Mental Self-Improvement

[Navarre]

I was originally going to create a single, general self-improvement thread. But the number of factors that come into play with such a thing are so vast that it seemed likely the thread would be too disorganized. So I have broken the concept down into four categories: Physical (exercise/nutrition & appearance), Mental, and Spiritual.

This thread concerns the development of our minds; our intellect and reasoning capability.

I had read somewhere once that all of these geniuses on Jeopardy have one thing in common: They read...a lot.

I too am capable of reading. I am literate, good for me. But I read little. And, if I do read, it is a comic book.

It seems perhaps we take our mental potential for granted. While there are far better things to do with our days than study with our nose in a book, advancing our ability to understand the world and all that comprises it would be to our advantage.

Take children for example. Around age 3 their minds are at the most active stage of their entire life. They learn language and facts and the connections between things at an astounding rate.

Yet, most children are dropped in front of a television (even if it has Sesame Street on it) and that's that. My own daughter has what seems to be a phenomenal memory and a great deal of intellectual potential but unfortunately can name plenty of pop singers but very few countries (let alone find them on a map).

While I don't assert that we should all become a group of Vulcans, I do wonder why we don't spend more of our mental effort learning about a skill (eg, how our car works) or an art (eg, the techniques of photography) or a language or any of those other things that would enrich us.

Thoughts?

[Blackthunder01]

I don't think we spend our time learning trades over gossip because gossip triggers pleasure in our heads where a trade/skill is for survival's benifit.  What good is a survival skill in a world where survival is made so easy for us?  People would rather be happy most of the time so they choose to be.  People only tend to focus on survival skills when their survival is challenged.

[Gaumer]

I love learning. I honestly think that the main problem with the education system in America is that education is seen as a chore and something that will be over at some point. "I can't until I get to High School"; "I can't wait until I graduate". That's so silly and dangerous, because when people feel that they do not need to learn anymore they feel they know everything and become almost arrogant in a "Know-it-all" sort of way.

I cook. I do the majority of my own car repairs and maintenance. I like to know stuff about what I am doing, whatever it is. I feel that knowledge is power and I don't like feeling that someone has something over me, when I can help that to not happen, simply be reading a bit. I love to read!

As far as kids and education goes, I force my oldest son to read certain things he rather wouldn't and use learning websites, anything from traditional study websites to places like Alice.org, but I also know that, right now, my son's goal in life is to be a sports broadcaster (Ok he wants to be Gorilla Monsoon circa 1984 but...) so I want him to study that. That means watching old Saturday Night Main Event videos, and studying Chris Berman's tone and pace. I think that's one of the best things about the internet: we can study what we want right when we want to study it.

Just like exercise, learning becomes a habit that, may not be the easiest thing to do, requiring some amount of effort, but its just as worthwhile, and maybe even more so.

[Navarre]

I think you are right in that we must chose to better ourselves. Self-Improvement always requires two things: The tools to do so and hard work. The hard work comes from motivation for achieving the goal and this is where most people falter.

[@lantis]

It is a lack of curiosity as a society that really kills learning.  Number one complaint in school "why do we have to learn this?"  That question doesn't reflect a lack of desire to learn, it reflects a lack reasons to learn.  If they were naturally curious the reason would be to discover something new and that would be good enough.  Our society doesn't foster that sort of curiosity any more.

When I was younger I read a decent amount, but I also watched a lot of television.  I would watch a lot of Discovery Channel programs.  That is what made me curious.  I saw all these cool animals and I wanted to know more about them, which is what led me to books.  Then I saw Wishbone (hands down one of the best educational shows for children IMO) and I wanted to read some of the stories he talked about.

The reason why I did those things is because my parents never shut down my questioning when I was really little.  I would ask them about something and they would always answer.  A lot of children get shut down during that stage of development because the parent gets tired of answering questions and teaches the child to stop asking them.

[Navarre]

I think there is a lot to that. Children are naturally curious. It's how they learn.

