Making a Habit of Blowing One's Monkey Mind

Most humans never rise above "First Order Thinking" -- basic goal oriented behaviours, reading, computing, memorising, and fitting acquired comprehensions within a pre-existing, culturally inherited mental frame. At the most, a typical human will achieve "Metacognition," where he monitors his progress in first order thinking, and grades his progress. It is the unusual human who breaks through to "Transformative Learning."

The capacity for transformative learning develops in middle to late adolescence, although few persons truly experience it, and fewer still achieve mastery of the transformative process. Transformational learning involves breaking through cultural and paradigmatic constraints, to richer conceptual fields beyond.

The academic theory of transformative learning is almost entirely restricted to the field of "adult learning", because that is the field of learning where the theory originated and developed, for the most part. And perhaps those who teach adolescents and young adults in conventional institutions of education are just a bit too happy and complacent with the way things are in conventional education.

Transformational learning is not easy or comfortable -- for either teacher or student. But it is necessary, and those who care about the fate of humans in this part of the galaxy will begin to take it seriously.

Personal transformations often follow  the following phases:

1. Experiencing a disorientating dilemma, paradox, enigma or anomaly
2. Feelings of fear, anger, guilt, or shame
3. Questioning one's assumptions
4. Recognising the need for personal transformation
5. Exploring new roles, relationships and actions
6. Planning a course of action
7. Acquiring new knowledge and skills
8. Provisional trying of new roles
9. Building confidence in new roles and relationships
10. A re-integration of a new perspective into one's life

Ref. Mezirow, Jack et al. (2000) Learning as Transformation

_Hent.org

Most people do not take kindly to being "disoriented." Feelings of "guilt, shame, anger" etc. are not the half of it, for most ordinary monkey-minds. The full play of emotions can enter the dynamic process of transformative learning. Not exactly how you remember school? Join the club.

When a fundamentally disconfirming experience or a disorienting dilemma challenges our frame of reference, we are presented with the opportunity to dive to the deepest level of learning in an effort to make meaning of the catastrophic experience. So powerful is this kind of learning that Mezirow described it as "emancipation from libidinal, linguistic, epistemic, institutional or environmental forces that limit our options and our rational control over our lives, but have been taken for granted or seen as beyond human control." This experience can cause us to critically reflect on our beliefs and presuppositions, resulting in either a transformed way of pattern recognition, or, at the deepest level, a totally transformed framework. _ Learning to Think Strategically

Emancipation? Yes, and much more. Release from constraints plus the motive power to go beyond previous limitations.

Many animals can be trained to remain within a limited perimeter of physical or behavioural space. Then, when the real constraints are surreptitiously removed without the animal's awareness, the animal continues to limit itself as if the constraints remained. Monkey men are just like those animals. Transformative learning wakes them up.

For learners to change their "meaning schemes (specific beliefs, attitudes, and emotional reactions)," they must engage in critical reflection on their experiences, which in turn leads to a perspective transformation (Mezirow 1991, p. 167). "Perspective transformation is the process of becoming critically aware of how and why our assumptions have come to constrain the way we perceive, understand, and feel about our world; changing these structures of habitual expectation to make possible a more inclusive, discriminating, and integrating perspective; and, finally, making choices or otherwise acting upon these new understandings" (ibid.).

...Transformative learning has two layers that at times seem to be in conflict: the cognitive, rational, and objective and the intuitive, imaginative, and subjective (Grabov 1997). Both the rational and the affective play a role in transformative learning. Although the emphasis has been on transformative learning as a rational process, teachers need to consider how they can help students connect the rational and the affective by using feelings and emotions both in critical reflection and as a means of reflection (Taylor 1998). _ericdigests

Very few theorists have come to understand the centrality of grief to the process of learning and growing. Manfred Clynes is one such researcher. Robert Boyd is another. To understand why meaningful learning and transformation should involve grief, is to begin to appreciate how profoundly important being a human (as opposed to being a monkey) truly is.

