Discipline vs. Learning

The search for self-trust…

Discipline is needed for performance. This is because discipline has a preplanned outcome and predesigned components to produce it. By nature, performance anxiety is a near universal human experience. It may be softened or aggravated by a teacher or other performers, but we seldom have control over how they will contribute. The habitual nature of discipline allows those affected with performance anxiety to work through the mental blocks causing the anxiety.

Learning comes from discovery. It requires developing comfort with “not knowing” and cannot have a rigid shape in advance. Our so-called educational system is built on the misunderstandings which come from confusing the two. This contradictory pairing frustrates our best teachers who can sense when it is necessary to help the student discover for themselves connections between ideas, people and patterns generally.

Self-trust grows from knowing that nothing is absolute in advance.