Major Themes in Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance
One of the Cambridge learner attributes is 'engaged.' Robert Pirsig's book 'Zen and the art of Motorcycle maintenance' has a lot to say about high quality engagement, indeed the main idea he presents is that this is the hole-and-corner to a fulfilled life. What lessons does this hold for schools?
Co-ordinate to Pirsig beingness engaged is a necessary condition for excellence. The feeling of beingness a subject area separate from an object disappears when nosotros are profoundly absorbed in what we are doing. Pirsig uses the term 'quality' to depict an experience that he likens to the original meaning of the aboriginal Greek concept of arête. Roughly translated, arête is the human action of living up to one'south full potential through date, virtue, and wisdom.
Individuals can most hands discover quality in areas of their passions and talents. Examples might include solving a mathematical problem, overcoming technical or business challenges, making a team work well together or diagnosing and treating illness. For others creating art or music, experiencing the improved well-being of others through service or climbing a new technical road on a mountain might be the stimulus. Sportspeople sometimes refer to the experience of engaged effortless perfection every bit 'flow' or 'existence in the zone.'
Those who live a life of quality strive for arête in all they exercise and realize their full potential in the process. Helping individuals to practise this, in my stance, is what distinguishes the truly excellent schools and teachers. While it is hard to maintain arête in all of life's challenges, I believe it is possible to nurture habits and approaches to learning that back up it.
The opposite of this high-quality experience– poor engagement is what Pirsig describes as a gumption trap. Pirsig gives the instance of a friend who loves riding his motorcycle and has high-quality experiences doing so, but he gets very upset and impatient when it breaks down. He does not have the mindset and values needed to appoint with motorcycle maintenance and he volition never solve the trouble until he accepts this and deals with his values.
Being in a gumption trap becomes a large problem when a lack of engagement becomes our default state of living. We go through the motions of living and experience tolerable colorlessness at best. We work on automatic. For many people, this becomes the default country of their working lives. Psychologists sometimes call this learned helplessness and it is condign endemic in the modern earth. We demand to assist immature people sympathize when they are in a gumption trap and how to become out.
What are the implications for schools? Here are some ideas:
In the words of Chris Watkins, have a learning rather than a operation orientation where the focus is on learning well rather than looking good. This is inherently more engaging and volition also meliorate bookish results.
Focus on understanding values as these are the basis for graphic symbol. While virtually every school and educational organization identifies character traits that information technology wants to develop, many struggle with making these real in the solar day-to-solar day lives of learners, teachers and parents.
At Cambridge International, nosotros talk about the learner attributes of being confident, responsible, reflective, innovative and engaged. In order to mean anything these must be modelled past teachers, class the basis for all approaches to teaching and learning and be embedded in school practise. Parents demand to learn to understand and back up them. Encounter the Guide to Developing the Cambridge Learner Attributes for ideas
Students need to develop metacognitive cocky-sensation and self-regulation so they are able to see when they are getting into a gumption trap and know how to become out of it.
Excellence requires persistence and purposeful practice only it likewise requires inspiration, claiming and ambition. Too oft expectations for students are as well low. In the words of Kurt Hahn: "In that location is more in us than we know. If we can be fabricated to see it, perchance for the rest of our lives we will be unwilling to settle for less."
This blog is part of a series looking at the Cambridge learner attributes. See likewise: Nurturing confident and compassionate learners – what schools can do.
Source: https://blog.cambridgeinternational.org/lessons-from-zen-and-the-art-of-motorcycle-maintenance-on-the-importance-of-engagement/
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