There is an innate drive in all humans to understand and make meaning of their experiences. It is through established belief systems that adults construct meaning of what happens in their lives...Developing more reliable beliefs about the world, exploring and validating their dependability, and making decisions based upon an informed basis, is central to the adult learning process. _PraegerHandbookVol2

Most pseudo-intellectuals in academia, media, law, politics, and environmentalism are perfectly content to forego the exhausting work of transformation. Their time is filled with a daily routine of monkey games, which is as satisfying as they seem to require.

But those who wish to step beyond the ordinary shite fight and mudslinging of monkey play, into the larger universe of human, trans-human, and "posthuman" possibilities, it's going to take a lot of work, pain, and grief. Over and over, as long as you continue wanting to go farther.

Good little self-satisfied monkeys would never tolerate anything like that.

This is important: The crucially important and helpful techniques of transformative learning can be twisted -- are being twisted every day -- by professors, workshop leaders, propagandists, politicians, and others who shape the minds of others for their own benefit, rather than helping the person shape his own mind for purposes of personal and professional growth. This perversion of the transformative process is called brainwashing, or sometimes "consciousness raising." The goal of brainwashing is to confine the mind -- the opposite of liberation or emancipation.

Anyone who has experienced genuinely liberating and empowering transformation will detect the attempt at false and perverted "transformation" fairly easily. And it will make him very, very angry to see it.

More on this topic later.

Revolution in Higher Ed? What Road Success?

Here are some interesting articles about the problem of high college tuition, and alternative ways of delivering higher education to students. Software modules are teaching math mastery better than most teachers at Virginia Tech University, and more universities are simply putting entire courses online for public access.

Inside Higher Ed: Changing the Tuition Discussion Why skyrocketing tuition charges are causing some universities to re-think the basic structure of higher education.

Transformation 101: Why is tuition going up when better and cheaper ways of teaching are sprouting up? Discusses the math module approach to math mastery at VTU and other large universities. Also discusses some forays into online teaching by large schools.

eLearners.com offers comprehensive loan forgiveness programs Many workers choose to go back to school--online-- to learn a new career. Discusses how some will pay for the education.

The medieval style of "modern universities" has largely camouflaged the "bait and switch" at many schools. Instead of providing solid preparation for future careers, and essential thinking tools useful in any career, many universities are instead filling their curricula with "rubbish" classes that waste a students' and the family's money. Indoctrination, half-shod remediation, and expensive baby-sitting too often substitute for the education that was promised. As a result, a student can graduate, hundreds of thousands of dollars in debt, with nothing to show but a useless wall ornament.

The recent recessionary trends in the US and Europe, and the collapse of many venerable financial institutions, calls into question some of the traditional roads to success. It is getting to the point that the only real job security out there is working for the government. Everybody else seems to be laying people off. And with the government you can get better benefits, retire earlier, and get more generous pensions, than for comparable private sector employment.

The State of California is going deeply into debt--largely due to generous salaries, benefits, and pensions to its state employees. That at a time when private sector employers are shutting down or moving out of state due to oppressive state taxes and regulations. What does California do? It demands a federal bailout!

Very much the same way, General Motors' profligate union contracts make it impossible for GM to break even. Instead of GM getting tough in contract talks, or taking advantage of bankruptcy protection to re-negotiate contracts, the company and the union comes begging to Obama and Pelosi for a bailout. Just what US taxpayers need.

What is a young person setting out for college to learn from all of this hypocrisy, corruption, and union/governmental heavy-handedness? Nothing good or sustainable. Obama wanted to make the US more like Europe, and in the sense of destroying the strong backbone that made America prosperous and resilient, he just may succeed.

Nations do not grow stronger by growing their governments at the expense of private enterprise. Yet this is what states such as Michigan, California, and New York are trying to do. It is also the path Obama promises to follow.

Climbing back up out of the hole that Obamanation digs for taxpayers will be the more difficult for how completely unnecessary it will have been.

