Jewellers & Master Craftsmen
I'm sitting at my desk today, deliberately with all the doors and windows closed and with no ventilation. It's like some sort of sweat lodge but not as hot and humid.
The reason for this is to attempt to breach the barriers of discomfort in order to actually get some work done. I realise that, even though an environment can be inimical or caustic or painful to the mind or body, personal discomfort can actually trigger creativity and productivity. It's something one tends to forget.
In the area of the mind, the key thing is to seek cognitive dissonance. I think that teachers tend to spoonfeed because it is easy to do. If you relent and give students ready answers, they tend not to show growth in their neural networks. Rather, they learn the wrong thing; i.e., that if you wait the teacher out, you will get answers without having to think from first principles.
This is why from the beginning, the master teachers have always taught in parables. (The 13th chapter of St Matthew's Gospel has quite a bit to say about it, if you are so minded.) The point is that unless you make people realise what they don't know, unless you unsettle their secure underpinnings and foundations, you actually aren't going to shift them into a new place and thus educate them. Education is literally a 'drawing-out', not a 'putting-in'.
This is why master teachers make carefully-crafted disturbing remarks. Jesus said, "I came not to bring peace, but a sword," and then proceeded to outline the kinds of division that his legacy would provide. The point is that all students have preconceptions of how they want the teacher, the class, and the subject to behave. A good teacher will break all those preconceptions first, not work with them as some people recommend. It's a bad teacher who relies on bullet points and direct process teaching from the beginning.
After much thought about the present state of education in Atlantis, I've decided that maybe 90% of the teachers I've seen are good at 'putting-in', 'grinding and polishing' and 'metal shaping' – all the skills necessary to be a good jeweller. Some institutions are also very good at 'stone selection', which always ensures a minimum value (since you can always re-cut a good stone later on).
But there are very few who will take otherwise unvalued or undervalued pieces, and point out how good they can be, and what the fundamentals of value and worth really are. Most will cater to the mass market, and not to the collectors who can really make the difference. A true education is one that changes perception and moves it to a new and better place.
As Jesus said, "For these people's hearts have become callused; they hardly hear with their ears, and they have closed their eyes... Blessed are your eyes because you see; blessed are your ears because you hear." The heart is easily callused, made callous, especially when it is young and tender. This leads to cynicism and discontent. But if the calluses can be abraded with sufficient violence or skill, the heart can be made to burn with a passion for outrageous levels of learning and understanding.
The reason for this is to attempt to breach the barriers of discomfort in order to actually get some work done. I realise that, even though an environment can be inimical or caustic or painful to the mind or body, personal discomfort can actually trigger creativity and productivity. It's something one tends to forget.
In the area of the mind, the key thing is to seek cognitive dissonance. I think that teachers tend to spoonfeed because it is easy to do. If you relent and give students ready answers, they tend not to show growth in their neural networks. Rather, they learn the wrong thing; i.e., that if you wait the teacher out, you will get answers without having to think from first principles.
This is why from the beginning, the master teachers have always taught in parables. (The 13th chapter of St Matthew's Gospel has quite a bit to say about it, if you are so minded.) The point is that unless you make people realise what they don't know, unless you unsettle their secure underpinnings and foundations, you actually aren't going to shift them into a new place and thus educate them. Education is literally a 'drawing-out', not a 'putting-in'.
This is why master teachers make carefully-crafted disturbing remarks. Jesus said, "I came not to bring peace, but a sword," and then proceeded to outline the kinds of division that his legacy would provide. The point is that all students have preconceptions of how they want the teacher, the class, and the subject to behave. A good teacher will break all those preconceptions first, not work with them as some people recommend. It's a bad teacher who relies on bullet points and direct process teaching from the beginning.
After much thought about the present state of education in Atlantis, I've decided that maybe 90% of the teachers I've seen are good at 'putting-in', 'grinding and polishing' and 'metal shaping' – all the skills necessary to be a good jeweller. Some institutions are also very good at 'stone selection', which always ensures a minimum value (since you can always re-cut a good stone later on).
But there are very few who will take otherwise unvalued or undervalued pieces, and point out how good they can be, and what the fundamentals of value and worth really are. Most will cater to the mass market, and not to the collectors who can really make the difference. A true education is one that changes perception and moves it to a new and better place.
As Jesus said, "For these people's hearts have become callused; they hardly hear with their ears, and they have closed their eyes... Blessed are your eyes because you see; blessed are your ears because you hear." The heart is easily callused, made callous, especially when it is young and tender. This leads to cynicism and discontent. But if the calluses can be abraded with sufficient violence or skill, the heart can be made to burn with a passion for outrageous levels of learning and understanding.
etched with acid at 10:52:00 am
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