Becoming Comfortable in the Uncomfortable

There are a multitude of places where Philosophy and Psychology intersect, or collide. We'll look a lot at how the nature vs. nurture debate has formed, where knowledge comes from, the ordering of the mind, and psychological processes related to learning.   As we discuss identity, knowledge, and learning in the coming weeks of philosophers like Plato and Kant, I can't help but think back to the beginnings of my teacher-education (i.e. the credential post-bacc program) and learning about Lev Vygotsky.

Vygotsky is credited with the idea of the 'tools of the mind,' in which his psychological theories aim to describe mental activities and growth in much the same way as physical actives; in order to be good at physical activity, one must practice that skill over and over again.  And think about it -- the first time you rode a bike, the first time you stood at a the plate in baseball ready to take live pitching, the first time you tried your hand at playing violin, the first time you ever had to run a long distance race, the first time learning an incredibly intricate dance move or routine -- it's very likely that, unless you're a talented natural or a freak of nature, that you sucked the first time around.  And, it's possible that sucking that much deterred you from the activity in some cases, and you quit trying.

I'll use myself as an example.  I hate sucking at things.  In fact, it is widely known in my family that I refuse to ever pick up golf clubs and play, because I KNOW for a FACT that if I ever was dragged onto a course and forced to hit the ball, that I'd suck so royally, that I'd end up crying by at MOST the fourth hole (likely MUCH sooner).  I have thus, never picked the game up, and I'm putting it off as long as my family will let me -- I won't even start the activity out of fear of being bad, it's not even that I was bad and quit.  Not even going to START.

On the converse of that, I really like to bowl, as well, and it took me a long time to come to terms with the fact that I wasn't very good, and to just enjoy it as is. Today, I'm not great, not terrible, but there are still games where I end up in hot, frustrated tears (I can't help it, it's how my anger manifests)! Yet, after several games of being absolutely terrible -- gutter balls, never picking up spares, never ever getting a strike -- I finally had a moment where I got a couple strikes in a row (five in fact; it was totally a fluke).  And the feel of that small bit of success fueled me to stick with it.  I now (well, prior to this whole pregnancy thing) bowl in a Tuesday league with other fellow teachers, and it's a blast.... even when I suck :)

So its very commonly known that 'practice makes perfect' when it comes to physical activities -- it's expected that the first-go-around isn't going to be great, and we generally have fairly low self-expectations in that regard.  We work at it, put in tons of effort, lift weights, work out, practice, and look for incremental results.  Vygotsky's theory corroborates this.  Then he takes it a step further, and applies this same idea to mental activities: we must practice our 'mental tools' in much the same way we do our 'physical tools' if we ever want to be intellectually "good" at something.  He argues that, until we begin to utilize those mental tools, and hone them through practice, our learning is largely a product of our environment, meaning, that our learning is something we do not control ourselves. We simply absorb what the world gives us, take things at value, and in essence, are susceptible to corruption, mind control, and brainwashing at the very worst of it (aka a hostile environment).

I don't think anyone would say they want to be brainwashed, or perceived as living with a corrupted mind or a product of some external control.  And yet, SO often, people are less likely to want to practice the mental activities that it takes in order to rid themselves of such a state.  When it comes to school, and education, and learning in general, we are much more likely to take the easy way out, the 'path of least resistance,' and deem things 'too hard' and give up.  To connect to our reading, we are more likely to be like the prisoners in the cave, who upon being unchained and told to look up at the light, wince away in fear and return to the shadows where we are comfortable. Thinking is hard.  It is work, especially when we've been so mind-numbingly trained to accept things from 'authority' (yes, this is seriously one of my BIGGEST gripes about the education system of America -- it is designed to breed rule-followers and task-completors FAR more readily than it is to produce free thinkers and innovators, despite what people, the media, and politicians tell you -- all you have to do is look at the state of standardized testing for that to be obvious).  So, when we're presented with something that is mentally taxing -- a particularly difficult word problem in math, a situation in a scientific experiment gone as unintended, a dense piece of writing, etc. -- we walk away, give up, and leave it to someone else to figure it out.  We are simply too busy expending our mental energies on whatever other menial excuse for a task we want to convince ourselves is more important, to do the active practice it takes to develop that skill.

So what does this mean? Well, if taken to its logical extreme, this means that our mental laziness is actually detrimental to our capacity to think.  We are living in a time of mental atrophy, because the world does the thinking for us, and so we listen/read/accept.  Maybe this is why the sorns in Lewis' Out of the Silent Planet were so hell-bent on maintaining all of their knowledge and histories in their minds -- where it has to be constantly worked, realized, remembered, retained.  It is the mental reps necessary to maintain and bolster that 'muscle.'  Today, we see mental challenges, and scoff.  We see difficulties, and look for easy ways to subvert.  We lose ourselves to the machine of society, we become drones, we willfully surrender our freedom, we "love Big Brother" and see "2+2" as "5" and know that "we've always been at war with Eurasia."

Of course I'm being ridiculous at this point, but there is something to be said for why all of the major dystopian novels of the 20th century have basically shown humans as mindless, controlled, unintelligent and media-driven beings.  So I guess the question is now, what are we going to do about it? Hopefully, learn to enjoy the uncomfortable feeling of being challenged, of being mentally pushed, and the satisfaction of being comfortable with our success and learning in retrospect, in the same way we feel accomplished after the completion of a race, or a winning (or losing, because we should...) game, or a particularly difficult piece of music we've mastered.  I guess it's up for you, individually, to decide whether or not you want out of your own cave -- the only person chaining you in there, is you.