[OSList] Learn Like Children -- in Open Space

Harrison Owen hhowen at verizon.net
Wed Jun 4 09:13:33 PDT 2014


David Brooks, a favorite New York Times columnist wrote a marvelous piece on
the confusing world we live in aided and abetted by our own lack of focus.
As we multi-task our way to the future, tweeting and face booking into the
trivia of daily life, learning in any deep and useful sense virtually
disappears.   And the remedy? David suggests learning from those creatures
who learn prodigiously: Children. He uses the work of a Child Psychologist
by the name of Phillips as a guide.  I have quoted a bit of it below, and it
will probably make a little more sense if you substitute "Passion" for
"terrifying longing." Childlike, Yes,  and it sounds like Open Space to me.

 

Harrison

 

You can read the whole thing by going to http://nyti.ms/1kyFJgx
<http://nyti.ms/1kyFJgx%20%0d%20> 

 <http://nyti.ms/1kyFJgx%20%0d%20>  

*************************************

 

"The way to discover a terrifying longing is to liberate yourself from the
self-censoring labels you began to tell yourself over the course of your
mis-education. These formulas are stultifying, Phillips argues: "You can
only recover your appetite, and appetites, if you can allow yourself to be
unknown to yourself. Because the point of knowing oneself is to contain
one's anxieties about appetite."

Thus: Focus on the external objects of fascination, not on who you think you
are. Find people with overlapping obsessions. Don't structure your
encounters with them the way people do today, through brainstorming sessions
(those don't work) or through conferences with projection screens.

Instead look at the way children learn in groups. They make discoveries
alone, but bring their treasures to the group. Then the group crowds around
and hashes it out. In conversation, conflict, confusion and uncertainty can
be metabolized and digested through somebody else. If the group sets a
specific problem for itself, and then sets a tight deadline to come up with
answers, the free digression of conversation will provide occasions in which
people are surprised by their own minds.

The information universe tempts you with mildly pleasant but ultimately
numbing diversions. The only way to stay fully alive is to dive down to your
obsessions six fathoms deep. Down there it's possible to make progress
toward fulfilling your terrifying longing, which is the experience that
produces the joy."

 

 

Winter Address

 

7808 River Falls Drive

Potomac, MD 20854

301-365-2093

 

Summer Address

 

189 Beaucaire Ave.

Camden, ME 04843

207-763-3261

 

Websites

 

www.openspaceworld.com

www.ho-image.com

 

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