What parents and the schools do with that curiosity has a lot to do with how the child develops as an active learner. Most classes are not conducive to active learning, only remembering what is necessary to pass an exam.

As children start to realize this is the process, they question why they are learning something they are not using. But after a while, they also learn to just roll with the system and stop asking...and thus the negative outcome we are discussing.

[@lantis]

What parents and the schools do with that curiosity has a lot to do with how the child develops as an active learner. Most classes are not conducive to active learning, only remembering what is necessary to pass an exam.

The current movement in the education field is actually fixing that problem.  Constructivist teaching methods utilize children learning through discovery and inquiry instead of memorization.  Only problem is that most of the teachers who are currently in schools were teaching before this was the dominant philosophy and many (not all) are reluctant to change their ways.

[Navarre]

That has been what I have heard. I suspect that is completely true.

Hopefully, if nothing else, the current generation of Education majors will be taught to think differently about this, despite the decades of rote-learning they have had to endure until now.

[@lantis]

Speaking from experience I can say that at least in my state they are.  Now if only the union didn't protect the old guard and would let us get hired in their place.

[Navarre]

As with the other self-improvement threads, a lot of how we end up as people has to do with how we are taught to think about a specific thing. If the educational system is reforming what it is teaching to its teachers then hopefully the inevitable result will be a passing of the old ways and the institution of the new.

This alone would have a profound impact on what is being addressed in this thread when it comes to people developing (or perhaps sustaining) an innate desire to learn. I guess the question is how quickly that might happen.

[@lantis]

Kind of.  The change in thinking is only one piece of a very complex puzzle that makes up the education system.  The desired objectives, the parental philosophy of the country, the societal stigma of intellectuals, curriculum, and many other factors still kill learning in this country.

[Navarre]

There is no argument there either. It is hard to understand how a nation can look at educational systems in other countries that they know work and, instead of adapting them as best fits our culture, find excuses for why it could not work. Part of that is resistance to change, part is continued ignorance, and part of it is pride. There is also a healthy dose of fear there.

So, perhaps slightly more on-topic, it seems it comes down to us as individuals to form our own goals and focus on them regardless of how we have been taught to think.

For example, although I took a typing class in 1984 (10th grade) I still hunt & peck after all these years. That is ridiculous. There is nothing stopping me from practicing typing. I know where all the keys are, I simply don't stop to practice.

My excuse is that it will slow me down even further while I am learning even though the end result is better. I tell myself that I don't have time to correct the numerous typos while I improve. After all, I have forum posts to make. heh heh

But those are excuses and nothing else. Realistically, I am being too lazy to push myself in an area of mental improvement even though I know it would be to my benefit. And there is no excuse for that kind of behavior.

[SpiderLover]

The state of learning is a funny thing. We learn all the time just a different type of learning. Think of it in terms of people. I've learned that Navarre is a captain America fan and Gaumer likes Wolverine. Is this important? It's all relative.also it's what you are exposed too.

In my classes it comes down to wanting to learn. I learned SQL and java, but I know enough of business systems to pass a class.

[Navarre]

Sure, if you feel intellectually satisfied knowing Steve Rogers is the best hero in all of comics (because I said so) then that works. We have to decide for ourselves what we feel is sufficient.

But I feel irritated with myself sometimes knowing I am not living up to anything close to my intellectual potential because I instead spend my time playing D&D and posting like this is the last chance I'll ever get.

Playing D&D and posting is fulfilling to me in important ways even if it isn't challenging anything more than my creativity. So it has its place, just as more cerebral matters should.

I would think for most people, like in all things, it should be a matter of balance.

[@lantis]

There was an interesting article in Newsweek a few weeks ago (when I was getting a haircut so it could be much older) about the physical process of learning.  I didn't get a chance to finish it, but it pretty much said that we have no idea how people learn.  It is only recently that we've started actually being able to map the physical processes of how anything gets learned by the brain.

The interesting part about this article was the counter intuitive nature of the initial results.  We learn things best which we have no innate talent in.  More precisely, it is more difficult for us to learn something we are already good at.