Big Idea Chapter 5/8

The introductory sentence of chapter 5 could not have been truer, “Abstractions are so common in our society that we rarely pay them any attention.” At a glance, I assumed the term referred to some complex art work. This explains why I was not surprised with the Picasso references in the introduction of the chapter. However, through further exploration, I discovered abstractions are much broader in context. In fact, I discovered it expanded into my world, the world of language. This was surprising as a motivational speaker and minister of the Gospel but I quickly realized I had been drawing from the skill regularly, yet was unaware I was doing so. According to Wener Heisenburg abstracting simply put, is the ability to, “consider an object or group of objects under one viewpoint while disregarding all other properties of the object.” Based on this definition, every Sabbath, I take a complex theological concept and draw the congregation’s attention to a specific theme or spiritual lesson. For example, this past Sabbath I took a very common scripture that is generally used to highlight forgiveness and redirected the congregations attention to spiritual modeling. I encouraged the congregation to look past the overt lesson to a much deeper lesson. Look beyond the servant’s inability to forgive his debtor of the debt owed him, and instead focus more on his inability to model the behavior of the judge who had forgiven him.

On a professional note, I believe abstracting can provide a greater focus to the work I do. In fact, I now understand that abstracting could potentially simplify my life, or at least my life’s work. In short, abstracting can empower me to look beyond the day to day complexities associated with students making transitions to identify the central themes and issues.

Analogizing

Contrary to abstraction, I was very familiar with analogizing. In fact, a great deal of the work I perform draws on analogizing. That is, drawing on the learners prior wealth of knowledge and using it as a tool to teach new concepts. For instance, I regularly use sports analogies when speaking to my college students to drive home specific messages. Recently, I used Reggie Bush, a NFL running back and a Heisman Trophy winner, to highlight transitional correlations between college sports and college academics. I shared his amazing collegiate statistics with his marginal NFL statistics. In college he rushed for over 2,000 plus yards, however, he managed to only gain around 800 all purpose yards in his NFL debut. In short, I was encouraging students who were accustom to academic excellence in high school not to get discourage in their first year of college. Reggie Bush discovered that while high school and college football are very similar to the NFL, the level is much more competitive. In the same way, students who have experience great success in middle school and high school may meet some challenges in college based on the academic rigor, but they should not be discouraged.

However, the story of Helen Keller demonstrated the greater use of analogizing, especially when one has obvious challenges. Through the example of Keller, I was encouraged to examine deeper the culture in which my students hail. With a richer understanding of their culture, how they reason, make decisions and make sense of their new world, I can prepare lessons and messages that will help them successfully navigate their way through the university.