- Paradigm Shift

Paradigm Shift

A paradigm is the conceptual framework upon which we build our world. Like snowflakes, each person's paradigm is unique. It is this unique framework that houses all of our preconceived notions about, well to be specific, about everything - from objects we encounter, people we meet, emotions we experience, and thoughts we conceive. It is the measuring tape with which we measure the very existence of reality. Everything we encounter we hold it next to this measuring tape, if it measures up - it's real. If it doesn't measure up - it isn't real.

Sometimes we get very attached to our paradigms. Come on, it gets us through the day, and makes sense of the world. Who wants to lose the very thing that holds it all together? If we are more attached to the stability of our paradigm than to the embrace of truth, when we encounter something that doesn't fit our paradigm, but we know it to be true, rather than change our paradigm and all of the subsequent dependent changes, we whittle down that piece of truth until it fits and reinforces our belief system. "See there! I knew it!" Nice and tidy. My house of cards is once again stable. But how stable is it having been built on partial and whittled down truths?

Because paradigms are built upon past experiences, if we are not willing to make shifts in our paradigms, we will not develop, we will not evolve, we will remain stagnate in our growth. We know this is not beneficial because we recognize it in others and it is distasteful - people who are so rigid in how they think, in what they think is right, wrong, good, bad. It is not undesirable to be committed to a view, but to be so attached to it as to not believe that any other view has merit or validity is an arrogance that is crippling, especially considering that our paradigms are mostly supported by whittled down truths relative to other whittled down truths. Yet, this is how we limit ourselves and our world on a daily basis.

We were told we were too tall to be a dancer, too shy to be a public speaker, too pretty to be taken seriously, too this, not enough that; we were labeled talented, smart, boisterous, trouble-maker, stupid, hyper, lazy, forgetful, young, old, woman, man, white, black - some we rejected, some we accepted, and we set out ordering our world to uphold our truths, to support us in our drama here on earth. This is what we do. The question is - Are you ready to do it consciously? Are you ready to give up partial truths, twisted truths, relative truths? Are you ready to stop limiting yourself, your children, your world by using labels of temporary designations in the place of absolute truths. Because that is what it will take for us to truly enter the Age of Aquarius, the Age of Enlightenment, the Golden Age.

Here is an everyday example of a paradigm shift.

A older woman with a cane has been riding a rather full city bus for the past 20 minutes. At the next stop three loud and rambunctious children come running down the aisle. Two of the boys pushing each other. One of them sits down behind the lady and continues to mess around with the boy in the aisle (now standing room only). The man that got on with them has a hat pushed way down over his face and is wearing dark sun glasses. Although he is with them, he seems to not be able to care less about their behavior. The woman is getting rather annoyed. She feels she just must say something. Ouch! In their pushing one of the boys even stepped on her toes. That's it. "Sir, excuse me, please!...your children!" "Oh,...I'm sorry ma'am." He removes his sunglasses and she can see that he has been crying. "Their mother just died" Bam, there is was, the piece of information that created an instant shift in her paradigm. If I was able to write well enough you would have felt this shift as well, like a house of cards tumbling to the table and within a split second rebuilt in a different formation.

Have you ever heard some news and being unable to respond right away you reply, "Give me a minute, let me gather my thoughts" What is that? That is a paradigm shift.

Are you ready to re-arrange your house of cards? Are you ready to embrace new thought sets, new paradigms, that will facilitate the empowerment of our children?

Let's start with the foundation:

Old beliefs: Children Misbehave because:
1) They only want attention
2) They are stubborn
3) They are spoiled
4) They are selfish and self-centered
5) They are inconsiderate
6) They are just like their mother/father
7) They can't help it
8) They have bad genes
9) My spouse and/or I are bad parents

Conclusion: Misbehaving Child = Bad Child = Bad Parent
Reaction: I must control or manipulate my child's behaviour or I am a bad parent.

New Beliefs: Children misbehave because (opportunity for paradigm shift)
1) They need to belong
2) They need to feel loved
3) They need to feel powerful
4) They need to feel valuable
5) They need to feel like they have a place
6) They need to experiement and explore

Conclusion: Misbehaving Child = Discouraged Child
Reaction: I can find appropriate ways for my child to feel powerful, loved, and to feel that he has a valuable place in the world.

The shift: "A misbehaving child is a bad child" changes to "A misbehaving child is a discouraged child".

Something to consider:
In a world that is constantly changing, information technology exploding, where thinking on your feet and responding quickly to a myriad of changing variables is highly valued in the marketplace, maybe being able to sit still at a desk and focus on one stagnate thing after another is not something we should encourage in our children (what to speak of drugging them so they can perform and conform to the status quo).

Our school systems are modeled after the 1819 Prussian schools which had a clear vision of what centralized schools could deliver:

1. Obedient soldiers to the army;

2. Obedient workers to the mines;

3. Well subordinated civil servants to government;

4. Well subordinated clerks to industry

5. Citizens who thought alike about major issues.

Perhaps the quality of humans has finally elevated above the Industrial Age - and they're not going to take it sitting down anymore.

For more info on "the dumbing down" of our youth, please read the article, seperately posted in this blog, (warning you may never be ble to re-build your house of cards)

The Public School Nightmare:
Why fix a system designed to destroy individual thought?
by John Taylor Gatto [Two time New York State “Teacher of the Year”]