How to Learn Through Ignorance
Also Titled: God, Assumptions & Opportunity Part 2
This is a continuation of my last post which talked about the necessity of understanding the evolution of our bodies to gain greater insight regarding our function within the Franklin Method®.
I’m Catholic which means my kids are Catholic which means my kids attend Catholic school. Okay, that last part isn’t necessarily a given, but they do, in fact, go to a Catholic school at which their father is the principal (It gets worse. He’s also their math teacher.). While studying my first year of FM, I wasted no time volunteering my time to their classes so I could try out my new imagery skills on young minds that haven’t begun to shy away from letting their imaginations run wild. Plus, teaching kids embodiment skills before they develop chronic problems would be a good thing, no? If you ever have the opportunity to teach kids, I highly recommend it. They are so refreshing and will challenge your teaching skills in the best way! I learned so much from them.
Afterwards, I had several colleagues stunned that I could teach FM in a Catholic school which surprised me because it never occurred to me that I couldn’t. It was the subject of evolution that triggered their cause for concern, but I believe making assumptions about students or potential students, can lead to missed opportunities for growth on both sides. My mother has worked in sales my entire life and I’ve heard her say umpteen times,
“Never prejudge who will or who won’t be a potential customer because people will always surprise you.”
So, how do we override our assumptions? What if we feigned ignorance? The word comes from Latin meaning “not knowing”, so what if we pretend not to know what we think we know about our students so we can actually get to know each other (and ourselves) better? (This is getting pretty deep, now, huh?)
My point?
If we, as instructors, hope for people to open their minds to the reality that their bodies have and will continue to evolve, then I have equal hope that we can open our minds to the reality that everything isn’t always as we assume it to be. If not, then we will miss so many opportunities to be surprised.
I don’t know about you, but I love surprises!
Great article! in my work I’m always trying to help students leave that door of possibility open- just a even a crack. They sometimes come with such limiting beliefs-that if, I as teacher, can express the notion, that I believe they could possibly do “it” -then many times they catch the belief and amazing things happen!
Laurette Ryan
October 11, 2010
Sometimes our greatest challenge is helping clients overcome their “limiting beliefs” so those amazing things can happen.
Gini Martinez
October 12, 2010