Bootcamp for Professionals: Quick Hard Knowledge for Ambitious Outsiders

Successful professionals can not afford to ever stop learning. When a professional attends a conference within his field, it is called continuing education. But what about those who need to significantly expand their knowledge into a new field, but cannot take the time to go back to school? For them, there are "boot camps." Intensive, week-long or longer courses designed for the outsider, by insiders. Here is a good example, H/T Brain Waves:

Neuroscience is increasingly relevant to a number of professions and academic disciplines beyond its traditional medical applications. Lawyers, educators, economists and businesspeople, as well as scholars of sociology, philosophy, applied ethics and policy, are incorporating the concepts and methods of neuroscience into their work. Indeed, for any field in which it is important to understand, predict or influence human behavior, neuroscience will play an increasing role. The Penn Neuroscience Boot Camp is designed to give participants a basic foundation in cognitive and affective neuroscience and to equip them to be informed consumers of neuroscience research.

...Through a combination of lectures, break-out groups, panel discussions and laboratory visits, participants will gain an understanding of the methods of neuroscience and key findings on the cognitive and social-emotional functions of the brain, lifespan development and disorders of brain function.

Each lecture will be followed by extensive Q&A. Break-out groups will allow participants to delve more deeply into topics of relevance to their fields. Laboratory visits will include trip to an MRI scanner, an EEG/ERP lab, an animal neurophysiology lab, and a transcranial magnetic stimulation lab. Participants will also have access to an extensive online library of copyrighted materials selected for relevance to the Boot Camp, including classic and review articles and textbook chapters in cognitive and affective neuroscience and the applications of neuroscience to diverse fields.

The Boot Camp faculty consists of leaders in the fields of cognitive and affective neuroscience who are committed to the goal of educating non-neuroscientists. Several of our faculty have won awards for their teaching.

...The only prerequisites are a grasp of basic statistics and at least a dim recollection of high school biology and physics. (A short set of readings will be made available prior to the Boot Camp to remind you about the essentials.) _UPennNeuroscienceCamp

Roughly ten days of neuroscience for $3000. If you can get your employer to pay for it, fine, otherwise weigh the costs and benefits. Considering the generally abysmal coverage of scientific topics by "science journalists", it might be worthwhile for media outlets that cover science to sponsor one of their "science journalists" for this camp.

The concept is widely applicable across science, engineering, medicine, and other complex and somewhat insular fields which should be made more easily accessible to larger parts of the general public.

The internet contains huge numbers of free journal articles, textbooks, audio/video lectures, and other types of media access to otherwise esoteric fields of science, technology, and learning. But for some people, only the intensive face-to-face experience will serve.

Hitting the G Spot

Why has it been so hard to find the "G Spot?" My private research in this area led me unfailingly to the elusive location after only limited exploration. I have used my navigational skills in this area without reservation, without mercy.

Named after German gynaecologist Ernst Gräfenberg who first hypothesized its existence in 1950, the G-spot is said to be an area a couple of inches inside the vagina behind the pubic bone.

However a lack of physical evidence led some scientists to dispute that there was any such thing....Dr Jannini took ultrasounds of nine women who said they had vaginal orgasms and 11 who said they did not.

They found the tissue between the vagina and the urethra, thought to contain the G-spot, was thicker in the first group....The zone is rich in blood vessels, glands, muscle fibres and nerves. It also contain the Skene's gland, the so-called "female prostate" - which varies widely between women and which some researchers have suggested plays a role in determining whether women can experience vaginal orgasms.

Dr Jannini accepted his study was too small to help determine what proportion of women has a G-spot, and is planning larger trials to answer that question.___Telegraph

I suspect that the G Spot is the origin of PSAS--persistant sexual arousal syndrome. Although mainstream "sex experts" remain clueless about the source of this condition, a bit of logic would relate PSAS to the G Spot's brain center--and a condition analogous to "phantom limb pain" in amputees. I will not say more about this now, since I believe this clue should be sufficient for the truly interested.

There is also the matter of the mysterious "Venus Butterfly Technique." Unknown to most men and women, the VBT is an elementary sexual technique that should be in the repertoire of every connoisseur of sex. I learned the technique on my own, many years ago, to great advantage. Developing true finesse with the VBT requires an intimate knowledge of female sexual anatomy--both genital and cerebral. Search for clues about the VBT in this post.

