The Firke Files

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Unstuckness.

That’s what I want to talk about today.

First off, being stuck isn’t the end of the world. If you think about it, the moment that we become aware that we are stuck is the moment when we can consider the broadest possible range of ways of becoming unstuck. Everything is in play. Nothing has been ruled out.

Stuckness “is a moment not to be feared but cultivated,” writes Pirsig. ”If your mind is truly, profoundly stuck, then you may be much better off than when it was loaded up with ideas. But no matter how hard you try to hang onto it, this stuckness is bound to disappear. Your mind will naturally and freely move to a solution.”

Pirsig is not being mystical. He sees being stuck as an essential step to understanding the true nature of what you are trying to do. Going back to the example of the stuck screw on his motorcycle, the condition of its being stuck allows him to understand the screw not just as an inexpensive piece of hardware but also in terms of its form and function. And it is only when he has this deeper understanding of the nature of the screw that the possibilities become apparent: he can use 
penetrating solvent to loosen the screw, or get a screw extractor, or drill it out, or use a torch to burn it out. Or he could think of something new that beats all the rest.

For schools, being stuck means we have an opportunity to look at a problem, understand it from a variety of perspectives, collaborate with colleagues and students and parents, brainstorm possible solutions, and so on. The important thing, when we are stuck, is to analyze the situation and then try something. After a while, we can review what we’ve done, adjust our plan, and try again. Our sense of what is truly good will be what carries us forward.

The penetrating solvent may not work on the screw, and we may need to try to drill it out.

Educators tend to be perfectionists. We don’t like to try something unless we’re sure it’s going to be successful, but that’s how we become stuck in the first place. We need to give ourselves permission to try and to fail, to learn from our mistakes and try again and again. The penetrating solvent may not work on the screw, and we may need to try to drill it out. We shouldn’t be discouraged by the failure of the solvent but use the experience to enhance our understanding of our stuckness and to try another possibility.

To go back to yesterday’s example of the internet and our feelings of powerlessness in preventing it from imposing risks on our students, our obligation is to truly understand the situation. If we do, if we can see the web as a means of connecting people all around the world in ways that we could not imagine fifteen years ago, if we can imagine how we could use the web in constructive ways, then we will not see the threat but rather the educational opportunity. The internet means that schools must find new ways of helping our students and their parents learn about a variety of topics–privacy and safety, yes, but also global connectedness and cultural understanding. If we can adopt a flexible 
approach, one that allows us to see the underlying issues involved, our minds will naturally lead us to solutions.

Let’s give Pirsig the last word. “Stuckness shouldn’t be avoided. It’s the psychic predecessor of all real understanding. An egoless acceptance of stuckness is a key to the understanding of all possibilities.”

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Stuckness.

That’s what I want to talk about today.

How individuals and institutions and even nations can get stuck. And any conversation about being stuck has to refer back to that 70′s classic, Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance by Robert Pirsig, which has a great section on what it means to be stuck. In fact, the opening line of this post was lifted from the novel.

There is the physical stuckness of whatever it is that you’re working on that doesn’t want to move or change, and then there is the mental stuckness that results from the physical problem. Pirsig uses the example of a screw that sticks and blocks the removal of a side cover assembly. The manual was no help, and the lessons learned from experience–force it!–succeeded only in tearing the slot of the screw.

Pirsig also notes that these negative feelings get in the way of just the things that we need to find our way out of being stuck—creativity, originality, inventiveness, intuition and imagination. And I would add consultation and collaboration to his list.

This “isn’t just irritating and minor. You’re stuck. Stopped. Terminated…It’s a miserable experience emotionally. You’re losing time. You’re incompetent. You don’t know what you’re doing.” Even those of us who don’t know the joy of motorcycle repair are familiar with the feeling of being stuck and the frustration that follows in short order. From being stuck in snow or ice or an elevator to being stuck in a routine that has lost its meaning, we know how being stuck makes us feel.

“It’s normal at this point for the fear-anger syndrome to take over and make you want to hammer on that side plate with a chisel, to pound it off with a sledge if necessary.” And Pirsig also notes that these negative feelings get in the way of just the things that we need to find our way out of being stuck–creativity, originality, inventiveness, intuition and imagination. And I would add consultation and collaboration to his list.

He’s writing about an individual in a particular situation, but the idea holds true for schools, too. We get stuck in lots of different ways. Sometimes we don’t even know it–we just continue to do things the way we always have without stopping to think about what we’re doing or ways of doing things differently. The introduction of technology is one way to become unstuck, as it challenges us to re-think both the what (curriculum) and the how (pedagogy) of our work with students.

Sometimes we do know we’re stuck, but we can’t see a way out of the problem. Technology furnishes an example here, too. The internet exposes (bombards?) our younger students to inappropriate content and social networking opportunities before they are emotionally and cognitively equipped to deal with them. But what can any one teacher or school do about it? We’re stuck. Or are we?

Tomorrow, I want to talk about unstuckness.

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