The Cosy Relationship of Theory and Practice

I realise as I type this that there is a very real risk that I’ll come across like a pompous buffoon who has something against ‘practical’ people.  Yet I write as I’m given utterance and we’ll take it from there.

Today’s entry is inspired by a conversation I had with one of the learners in the sessions that I facilitate.  People have different learning styles and more people will tend to grasp something once they own it themselves through conversation, practice and helping others apply the same tools.  Understandably then, a lot of the academic forms of learning – reading and lecture – are not the most popular ways to learn, despite people having a market on intelligence meaning reading lots, writing lots and talking lots.

All that is not something I would dispute at all.  I love getting learners to talk things through and then apply it to their own lives especially in teh context of getting a job.  So far so good.

Where it gets a bit awry – leading to the conversation with the learner – is where someone claims to be a ‘practical’ person, preferring to just get on with it, rather than listen to someone explain something.  The ‘just tell me what to do and I’ll do it’ approach has a lot going for it.  Time is saved on explanation and the like.

For the time saved, however, there is something sadly missing that is rather crucial to even the very process of applying things and ‘just getting things done’.  Not appreciating the why can lead us into the dreadful zone of misunderstanding and worse still misapplying and even worse abuse.  For example consider the routines people are now programmed to follow. Grow up, get grades, get job, get money, get stuff, get family, get more stuff, get old, get stuff taken, get dead.  A crude perspective on life, but scratch the surface in some cases and it’s not that much more sophisticated really.  So in this programmed operation most people are just getting on with it and not questioning anything, because they just want to get done, what they need to get done.

Take a step back though and ask those awkward questions and you will see that ‘getting things done’ has to rest on reasons why – has to rest on understanding how the unseen influences the seen.  You have to understand some theory to appreciate the practice, just as innovative practice thus informs theory.  Wisdom of the ages is applied, it is also ascribed so that others may successfully apply them – not only that but those from other perspectives can engage with this wisdom and shape it as it shapes them.

Tragically for my learner, he will discover that ‘just getting it done’ requires a bit more than ‘just being told’.  Thankfully for my learner, he will also discover he has much to contribute to the growing and learning process even in as much as he ‘just gets it done’.

For His Name’s Sake

Shalom

dmcd