Insecurity => creativity?? LO10639

Robert Bacal (dbt359@freenet.mb.ca)
Mon, 21 Oct 1996 23:00:17 -0500 (CDT)

Replying to LO10626 --

On Mon, 21 Oct 1996, GSCHERL wrote:

> I think this one statement summarizes what our whole drive in learning
> or developing is all about. If we weren't interested in changing our
> position in life, we wouldn't want to learn, we wouldn't want to
> risk, we wouldn't want to take chances.

I have to disagree with this, at least as a generalization. I don't know
anyone that doesn't want to learn...and much learning occurs without any
reasonable expectation of instrumentality (eg. something that could change
our position in life. I think the perspective that people learn only to
obtain some result cheapens the notion of learning, and is a symptom of
our society's switch to instrumentalism. The shifts in university focus
from learning to employment, I think, is a reflection of this belief, and
one that is, IMHO, quite scary.

> A majority of people are so insecure, they are afraid to risk
> anything...they lose themselves in the television, or fiction and do
> not seek to 'change' their lives in any way. So maybe insecurity
> doesn't lead to creativity. It can lead to risk-avoidance.

I wonder if you are placing a value judgment on certain kinds of learning.
I personally "learn" something doing almost anything. I watched the world
series game (and lost myself in it), and learned something about how
pitchers pitch. I watched Married With Children, and reflected, and
learned, and ruminated on the meaning of that show.

I don't think we can define learning (and whether it is occuring) by
looking at the overt actions of anybody. It is after all, internal.

Robert Bacal - CEO, Institute For Cooperative Communication
Internet Address - dbt359@freenet.mb.ca
Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada. (204) 888-9290
Join us at our Resource Centre at: http://www.winnipeg.freenet.mb.ca/~dbt359

-- 

Robert Bacal <dbt359@freenet.mb.ca>

Learning-org -- An Internet Dialog on Learning Organizations For info: <rkarash@karash.com> -or- <http://world.std.com/~lo/>