Liberal Arts Blog — Periodic Summary — The Math, Joys, Ethics, Hippocrates, Thinking Citizenship
Liberal Arts Blog — Sunday is the Joy of Humor, Food, Travel, Practical Life Tips, and Miscellaneous Day
Today’s Topic: Periodic Summary — the Math, Joys, Ethics, Hippocrates, Thinking Citizenship
Do you regularly take time to digest what you have learned about x over period y? If so, please share an example from any field. Today, I have decided to distill what I have learned about learning itself over the last seventy one years. The distillate consists of a simple mathematical model and four applications.
Experts — please chime in. Correct, elaborate, elucidate.
SIMPLICITY AND COMPLETENESS — the rule of seven, the rule of three, the rule of one
1. Seven is the outer limit of human memory and processing ability.
2. Three is a more realistic, practical limit.
3. Much of the time even remembering one thing is a stretch for most of us.
NB: But anything worth studying has an infinity of things to say about it that in fact have already been said over the last 10,000 years.
The job of the world’s educational system is about distilling and prioritizing the seven most important things a student should learn at every stage of development about each of the seven joys of life.
THE SEVEN JOYS CURRICULUM FOR LIFE — at home, in schools, in communities
1. All curricula are not created equal. Seven is the outer limit for subjects. How to be as simple but as complete a list as possible?
2. Music, art, sports, math, literature, science, and miscellaneous (humor, food, travel) are my best shot at a reasonably balanced but complete curriculum.
3. How convenient that every week has seven days! Each day can get its own joy!
NB: The standardization of a global curriculum maximizes the opportunity for the shared joy of learning with anyone you meet of any age anywhere.
There is no human who does not get deep joy from at least one of these seven. There is no parent who knows from the outset which of these seven joys will thrill any specific child the most. Best to model an omnivorous hunger for joy to maximize the odds of enlivening the spirit of joy in any specific child.
Best to redefine every family evening meal as a chance to share with each other member of the family what each learned related to the joy of the day!
Remember: school is at most a third of the learning equation.
THE SEVEN LIFE ALGORITHMS — the heart of it all (used to be called virtues)
1. Gratitude (aka Big Love) is “not only the first of the virtues but the parent of all the others.” If you are not thankful, you are not going to be nice. The lesson of both the stories of Adam and Eve and Cain and Abel.
2. Without courage, you will not be true to any other principle. Without prudence you will not survive to live another day to be true to whatever that principle is.
3. Diligence means hard work. Excellence means constant self-improvement or what the Japanese call “kaizen.”
NB: The fire of curiosity must be kept burning because in the game of life the fastest learner wins. And joy is a fancy word for fun. If it’s not fun, you’ll get bored and stop learning. Each day has a new joy. Yet continuity is key to depth of joy. So each day has both novelty and continuity.
THE BEST PARAGRAPH EVER WRITTEN BECAUSE OF UNIVERSAL APPLICABILITY, COMPLETENESS, AND SIMPLICITY
1. These are the first two aphorisms of Hippocrates: Art is long, but life is short, the opportunity fleeting, experience delusive, judgment therefore difficult. The physician must not only do the right thing himself but make sure the patient, the attendants, and the externals cooperate.
2. Life is a tissue of decisions. You are the physician. The scalpel and the pill box are in your hands.
3. How are you going to get the patient, the attendants, and the externals on the same page?
NB: Have you even identified who they are?
THINKING CITIZENSHIP — have you completed your Principles, Facts, and Solutions test yet? for each of the seven issues so important they should influence your decision? what are you waiting for 2028? 2032? 2036?
1. Seven issues: foreign policy, economic policy, climate change, health care, education, justice, political process reform.
2. Remember the 10,000 rule — do you think being a thinking citizen is easier than being a decent athlete or musician? are you insane?
3. Remember that a high IQ is no substitute for doing your homework.
NB: Have you had the courage to publish your “Orion” or seven-sentence digest of your opinion on controversial topic x? If not, have you really done your homework? If not you, who? If not now, when?
QUOTE OF THE MONTH
“Make your own Bible. Select and collect all the words and sentences that in all your readings have been to you like the blast of a trumpet.”
- Ralph Waldo Emerson
My spin — then periodically review, re-rank, and exchange your list with those you love. I call this the “Orion Exchange” because seven is about as many as any human can digest at a time. Game?
LAST FOUR YEARS OF POSTS ORGANIZED THEMATICALLY:
PDF with headlines — Google Drive
ATTACHMENTS BELOW:
#1 A graphic guide to justice (9 metaphors on one page).
#2 “39 Songs, Prayers, and Poems: the Keys to the Hearts of Seven Billion People” — Adams House Senior Common Room Presentation, (11/17/20)
NB: Palestine Orion (Decision) — let’s exchange Orions, let’s find Rumi’s field (“Beyond all ideas of right and wrong, there is a field. Meet me there” Rumi, 13 century Persian Sufi mystic)
YOUR TURN
Anything miscellaneous to share? Best trip you ever took in your life? Practical life tips? Random facts? Jokes?
Or, what is the best cartoon you have seen lately? or in the last 10 years? or the last 50?
Or what is your favorite holiday food? Main course? Dessert? Fondest food memories? Favorite foods to eat or prepare?
This is your chance to make someone else’s day. Or to cement in your mind a memory that might otherwise disappear. Or to think more deeply about something dear to your heart. Continuity is key to depth of thought.
