Beech Tree News Network

SHUCKING IT

How much wood could a woodchuck shuck, if a woodchuck could shuck wood? Most of us are familiar with the little tongue twister I just quoted, meant to test our verbal skills if we can say it several times quickly without varying from the original, any at all. A shuck actually is the outer part of a vegetable, which we discard in order to get to the edible part; a similar term might be -chaff. Most of us with country roots, are familiar with the task of shucking corn, where we toss the outer layer away, as we have no use for it. The word shuck though, has evolved, to also mean to toss something , so I guess by that definition a woodchuck might could toss a lot of wood, if it had arms with the necessary dexterity. When we are completely fed up with something we might want to just “shuck it” although a more crude term is often inserted as a substitute, when we are expressing our frustration or contempt.

My son told me something once which frustrated me quite a bit at the time. Now, the comment did not anger me in the least, it just got me thinking about how I wish things were different and about how we, as a whole, might set about to making things different. He told me that he believed school was invented to torture young people, (or something to that effect anyway.) He is not alone in his general contempt for institutionalized education, sadly, sentiments similar to that view are far from scarce, in varying degrees, kindred views are abundant, probably constituting the majority of our youth. I remember very well my own disenchantment with education, for the most part, I hated every minute of it, yet now I love learning(in spite of school, instead of because of it) . There were several factors involved, for one, it really was never made to feel like a safe environment, bullying was rampant and some of the worst, were not the children. Also, little thought was ever given to a mentoring program of any kind and creativity and exploration, geared for right-brainers, was largely shucked in favor of structure and conformity. My own father use to speculate, quite often, about how well children had it until they started school and then all the “misery” started, of going to school and working for a living.

So what can we do, as a society, to change one of the basic foundations of our culture. In my humble view it comes down to shucking something deeply embedded in our way of life. Once discarded it will not only change the way we educate but the way we do just about everything. We have got to shuck the “reward and punishment” standard, so rooted in everything we do, that most of us just take it for granted anymore. Alfie Kohn, who in my estimation is one of the most brilliant educators of our time and has greatly influenced my thinking, (should have been a serious contender for Secretary of Education) has written a book titled -Punished by Rewards- and talks about the disservice we do our children by the whole reward and punishment scenario. The following is a quote by him, “Both rewards and punishments are ways of manipulating behavior that destroy the potential for real learning. Instead we should be providing engaging curriculum and a caring atmosphere, so kids can act on their natural desire to find out.” I don't have room to go deeply into the reasoning or to defend the basics of this philosophy but highly recommend studying it for yourself. Fearing the paddle or detention or whatever, or chasing the A or recognition, never really worked in the long term anyway, they were, at best, short term motivators and more likely, destroyers of actual curiosity.

I hear the same language used all over the structures of community, the whole “place to attain and place to avoid” type of language so prevalent in our discussions of faith. I am proud to say I have been lucky enough to have found a place willing to shuck the majority of that line of thought and strive for deeper thought, in relation to matters of the spirit. Motivation is used in the workplace and also, so often, in many relationships, where we try to manipulate behavior with some type of reward for doing what we want or punishment, such as silence or withdrawal and then we wonder why divorce is so high and “dysfunctional families” are the norm.

The solution is to shuck motivation , for the most part, and instead employ its superior-Inspiration. The word Inspiration comes from the word 'inspirare” which means “to fill with life” or “divine guidance.” Inspiration is something you feel on the inside, while motivation compels from the outside. Inspiration is about tapping into your life's purpose, it is about finding what sings to your soul, what makes your heart beat faster, what gives your spirit joy and your soul meaning.

Shucking motivation for inspiration, in every aspect of our lives and society, will be a long, hard process, but anything worthwhile always is hard, that is what makes it great.