Recently borrowed from the Berkeley Public Library is\u00c2\u00a0 Farhad Manjoo's \u00c2\u00a0True Enough: Learning to Live in a Post-Fact Society<\/a><\/span>. \u00c2\u00a0(Wiley, 2008), \u00c2\u00a0which seduced me with the promising subtitle\u00c2\u00a0 \"learning to live in a post-fact society.\" \u00c2\u00a0I think a lot about how to\u00c2\u00a0 understand what's actually happening, how to grasp the truth, if you will. \u00c2\u00a0Almost everything I believe about the world came from sources beyond my own immediate experience; even direct experience is hardly an infallible source of knowledge. \u00c2\u00a0And though I could critically examine any given assertion for its\u00c2\u00a0 veracity, most things I have to take on trust. \u00c2\u00a0I have to build upon so many other cognitive pieces that I've already accepted (for the time being at least) to be true that most of the time I'm working more on faith and trust than on naked reason.<\/p>\n From looking at True Enough<\/em>'s \u00c2\u00a0table of contents, I surmise that most of the book is about why people believe so many divergent things, \u00c2\u00a0based on different universes of \"facts.\" \u00c2\u00a0What I'd really like to know is how not get trapped in the ruts of our well-worn ideological frames -- and secondarily, how to help others do the same. \u00c2\u00a0 \u00c2\u00a0I couldn't resist turning to the last page of the narrative to find \"Choosing means trusting some people and distrusting the rest. \u00c2\u00a0Choose wisely.\" \u00c2\u00a0OK, Mr. Manjoo: \u00c2\u00a0teach me how to \"choose wisely\" or at least how to learn how to choose wisely.<\/p>\n When I taught high school students in \u00c2\u00a0my course The Nexus of Newton and Nietzsche<\/a>, I \u00c2\u00a0placed a lot of emphasis on looking for areas of disagreement<\/em> as a way of sorting through complicated matters. \u00c2\u00a0Focus your energies on getting to the bottom of what people fight over, and you'll get some real insight. \u00c2\u00a0Now, I wonder whether I had put too emphasis on disagreement. \u00c2\u00a0We should look hard also at what everyone seems to agree upon, asking ourselves: \u00c2\u00a0\"just because everyone seems to say it's so, is it really so?\"<\/p>\n An immediate objection is \"certainly, overthrowing commonly held assumption is the stuff of revolutionary science, but will it help me with daily life?\" When you add up what people disgree about and what they seem to agree about, well, that's a lot of stuff to examine. \u00c2\u00a0 I'm still needing to define a practical methodology about where to spend my energies.<\/p>\n As I mulled over Manjoo's book, I kept thinking of a popular article in The NY Times<\/em> from late last year: Barbara Strauch's \u00c2\u00a0\"How to Train the Aging Brain<\/a>\" (Dec 29, 2009) \u00c2\u00a0The essential point of the piece is that people with middle aged brains\u00c2\u00a0 (40s to late 60s) should focus their learning on not so much accumulating more facts but challenging, stretching, and enriching what we already have learned. \u00c2\u00a0Here's some key quotes from the article, which is worth reading in full:<\/p>\n If kept in good shape, the brain can continue to build pathways that help its owner recognize patterns and, as a consequence, see significance and even solutions much faster than a young person can.<\/p>\n [...] [....] [...] [....] These observations seem right to me as someone in my early 40s. But I wonder whether they apply to younger adults, say in their 20s -- the age of most of my graduate students. (A question for the Berkeley teach-net list<\/a>, methinks.)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Recently borrowed from the Berkeley Public Library is\u00c2\u00a0 Farhad Manjoo’s \u00c2\u00a0True Enough: Learning to Live in a Post-Fact Society. \u00c2\u00a0(Wiley, 2008), \u00c2\u00a0which seduced me with the promising subtitle\u00c2\u00a0 “learning to live in a post-fact society.” \u00c2\u00a0I think a lot about … Continue reading
\nEducators say that, for adults, one way to nudge neurons in the right direction is to challenge the very assumptions they have worked so hard to accumulate while young. With a brain already full of well-connected pathways, adult learners should \u00e2\u20ac\u0153jiggle their synapses a bit\u00e2\u20ac\u009d by confronting thoughts that are contrary to their own, says Dr. Taylor, who is 66.<\/p>\n
\n...continued brain development and a richer form of learning may require that you \u00e2\u20ac\u0153bump up against people and ideas\u00e2\u20ac\u009d that are different.<\/p>\n
\n...get out of the comfort zone to push and nourish your brain. Do anything from learning a foreign language to taking a different route to work.<\/p>\n
\nJack Mezirow, a professor emeritus at Columbia Teachers College, has proposed that adults learn best if presented with what he calls a \u00e2\u20ac\u0153disorienting dilemma,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d or something that \u00e2\u20ac\u0153helps you critically reflect on the assumptions you\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ve acquired.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n