Mole 12
Gardening, Goodhart's Law, Education, Music as Language
🥘 Hi!
Evan Doukas turned a 1/4 acre lot from asphalt to Eden inside a city in Colorado using no-till, back to Eden, permaculture, and other regenerative agricultural methods. In our full conversation, Evan shares how gardening insights led to spiritual transformation. We get into the difference between the roles of dominion versus stewardship in the Garden of Eden accounts in Genesis, the tension of the garden and the city, as well as how rest and pruning brings restoration.
Órale! on to the Mole! (as in MO-lay)
Goodhart's Law
Ever wonder why people can "succeed" without accomplishing the true mission? Well, Goodhart's Law explains such debacles.
"When a measure becomes a target, it ceases to be a good measure.”
Sketchplanations illustrate the example of Soviet Union factory "successfully" manufacturing useless nails that met the quota but missed the mark.
Where else do we see the measure becoming the target? Take education. The high school students in the Spanish class I have been entrusted to enthrall into "getting good grades" and "passing the class" have, for all intents and purposes, checked out. "What is the least I must do to pass the class?" is the minimalist question coming from many students. Some don't bother asking at all.
Are measurements like grades and attendance poor measurements for true education? Have they become the targets themselves? Are teachers and administrators coercing students to make tiny useless nails and congratulating ourselves for meeting quotas? Perhaps, we are simply perpetuating the methods in which we were trained. Or perhaps the grown ups need to change the targets.
Borrowing a page from Jock Willink's philosophy, I take ownership of the results of my classes. If they fail, I have failed. And I need to evaluate my approach. Language teacher Michel Thomas had a similar method. If a student was unable to answer a question, Thomas refused to give them the answers. Instead, he would patiently back step until the student could answer the question under their own volition. Then, he would walk the student forward to the original question. I completed Thomas' Intermediate Spanish audio series while cycling from Oregon to Colorado. Fue efectivo. And it impacted me pedagogically.
What could we use in lieu of grades that would achieve the highest aim of education? Do we all agree on what that highest aim is? These questions have me looking into educational approaches outside of mainstream public education - like classical Christian education, Montessori Method, student-centered learning, even "un-schooling."
I mentioned in my video essay on Vince Lombardi that the Packer coach would teach in a way that the slowest player could understand. Though he was ridiculed for his fixation on winning, Lombardi never lost sight of the ultimate measurement in football - victory. Any other measurements were tiny useless nails.
This newsletter turned into an article... One more video to leave you.
Learn Music as a Language
Here's a clip of Grammy-winning bassist Victor Wooten discussing his unconventional approach to teaching.
"Music is a language. Learn it like a baby learns to speak."
Wooten breaks all the traditional rules for music education. Focus on the student's strength; provide context - like a beats track, comping, singing - around the good thing they are doing. Neil DeGraide in our talk described harmony as the environment from which the song's melody emerges. A good teacher provides the right context or harmony for the student's melody or identity to emerge.
Endearingly
🎎 Mole is best enjoyed when shared. So if you value the letter, don't forget to share the Mole with a friend (or enemy) and help the cause.
Feel free to reply to this message with any links that spark your interest. I appreciate suggestions from the readership.
You can always access previous letters at derekjfiedler.substack.com
Until the next Mole,
Derek