When I think you are ready, I will tell you more.

Previously published at Al Fin, You Sexy Thing

FIRE Kicks ASS!! See It and Believe It

If you are unfamiliar with FIRE--the Foundation for Individual Rights in Education--you owe it to yourself to watch this new Fire.org video. FIRE works for the type of idea-filled university environment that typifies the ideal for education.

The ideal university is filled with debate, dissent, and heresy--in the best "Freeman Dyson" sense of the word.

If you are a college student, potential student, potential parent of a student, or a college alumnus, you need to be very, very concerned about current campus administrative attitudes toward free speech rights of students and faculty.

FIRE takes on the fascists of higher education head on. And sooner or later, the fascists are going to back down. Every. Time.

FIRE is not the only organisation to champion the rights of free speech on North American campuses, but it is the vanguard non-partisan organisation that will simply not be deterred.

Virtual Schools: Avoiding Institutionalized Incompetence

Online virtual schools offer many parents an alternative to the widespread practise of factory education--the manufacturing of entire generations of inadequately educated youth who lack meaningful preparation for the challenges that face them.

Half a million American children take classes online, with a significant group...getting all their schooling from virtual public schools. The rapid growth of these schools has provoked debates in courtrooms and legislatures over money, as the schools compete with local districts for millions in public dollars, and over issues like whether online learning is appropriate for young children.

One of the sharpest debates has concerned the Weldies’ school in Wisconsin, where last week the backers of online education persuaded state lawmakers to keep it and 11 other virtual schools open despite a court ruling against them and the opposition of the teachers union....Many parents attracted to online charters have previously home-schooled their children, including Mrs. Weldie. Her children — Isabel, Harry and Eleanor, all in elementary school — download assignments and communicate intermittently with their certified teachers over the Internet, but they also read story books, write in workbooks and do arithmetic at a table in their basement. Legally, they are considered public school students, not home-schoolers, because their online schools are taxpayer-financed and subject to federal testing requirements.

Despite enthusiastic support from parents, the schools have met with opposition from some educators, who say elementary students may be too young for Internet learning, and from teachers, unions and school boards, partly because they divert state payments from the online student’s home district. ____NYTimes

Teacher's unions are the largest obstacle to meaningful reform of the failing and corrupt government school system. By investing heavily in the political fortunes of large numbers of politicians, the teacher's unions guarantee their own ability to dominate--and destroy--the futures of entire generations of American children.

A good way for US voters to instantly know which presidential candidates not to vote for, is to ask: "which candidates do the teachers' unions support?"

PDF Study of Virtual Schools in US
Recent power play by teachers' unions stymied by Wisconson legislators

Science Cafes--Return of the Secular Chautauqua

In the late 19th century US, and early 20th century, the traveling Chautauqua was one way lay people kept informed on current topics of science, discovery, invention, philosophy, etc. An online Chautauqua is available to subscribers, but much of the format's appeal comes from the face-to-face excitement of hearing the lecturer firsthand, and the undertone of immediacy created by an interested and interacting crowd-community of listeners. Recently, across Europe and the US, the phenomenon of the "science cafe" has emerged.

On a recent Wednesday night the crowd spilled out the door at San Francisco’s Axis Café, where the draw wasn't a hot band or a talented bartender, but a lecture. On physics.

Toby Garfield, an oceanographer at San Francisco State University, was explaining the science of big ocean waves, like the giant Mavericks surf break about 25 miles away. As he showed slides of the ocean floor and explained that the coast is a system of energy dissipation, the crowd peppered him with questions. Why do waves come in sets? What are rogue waves? How is the United States harnessing the power of waves to make renewable energy?

Scenes like this are being repeated across the country at science cafes, where contemporary science -- a topic that Americans supposedly find dull -- is drawing substantial crowds month after month, even on topics as nerdy as gene sequencing and dark matter.

"It gets me exposed to more areas of science," said Jodie Kasmir, a health care communications specialist, during a break at the big-waves lecture. "Where else am I going to learn about things like sea urchins, or astronomy? How else am I going to find these scientists? Am I going to e-mail them, or go to their lab?"

