Learning is a Metaphysical Activity
I attended a lecture by Buckminster Fuller last night. Of course, Bucky passed on many years ago, so it was an actor giving the lecture, but it was very real. Enlightening and enlivening.
We traveled through notions of time and space, which amounted to infinite cycles and angles. We engaged in a scientific theory that innovation, combined with compassion, can build a world where everyone has their needs met, making war obsolete.
As an educator, the most powerful “ah ha” concept of the whole evening was actually a validation: Learning is a metaphysical activity. You may ask what makes learning a metaphysical activity? Bucky would retort, “Can you see it?”
Why do I call this a “validation?” Because I work at a school that was founded by sufis, by mystics. Rainbow was founded with the belief that there is much more to life than what we can see and prove in the material realm. Learning is far more than a fact that can be quantifiably recorded with testing data. Material data can barely scrape the surface of what goes on internally. When I say we can’t actually see learning, understand that we can see artifacts of learning — student work on walls, presentations, and of course test score data, but the actual act of learning is invisible. Thus, metaphysical. There is something magical about learning.
At Rainbow, learning has always been recognized as a sacred activity. It stirs our soul because we can’t actually see it — yet we can we can feel it, we can enhance it, and best of all — we can share it. It provides fellowship and brings together our whole community. Learning provides passion and purpose in our lives. Many wise people have claimed that the whole purpose of life is to learn.
If life is infinite, then learning if infinite. The very concept of Pi could be seen as simple proof that infinity exists — it has no end, which is precisely why it is round and goes on forever. If we try to concretely quantify Pi — if we cut off Pi at 3.14– it is no longer truly round or infinite. If learning really is infinite, neither a school, nor a teacher, nor a politician, should ever box it up, or limit it: The act of quantifying learning can certainly be useful and necessary, but it quickly runs into diminishing returns. Bucky’s legacy motto is: “Do more with less.” So rather than spending more time and more precious resources on testing, let’s DO MORE.
~Thank you to Black Mountain College Museum for hosting the inspiring play R. Buckminister Fuller: The History and Mystery of the Universe, by D.W. Jacobs, and brilliantly acted by David Novak.
“Every child has an enormous drive to demonstrate competence. If humans are not required to earn a living to be provided survival needs, many are going to want very much to be productive, but not at those tasks they did not choose to do but were forced to accept in order to earn money. Instead, humans will spontaneously take upon themselves those tasks that world society really needs to have done.” ~R. Buckminster Fuller.
For more great Fuller quotes, http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Buckminster_Fuller
