The Self

The first element of the QwispMap: Me - the Self

Learner Value

We are all naturally curious about ourselves and that curiosity gives us impetus and energy. 

Starting the learning journey at the self introduces the perception that I am at the centre of the universe BUT you are at the centre of your universe and an ant is at the centre of it’s universe. I am as important to me as you are to you.

This can lead to a better understanding and deeper integration of the concept of equality in all life.
Despite seeing the world from a self-centred position, we learn that we will not survive if we don’t help everything around us to survive. We are drawn into the realisation that we are all part of the same interdependent network and that we are all in the same struggle for survival with the same challenges. This engenders empathy rather than judgement.

Because Qwisp® uses ’myself’ as it’s point of departure in the learning journey, we ‘own’ the learning journey and we ‘own’ the joys and challenges along the way. There is therefore hope that we will ‘own’ the responsibilities that emerge.
The subject matter becomes very personal so that by the time the journey reaches the phase where we consider responsibilities, these clearly belong to me and everyone around me. My function and consumption on earth, however small, is still a function and consumption so I do make a difference.

We learn the difference between selfishness and self-centredness. Where selfish is considered to be ‘void of regard for others’ (Chambers 1983) while self-centredness in our context is ‘centred in self’ (Chambers 1983).

Qwisp® does not condone selfishness but rather imparts an attitude of taking care of the self in a way that develops an emotionally and intellectually robust character, thus being self-centric, in order to have the emotional and intellectual resources that enable us to play our part in caring for and acting responsibly towards the rest of the ecosystem and society, including our families. A person who has centred themselves by having found and developed their inner core is of great value to everyone around them.

Self-centredness can diminish selfishness and engender mindfulness, care and empathy.

Needs

The second element of the QwispMap: My Basic Needs

Needs, like air, water and food, are inherent to every living entity. Nothing on earth can survive without them. We are programmed with needs in order to survive and we are instinctively driven to fulfil them. A need is like a magnet drawing our energy in the direction of fulfilling that need.

In the context of Qwisp®, needs are seen to be life-centred, not self- or ego-centred because our use of the word refers to this definition: ” Need is a want of something which one cannot well do without; a state that requires relief, and; it is want of the means of living.” (Chambers Dictionary, 1971).

So the needs we base our learning journeys on are the needs that are essential to life and the source of spontaneous energies. These two human qualities in combination have the potential to become an extremely powerful tool for learning the modern art of survival.

Learner Value

• Using needs in conjunction with the concept of self compounds the immediacy of the learning process and its connection to our common sense and our spontaneous energies.
• Qwisp® separates the needs that are indispensable from those that we have come to believe are indispensable, providing learners with a realistic vantage point from which to create a value system.
• Learning that is based on needs makes knowledge more accessible to many more people.
• Learning that is based on needs makes the starting point of the learning process an instinctual place and not an intellectual level, making learning more accessible through ease of connection to the subject matter and also through diminished fear of personal intellectual capacity.
• Less qualified teachers are enabled, empowered and given confidence by the accessibility of the subject matter.
• As we grow and develop, our needs shift, keeping our curiosity in constant play with our environment and our minds in step with contemporary life. We have the perfect learning partner in the internet; it apparently has all the answers and it appears that it will always be up to date with anything we need to know. We are able to learn at the forefront of information.

Social Value

Globally, we are all inextricably linked to our environments and to each other by our needs.

Needs highlight the fact that we are equal as human beings; same needs, different ways of addressing them; different recipes for our foods but all our diets require proteins, carbohydrates etc. = same needs + different environment = different culture.

Using needs  as the basis for learning could create a global learning model that exposes the web of connectivity between cultures, between cultures and environments and between humanity and all other life: a model for humane, peaceful and sustainable societies.

Spontaneous Energies

The third element of the QwispMap: My Spontaneous Energies

Our spontaneous energies are a natural response to our needs awakened by our desire to fulfil these needs. Needs and spontaneous energies can be harnessed into a powerful energy stream for driving the learning process.

