From: Barbara Golden wrote on Wednesday, 10 February 1999 04:51
Subject: Repititions and habit
>Amazingly enough, I am energized by 26 times, as a budding new 48 year old
>musician. I have learned (so far) about
>*Effort
>*Getting past my personal barriers
>*The destructive power of assumption
>*Unfolding
>*Love (my teacher)
>*Patience
>*Teaching
>*I could go on and on.
>
>We want it FAST, we want it EASY, we want it COMFORTABLE, Nextx
In the balance between the 26 repetitions mentioned in an earlier post
(which predated Covey's rise to prominence by many years) and the desire for
things to be FAST, EASY, COMFORTABLE, a further thought comes to mind.
Older civilisations have evolved repetition (American Indian or African drum
rhythms and dances, mantras and other meditational techniques, etc.) as a
way of creating or reinforcing specific states of mind. Perhaps this is
where Barbara gets her "energy" from -- certainly what she has learned (so
far) hints at repetition creating a state of mind, a set of mental
attributes, but has it really contributed to her knowledge and enjoyment of
the music, the original motivation? (Although the endless repetition turned
me off playing classical piano, I remain a keen listener to all music and am
a better than average guitarist and song writer now -- I'm getting the
enjoyment, developing the knowledge, etc. without the repetition ...)
This discussion appears to lead back to another thread, that of "Cyberia"
and distance learning approaches. How best to teach something? John
Raulston Saul's definitions of Ants and the balance between doing and
thinking springs to mind. Repetition might be preparation for doing (habit
forming) but it will stultify thinking -- and it is arguable that thinking
is far more important today -- the pace of change makes habits less
relevant -- constructive thought as a base for new action or reaction is a
better lesson? Constructive thought might not be easy in conventional
learning environments (habit forming?) whereas it can be easier in a
'distant' setting.
I am not surprised that the Psychology department laughed at the 21
repetition suggestion: Isn't psychology, at base, the study of reactions in
response to specific stimuli? An understanding of psychology is probably
important in some settings but, at base, it appears that both 'habits' and
pre-existing mind sets disrupt accurate psychological assessment. In my
days on campus, the power of independent thought (free will?) was almost
anathema to those pysch. students among my friends.
Bevis