Thoughts on Learning & History

I had an epiphany this morning and quickly conveyed my vision to my youngest son. That's the best way for me to remember an idea, relaying it to another person.

I was listening to a podcast of the Tom Woods Show and he was talking about history, economics, and education. The usual topics. They were were lamenting the way schools teach history with just the memorization of dates, names, and places. That is the way you'd have to teach history if you are going to test and quantify it. But it isn't the best way to understand or use history in your life. In fact, learning it that way is so dull that no one enjoys it or believes it to be relevant to the present at the end of a course.

My vision was a box of puzzle pieces with a picture on it or not. You open the box and pull out a piece. It's green. You put it on your table and pull out another piece. This one is red, completely unrelated to the green one. The next piece is different. It has a straight edge and the next one is straight edged and green, like the first piece. Eventually some pieces look similar and you pile them together. Some pieces start to fit together and you can see part of the picture. And finally, after hours of work, you can see the whole thing and you stand back and admire it. Maybe you seal it up and hang it in a frame on your wall to beautify your office.

That's how learning works. You read one book, a website, an article, or a magazine. You watch a tv program, talk to a relative, see a movie, or listen to concert. You visit an amusement park, a museum, or a park. You play a game. All of these things seem completely unrelated but your brain sorts information like pieces of a puzzle. You start to see how parts of one thing can be related to another and you begin to put them together and see parts of the picture, the real story. And after years of experiences you begin to realize that more and more pieces connect in some way. They form bigger pictures that spread out and take shape. They transform into a body of knowledge and a world view that you can keep and beautify you life with.

Everyone does this, babies, children, teens, and adults, if you let them.

Depth

I had an epiphany yesterday while listening to a lecture from my leadership class on Coursera. He was talking about seeing things from other people's point of view and it hit me.

You know how your eyes work? You see one picture with one eye and another with the other eye and your brain puts them together as one and gives us depth. It similar with different people's point of view. Everyone has their own point of view, how they see the world, and it is influenced by the way they were raised, their education, their culture, etc. Each person's view is completely valid and real to them. They each have something to add.

So I have my point of view and if I reach out and validate another persons point of view, my brain combines the two into one picture and I have a depth of understanding in this world. The more people you connect with and reach out to understand, the deeper your understanding goes.

Just like your eyes, even people who live and operate very close to you have a slightly different take on things that, if you connect with them, can change your depth perception of reality.

If more people could come to the realization that everyone has their own story to tell and that everyone has their very own point of view that is completely real, valid, and influences their decisions, there would be a lot more peace in this world.

Thoughts on "Equal Protection"

We need to stop and think about "Do unto others as you would have them do to you."

One person sues a business because they won't print their shirts for a gay pride parade. The business says they believe that homosexuality is against their religion and they do not want to support that act.

First of all, why would you (the person wanting the shirts printed) want to give your money to a business that thinks you are morally wrong. You think they are wrong. Why do you want to force them to take your money?


When this is turned around, will you want to be forced to serve someone? Will a black shop owner want to print the flyers for a "white pride" event? Will a gay baker want to make a cake for the church event that helps young men suppress their homosexual tendencies?

If we have equal protection in this country, doesn't it stand to reason that these cases will turn out the same way?

Equal protection "under the law" applies to the state, not individuals. I believe I have the right to serve or not serve whom I please, regardless of my reasons, but the state cannot make laws that treat one group of people different than another.

So the court ruling the religious baker bake the cake for the gay wedding has to rule that the gay baker bake the cake for the religious meeting, right? But in my opinion, they shouldn't be ruling on this at all.

Some good ones from "On Liberty" by John Stuart Mill

From Chapter 2, Of the Liberty of Thought and Discussion

"If all mankind minus one were of one opinion, and only one person were of the contrary opinion, mankind would be no more justified in silencing that one person, than he, if he had the power, would be justified in silencing mankind."

On silencing opinions, "If the opinion is right, they are deprived of the opportunity of exchanging error for truth: if wrong, they lose, what is almost as great a benefit, the clearer perception and livelier impression of trough, produced by its collision with error."

How about those quotes? It's something I've been working on myself. When I see an article that I disagree with, I should read it and try to see their point of view. It may be wrong or right, but I need to really know it to decide.

"Judgement is given to men that they may use it. Because it may be used erroneously, are men to be told that they ought not to use it at all?"

This one made me think of the way we are raising our kids. I think we need to help our kids use their judgement, not judge for them. The only way to become better at making choices is to exercise your judgement. I know most people raise their kids making almost all choices for them until they are adults because they may make bad judgements. Don't you think that is dangerous? Wouldn't it be better for people to let kids make choices when they are younger, when they have the safety net and advice of a trusted adult? 

Thoughts from my Constitution Class Reading

"Give me the liberty to know, to utter, and to argue freely according to conscience, above all liberties." - John Milton

And from my text book Chapter 6, "These cases, however, gradually introduced a new perspective on the value of free speech in a democracy, namely, the belief that truth is best reached by the free trade of ideas." (emphasis mine)

Free speech. The First Amendment to the Constitution. I didn't realize how much the idea of what free speech is has changed over the last 200 years. And dramatically over the last 80 years. One of my thoughts as I read the last line quoted above was, "Of course truth is best reached by the free trade of ideas!" I guess it is a matter of how you view government.

If you believe government is created to guide and protect the people, to control and move the people in better directions, then the free trade of ideas would be very bad. People may sway other people to follow them, or change the way they feel about something the government (in its infinite wisdom) is doing.

If you believe government is created to serve the people, then the free trade of ideas is very good. The people themselves need to bat around new ideas to see if they stand up to criticism. They may be better than what we have now and make us stronger. We could try on some new ideas for a while but find them unhelpful and discard them. But it is up to the people themselves.

And as for John Milton's quote, well, I think people generally don't want this anymore. They may want to know truth, but they don't want to work towards it. They want it handed to them by someone else. It doesn't work that way. Truth and enlightenment should be one of our first goals in life, not something we try to get to if we have time after the dishes, the tv show, or baseball game. Is that just me?