99 lines
4.6 KiB
Plaintext
99 lines
4.6 KiB
Plaintext
[This article appeared in a thread on categorizing magick on the
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newsgroup alt.magick. It contains some useful information on how
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people percieve and categorize various phenomenon -- Amythyst]
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The recent discussions of nlp and education bring to mind an issue
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having to do with learning which I believe is pertinent to magick.
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Formal magick is a largely literate/intellectual art, as we
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discuss it. There is a great deal of pooh-poohing of non-literate
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traditions from some quarters, and the entire focus of some people
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on magick as science comes from a western academic tradition. No
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problem with this -- but it is only one view.
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As Leo (I think) said recently (reminding me of Idries Shah...) a
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large part of his study is 'learning how to learn.'
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In my experience working as (among other aspects of my job[s]) a
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computer trainer, I have found that people learn in very different
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styles. I ask for the tolerance of the psych and ed people out
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there, since I haven't studied this formally...
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I have a taxonomy of learning styles which is not complete, nor is
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each category exclusive. But I find that people tend to be
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oriented towards one of three styles of learning:
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Think -- study first, do later, integrate somewhere in the
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process
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Feel -- conceptualize and integrate, then do and study
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Do -- play with and do things, study, and then integrate
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Most academic types are Thinks. These are people who find it easy
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to learn by 'reading the book/manual.' Many hackers are Do/Think
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types; they can study, but they often prefer to play with the
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system and experiment as a preferred path of learning about it.
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Feels are the people for whom it is most important that they
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realize the importance and meaning of a skill before they attempt
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to begin to acquire it. These people often need to feel inspired
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before they enter into a new enterprise -- at which point they are
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often immersed to the point of obsession...
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I was once commissioned as a consultant to teach the manager of a
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small non-profit organization (male) to teach him and his
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secretary (female) basic DOS literacy, and how to use Lotus 123 (a
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spreadsheet, for those who, like me, prefer not to travel in DOS
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circles...;). "Be gentle with Sarah, though," he advised me.
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"She's kind of a dummy about computers."
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When I arrived to teach these folks I noticed that I would explain
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something, demonstrate it on the machine, and John would get it
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straight off. Then Sarah would have to ask, "Could you tell me
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about this again?" So I would go thru it again, while John stood
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behind Sarah shaking his head privately at me as if to say "I told
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you so...!" I found this more than a little patronizing, since
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Sarah seemed to be picking up more detail, really, than John...
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So, the next thing I had to show, I said, "Watch this." And I
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performed a task. Then I explained what I just did. Sarah caught
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on immediately (she was more of a Do). John had to say, "Could
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you show me that again?"
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I confess, I spent the rest of the session adapting my teaching to
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Sarah's learning style (show, explain, then allow her to replicate
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what I did). It was clear that she was the one who would be doing
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most of the work on the computer anyway. I suspect that John is
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mystified to this *day* as to what might have been going on, that
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he suddenly had so much trouble, and Sarah's IQ had seemingly gone
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up so quickly.
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Sarah, on the other hand, whether she picked up on the mechanism
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or not, appreciated the attention, and when I saw her months
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later, thanked me again for making her 'feel better about the
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damnable machine.'
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The point of this is that many of us deal better in a learning
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environment where we can *see* and *do* things with others, rather
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than try to get them from books. This does not reflect on a
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person's relative intelligence, but rather on their adaptability
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to academic culture, if anything.
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I personally consider myself to be a Feel/Think, in this system,
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and it is important to me to be able to integrate systems as I
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learn them. One of the best ways for me to do this is to be able
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to find a person with whom I can relate closely to teach me. Once
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I learn something, I can teach it to just about anyone, although I
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might not be able to express it in words for an arbitrary (to me,
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impersonal) audience.
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Shamanic traditions, for example, are very Do/Feel in orientation,
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I think.
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Just a few ideas to cast into the fray...!
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--
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Shava Nerad Averett shava_averett@unc.edu
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/* all materials (c)1992, Shava Nerad Averett, and have nothing
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significant to do with the University of North Carolina, a
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mostly owned subsidiary of the NC Legislature, a mostly owned
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subsidiary of the DOT. */
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