'Beautiful game' of the mind

Wanting to be understood and wanting to understand are more closely related than is immediately evident. Teaching and Learning are synonyms respectively for these two phenomena. We teach best what we most need to learn is an absolute truism with no exceptions. The mind talking to itself (remember Plato)  reassuring itself through its own rational voice that what it has learned is indeed true in an almost ontological way ( let there me light and there was light) as if by repeating it, making somebody understand it, being understood, teaching it, it almost becomes true for the teacher, the one who seeks to be understood..No wonder then that so many of us, almost a silent seething majority in the cities of the world want to teach; we feel passionate about it, more alive, more relevant in a silent celebratory way. 

A secret to teach better and learn better ( now that the dichotomy between these two is extinguished at least for this blog) is to imagine the stuff. There is a certain image which preempts our new cognitive inputs about the learning. Getting in this image can put us in a productive proactive mindset for learning to happen. Imagine = image + in. No wonder. If I am learning, say, architecture of royal palaces in ancient mesopotamia, a certain imagination of what I might know about babylon, palm trees and hanging gardens could prime me better. Of course, if I am a complete ignoramus of ancient history, maybe geography could come to help to mark a beginning point in my learning, by imagining where the deuce this country is on the globe!  Interestingly, if I am the one teaching architecture of royal palaces in ancient mesopotamia, I could begin my teaching by broaching the very same topics as mentioned earlier. Imagination activates prior knowledge which facilitates learning. Prior knowledge as we all know is a key element of adult learning which on utopia means lifelong learning. It is also an interesting way to acknowledge and validate oneself ( all that reading has not gone in vain!) and an inexpensive prophylactic to Alzheimer's.Thank you Albert Knowles for the construct of prior knowledge which helps some of us to deconstruct the phenomenon of learning. As a parting example, some of you did get riveted, albeit for a split instant, by the title of this post, considering that Futbol rules right now :-)