These cafés seem to have hit a sweet spot in adult science education, offering access to cutting-edge discoveries and the scientists who make them, minus the notes and tests required in school (plus wine, coffee or beer flowing freely from the bar).

About 60 science cafés have cropped up across the United States. The first café was held in England in 1998, and the movement is spreading elsewhere in Europe, as well as South America and Australia. Most are held free of charge and are loosely affiliated through an international umbrella organization called Café Scientifique.

Wired

Entertainment in many North American communities is lacking in substantive information value. Dancing is fun, cinema can be stimulating and emotionally satisfying at its best, concerts and nightclubs are enjoyable, as are the theatre, opera, and ballet. But the intellect also needs stimulation and entertainment--and people getting together to share a meaty intellectual topic is quite a good way to meet those with common interests.

Find out more about science cafes here. Find out how to start your own science cafe here. To find a science cafe closest to you, go here.

Robert A Heinlein Birth Centennial--A Bold Author in a Timid World

Robert A Heinlein was a prolific author who left a legacy in writing and endowment. For many readers here, Heinlein was too far before their time (born 7 July 1907, died 1988) to have been exposed to very much of what he wrote. For you, there is the book navigator pulldown menu, for brief synopses of most of his novels.

I had the privilege of hearing Heinlein speak shortly before he died. Although he had undergone surgery for occluded carotid arteries, and was nearly 80 years old, his mind was crystal clear and his voice was strong. It was fitting that Heinlein's mind was sharp at the end of his life, after a brief interlude of carotid vascular insufficiency. He was able to make the farewell tour and appreciate how much he was admired, respected, and loved.

Heinlein was one of the first authors I read, when I started reading science fiction. Along with Arthur C. Clarke, Isaac Asimov, and Poul Anderson, Heinlein introduced me to the far imaginings and possibilities of speculative fiction--fictional worlds with no boundaries but science.

Heinlein was not afraid to face his critics, who were typically people who did not want to learn from another person's experience. When Heinlein stood before a large crowd during the Vietnam War era and declared "there will always be war," he was soundly booed, and branded a fascist by psychologically neotenous mind-children yet to experience real life. Naturally, Heinlein was able to take their measure and place their criticism where it belonged.

Heinlein was controversial and bold. He spoke his mind and stayed around to confront anyone who wanted to debate ideas reasonably, based upon logic, science and history. Most of his critics were not up to the task, but rather sniped at him from a safe distance. Unfortunately, it was these cowardly critics and their like who took over most of the universities and still control them today--still smothering campus atmosphere with lockstep PC oppressiveness.

My favourite RAH novels include Starship Troopers, The Moon is a Harsh Mistress, Citizen of the Galaxy, and Tunnel In the Sky.

[Tunnel In the Sky] is the story of a High School graduating class's final examination. Course 410 is an elective senior seminar called Advanced Survival, and the students must successfully complete (i.e., survive) the final field exam to pass. Rod Walker and his classmates receive 24 hours notice to prepare themselves before being blindly transported to an unspecified planet, with unspecified climate and terrain -- and unknown hazards. At moments reminiscent of Lord of the Flies, this is a must read, really!

Tunnel In the Sky is similar to Alexei Panshin's "Rite of Passage." It is true that the "rite of passage" theme is used in science fiction frequently, which is one reason that I favour using science fiction as reading material for young teens--the scientific constraints of good science fiction teach logical thinking, and the frequent use of teenaged characters placed in trying circumstances allows SF to entertain teens as it educates.

Citizen of the Galaxy is another good example of Heinlein's use of the "rite of passage."

Citizen is an impassioned plea for life-long education. In many of Heinlein's books, a principal character is portrayed over time, beginning in relative ignorance, learning from experience, receiving the benefits of tutelage from an authoritative source, and then using those teachings to resolve subsequent problems. A formula, but one that works very well, repeatedly, in the hands of this master story teller.

Citizen portrays this young man's education in four stages: a disenfranchised child tutored by a man of wisdom, an adolescent in an artificial space-faring culture that may prefigure tomorrow, a young recruit in the Guard, and an unwilling adult but youthful player in economic, social, political, and legal machinations that clearly satirize 20th Century America's corporate civilization.

