in this order of learning through imagination, hence we are essentially automating a slow processing speed! And this is evident in that a person with an average degree can only read about 250 words per minute. It is understood, that a musician cannot process notes at that speed and generate real music!  A musician cannot move at the tempo in processing the actual performing with an instrument, or they would never be able to realize patterns and form and play with that form, to actually generate something that makes sense!

How could something so simple be missed to the extent that we now have a system that is backwards! And how can we continue to accept this- it is after all, a form of suppression of the real potential in a child. That potential in a child can in deed, process information in much faster ways, reaching a mastery that the present system is not able to do.

 I was working with a young woman who had been defined as a ‘ slow processor.’ We were defining a word. What I suggested is for her to read the dictionary definition as a guide more than something to memorize. I said that simply memorizing a definition is artificial and difficult, one must instead relate the word to real living. That moment, after reading the dictionary definition, when I said to define that word in real living time a big change occurred with this young woman. Whereas, processing the word was slow, reading the definition was slow, when she related that word to its equivalent in real time the answer was so immediate it even surprised me!  

Thus, the difference between processing information through memory without living, practical interaction and exposure, is very very slow- this, by design, slows down what is natural in a human being. It is natural to process information, yet that must be done in real time. The process of building through imagination is by nature slow as a starting point.  This ‘ slowness’ is in direct conflict in allowing the child to use their real potential to process what they see and hear and sense in physical real time!  Because we become what we practice, we become that slow processing- a mis-use of the imagination. Again, imagining playing the violin has no real relationship to actually playing the violin! This reality is so common sensical, that there is no reason to continue to accept any other form of learning. And this fits into a well known concept, that knowledge and information without practical application is USELESS!  What has compounded in our society are attention dis-orders, a consequence manifested over time of  the mis-use of the imagination.  It is through real physical application that one truly masters something, AND THEN one can talk about it and use abstraction to share and convey experience.  Neither is ‘ bad’ yet when unbalanced, what happens are behaviors of an imbalance. 

Also, this is why one cannot create so-called teachers that learn something via theory in a classroom, without actually mastering the discipline they teach. How can a young person, who has only learned via imagination actually teach something for real. The point is that they cannot. The consequences of this are all around us. They are the increasing processing dis-orders we have in our schools, they are the attention dis-orders we have in our schools, and they are, as one principle has said to me “ I spend all my time putting out fires.’ This state of our so-called schools, means that our schools are not a place of learning, they are instead, a place that moves a child away from their real potential.


It does not get simpler than this. Remember, playing the violin and imagining playing the violin are two completely different things.  Another indicator is the insecurity a parent may have in reality to teaching their children. If there is insecurity present, then why would a parent send their child into a system that did not teach them how to teach, or that did not teach them how to learn - enough to feel secure in doing that for their child? If we really learned how we learn, and did not fear learning, and as such, really understood the joy of learning, than we would in essence want to participate in that joy in relation to our children!