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Learning by Example
Our
natural ways of learning are through experience and through stories.
Many think of experience and example as two different processes and,
from our accustomed perspectives, they well appear to be. But
learning by example is also learning from experience because the
learner is observing someone else’s experience. From this state of
awareness, another person’s experience is no longer my example, it
is my experience as well and vice-versa. In this sense, all learning
is through experience. All learning is through story and all
learning is by example. Like the facets of a crystal, they are all
aspects of the same common reality, a shared consciousness.
This
is the way a Native finds her way—through her own experience and
through the example of others. If she were asked how she does it, she
would probably have to deliberate for a while to come up with many of
the keys we will be studying. This is true of many of the skills of
the Native, and this is why Native People are seldom what the
Civilized would consider good teachers. They did not learn their
skills step-by-step, rationally, so they find it hard to teach
step-by-step, rationally. In fact, they might consider teaching to be
a silly concept. You grow into things, you learn them by example and
experience, and things blossom forth from within you, along with
perhaps some guidance from one wise in the ways.
We,
on the other hand, have not had such opportunity. We have been
trained to be students. It would be difficult for us to “change
horses in mid-stream” and attempt to learn in the Old Way, so we
will begin to gain proficiency in the skill of lostproofing with the
learning way we are accustomed to. And in doing so, we will be able
to gain a base level of knowledge that will allow us to evolve our
skill as a Native child does.
Guiding
vs. Teaching
The
traditional way of education is based on example, personal
experience, and storytelling. The Native teacher speaks little of the
subject at hand; rather, he will set up scenarios and present
questions so the student will seek his own answer in his own time and
in his own way. This way the knowledge will be his, he will
understand it deeply in all its nuances because he is not merely
memorizing and repeating what is told to him. For example, the
teacher may show the student how to make a proper fire, what wood to
use, how to lay it over the tinder and how to light it. The student
will be able to repeat the process and perhaps get quite good at it,
but he has no depth of knowledge, he does not understand why it is
done this way. So when there are variables, such as woods available
that he is not familiar with or perhaps no wood and extreme weather
conditions, he may not have sufficient grasp of the concepts behind
fire-making to adapt to the situation. On the other hand, the student
who is presented with the challenge of making fire experimented with
various woods and various techniques therefore knows what works
better and what does not. (Therefore, he has a depth of knowledge
that will serve him well it needs to be called upon.) So when it
becomes his time to teach he will be able to do so with
the depth of
knowledge.
In
this sense the Native teacher is actually more of a Guide, a
facilitator, a directional arrow. She is usually a person of few and
well chosen words. She works hard not to get in the way of the
natural enthusiasm and inquisitiveness of the student, for she knows
self-motivation is of utmost importance if he is to carry on after
his time with her. And she knows his unique
approach will
serve him better than if he adopted hers. He best knows the ways in
which he thinks, feels, and understands. In the same way that she is
not a teacher--in the way that we may understand--he is not a
student. Rather he is more a Seeker. She knows those who she guides.
She has a close relationship with them, for she has only as many as
she can give personal attention to because a Guide strives to bring
out the talent, the skill and the knowledge already within the Seeker
rather than to teach what she already knows. That is easy, for it is
merely repeating to an audience of passive receptors. Whereas guiding
is a two-way dynamic that is constantly changing, always different
from individual to individual, and challenging to both Seeker and
Guide. The Guide will sit in a circle with the Seeker so one-on-one
communication is possible. In fact, she encourages an interactive
relationship because the Seekers are also learning interactive skills
(besides the subject matter at hand, the students are also learning
interactive skills and the ways of questioning and of honor and
respect). These skills will allow them to use the knowledge they are
learning in ways that will benefit their people and will prepare them
to guide others in their time. So as not to get in the way of the
Seeker-centered learning process, the Guide is deliberately as
low-key as possible; she will not use charisma or powers of
persuasion to try to influence the Seeker, for that would create a
dependency and focus attention on her. The Seeker would be drawn to
keep coming back to the Guide rather then find self-knowing and
wisdom in himself. In that sort of student-teacher relationship, a
co-dependency often evolves where the student begins to sanctify the
teacher and feels he needs to keep coming back to her because he
feels incomplete without her; he feels he can never match her feats
or attain her wisdom and often loses motivation and direction when he
is not near her.
Stories
Wherever
Folks gather, whether it is around campfire, table or bed, stories
will likely be told. They are universal to all cultures and times. Most
of us learn best this way, and stories give us characters and
situations we can learn from without having to experience everything
ourselves. This is why, in many traditions, a teaching will start
with a story.
*****
Violence
and kindness, virtue and vice, multiply by example’s device.
-Wampanoag saying (cite Patterson
“You
see, as a Cree man, you usually don’t tell your son, ‘Go split
some wood for me.’ You go out and do it yourself. You let your
kids watch you. We call it shadowing, and this spring I’ll be
starting it with my five-year-old son. When I take him out trapping
with me, I’m not going to tell him what to do, just let him observe
so he can see what it’s all about. In this way, he’ll learn how
to work and to love the land. As we take more trips together, the
land will become a part of him.”31 – Robbie
Niquanicappo, Cree, Quebec
*****
I find popular pseudo-spiritual lore concerning the Natural Realm to
be rather full of errors. It appears to me that this lore is being
passed on from one disconnected source to another. I know of writers
and workshop presenters who pick up information from a book or a
class and then use it in their book or class. This info is passed
around and around, each time getting further and further away from
any connection to the Natural Realm.
To accept this information as valid, one would have to accept the
source of the information as valid. A Native Person would validate
given information with his own experience. A Civilized Person
accepts information based upon belief, simply because her way of life
does not allow her to directly experience much. Thus, Civilized
People have largely substituted belief for experience.
It doesn’t have to be that way. One of my goals with this book is
to help you return to learning by experience--our natural and
intended way of gaining knowledge. A Native Person would know better
than to rely upon belief. In fact, he has no beliefs. He has
knowledge of Plants and Animals that comes from the Plants and
Animals and from those who have direct experience with them.
*****O ka huhū ‘ino ka mea e ola ‘ole ai.30
The fish whose mouth has been pierced by a hook will never again take
another. -- Hawaiian
Said of one who avoids trouble after being hurt.
*****
Example is Experience
Experience and example are one and
the same, because example
is another’s experience. We can learn just as easily from example
as experience when we step out of our egos and break down the wall
between self and other.
There are no mistakes. The following saying, from
my mate,
Minowanigosikwe, illustrates this, “Failure is not an option. It is
a privilege reserved only for those who try.”
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