When I See It, I’ll Point it Out
How do you get someone to see something they do not see? How do you get someone to look objectively at themselves, beyond their beliefs and values, and look at the root of those beliefs? This is the fundamental question of learning and education.
The only way we grow as individuals is by being able to understand the feeling and intent behind our beliefs. As someone who wishes only to live from that root, I want to help those around me, who are receptive to growing and learning, to also find that root intent for themselves. This is what drives everything I do — to connect to that root and to help others connect to that root. One person, connected to their deepest self, makes everyone around them more connected to themselves.
I am not one to say that “If we all did this, we can solve all the problems in the world”. I am not an idealist. Neither am I a nihilist — I do not believe that there is no point in doing anything at all because the world will be as it is. I do believe that the world will be as it is, but I do not believe that I am separate from this world. Because if I do, then I believe that nothing I do makes a difference. I understand that I am a part of this world — one that is not separate but intertwined. My choice, is to connect fully to that truth of what I am. To be an idealist is to live in an illusion. I cannot say I can or will make the world a better place. But I can say that I will be fully myself and encourage those around me to do the same. When we do this, we are living in reality and this is where we find true creativity, discovery, inspiration, and yes — this is where we find learning and growth.
It is so interesting to me that in studying the scientific process, we always point out what biases are, but we never tell people how to get rid of them. We say confirmation bias is when you hold a belief and in your research you look only for facts which fall in line with those beliefs. So you are never really analyzing whether arguments really have merit. If a fact disagrees with your conclusion you dismiss it right away, but if it agrees with your conclusion it immediately has merit. So the merit of the fact is pre-determined by you regardless of what the fact might say in of itself. Therefore, there are no facts when you are looking through the lens of confirmation bias. Now that we know what confirmation bias is, how do you teach students not to fall into it? How does a professor at school teach that to someone?
The simple answer is, they can’t. And they don’t. The American university system was founded on this exact philosophy. As Fareed Zakaria mentions in his book, “In Defense of a Liberal Education”, American universities are unique and coveted around the world as places of higher education (historically speaking) because they were founded understanding that the most important thing is learning how to learn. New programming languages come out every couple of years and if a student learns only how to code in PASCAL, but never how to learn to code in the first place, when that new language comes the student will be lost. They will not be able to adapt. As Carl Sagan famously said, “Extinction is the norm. Survival is the exception”. This is why geniuses are so rare and far in between. If more people understood how to learn, how to see beyond their beliefs and ideals and understand the root of things, genius would be the norm, not the exception. The saying goes, “Catch a man a fish, he will eat for a day. Teach a man to fish and he will eat for a lifetime”. The great truth here is that if you learn to be self-reliant, you can thrive for a lifetime. But we take this lesson so often to mean that we should learn specific skills which will perceivably get us more money, better jobs, social status. This is not what the saying means. What if one day, all the fish in the local area are diseased. And the man knows only how to fish. The man will have to wait till the next person comes along and teaches him how to hunt. And what if game in the forest becomes diseased. Then the man will have to find someone to teach him to farm. So the lesson is not that we should learn skills. The lesson is that we should learn how to learn these skills — to be self-reliant.
So how do we answer this question? How do we teach someone if they cannot be taught? How do we get people to understand the root of their actions or beliefs? The answer to me is simple — just see it. Just see it in yourself first, and then you see it in others. Just by seeing it, you have the power to understand an entire situation in a moment. You can walk in a room and completely understand the atmosphere with one look. And then you can react to it however you choose. Sometimes the situation calls for you to call people out. To say, “You’re doing this because you’re really feeling this”. Sometimes, you have to simply notice, and then live by example. But you cannot teach someone something only they can teach themselves.
This is not disempowering to me, it is empowering. Because I can now adapt. I no longer have one method which serves everyone. One syllabus that I can use to teach every student. We know from our school systems, that no school system produces 100% straight A students. But why not? Ultimately, a school needs to have a system. And that system will not work for everyone. So in the end, the only person who can really teach you is yourself. And that, is empowering.