Heinlein's life is the antithesis of psychological neoteny. He took responsibility for himself and his ideas, and proceeded to find his forte` and pursue it without apology. He left his critics in the dust, forgotten. One of the lessons of his life is that anyone who chooses can do the same.

School for Dummies

Not that kind of dummy! Schools are in fact manufacturing dummies--functional illiterates--at a record pace.

...if you think that newspaper readership follows education, you would expect it to increase. But it has declined for every level of education.

....Magazines are likewise in trouble. Paid circulation for magazines covered by the Audit Bureau of Circulation peaked in 2000 at 379 million; dropping to 362 million by 2005, in spite of increasing population, higher incomes, and educational attainment. I suspect that the greatest decline is in the magazines that offer the most in terms of knowledge and thoughtful analysis.

....One reason adults are reading less is that an increasing number of them are unable to do so. The National Center for Education Statistics conducted surveys of adult literacy in 1992 and 2003. It tested ability to read prose, documents, and quantitative materials, such as graphs, charts, and tables. At every level of educational attainment, from elementary school through college, prose and document literacy has fallen

....The decline in reading amounts to a decline in learning and knowledge. The vocabulary acquired through normal everyday conversation is limited. The much greater vocabulary of educated adults is learned mainly through reading. As to knowledge, one can learn from fiction, but not in a coherent systematic manner.

....There are cognitive differences between readers and nonreaders, and between good and poor readers. Reading and writing are more abstract, objective, and analytical than oral communication. Readers display a greater range and complexity of expression. Cognitive gains include ability to generalize instead of thinking only in particulars, to use analogy, to classify according to common abstract properties. Such abilities are found with much lower frequency among illiterates.

The philosophy prevailing in public schools has helped undermine the quest for knowledge—to rebuild literacy, we must reverse it. Two generations have been taught that they have a right to their own opinion without regard to their mastery of the subject; that all opinions are of equal value. This assumption underlies the popularity of public opinion polls as means of settling matters of fact and logic. No one told them that such an opinion is worth somewhere between a plugged nickel and a tinker’s damn. So why do one’s homework? Why read, why think?

Source.

When you combine increased narcissism, psychological neoteny, and reduced literacy and cognitive skills, large numbers of modern graduates--and dropouts--may have somewhat less to offer society than they think.

There is a strong need for efficacious schooling for children and youth--even for adults. To stop a raging epidemic (of illiteracy and functional stupidity) one must go to the source. In this case, the source (university ed schools, the education industry, teachers' unions, the media, etc.) are virtually untouchable in the US due to their vital importance to one of the major political parties.

Featured Online Portals to Learning

Continuing with the online learning theme from a few days ago, today's posting features two of the best collections of links to learning materials on the web.

First is Merlot.org. Merlot links to Arts(507 sites), Business(2417), Education(2012), Humanities(2282), Mathematics and Statistics(1151), Science and Technology(5807), and Social Sciences(987) websites. Some of the sites linked to might qualify as portals in themselves, others are java animations suitable for teaching small children. The site has to be explored in order to understand the wide variety of approaches to learning, from pre-school to post-graduate level. Highly recommended.

Then there is 101 Science, a well stuffed and eclectic website with a large set of links to many large sets of links to . . . . and so on. The theme is science and technology. Check out these meta-portals to biology and mathematics. There are many more. While you stand a good chance of finding what you are looking for at 101 Science, you will almost certainly find much more.

Both of these featured sites are well worth visiting. I also recommend the many reference links in the sidebar of the Al Fin main page. One of the main purposes of this website is to encourage readers to prepare themselves for more demanding times. Being well trained in only one field is not sufficient. The underpinnings of once stable societies are beginning to loosen and the fabric starting to unravel. Once trustworthy institutions have become worthless. Many things have to happen for the future to arrive, some of them a bit frightening. It would be better for readers and their loved ones not to be caught unaware.

Budgeting more time to learning, and learning how to learn, has gone from a luxury to a necessity.