Why degrees at all?

Babies and bathwater
1. shoe factory experience - the old bath water
  1. oppressive
  2. authoritarian
  3. demeaning
  4. divisive
  5. secretive
2. own workshop culture - the new bath-water
  1. holonic
  2. self-regulating
  3. empowering
  4. communal
  5. open
3. the baby
  1. re-inventing the sewing machine and other kit (badly)
    1. only after sore hands & no income
    2. solution - use existing kit but in new culture
    3. I tell the story
? is there any value in? : -
1. a pattern of progression being a good thing
  1. transitions
  2. life stages
  3. rites of passage
  4. book ends
2. external review
3. peer review
4. mentoring
5. advising
6. providing evidence of capacities for
  1. applying sustained attention
  2. field competence
  3. ability to think critically
  4. grounding theory through action
  5. derive thinking from experience
  6. making transitions
  7. un-installing the patrix
  8. project management
  9. creating organized, literate documentation for knowledge commons
  10. collaboration
  11. reflecting on self and society
  12. digital fluency for global linkage
  13. using self as subject
  14. reclaiming our intelligences
  15. acting on visions that contradict 'dog eat dog' whilst in the midst of such a culture
Gaia U degree culture = new bathwater
1. a socio-technical system
issues for likely users
1. concept of liberating structures
2. going from rejection of old to embracing (with enthusiasm) the new
3. spiral dynamics - green to yellow transition?
Patrick's essay
Political Understanding the fifth P, Political: Movements have discourses, they come together to change their perception of reality in ways that aren't possible otherwise. Political movements are about changing meaning, making new meaning. In my pathway, I will feed my need for purpose, meaning, and engagement with humanity on a global scale by involving myself with ethics. I am not satisfied with value statements alone -- "I value freedom." That's not enough. I want to explore how that fits with my perception of reality and what it means to other people. So, the fifth P is about Why this work matters to humans; how it helps us make sense of this world in ways that regenerate life instead of enslaving it. This is about our eyes, the way we look, the way we see. Political could also be Here's my cosmovision, Here's my truth, This is the ground I live from. Ah ha! It's a circle! Personal learning + healing -> professional skills + benefit to the field -> project outcomes -> peer engagement -> political world view -> personal learning + healing!!! My statement of my truth (level 5) incfluences my view of who I am and what I need (level 1), which influences what skills I choose to develop (level 2), which influences what I produce (level 3), which influences how I relate with people (level 4), which influences how I perceive the world (level 5), which influences how I perceive myself (level 1).... BRILLIANT! This reminds me of Ian Angus's "Emergent Publics: An essay on social movements and democracy." Groups gather based on affinity of some aspect of themselves, and as they gather they converse among themselves to craft a statement of what they see and what they want society to do about it, and as the group grows and hones their message their voice grows clearer among the din of voices and media, and people outside of their affinity group hear their message and it changes how they understand the world -- they now know a human experience that they didn't know before. I wrote about this in "Tacit to Explicit and Back for Liberation" (Gibbs, 2008). (I'm really thrilled about this synchrony!!!!) This also fits with my view of a holomorphic world: each of us contain everything inside of us (except the future, maybe). This means that when you relate your experience to me, I know myself better, because you are part of me -- and of course I am part of you, and the entire Earth is inside me, and I am inside it, and oh oh oh THIS IS BEAUTIFUL!!!! YES! So, seeing that the universe and everything and I are one, why is the one trying to get a degree from itself? (That is what started my writing this document, so that I can get a degree from Gaia University.) Because because because because,!, the universe likes to admire itself! I.e. the oneness loves beauty. And self-realization. And right now this little patch of the oneness (me) is doing one of those things that oneness so loves to do: glowing the warmth of joy, cooing as a contented hen, pleased as a tomato plant growing in a compost pile on a sunny day. Ah glorious life! What provocative political statements, eh? Really, they are. Try making laws based on them and the Earth will change. There we have the fifth P. Ah, another response to why the oneness is getting a degree from itself: Why do cells in my body transfer electrical signals and glucose and such? So that I stay alive, and we're one, so they stay alive as part of the deal. So, why would two parts of the universe exchange anything? Why would anything flow through the universe? To keep it alive. Sometimes the flow works well for both the transmitter, the receiver, and the next broader organism. Sometimes the flow damages the receiver blatantly, seems to protect the transmitter, and weakens the next broader organism -- this is the case with people locking people in prison and damaging their shared town. So, there's some flow going on with me that's part of keeping the next broader organism alive (Gaia University) which is part of keeping the next broader organism alive (humanity, perhaps). Since both me and Gaia U benefit from what's going on, I judge this to be healthy rather than damaging. Remember the question: Why is the oneness getting a degree from itself? New answer: To keep itself alive. A helpful idea here is fractal sovereignty: each organism is both sovereign and interdependent, and can exercise its sovereignty by choosing how, where, and with whom to practice its interdependence. Alan Rosenblith of Metacurrency introduced me to this concept and other Metacurrency concepts yesterday. So me and the other folks in Gaia U have chosen to exercise our interdependence together and this means there's something flowing among us. Alan's word for the symbols that flow among us: currency. Alan's metaphor for currency: currency is language. The metaphor works directly in my example: I am writing these symbols to give to Gaia University who will then give me a piece of paper with writing on it (my degree), which I will then show to other people who want some assurance of my quality of work (actually they won't ask for the paper, they'll accept my word). Another word from Alan: symbionomics: the way we exchange symbols with each other (not exactly what he said) -- when I look up the roots of that word, syn-, bio-, -nomy, the result is "the area of knowledge and laws governing the acting together of life." That works. The universe is getting a degree from itself because it's constituent parts have fractal sovereignty and me and Gaia U have decided to act together to satisfy our interdependence and keep life flowing with healthful beauty. Okay, now I can explain why, I'm satisfied, I'll do it, I'll get my degree. Next step for elaboration is Rafter's idea of cascading democracy that he explains in the Liberation Ecology Working Paper, and perhaps Lynn Margulis and Dorion Sagan's explanation of trans-phyla genome sharing in their book Acquiring the Genome. I could continue this thread all the way through explaining the rest of my 2010 Foundation for Transformative Action. That's where I feel myself taking this, and it follows the principle of "design from patterns to details." However, this is due is 35 minutes and there are a few steps in between here and Jennifer's email inbox, so the continuation of this thread awaits me. (the following was written earlier and flows from a few paragraphs up "There we have the fifth P.") The cycle completes. The other four P's were much weaker when they weren't situated by the fifth P. Here's a thought train staring at P1-Personal: 1) What are my needs? 2) What can I do to meet them? 3) Okay, do that. 4) That put me in contact with other people. So, who are they, what are their needs? 5) Huh, their needs are a bit different than mine. That's worth noticing. I wonder if maybe my needs are a bit different than I thought. *5+1*) I wonder if I'm different than I thought. Who am I? 2) What do I want to do about it?
1. P1 = Personal outcomes
2. P2 = Project outcomes
3. P3 = Professional developments
4. P4 = Peer group & learning community growth
5. P5 = Political consciousness
6. DePe = deinstalling the patrix
Reassurance for self & sponsors
1. Family & friends, employers, lenders, professionals
  1. Crowd sourcing!
2. HE as major investment
  1. time
  2. effort
  3. money
  4. career intentions
3. Outcomes of value?
4. Who says so?