All living creatures seek to fulfil certain needs instinctively: food, air, water, shelter, safety, love and many more. We know, without being taught, what most of our needs are but we require guidance in ‘how’ to fulfil them.

Giving ourselves credit for what we instinctively know is empowering. If we understand the role that needs play in our existence, we understand how much we can trust our instinctive knowledge.

Our natural curiosity draws us into the exploration of our formative and informative environment. It leads us into the unknown where we find more questions and challenges.

Instinct guides our search for answers to our questions borne from curiosity, we observe the areas of life that hold possible answers and often find multiple options. Intuition will guide our choice of answer to an option that best suits our judgement and this option becomes an answer which will later be proven or disproven through experience.

Apart from curiosity, instinct, and intuition fuelling the learning process at school, they combine to create a blueprint in each individual which eventually becomes their personal, self-constructed knowledge base.

The combination of our common-sense, our intuition and our instinct for survival, ignites our creative powers and so creativity becomes an integral element of our learning process and in turn stimulates our other innate energies.

Acknowledging common-sense as a valuable part of the learning process strengthens our self-image when we recognise that we can contribute solutions to a problem from our own insights. It makes people who don’t see themselves as intellectuals feel less intimidated by the learning process which in turn will reinforce the realisation that we are all equal players in the world and equally responsible for its survival.

Questions for a World in Sustainable Perspective

The fourth element of the QwispMap: 4 questions to lead me on my quest for knowledge and survival

Questioning, in all its forms, is a natural, unstoppable mind activity, an expression of our curiosity and our need to  know.

Questions are the roots of a learners 'tree of knowledge'. As soon as one question is answered the next one has popped into mind, creating a knock-on growth of knowledge from one answer to  the next - providing that there is some way of getting the answer. 

A child's question is always based on something that they know or have observed, which is another form of knowing. 

The Qwisp® questions pick up on this already present mind activity, guiding the learner into a knock-on thought sequence that guides them to the ultimate aim of knowledge which is for each individual to survive and thrive and help others to do the same. The process is simultaneously taking the learner through a spiral learning experience where the knowledge deepens and broadens as their questioning becomes more focused and goal-driven.

As the learners questioning skills are honed from an early age, the questioning activity could become second nature and serve their learning abilities throughout their lives. Progress in science has been the result, largely, of a path of questions and answers that stretch back into ancient times.

The thought activity in questioning awakens other spontaneous energies, promoting creativity, imagination and who knows what else?

Questioning opens the mind to adventure and discovery.

Surviving and Flourishing

The last element of the QwispMap: My survival and flourishing

Everything that lives is wired for survival. Survival is our strongest instinct. 

We are also wired with needs and spontaneous energies, both crucial for our survival.

In prehistoric times, when life was about living in caves and hunting to stay alive, human activity was focused on fulfilling daily needs; living in reach of water, hunting and gathering for food, finding or creating shelter from the weather and safety from predators.

People were wholly dependent on their instincts, intuition, common sense, creativity and learning by observation to solve the daily challenges of staying alive.

We are still wired for survival and indeed survival remains our strongest instinct but our spontaneous energies have lost their status in our learning process and our set of survival tools: Modern education has encouraged us to disconnect ourselves from our spontaneous energies as they are deemed to be at best useless, at worst counterproductive.

Furthermore, present education systems fail to highlight the real value of our life/survival needs with the result that our needs and values have become skewed. However, our skewed needs still fire these energies.

If we use survival needs as the starting point for our learning we could bring our spontaneous energies back into play and have a better chance of learning to really survive, thrive and secure the future of our planet.

Qwisp® seeks to reinstate the connection between survival, learning, needs and spontaneous energies. as this will bring energy to the learning process as well as give creativity, imagination, reasoning and many more natural mind activities their rightful place in our education and well-being.