Simple denial is a rejection of a reality or a truth: "No, that's just not so!"Īs we live in a world of our own creations, our self-righteousness makes us the good guys who can't do wrong the others are the bad ones, responsible for all ills under the sun. Yet there are those who are stuck, who cannot move on. We have our intelligence to help us think, learn from our errors and move on. We differ from animals in that they rely on instinct. We are not beyond doing foolish things and making mistakes, being neither saints nor angels. We live in the real world, where we cannot avoid an unpleasantness or a pain that we wish never occurred. Then Calvin knows his world of fantasy has ended.įor us grownups, denial persists. Invincible fantasy Calvin saves the world from inhumanity and injustice - until his parents subject him to human cruelties such as eating dinner or taking a bath or doing homework. The comic character Calvin plays in his fantasy world, away from the real world of his father and mother. Denial is an unwillingness to face an unpleasant reality or a painful truth.Ĭhildren love to play in their fantasy worlds. I am in denial, We are all in denial," someone wrote.ĭenial is used across cultures and national boundaries, by individuals, groups or nations as a defense mechanism to escape from unwanted feelings of hurt, shame or guilt. We have to rely on our "one kilo of brain" to think - and to think better. In this age of instant gratification with a click of a keyboard or a push of a button, who has the patience to wait 20 years for education to bear fruit? In my teaching days, students' whispers and body language could transmit their frustration with the hard work of "thinking." As a teacher, sometimes my best efforts to engage my students fell short.īut as the world marches on, dedicated teachers inspire, challenge and prepare students for a competitive world.Įducation takes time there is no "cut to the chase," no ABC action manual, no one-size-fits-all. Nothing pains some people more than having to think." There is an almost universal quest for easy answers and half-baked solutions. In the words of Martin Luther King: "Rarely do we find men who willingly engage in hard, solid thinking. It's no wonder "why so few people" actually engage in it, he says. It involves "observing, remembering, wondering, imagining, inquiring, interpreting, evaluating, judging, identifying, supporting, composing, comparing, analyzing, calculating, and even metacognition (thinking about thinking)." He admits "truly focused thinking" is hard work. To paraphrase Sir Isaac Newton - and take his reference into a new realm - an object at rest tends to stay at rest an object in motion tends to stay in motion unless stopped by an unbalanced force.Ī founding partner of a firm that provides global corporations with training, facilitation and consultation in productive thinking and innovation, Tim Hurson, says better thinking can be taught. The reconsiderations that result are an important element to improving the quality of our thinking. Through such interactions, we learn to take new perspectives into account. Opportunities to interact with others and engage in situations through which our own beliefs and habits are challenged, are engaging and stimulating.
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