This Book is Not Required

...but I wish it was. I wish this book were assigned to me when I was in college. I am half-way through this book and the only reason I haven’t finished it is because I have much to say about it and probably should have been blogging after each chapter (the topics are great)! It is somewhat of a "living document" as it has been updated over the years with contributions from students.

Basically, the book examines “participatory” education and what the author calls “Buddhist sociology” and has some great reading and even some exercises to do. (Anyone who works in higher education - administrator, professor, everyone - should read this book.) It’s not full of citations and references, it’s incredibly readable, and will make students actually think about their education.

Here’s a brief rundown of things I’ve wanted to discuss:

Grades

I definitely agree with the premise that the grading system (particularly for young children) doesn’t really help people learn as it makes the grade the reward instead of the process of learning itself. I do have a couple points of view on this topic that I would like to share:

First of all, I am someone who has had to deal with what I will call the “perfectionism” disease, and it took me time to come to terms with the fact that I am me, not my grades. But, I think that journey was a valuable one. Yes, there may have been points in my life when I thought grade was more important than the learning, but as I’ve gotten older, I found that if I study what I love and enjoy the process, the good grades usually follow.

That said, I am coming from the perspective of someone who has generally always enjoyed school and never had any difficulties in the learning process. I think for people like me, perhaps the process of coming to terms with the fact that I am not my grades is a good lesson, but what about other students out there that may not be as naturally inclined in the academic realm for whom grades are a source of anxiety? I think grades can then start an incredibly negative cycle of self-worth and confidence in young children that should really enjoy “discovery” and “process” and feel good and excited about learning instead of living in fear of bad grades and stress from parents and teachers.

The Standardization of Education

As much as we like to discuss the diversity of the different types of colleges and universities out there, higher education is standardized. - This is not (in my opinion) a good thing. While I do enjoy college campuses (particularly older ones, like MHC), I think it’s important to understand that as “diverse” as types of colleges and universities are, the education system itself is standard. Learning takes place (generally) in classrooms. Students receive grades for their work. Academia is full of “gatekeepers.” Learning shouldn’t be confined to this format (how limiting!) and furthermore, it makes education appear so inaccessible!

Wisdom & Knowledge

Wow, I’ve got many pages in this chapter marked. Okay, so the authors compare wisdom to knowledge where knowledge is all the information thrown at us in school and wisdom is self-knowledge that involves not just the self, but the world around you. A good example from the book is the difference between studying something from a book vs. living it. The author taught a course on race relations - now you can read, and read, and read all you want and get to know all kinds of facts and opinions on the topic. Then the author brought a black activist to talk to the class. After that, the students better understood that, “Intellect alone could not fathom the phenomenon of black anger. The word is not the thing” (p. 71).

The author also talks about how students separate knowledge from wisdom and become “learned fools - people who can rattle off the ideologies of countless groups but still naively trust that their own version of truth is immutable and not to be questioned” (p. 72). Personally, I think the first topic discussed, grading, can lend itself negatively to this problem. Perhaps students think, “Well, I’m graded on the ideologies of others, I’m not graded on how this information influences me.”

Religion is discussed in this section and the author brings in some discussion of Buddhist and Hindu philosophies. While I haven’t particularly looked at my view on knowledge (or my values on a whole) from this perspective, I have to say it makes me feel quite zen. See, as time goes by, I’ve found that to be a good learner, you need to be open. And this is not just in the academic sense, but in life-learning as well. At one point in my life, I thought holding on firmly and tightly to convictions was important. -But if everyone does this, how can there be common ground? How can there be respect? How can we live together? How can we agree to disagree? It’s okay to believe what you believe. But perhaps it is more important to keep your mind open to other perspectives and other views and not just immediately shut other ideas out. It’s important to always have a critical eye - to question things - but you need to question what you know and what you think you know with as much scrutiny as you are critical of other people and unfamiliar ideas.

It’s kind of like “you can’t teach an old dog new tricks” - how sometimes teaching a beginner (let’s use playing the violin as an example) is easier than someone more advanced. It’s easier to teach a beginner from scratch how to correctly do something than it is to teach a student that has learned something incorrectly to “un-do” the incorrect way they learned to do something previously. So yes, this idea but applied to the mind - seeing things with a “beginner’s mind” - open, and fresh. Not full of what has been pounded in our brains by parents, school, and the media. Staying open. Questioning what you know. Questioning what others know.

The author advises students to not separate themselves from the process of learning and to always ask, “What can it teach me about myself?” when learning any subject. I think this is sound advice, not just for school, but for life in general.

Pursuing Wisdom in the Academy

This chapter relates similarly to the previous chapter, but gives advice to students on how they can use college to pursue wisdom, not just knowledge. Some of the main ideas here are:

You need to meet others of different views to understand that you have a view of the world (p. 86)
Internal experience combined with other peoples’ outsides lead us to misperceive the world (p. 89)
Attaining wisdom requires engagement of the senses, not just reading and writing (p. 102)

Adventures in Desocialization

This chapter offers up some activities to try to undo, or at least understand the ways we’ve been socialized. “Sociologists study this process in great detail, demonstrating how we are, completely, creatures of our culture. However, they never seem to step beyond this stage and actually try to free us from social conditioning, nor do they point out that this freedom is even possible” (p. 108). The focus of this chapter is to understand the ways we’ve been conditioned in society.

The activities are great and do focus on “The Self” - ideas we have of our “real self” and our “ideal self,” self-criticism, and expectations. I think the idea that the “real self” and “ideal self” are both illusions is interesting - as the book says, “Buddhism tells us that, to get rid of the problematic self, we need not change any aspect of it. We only need to accept what is there” (p. 115). This idea is freeing in a way. This chapter also discusses the idea of “the critical voice” as an enemy (so true) and that expectations ruin satisfaction (again, also true).

In retrospect, since reading this chapter, I honestly think I’ve been less critical of myself and I have tried to focus more on the present (though it is difficult). I have come up with my own exercise as a result of this chapter. I will call it the “apple” project. Assuming I’ve gone grocery shopping, I get an apple (occasionally a plum or nectarine) for everyday at work. Usually, I eat it, absentmindedly while I am working or playing around online. From now on, I am going to try to focus on the present while eating my fruit. Savoring the flavor, thinking about the crunch in my mouth, enjoying where I am - and occasionally eating my apple at different locations on campus, enjoying my surroundings. :)