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| The 4 Rs of Learning – Reading, wRiting, aRithmatic, and Reason. |
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Teaching “Common Sense” in our Schools and Homes… Who among us believes that they don’t possess good “common sense”? Most of us believe we have it – but when you compare this belief to social statistics like a 50% divorce rate, choking personal debt loads, and record personal unhappiness – I could easily make a case to say that most of us don’t possess good common sense at all. For purposes of this discussion, I’ll leave more "difficult" social problems like poverty, hunger, abortion, and others out of the mix. We'll look at these really “tough” issues again later ... If you were to ask your kids, neighbours, friends, whoever - to explain What is “common sense”?, the only consistency you are going to hear is that no two answers are going to sound the same. This inconsistency will probably be the only consistently.
Part of the problem is that few or none of us were ever took a “Common Sense” course in school. Maybe our parents tried; Maybe teachers conveyed moral lessons and proposed appropriate responses - you know; like – thou shalt not steal; thou shalt not covet they neighbour’s wife, and so on. The limitation in this teaching approach is that life - throws a heck of a lot more than 10 problem scenarios at us. To meet all of life’s challenges with “common sense” decisions, we need a framework or an approach that we can use for any situation - and we must be able to easily teach our kids the same consistent approach as well.
And here's the thing, dear reader, teaching common sense is easy. Here are a couple of examples: Exercise 1Imagine that life has presented you with a difficult choice - to travel or to finish your College degree - as an example. Or maybe your must choose between marrying a simple plumber for love - or marrying a wealthy suitor, who will make life stable and secure for you and your children, but whom you don't love. Whatever your own example choice is, now try this exercise.
Picture yourself near the end of your long and full life – say at age 99 – and sitting on a porch in some very comfortable rocking chair. Maybe you are looking out on a beautiful sunset; or perhaps you are watching a warm sun-shower. Now look back on your life - and ask – I surely am glad that I made a decision to: “ Now – at the age of 99, when competitions seem pointless and important things seem so clear, are you going to be most proud of yourself to have:
Or – are you more likely going to be proud that you…
Now - not every answer is going to be the same for every individual - you might not think that going to your death-bed without a few "zanny" acts constitutes much of a life at all. You might regard travel as a priority first - and then education - and maybe both are important to you.
Maybe living a lifetime in one place just doesn't measure up to your idea of a life full-lived - and I think you get the idea.
Whatever question that life presents, this is a great way to size up your choices and to decide how you are going to best proceed.
That's just exercise one and I could easily fill a semester with exercise after exercise - so why don’t more of us do it? Why don’t we teach “Common Sense 101” to all of our kids in a consistent and repeatable way? Here are a couple of possible reasons why :
1) We can’t agree on a Curriculum.Building concensus in a crowd is difficult. Relatively few people actually possess a really good, repeatable, and trainable approach to teaching common sense; fewer still are able to apply it fully in day-to-day life; and these really smart, gifted people probably have more sense than to want to deal with the skewed mentality that drives modern committee thinking.
Members of most elected, "captainless" committees for example, cast votes in return for favours from a sponsor. Few cast their decisions based solely on personal beliefs or preference – and those that do will soon find themselves expelled from the outcome-winning majority because they haven’t "banked enough favours”. Democracy is great until you need a tough decision made in a hurry – and then you can trust most modern committees to grind (in all of its meanings) out a less than common-sense solution – in a less than timely fashion. This is the reason militaries have insisted that every team have a captain for millenia. Add to the mix that we are discussing your child’s education - and personal emotions will tend to run higher than pragmatic thought, planning, or implementation. You can’t tell a mother that you know what’s better for her child – it just won’t work for her on an emotional level. Strangely, we will listen to medical doctors – Doctor Spock was a "baby expert" whose kids turned out to be basket-cases - but a huge percentage of 1960s mothers followed his books to the letter. In the middle-ages, “rich” Mothers would permit physicians to blood-let their feverish children. But I digress... 2) The “Powers that Be” don’t want it …No self respecting “Powers that Be” want the masses to become too self-aware. Why? We might figure out that its all of us that keep them in a position of authority and luxury after all. We might keep a “Powers that Be” in their post through our vote or through our spending habits – but in the end, it’s the masses of a society that keep them rich. What do you think would become of the credit card industry if each of us repaid every dollar spent every month on time and as requested? What would be the affect on the leasing industry if we all tucked away money for our next new car purchase each month? Catastrophic – I suspect. Good lord – imagine the havoc wreaked upon the elite “Powers that Be” in an entire society of people that conducted themselves in a common sense manner! E-gad - I've digressed again … Other Reasons ...Maybe you can add a couple of reasons of your own here – but none of these should deter us from teaching the 4Rs of Reading, wRiting, aRithmatic, and Reason to our kids; nor distract us from applying them in our own lives. Next StepsTake action: Whether you feel justified in insisting that a “Common Sense” course be added to your child’s course load – or just start working with them at home. I don’t know what the best age to start learning common sense is – but we'll need a refresher every four or five years. I’m not a “learned scholar” with Ivy League credentials; I’m a working father with five great teenage kids. But I could fill a course with enough exercises to make the world act with a little more common sense. I’ll leave you with just one other Common Sense "Curriculum” idea – after that you are going to have to post your own curriculum – and we’ll run it here at Air Car for you. Exercise 2My father’s simple wisdom – is truer today than it ever was in his day. Believe nothing you Hear; Believe half of what you Read; Believe everything you See
I could devote at least a week of curriculum to this core wisdom easily – in examples, explanations, group discussion and role playing.
Have fun with this... because it really could lead an important social change. Add this page to your favorite Social Bookmarking websites              |