I play softball in an old guy's softball league in Florida
. I started playing a few years ago and I discovered I wasn't
really very good. This was a bit surprising since I had played
in the University softball leagues while I was a professor
and had only stopped playing in my forties. I wasn't a bad
player then. There hadn't been that long a hiatus. And now
I was playing against people a good deal older than myself
since I am rather young as recent Florida transplants go.
I used to be a good hitter and I wasn't now. The reason was
easy enough to understand. In the university leagues they
play fast pitch. A batter has a second or so to decide about
swinging. It is all instinct, at least it was after having
played for forty some odd years.
But, in Florida , old guys play slow pitch. The pitcher throws
the ball in a high looping arc and it is a strike if it lands
on the plate. Quite a different experience from trying to
hit a ball that is zinging by your head. Should be easier,
no? Not for me. It took a bit of thinking to figure out why.
I analyzed how I was swinging, when I was swinging, what
kinds of pitches I was swinging at, and I came to many different
conclusions. I realized I needed to wait longer before I swung.
I realized I had to stop swinging at inside pitches (the ones
that almost hit you.) I realized that I had to stop swinging
at pitches that looked good but yet dropped in front of my
feet. I realized I had to see the bat hit the "sweet
spot" on the bat. I realized I needed to change my whole
approach to hitting in fact.
OK. I realized a lot. I had come to many conclusions. Now
what? Just do it, right? Aha. Not so simple.
You can't just do what you know you should do. Why not? Because
your unconscious isn't listening to what you have to say.
You can tell yourself to do this that and the other but your
"self" isn't listening. Did you ever wonder why
what you learned in school isn't still in your head, or why
you can't remember what your wife wanted you to get on your
way home? Or, why the things you hear about that will help
you improve your business or make more money or be a better
person don't actually ever get executed? The answer is simple:
you can't learn by listening - not from teachers, not from
your wife, not from helpful suggestions from wise people,
and not even from yourself.
Why not? Because it is your unconscious that is in charge
of executing daily activities -- from swinging a bat to driving
home to talking to people you want to make an impression on,
to getting along with your wife. Your conscious can make decisions,
but your unconscious pretty well does what it is in the habit
of doing. The unconscious is a habit-driven processor. It
says stuff you didn't mean to say, comes to conclusions you
didn't know you believed, and in general is running the show.
Bad habits, as they say, are hard to break. Actually, all
habits, good or bad, are hard to break. A new swing is really
hard to develop, as is a new way of selling, or a new way
of treating people, or driving a new route home. Education
that tries to instill new habits, where there are no old ones,
tends to work rather well. Young children learn from their
parents by unconsciously copying everything their parents
do, including things the parents would just as soon not see
their children doing.
The real value of education is in the creation of new habits.
This can only be done in one way. The unconscious only learns
in one way. It learns by repeated practice. The only teaching
that really works is the observation of good role models and
the kind of mentoring that helps someone execute better while
they are trying to copy what they see others do.
And this brings us to a key question about education. How
is a high school football coach different from a high school
history teacher?
Before we attempt to answer this question we need to consider
why it is an important question to consider. In general, I
think most people would agree that the behavior of these two
types of teachers is likely to be quite different. In our
mind's eye, we see images of yelling and crude behavior versus
refined lecture and discussion. But, let's get beyond the
superficial stereotypes and think about what they teach rather
than their style of teaching it.
The history teacher at his worst, teaches facts, and at his
best, teaches careful analysis of sources of facts and consequences
of events.
The football coach at his worst, teaches that someone could
never possibly do something because they are fundamentally
bad at it, and, at his best, coaches someone to do something
better than he or she could ever do before.
The history teacher teaches the conscious.
The football coach teaches the unconscious.
Education, or more accurately - school - is a conscious affair.
We discuss history -- we don't do history. We are frustrated
when what we learn in school is forgotten years (or even weeks)
later, but we fail to understand why it is forgotten. We see
ourselves as deserving of blame when this is far from the
case. All those facts, - gone. Algebra problems you were once
good at now look like they written in Chinese. What happened?
The problem lies in the nature of school itself -- what is
taught and how it is taught.
If you really want to learn something, or to teach something,
it is important to understand what happened. It is also important
to understand why the football coach is more successful. Thirty
years later his charges can still catch a pass, and they have
not forgotten how to tackle. They remember it all.
What is the difference? And, more importantly what can we
learn about learning by examining that difference?
One place to start is in understanding the difference between
conscious and unconscious knowledge.
The football coach doesn't need players who can discuss football
he needs players who can execute. Because he is interested
in execution he does not dwell on the issue of passing an
exam about football or being able to write an essay on football.
In fact, many people could pass such an exam or write such
an essay who could not begin to be able to catch a pass. (Often
they are called sportswriters -- or fans.)
We can talk about what we know consciously. This ability
to discuss conscious knowledge does not relate one way or
the other to the ability to execute using unconscious knowledge.
Conscious knowledge has next to nothing to do with unconscious
knowledge.
How does conscious and the unconscious interact? As long
as we see ourselves as rational beings who can think logically
and make carefully reasoned decisions about our daily lives,
then education indeed should be about the promotion of reasoned
deliberation and the gaining of knowledge that will enhance
our ability to reason. But, suppose this conception we have
of ourselves and our ability to reason logically is simply
wrong? What if it is the case that we can't actually reason
logically at all?
All of our education system depends on the "pure reason"
assumption. The assumption is that we teach conscious minds
that are capable of logical thought, can remember what they
were told and can think clearly about the consequences of
their actions based upon all this knowledge. But the reality
is that it is the unconscious mind that can be taught, it
is the football player who really learns. The history student
simply learns for a short time and then forgets what he has
learned and is incapable of ever making serious use of what
he or she has learned. He can sometimes recall it while playing
Trivial Pursuit or Jeopardy, but the usefulness of the knowledge
almost never extends to helping with decision making.
The conscious isn't really capable of retaining what it has
learned in any useful way, in part because what it has learned
usually does not relate to anything it will later be called
upon to do. The unconscious, on the other hand, is always
ready to learn in the service of doing, because that is what
it has always done.
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