Some of you asked me why I don’t provide any ‘standard’ answers for the blog exercises even after class / discussion. Yes, I understand your need for answers but hear me out.
My daughters get mad at me sometimes for not giving them simple answers to their questions. The fact remains that if I do all the thinking for them, then they won’t know where things went wrong – and without that experience, their thinking process won’t improve. Therefore, I answer their questions with more questions as to how we get there, what are absolutes and what are assumptions, etc. I care about them and therefore I don’t allow them the easy way out.
By providing standard answers, I see it similar to having someone else do squat jumps and push ups on your behalf. Yes, providing answer is simpler for me too. However, I care about my students and therefore simple and absolutes do not work for me. If I did that, many would have accepted my answers as-is, then you would have to memorize answers and it sounds too much like school. What I want to achieve from these blogs is to plant the seeds of curiosity, so that you will do more exploring and discovering and through that find the mechanics of the thought process, just like physics is to muscle movement.
The joy of traveling is the process of planning, the journey, the company and seldom is the experience just about the end destination. The same applies to learning, if I give you standard answers, I would have robbed you of the joy of discovery. I don’t want you to have to reinvent the wheel, but an assisted reinvention can be kind of fun too. 😉
In life, we have to accept uncertainty. We have questions where answer evolves. As an example, if you ask me “Will my marriage work?”, well, the answer really depends on you and how you make of it. The simple answer of “yes” or “no” will not work but a discussion of the key ingredients needed to make a marriage work can be productive. “What will be my ultimate job / career?”, again, this is very personal. Something that works for me may not work for you. However, what is constant is that if you need to open the doors to experience it or you will never find out.
Exercise
- If I don’t worry about the correctness of your answers to the questions, what exactly am I looking for?
- Yes, this process is different from what is done at school. Can you see the advantage and make the best out of it?