As a veteran teacher/professor of humanity (preschool through graduate school in the United States) across my career span of forty-five years, I continue to dig deeper discovering gems of truth hidden within richly layered human experiences. My quest is to decipher, to deconstruct then reconstruct the myriad facets of this most important question of structuring human learning for success.
Our constitution serves us by offering a lofty definition of success here ... capacity for life, liberty and the persuit of happiness. So how can we better structure our thinking and supports of each other, particularly across the youth years, in oder to generate adults who are self-reliant and generous in sharing, contributing ther natural talents and resources for the good of all?Unless we persist in deepening our engagement in this quest, we run the risk of being distracted, side-tracked, losing attention.
After persisting for twenty years in a field that includes diverse populations, truth becomes strikingly clear: The apparent intentions of program designers do not always match the results expected, planned, and/or obtained.
Judge Judy offers the viewing public a very important sociological lesson. Click the link that follows:
http://revolutionarypolitics.tv/video/viewVideo.php?video_id=15915
Any learning that does not stimulate change in our thinking first, then in our actions becomes wasted learning. To use this learning experience wisely, let us unpack some concepts buried within the Judge Judy exchange:
What we attend to unfailingly grows more palpable and pliable. It looms larger and reveals more layers. As in the field of physics, so to sociologically: what is observed also "changes" through the process of being observed! Both the observed and the observer have immense power. Both behold the other. In the eye of each beholder is a projection of his/her thoughts of reality.
Their thoughts may be in actuality opposing, in conflict, or simply misaligned in a million and one ways ...or just one essential life or death way. When the focus of observation is alive (thus harboring capabilities), careful observation of the observed at their best, most satisfying, and most productive must precede outside intervention. Any intervention must align with nature at its best. If these are mismatched, misaligned, we make a mess of the resources within each human being, each environment, each out-sourcing of generous supports.
When the gaze of the observer projects a human being who needs to be given to (instead of activated, encouraged, guided to generate their own good), much becomes amiss, "deliverance"jobs are created unnecessarily (wasting resources), and those "given to" are deprived of generating their own deliverance, their own self-respect, their own self-reliance. We all thus miss the mark in cultivating our individual and collective sense of worthiness. We all get side-tracked. We deprive ourselves of long-term goods and resources yet to be experienced ...resources we may likely need in a relatively unpredictable future.
Fathoming that which underlies each apparent layer of a societal conundrum, requires seekers to stay on track, remain focused, sustain attention on the prize. It behooves us to move pieces of confounding problems apart, search beneath any given pile of distracting factors sitting atop of any heap, just layers of the perennial onion.
After some study, we can sense many "sources" of this conundrum. After further thought, conversation paired with extensive on-site experience (and relevant research), causative factors become not only identifiable, but recognizable. With reformed intention and sustained effort, changes aligning causes and effects become sustainable.
Change just one principle operative thought, and perceptible changes naturally occur in actuality. Causes bring consequences. All consequences have causes that are traceable...we simply need knowledge, know-how, will, and courage. Ignore these operative laws and consequences unfold at great peril to human health and prosperity.
Implicit in our cultural miasma is the thought that we all want a piece of the pie. But nothing is without cost. And some costs incur great peril to true prosperity and peace among people kind.
Why is this so?, we may ask ourselves, stymied by the actual exchange between Judge Judy and the plaintiff-defendant witnessed in her court of law. The YouTube link below is an eye opener for those who really want to help humanity develop the internal strength of character and corresponding thinking required for reaching levels of self-care, self-reliance, and self-respect expected in any civilization of merit.
Watch the video once, just to get a sense of content. The second time, have a paper and pen handy to make note of Judge Judy's line of reasoning. The third time round, make note of the defendant's attitudinal and behavioral responses ... and finally, those of the plaintiff.
Connecting the dots:
From observations gathered, do some backwards problem solving to answer this positive position question:
Which "supports" or "help" (principles, initiatives, expectations = PIE) actually work together to generate a society in which 90% of children become adults who in actuality reach levels of self-care, self-reliance, and self-respect that create a civilization of merit.
There are many questions you will come to ask in this process. List these questions in the comment box below. Grab someone at home, call a friend or relative, and together watch the Judge Judy exchange, list the questions that flow from witnessing actual results of programs intended to "help" ...what kind of helping actually supports the development of generative capacities???
How do societies (families, schools, institutions, free markets) cultivate reasonable to high levels of psychosocial characteristics identified by Erik Erickson (or any self-motivated adult) as necessary and sufficient to generate a viable and satisfying life ...and the capacity to care to contribute to those around him/her?
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