Application

I, like most people it would seem, have a tendency to look for people to blame when things don't go the way I think they should. I look at the world and what needs to change about it, rather than myself, and what needs to change about me. The more I learn about how screwed up things are, the more time I spend looking for the bad guys to blame, and it seems the less time I spend learning to apply what I have learned to my own life .

Last time I wrote about some criteria that could be used to evaluate universities. I attempted to take a look at what it means to me, but upon rereading my post, I see that all I did was complain about how poor a job the schools I have attended did at educating me. This struck me as a little odd, since I can honestly say I never learned much from the curriculum of the schools I attended. It's not as if I learned the wrong things from them... I learned nothing.

This is not to say that no social learning, or learning from observing my surroundings (which happened to be a school) did not happen, but what I mean to say is that I learned little to nothing about the subjects I was taught. Most of what little book smarts I have now was gained after I graduated, or in my own time, between studying for tests. Although I studied Japanese as my major, the Japanese classes I had were worthless (aside from being requirements for the degree which somehow proves that I have value as a human being). I learned all my Japanese outside of class, either talking to Japanese people, or through countless hours of studying on my own. Likewise, I have never had a single class related to computing, programming, or anything else that pays my bills now. Even if I did have a programming class, I can almost guarantee that by the end of it I still would not know how to turn on my browser (just as I didn't when I took my first web-programming job).

The program I am currently enrolled in is a little different. The difference I think (and maybe this is just my perception) is that it is not so much trying to teach me, but rather pointing me in a direction where I should take my own self-learning.

The point being, while it is painfully obvious that the educational system has to be re-designed, taking into account our relationship to nature and the system that keeps us alive, I am in no position to take part in the re-design. I am however in a position to change the way I am learning right now, to ensure that my own self-education is of the quality I would expect from myself, and that I am applying what I am learning. At this point, it is unproductive to complain about how little the schools I attended did to teach me how to live, but it is productive to take a look at myself... and who knows... maybe once I get a better handle on myself, I will be in a better position to change the world.

So, how can I make sure that I am ecologically literate, that I have a basic understanding of how the following play an important role in life:

• the laws of thermodynamics
• the basic principles of ecology
• carrying capacity
• energetics
• least-cost, end-use analysis
• how to live well in a place
• limits of technology
• appropriate scale
• sustainable agriculture and forestry
• steady-state economics
• environmental ethics

Likewise, how can I live in a way that is mindful of, and shows comprehension of the differences between the following (also from David W. Orr's Earth in Mind):

• Optimum vs. Maximum
• Stocks vs. Flows
• Design vs. Planning
• Renewable vs. Non-renewable
• Dwelling vs. Residing
• Sufficiency vs. Efficiency
• Can do vs. Should do
• Health vs. Disease
• Development vs. Growth
• Intelligence vs. Cleverness

If everyone should know this stuff... and I am finally, after thirty years, learning it, how can I apply it in my life?