We make a pretty big deal about being able to read, write, and do arithmetic. It's one of those values that you almost never question. Well, I want to question it. What good is it to write, anyway? I think that a good teacher should ask these questions. A great teacher should find the answers. In order to see why man started to write we will have to go back to the beginning of writing - or the beginning of the written chronicle! You may be quite surprised to hear the controversial explanation I give. You have probably been told your whole life about the greatness of man's achievements since the dawn of civilization. Well, get ready for a balancing view! If you want to transform yourself through teaching - then you need to hear this.

Recorded History began around 5,000 B.C. Why? What was man doing before it? He was around for millions of years before he started to write stuff down. Why did he all of a sudden start writing? Did he find a pencil? Did he want to remember something? Wait a minute! How did he remember things before he was writing things down? Or did he even try to remember things?

Don't get me wrong. I am not one of those who say that you should tell your student (or yourself) this whole batch of practical reasons why it is important to learn something before trying to learn it. For one thing, most of that reasoning is circular - for example, "it's important to learn to read so that you can understand everything I wrote down for this lesson." And we're questioning EVERYTHING, right? So why should a person even want to have a society with organized communities and technology and governments, which naturally requires reading & writing ... anyway?

I really mean it. I want to question why we should have all of this written stuff all around us.

Humankind 1.0
So, let's start at the very beginning. (A very good place to start.) When you read, you begin with A, B, C. But why? And what might be some reasons that early man did not read - other than the very boring and unlikely guess that he couldn't. Let's suppose a picture of a human (version 1) that knows where he wants to be. He likes where he is. He is not at war, with other people, nor with another part of nature. Does he need a clock? He is not trying to get ahead in life - he isn't trying at all. He is actually happy. There is enough food - so it doesn't occur to him that more is better - and if it does occur, he rejects the idea as foolish - more isn't better than enough. Is there something he needs to remember?

Let's look at this question. To remember actually means to put back a member part of something that used to be whole. He is whole. His life is whole. He knows what he needs to know when he needs to know it. He gets enough food when he needs it. He has enough family, enough friends, enough fun. He is what we call 'on vacation'. The member parts of his life are all together. He does not need to re-member. So he does not need to write things down.

When Homer, one of the early poets wrote down The Iliad and The Odyssey, perhaps it represents the beginning of a fall for mankind. Perhaps this is when we started to forget how to stay whole. We started to think analytically - in parts - and the need to remember became noticeable. Maybe that is why he had to write down what were legends that people before him simply knew in their holistic form. Maybe what we call the dawni of civilization was really the fall of intuition. Maybe mankind was at that time losing the ability to see things in wholes - to walk around the woods as a fully qualified member, embedded in her schema so that he just knew where to go and what to do.

Humankind 2.0
Sure, we (humans, version 2) invented all of this great stuff: music, art, literature, mathematics, science, technology. But ask yourself - was there a price? Did we lose intuition? And with intuition, did we lose the ability to be on vacation 24 x 7? If so, that's a pretty big price to pay. And if so, maybe the dim memory of those good times are what makes us so hard to please, now.

Humankind 3.0
But here's the BIG QUESTION.
Just in case any of this stuff I've been saying is possibly true, is there any way to move forward with what we know now - and yet re-member what we used to know, long ago? In other words, can we learn reading, writing, and arithmetic - and continue inventing - without continuing to dis-member ourselves from the entire natural world around us?

I just thought I'd ask.

So, let's sum up. Perhaps Humankind 1.0 (a few million years ago - 10,000 years ago) was intutive and whole. He walked the earth in a state of balance and harmony. He was intelligent enough to read and write, but had no desire to because he was embedded in a beautiful way in his environment. Then came this moment in history (humankind 2.0 - 10,000 years ago - the present) where mankind fell out of harmony by beginning to think analytically - in parts. This new skill cost him. It made him lose (temporarily) the ability to be intuitive and sense his wholeness - his connection to everything around him. From this loss came the new abilities to read, write, and analyze. All of what we call civilization came from this - but at the cost of losing our loving connection to our world. We became against our world because we saw ourselves as separate parts - we saw everything around us analytically - as disjointed pieces. And thus we ended up here - possibly ready to destroy our environment and ourselves. But the hope is that we remember how to be intuitive and get back our sense of wholeness. This is what I call Humankind 3.0 - the hope of putting back together all that we once were long ago- with everything we have learned, recently.

The hope is that we re-member what is now a dis-membered humankind.

 

Masters of Transformation

These 3 masters transformed our political systems. All three also had significant accomplishments in other areas. Both Franklin and Jefferson, like Da Vinci, were 'Renaissance Men'. All three grew from being a common man to one of the most powerful people in the world.

TASK: Open all three short biographies of Franklin, Jefferson, and Napoleon. Keep them open.
Write 3 Who Am I? quiz questions in reMember Mate® about these three fellows in one shot.

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reMember Mate®