Community Discussion: My Fear

Nobody's perfect!

This is installment #11 in an extended discussion which is being designed to investigate the generation of progressive dialogs through online interactions.

The form of the current question under discussion is still being clarified! @yvesoler and I have suggested the theoretical question:

“How do people learn to create new cognitive spaces for themselves and others?”

And the practical query:

"How can @yvesoler (Tigrilla) and I create a space where each of us is potentially both student and teacher?"

We’re discussing these questions.

On the practical side, Tigrilla suggested that “this is a unique case”, and I agree. I strongly believe that to achieve progress, the methods employed should be crafted to fit each conversation between two people.

I’ll have more on the theoretical question below.

The trail we’ve taken starts at:

https://steemit.com/steemstem/@rortian/to-steemstem-or-not-to-steemstem-who-defines-science

Continues through:

https://steemit.com/higherorderthinking/@yvesoler/want-to-be-a-part-of-a-community-discussion

https://steemit.com/higherorderthinking/@rortian/community-discussion-continued

https://steemit.com/higherorderthinking/@yvesoler/community-discussion-continued-a-feeling-of-failure

https://steemit.com/higherorderthinking/@rortian/community-discussion-in-progress

https://steemit.com/higherorderthinking/@yvesoler/community-discussion-in-progress-is-there-space-for-critical-thinking-without-judgement

https://steemit.com/higherorderthinking/@rortian/community-discussion-chapter-6

https://steemit.com/higherorderthinking/@yvesoler/community-discussion-in-progress-philosophy-of-judgement

https://steemit.com/higherorderthinking/@rortian/community-discussion-where-would-you-like-to-go

and the last chapter was:

https://steemit.com/higherorderthinking/@yvesoler/community-discussion-the-path-is-unclear

The following describes our progress to date and some of the difficulties that we're facing.

Including:

My Fear:

I experience my fear very often. I feel it dozens or hundreds of times a day (more times on more active days).

Not fears; those are cognitive descriptions, not emotions. ‘Fear’ is an emotion; it's triggered by things in the world or by thoughts, or by other emotions - when I feel shame I fear that people will think bad things about me.

When I think I’m failing I fear failing.

I’m afraid every time I’m confused, and that’s rather often. And I’m constantly inquiring, and I’m constantly finding more things to be confused and afraid about!

It never goes away.

As for atelophiobia, I'm afraid that I'll fear it again. I used to have that a lot when I was younger, but I figured out that it's impossible to be perfect or to meet everyone’s expectations.

Here's my take on feeling fear:

I’ve said before that I believe that our emotions can’t go away, and that we carry them around all the time, either on the surface of or below our individual consciousnesses. They’re trapped in our bodies along with our thoughts.

Do you believe that too? Anybody? [lol]

I’m afraid/confused right now! I don’t know what will happen next!

To me it’s all part of the adventure – that is: my life.

Tigrilla, I have a serious concern about our rate of progress at this point.

You’re discussing an objective which to me is irrelevant and distracting.

In my view the repeated (and as-yet-futile) attempt to recruit a company of folks to work with has nothing to do with what I came here to do. We came out here together to talk, and to see if anyone else wanted to. I had no problem with that.

To me it complicates matters greatly and makes things much more difficult when you focus on an objective which I can’t support. I actually have no interest in hoping that some masses (as you described your vision) will arrive.

I've been working with you and others; that's good enough for me. We're out here; I believe that that itself will be instructive to others (that is, if we continue to do well here.)

Please focus on what we both came here to do. If you want to something about that other thing, ok, but I think that it's a very bad idea, because mentoring is one-on-one. Learner-centered and inquiry-based.

Next:

Confusion about who's doing what about going where? Or not?

I wrote:

“You’re actually driving me to where you want to go. I'm just navigating the path; I've got the map.”

You asked:

“Did you mean that you have the map or did you mean to write that I have and you are just the navigator?”

When you coached me in my writing, that was my objective, I was driving toward it but missing the mark; you had the map and you directed me. We can reverse roles when we want to; I thought that we had.

When it comes to discussing thinking and learning, you’re setting your learning objectives, your destinations. You’re driving (learning) to achieve your objectives (insights).

I’m supposed to navigate because I’ve got that map.

The Path is Unclear?

There is no actual 'path', right? It's pure metaphor, right?

We're postmodern; it's a wilderness out here!

In my view there's no right place to go and no right way to get there. We set a destination and plot a course. It's dead reckoning from then on out, and I have great faith in my sense of direction.

I've done this before and succeeded. People can judge for themselves - I dropped my ebook about that at https://discord.gg/3UJyZPc.

Results to date?

Here's my latest theoretical description, inspired by our discussion, of what's required for online mentoring.

Progressive dialogs are generated through engaging in deep introspection, high levels of authenticity and deep trust.

I think that this describes both pre-requisite dispositions, and also active processes. I don't think that it applies only to online discussions.

What do you think of that?

My assessment of our efforts to date

I believe that we’ve done a fantastic job of analyzing our research question about how to create educational progress!

We've agreed on an excellent practical guideline: We need to make it up as we go along.

We need to think as we go, craft the methods as we craft the conversation. There’s no one right method!

As for theory: I think that we should drop our historical answers and any hope for the right answers. I believe that it's important to realize that there are no right answers here; only better and worse ideas which are more or less relevant to more or less important questions. And we can make up our questions, our theories and our practices with regard to thinking and learning as we go along. If we learn some things that seem effective, then it's likely that we can improve our inquiry and analytical skills with practice.

The things we say aren't The Whole Truth, but we're going for coherency, and so there’s no reason for insisting on anything.

Nice work. I’m thrilled with our outcomes so far. I’d say that we're doing a tremendous job.

Now: Would you like to reanalyze our first question, or to summarize from your perspective and then decide what we'd like to inquire into next?

Or something else? I don't intend to limit our possibilities!

And merci infiniment, Tigrilla, for your wonderful participation.