In my 60-odd years on this planet, I've periodically been asked why I haven't chosen to be a teacher and to teach workshops… typically in the area of self-development, psychology and spirituality.
Not the Right Person...
My reply has typically been — and continues to be — that my teaching and lifestyle doesn't really lend itself well to effective teaching. Specifically, I'm not good at pounding any idea into somebody's head — nor do I have a passion for doing so — I prefer to just ”do what I do” and do it right, in the hope that those who feel inspired will subsequently feel inclined to follow my example.
In the context of “Thinking for Yourself” I feel pretty much the same way.
In an ideal world, it would be sufficient to simply encourage people to think for themselves by demonstrating and showing the positive outcomes of doing so and that would be enough.
For the most part, however, I tend to have steered clear have a lot of ostensible ”thinkers” because it felt to me like so many of them invariably were deeply entrenched in a sort of ”thought snobbery” that subtly — or not so subtly — seemed to involve shaming those of a lesser capacity to grasp an assortment of concepts.
Shaming Doesn't Help!
Shaming is seldom a very effective teaching tool! You might teach someone how to become avoidant but that’s not exactly the same as teaching someone how to better themselves.
I remember a friend who was all excited about introducing me to his Mensa group, back when I was living In Texas. So after considerable persuasion, I finally went along to this event — it was sometime in the mid-1990s — and ended up coming away rather disappointed in the whole thing. For my liking, it felt like there were just too many people standing around expressing various degrees of ”smugness” over their ”cleverness” and problem solving skills, while others were busy getting little ”intellectual hard-ons” by sharing how many chess strategies they had memorized.
I'm open to the possibility that this may have been an anomaly, but I'm not so sure. I'm more inclined to remember the words of a former college professor of mine: "An asshole with a big brain is still an asshole."
Yeah, But Can You FUNCTION?
To be honest, I've known a lot of really brilliant people who could create the code to fly the space shuttle, build a particle accelerator and come up with cold fusion in their basements… but wouldn't know how to cook a three course dinner, change an oil filter in their car, or grow an organic vegetable garden. And yes, I do realize there are different kinds of intelligence.
I suppose I just have issues with what I think of as ”Intellectual Exclusiveness.” it doesn't strike me that it makes the world a better place to create divisiveness between ”smart people” and ”not-so-smart people.” And yet, I have seen it so many times, from when I was in college to when I was working in the IT industry.
And no, I'm not being an apologist for idiocracy I'm just pointing out that most ”us versus them” scenarios tend to find a way to play out negatively rather than positively.
I'll end this little anecdote (or has it become a rant?) with a quick story from when I spent a few of my teen years at boarding school in the UK.
Slow Children at Play
One of the somewhat unique things they did at my school what's that they “streamed” people according to their scores when a particular entrance exam combined with their ongoing grades. The result was three primary streams — A1 to A5, B1 to B12, and C1 to C5 — with the C5’s basically representing the ”basement” in a manner of speaking.
The C5's were is the domain of one Professor d’Eath (yes, really his name; yes, many people called him “death”). A group of ”lost causes” you might think? Not so much! Dr. d’Eath consistently turned out graduating classes of students who became excellent repair people, started landscaping firms, became journeymen plumbers and electricians and so on and so forth, with the all skills needed to do just that.
The ”secret sauce” was that he excelled at teaching people to most effectively use their particular intellectual capacity to its highest possible purpose. So he would take these kids — his ”brilliant idiots” — and inspire them, and help them excel at what they ”could” do, rather than belabor and belittle them for what they could not hope to do.
And keep in mind that this was not just some intellectual exercise, this is a real world functioning example.
And it is in this example that's some of my own issues with intellectual snobbery and thought shaming has its roots. It’s peachy keeno that you’re smart as all that and a bag of chips, but what are you doing with that big brain? Are you helping the world, or are you just tearing down, without offering a better alternative?
Thanks for reading, and have a great remainder of your week!
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Created at 20210622 23:52 PDT
0282/1525