Institute of General Semantics

The "experiment" proceeds on pace. We're up to Day 4 of rotting fruit. Not the safest thing in a New York City apartment, but it's for a good cause. Truth be told it wouldn't be the first time, but certainly the first time we've let fruit rot on purpose.

Anyway, my girls are on to me, of course, saying they know this has to do with the big blue book and the "word is not the thing" thing. But they're taking notes and we'll play it out and see what happens. I've decided to go with an apple and banana concurrently, which as it turns out do rot at different rates, so that's good. More to come. . .

Eric

HiI Eric,

Good to 'hear'. I like that label: "The Big Blue Book"; and the connection they made. For me that's a clue that there is some emotional involvement--Something we often leave out in our seminars--forgetting "organism-as-a-whole". We tend to remember and are impressed (whether positively or negatively) what we have experienced. (It would be a memorable treat for the children and me, if they could come and experience one of the sessions.)

Milton

Milton Dawes wrote:

It would be a memorable treat for the children and me, if they could come and experience one of the sessions.
Absolutely Milton - we look forward to that one day.

Here are the results, word for word, of my kids' observations on the apple and banana over the course of about a week. (Memphis will be 9 in a month, Dasha is 7.) First some pics of the fruit on days 1, 4, and 7, if the links work:





Now their comments:

Memphis Day 1

apple: red, healthy, hard, heavy
banana: green and a little yellow, soft, healthy, not brown

Dasha Day 1

apple: red, juicy, tart, sour, sweet, mushy, hard, weird shaped, bad spots, rolly, short stem, heavy (I asked about the taste adjectives, and she said she was "just guessing" on those)
banana: soft, green/yellow, medium weight, little dots, not brown

Memphis Day 2

apple: less red, hard
banana: yellow, part brown

Memphis Day 3

apple: less red, soft, few scratches
banana: brown/yellow, mushy

Dasha Day 3

apple: not as red, scratches, weird shaped
banana: brownish/yellow, some bad spots, dots

Memphis Day 5

apple: scratches, red, hard
banana: brown, mushy

Dasha Day 5

apple: red, rotting, scratches, still weird shaped
banana: brown stripes, mushy, yellow, not good to eat

Memphis Day 7

apple: less red, scratches
banana: brown/yellow, mushy, stinky

Dasha Day 7

apple: darker, scratches, weird shaped, rotting, some spots lighter, some spots darker
banana: brown, rotting, stinky, mushy

Milton Dawes wrote:

When the apple starts to rot you can then do your seminar. Looking back at her notes and observations: What has she learned? What has she learned with regards to "names not things". (Remind her that you would like to hear more--any thing that comes up any time.) Ask "How could this be applied to other things, and so on."
We'll move on to the seminar part of the exercise, in as inconspicuous and informal a way as possible. Since it's like a game to them, they've already asked me "what now"? Any advice on specific tactics based on the actual comments above will be appreciated. I'll post on further developments as they occur.

Eric

Great. A joy to read. I abstracted a feel of their enthusiam. Who could ask for any better clue than "What next?" I also like the visual touch. Now here is what I suggest: Pick up on "just guessing on those." Invite them to review their report and see if there is any thing else they wrote which involved guessing. (This will give you an entry into introducing them to distinguishing between "assumption" and "description": "description" in terms of words representing what they actually saw and "assumption" as another way of saying "just guessing".)

Now you can go to generalizing on "description/assumption". Ask them to look around the room and "describe" what they see. Reminding then that description has to do what they are actually seeing "now". And "assumption" has to do with "just guessing". Then next time you can move this outside. Invite them to write a descriptive report on some things they saw, going to school or at play, etc. Then another time they can use this report to (deliberately) make some assumptions about these situations.

Moving along.
Tape a "news program" especially the evening 'news' on ABC. What next will take some time. Play back incrementally and ask them if they can spot possible descriptions and possible assumptions in what they hear anyone saying. (I say "possible" since we can only assume (not knowing from what level of abstracting something is said) whether description or assumption. Look for difficulty in their evaluating and back off if you think that's too hard for them for now.

BTW. I am enjoying the experiment at this end too. Loooking for "What next".?

Eric,
Congratulations on getting a personal tutor in Milton, following thru with his suggestions. Now let me make a pitch for Cognitive Evaluation and Communication. This is a program that has had a six year gestation period developed for K-12. There are exercises, explantions, and stories that you can cherry pick for your tribe. Simply go to www.k-12-communication.com. Everything is free.

Frank Gastner

Thanks Frank. Yeah, Milton has been a treasure trove of experience and insight. Thanks for the link, I'll definitely check that out.

Eric