Learning about place and scale

We began this series of meetings without a specific goal. Our interest is in how we learn. We are using place and scale as exemplars.

A child measures positive for a conduct disorder. Mark it 1. A child is dyslexic. Another 1. An addict. 1. A homeless person. A lonely person. Each a 1.

Does place mean anything you want it to mean?

Individual risks are still important but Pinker’s work encourages the tending of the space around the individual. Here are some examples of the idea in action.

The story told by Pinker is interesting in its own right. But what does it have to do with the way we learn, or how we think about place and scale?

The Pinker video had us thinking about the tendency towards pessimism. We love an unhappy ending.

Pinker’s book The Angels of Our Better Nature deals with five influences, and I have added a sixth.

The idea that violence is declining runs against the grain of how we think about the world.

Frank Oberklaid is a paediatrician. He sees patients, one by one, in a hospital. He is also an international expert on place. Why would a see-them-one-at-a-time clinician be interested in place?

Everett Rogers grew up in farm country. In Iowa. He was fascinated by why farmers were so slow to innovate, to take on new ideas that would save them both time and money.