Im No Authority On Teaching, But By Paul J. Richardson All good pedagogy is storytelling (see Plato). The theory of literature (i.e.

, denouement, character arc, symbolism, conflict), is a smaller reflection of the larger evolutionary development of human consciousness. Again, morphology recapitulates phylogeny. That is to say, we are wired for the perception of causality connecting events together (time). As very young children, we are trapped in the present moment, and as we mature, we encompass longer and wider causally related event matrices. From primitive hominid to modern man, we developed communication, evolving into storytelling, evolving only then, and at long last, into language. But why should morphology recapitulate phylogeny? Lets see: Primitive man in vitro, would not have become modern man. Not only does the context change the story, but the very storytelling process itself, changes the nature of the content. Thus living a life within his environment, the process of living in, between, inside, part of, that giant living organic system called the Gaia, imbued more than the mere components of the environment, and of humankind alone, in a kind of Gestalt synergy of being. One mans story could in some way, be a universal story of all men, reflecting the larger pattern of life, and the architectural mechanics of the natural world. How could one specimen of homo-economicus reflect entire economies? How could one cell contain our entire genome? Why should every quark, or muon, or gluon, be only a slight variation of the pattern of strings, in effect, reflecting the whole universe? Genetics is about competition for receptor sites, and recombinatory factors. Alternatively, one might say all the world is a stage, and all the genes in it, mere players with a destined role, awaiting the denouement that comes from competition in order to discover their purpose in life. That is why economic competition so beautifully balances equations when our simple models stumble. When even the law of conservation of mass and energy fails, the early universe will operate perfectly without us. To every value is added an opportunity cost, changing the most obvious amounts in quantity. When the smaller pattern is part of the larger puzzle, only then is the larger pattern visible as Gestalt. That is why we often learn to understand humanity, our history, and our world, by looking deep inside ourselves. Morphology recapitulates phylogeny is another way of stating that the evolution of our own personal dialectical thesis-antithesis is reflected in the larger evolution of our anthropological dialectics (see Hegel -- history, and Kuhn paradigm shifts). Walking someone through such a journey, is not a quantum leap. It is a series of small steps of increasing simplicity, courage, and applicability to the larger puzzle we are in. Alfred North Whitehead indicated once that society progresses forward with the number of things we can do without knowing why or how. I think it progresses with the number of things we understand the how and why of. Stories contain the how of events, the why found in causality, and reveal their matrices in time. Stories began our true cognitive evolution, and they continue to move it forward.

To hear one side of a story is to take the cowardly way of the Ostrich, claiming thoughtwork to be wasteful, and honesty a minor virtue. But seeing the big pattern is easier having seen many smaller versions, and only after putting a few puzzles together, do we begin to understand how puzzles work, and appreciate them as each a story within a much larger story. We cannot understand ourselves (and therefore the rest of the world) without seeing the true causes of our behavior, and the wider contextual matrix. We must see the full arc of our life, the symbols we use, and we must experience a denouement of our nature and the conflicts deep within us (i.e., Thanatos & libido), to see the why and how of the many levels of stories in our character roles. These we lock in our souls and heart until something replays all our memories, fears, and triumphs, right before our minds eye, all at once. Heres how that can happen People say that being under great stress, the influence of drugs, and or sleep deprivation opens ones mind to the influence of demons. But all that is really happening is a depression of BP to the outer cerebral cortex (and NT activity in the frontal lobe, etc.) where moral reasoning subsystems operate. Suddenly the limbic system kicks in and we are surprised at how calloused, amoral, and selfish (aka., self-preserving) we become. We might later be tempted to preserve cherished beliefs later, through rationalization of this catharsis of drives and instincts, but at that moment it occurs, we know and recognize them as authentically part of who and what we are. Similarly, for most people, if you remove the satisfactory fulfillment of the lower Maslowian needs (i.e., put them in life threatening conditions to compete for limited food and shelter), then this primitive amoral self is revealed, but in this case not for physiological reasons (although for bursts of adrenaline this can be true, but here I am speaking of days and weeks, rather than seconds or minutes). It is because these subjects memorized facts (a destination address), rather than walked through a story (either studying a map, or walking the path first hand), and consequently they have no idea how to reconstruct a suitable equation or compose their own song, having simply followed the patriotic choirs in slogan singing. The best writers are searching for a special story to reflect something larger, the small story that helps show the larger story it is part of. And their examination is intense. For those who glance casually at the completed 5000 piece puzzle do not behold the beauty of the painters brushstrokes in enzyme conformational substrate complementarities, or the bizarre conjunctional symmetries allowing every puzzle piece to fit one cohesive set of equations. This is because the aesthetics of engineering regards construction as part of the final view, and architectural art as predictive and generalizable (as in wisdom), rather than mere emotionless data (posteriori knowledge). All good pedagogy is story telling of a special kind then. It fits a larger context, like one story inside another. And the value of this methodology is in seeing the why and the

how. This is as valuable to humans, as is knowing the why and how of religious belief. For when one kills the thirst for why in a child, one has essentially proselytized by any means necessary, or the bottom line, and end result is all that matters. This is a value comparison between meeting two goals. On the one hand, profit as an end result is valued completely. On the other hand, the means of living a virtuous life (the good life) is valued inferior. I agree that anything that lacks function, is by definition useless (without utility). Of course, many of the most beautiful art forms I have seen, made me feel things that were incredibly special and often intense.