I think our culture takes it too far too in terms of academic qualifications (leading on from the deschooling post yesterday). Why do you have to have a maths level 2 qualification to be an art teacher, or an English one to go to university to do physics? It’s such a huge source of stress for people who just don’t have that kind of brain.
I’ve always felt like I’ve never found my ‘thing’, I’m mediocre at most stuff but never good at anything. (I think I’m AuDHD- awaiting assessment, and think that this is why I’ve never settled on a ‘thing’. Because I find it hard to focus, I’ve accidentally become ‘well rounded’ but it doesn’t feel successful?
Ps I gut three Cs at A level- an art, a science and humanity (classic well-rounded) but got an A in general studies 🤷🏻♀️😂
I think about monotropism a lot in the context of the self-directing youth I know. Some of them seem to be doing one main thing, like gaming, yet as teenagers are full of surprising knowledge about the world.
Information can come from a wide variety of sources, not just adult driven and graded classes, but of course this isn’t common knowledge. And then there’s the fact that so much of what conventional students regurgitate for tests is immediately purged from their memory the next day! I was the queen of that.
Self-directing kids may have gaps in the knowledge, but I think the trade off of really knowing themselves well is worth it.
I wonder where this idea of well-roundedness comes from. I feel like it’s deeply Euro-centric and probably patriarchal and maybe comes from the idea of the Renaissance man - someone who was well-versed in all sorts of knowledge and skills? (But also - again whatever was considered broad knowledge by the dominant culture at the time.)I grew up in Italy and this is idea is even more prevalent there. There is a real sense of you aren’t well-educated if you aren’t also well-rounded. There’s an element of truth in that you shld probably know the history and politics and everything of your culture if you’re gonna be making political decisions - but it’s such a bizarre concept to impose on everyone, especially those who actually want to be deeply specialised. It also forgets that actually when we specialise we also end up drawing all sorts of interdisciplinary connections and perhaps seeing education less as a set of boxes to tick and more as an on-going exploration. Loving this series Emma!
It feels to me that there are some socially acceptable things to be very obsessive about (sports comes to mind) but some things are unacceptable, it feels very judgmental. As we are all unique how and what gets us into our flow state will be different too, so it makes sense that how deep we go into things will vary hugely. I attribute a lot of my anxiety to constantly having to split myself and not get deeply into things as much as I want. It creates an uneasy feeling, it’s also hard to undo that and feel ok to dive deep without fear of judgment. But it’s so vital to our well-being if we have monotropic focus.
I'm realising this about myself lately also. I find it so hard to disengage once I'm into something (eg my work day) to suddenly switch it off and become mum again. It feels like a physical wrenching. Then again when I have to switch from being mum into work mode.. or weekend social mode. It's only now that I have too many "modes" that I realise how bad I am at transitioning between them. How can we get to a place of being one person who just does different things? Without it feeling like a huge difficult attention shift. I don't feel like I act like a different person in any different situation, it's definitely more about the type or focus of my thinking that I find really hard to shift. It's quite fascinating... at least it would be if I had time to fully reflect on it!
I can relate so much to this. The transitioning of modes is so tricky and when I haven't finished digging into whatever I was focused on it can leave me irritated at times!
I think our culture takes it too far too in terms of academic qualifications (leading on from the deschooling post yesterday). Why do you have to have a maths level 2 qualification to be an art teacher, or an English one to go to university to do physics? It’s such a huge source of stress for people who just don’t have that kind of brain.
I’ve always felt like I’ve never found my ‘thing’, I’m mediocre at most stuff but never good at anything. (I think I’m AuDHD- awaiting assessment, and think that this is why I’ve never settled on a ‘thing’. Because I find it hard to focus, I’ve accidentally become ‘well rounded’ but it doesn’t feel successful?
Ps I gut three Cs at A level- an art, a science and humanity (classic well-rounded) but got an A in general studies 🤷🏻♀️😂
I think about monotropism a lot in the context of the self-directing youth I know. Some of them seem to be doing one main thing, like gaming, yet as teenagers are full of surprising knowledge about the world.
Information can come from a wide variety of sources, not just adult driven and graded classes, but of course this isn’t common knowledge. And then there’s the fact that so much of what conventional students regurgitate for tests is immediately purged from their memory the next day! I was the queen of that.
Self-directing kids may have gaps in the knowledge, but I think the trade off of really knowing themselves well is worth it.
I agree - and absolutely there is so much that has been wiped from my memory now I no longer 'need' it!
I wonder where this idea of well-roundedness comes from. I feel like it’s deeply Euro-centric and probably patriarchal and maybe comes from the idea of the Renaissance man - someone who was well-versed in all sorts of knowledge and skills? (But also - again whatever was considered broad knowledge by the dominant culture at the time.)I grew up in Italy and this is idea is even more prevalent there. There is a real sense of you aren’t well-educated if you aren’t also well-rounded. There’s an element of truth in that you shld probably know the history and politics and everything of your culture if you’re gonna be making political decisions - but it’s such a bizarre concept to impose on everyone, especially those who actually want to be deeply specialised. It also forgets that actually when we specialise we also end up drawing all sorts of interdisciplinary connections and perhaps seeing education less as a set of boxes to tick and more as an on-going exploration. Loving this series Emma!
yes! That's so interesting Fran, that Renaissance man idea. Also that education is evidenced by the ability to regurgitate a wide range of knowledge
It feels to me that there are some socially acceptable things to be very obsessive about (sports comes to mind) but some things are unacceptable, it feels very judgmental. As we are all unique how and what gets us into our flow state will be different too, so it makes sense that how deep we go into things will vary hugely. I attribute a lot of my anxiety to constantly having to split myself and not get deeply into things as much as I want. It creates an uneasy feeling, it’s also hard to undo that and feel ok to dive deep without fear of judgment. But it’s so vital to our well-being if we have monotropic focus.
I'm realising this about myself lately also. I find it so hard to disengage once I'm into something (eg my work day) to suddenly switch it off and become mum again. It feels like a physical wrenching. Then again when I have to switch from being mum into work mode.. or weekend social mode. It's only now that I have too many "modes" that I realise how bad I am at transitioning between them. How can we get to a place of being one person who just does different things? Without it feeling like a huge difficult attention shift. I don't feel like I act like a different person in any different situation, it's definitely more about the type or focus of my thinking that I find really hard to shift. It's quite fascinating... at least it would be if I had time to fully reflect on it!
I can relate so much to this. The transitioning of modes is so tricky and when I haven't finished digging into whatever I was focused on it can leave me irritated at times!
I think you'll all like Tanya Adkin's essay on monotropic split! On the emergent divergence website xxx
I loved it!!! Very clarifying, wish I understood myself like this many many years ago....