• From: aworld w/out invisible borders
  • Registered: 2005-06-09

Topic: The Psychology of Education

I created a thread not too long ago about my current "life situation" and how it didn't have any sense of direction and I had no idea what would happen.  Long story short 'everything is in its right place'.  It worked out perfectly.  So you could say the visualizations and the fear of the unknown vanished, that I brought upon a 'positive' situation.

So now, as I sit here typing this, I am in my 2nd year of University taking a variety of courses to see if I may continue on with my education with a major field of study.  I'm taking psychology, philosophy, health healing and spirituality, writting and sociology.  With the exception of writting, each course is attempting to define why things are the way they are (how IT works) and how to improve one's life.   Now with what I think I know about life, going into these classes my 'belief structure' (If I still have one?) is constantly being challenged but I enjoy it.  The thing is though, when we are talking about Sociology, I feel like discussing the manipulation of society and how IT (society) is not for the benefit of the individual, nor humanity.  In philosophy, we are attempting to answer the question "Who am I", which is a great question to be asking.  In the spirituality class, surprisingly enough we will be discussing many Eastern philosophies, a person's diet and the unseen world.  We will be reading the likes of Deepack Chopra and watching movies like "What the Bleep do we know?".  So I feel that its a neat experience that I am in a class like that.

So next comes my psychology class, which is by far the most entertaining and thought provoking class I have been to thus far.  Why?  Because of the teacher.  He has a reputation to be a 'hard' teacher who has written several books and I've heard from gossip that he created what was known as the "God Helmet" which could re-create the "God like experience".  So far he has said things along the line of "I am the textbook" and "Use my as your knowledge base".  Now I am thinking "Is he on an Ego trip?"  "Why does he think he knows everything?". So he continues and says things like "After this class you will be able to control behavior..." and "This will be the most knowledgable class of your life".  So it is definately intriging, but I feel I should have a certain disgresion while attending the class because already I have felt that it has a "this is the way it is" type feel to it - which some of the stuff he says it true, but still need to operate out of awareness while attending.

With all these intresting classes (for the first time in my life school is intresting) I am wondering why is school meant to be limiting?  What is the psychology behind school that leaves people dry and uninspired?  Is the system falling apart and knowledge is getting through?

To conclude, for once I feel that my classes are interesting and am excited to do the work (which is mostly essay writting which I love).  I am wondering if others have had post-secondary education and if they enjoyed it? or have had similar classes? or a teacher which really stood out?  To date, I've had three very inspiring teacher out of the bunch that I've went through. 

And finally, the past few weeks I have seen my external life change dramatically (NEW job, NEW apartement and NEW school program) not too meantion a strong desire to practice what I have 'learned' over the summer and to further push the boundries of accepted reality.  Has anyone else had some life changing events occur in so far in september?

Thanks for reading. smile

"Beyond the stars a new world awaits me now" - Wintersun

Natural Mystic's Website

2 Reply by laozu (edited by laozu 2006-09-13 19:17:19)

  • Registered: 2006-09-01

Re: The Psychology of Education

Hi Master Jedi. I was never exactly in your shoes: probably no man ever was. But back when I was likely as close as I ever will be, I came upon the Rectorial Address given at St. Andrews University in 1923. It begins with the quotation

First, above all, Philodemus filled his own platter and his own cup at his own charges, so that no man could expect to get from him more than his mere life. Thus he contrived at times to live with himself–a guest not always placable.

It resonated with me and set me to thinking. You seem to be doing a lot of thinking now, and you might find it amusing. The title was INDEPENDENCE.

  • Registered: 2005-11-13

Re: The Psychology of Education

I always found that I liked the hardest teachers the best.  (at least until I got to engineering school and then they were all hard!)  That psychology teacher sounds great.  Right or wrong, he'll give you something you can try, and he says it works.  It sounds like he wouldn't mind if you tried it out, put it to the test.  What more could you ask for??

School is not limiting.  Breaking your limits is your responsibility.  If a teacher doesn't "limit" his viewpoint, he has no viewpoint at all and would not say anything.  Each class and teacher is limited, by time constraints if nothing else, but they make you take a lot of different ones.

I find that scientifically based courses are nice because they don't try to control your mind -- they don't try to lie to you.  (They usually make you work hard, though.)  They give you testable information, try to prove to you that it's correct.