Values and feelings LO24592

From: AM de Lange (amdelange@gold.up.ac.za)
Date: 05/10/00


Replying to LO24569 --

Dear Organlearners,

Philip Pogson <ppogson@uts.edu.au> writes:

>Dear Dennis,
>
>Thank you for this beautiful, wise and insightful message that
>greeted me when I booted my computer this morning.
>
>I will think about it for a long time, in contrast to some of the
>more "academic" or "psuedo-academic" posts that at times
>reveal more about the sender's struggle for intellectual recognition
>by his/her peers, than of a genuine search for wisdom and
>understanding.

Greetings Philip,

How can learners distinguish between the "struggle for intellectual
recognition" and the "genuine search for wisdom and understanding"?

I believe this is a most important question to answer for the benefit of
Learning Organisations. Thus I wish I could have stopped right here with
this contribution.

I have experienced in practice that when I ask a question directly upon
what somebody had said, that this person usually feels the question had
been put to him/her so as to drive him/her personally into a corner. Once
this feeling emerges, constructive learning becomes a severe test on the
maturity of the seven essentialities. I am able argue theoretically in
terms of the Digestor model when and why this will happen.

Dear Philip, I do not wish to corner you personally with this question.
However, I have cornered myself with this question until I have succeeded
in answering it.

I think that some fellow learners will by now be able to guess my answer
to it. This distinction concerns sureness. The ability to make this
distinction will be acquired by authentic learning. Authentic learning is
an art so that it involves theory and practice. As I see it the reply of
Dennis is an excellent example of the art with overtones of practice from
which we can learn much. But let Dennis be the one to make sure about
himself.

Its one thing for a fellow learner to be able to guess my answer or to
reproduce it should I have explicated it in detail. But it is another
thing to be able TO POSE SELF and TO ANSWER SELF this question through OWN
learning.

Dear fellow learner, have you felt the question
        How can I distinguish between the "struggle for
        intellectual recognition" and the "genuine search
        for wisdom and understanding"?
burning within you before I have asked it? If yes, then I am sure
that you are learning and that you will be able to answer it self
should you not already be able to do so.

However dear fellow learner, you may have sure reasons for considering
this question as invalid and hence any answer to it as futile. In that
case I am sure that you are learning too and that we all can benefit from
your learning. This reflects my own view point. Forget my invalid
questions and crazy answers to them because your own learning through
self-contol is much more important.

My heart feels sad. Is so easy to confuse "distinguish" with "judge", even
though the outcomes are very different. To judge stops constructive
creativity, even in learning. In the abscence of mental focus it requires
using a shotgun which with its broad spray stops learning among fellows
too.

My heart also argues with my mind. Have you not now used the shotgun too?

But my mind also tells my heart: It is not LEM -- either the one or the
other. The search for wisdom and understanding even in the "struggle for
intellectual recognition" is necessary to sustain caring love.

With care and best wishes

-- 

At de Lange <amdelange@gold.up.ac.za> Snailmail: A M de Lange Gold Fields Computer Centre Faculty of Science - University of Pretoria Pretoria 0001 - Rep of South Africa

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