From Student to Explorer
I have always valued reading and have approached each book with curiosity, wonder, and a thirst for knowledge. I have taken the posture that the author is the expert and I am the student so I have struggled with the idea of not reading every word, not just for gaining information but for understanding. What if I miss something important? I reflected for some time on the section, “Reading as Learning: The Difference Between Learning by Instruction and Learning by Discovery.”[1] This is an important paradigm shift for me as I enter this program as it moves me, the student, from passive receiver to active explorer. Becoming a “demanding reader” is a much different posture with different expectations than I have approached reading in the past.[2]
Through Adler’s concepts, another value of mine was highlighted, the need to know “why.” I am one who most often wants to know the purpose of things in order to be fully present, engaged and committed. How to Read a Book, especially section four, broadened my perspective regarding the purpose of reading. I must start with answering the “why” question when approaching a book which will help me know the place it has in my library and will focus my “thirst.” One way this is accomplished is by inspecting the books in the bibliography in total before doing any analytical reading. I am then able to weed out those works that may address my subject, but are irrelevant to the specific focus I have.
In essence, I gleaned that each genre and title will have a different purpose for my consideration. Some will not be needed at all, even though they interest me, and would simply require time that I do not have. Others are a valuable resource from which I can pull out the nugget that adds value to my work and leave the rest. Adler describes it like this, “In syntopical reading, it is you and your concerns that are primarily to be served, not the books that you read…Your aim is to find the passages in the books that are most germane to your needs.”[3] By taking the approach that the “why” behind a book is to serve my specific need at the time, releases me to read analytically and to “eat the meat and throw the bones away” rather than feel the need to consume it entirely.
It was helpful to consider the various types of materials and the best approach to gain the most from them. I was specifically drawn into the section about philosophy and the natural wonder in the often unanswerable “why” questions of a child, how they grow out of those types of curiosities, and the role of the parents in the process. They are naturally young explorers! Because I understand the limit of time and the consumption of materials needed, it makes the shift in me necessary, but I never want to lose the wonder that keeps me open. I grew up in an environment that required adulthood before childhood had passed. It shaped me in a way that I must fight the drift from critical thinker to critic and cynic. I have been learning childlikeness again in the past twenty years and now find myself in a healthy tension between critical thinking and childlike awe and openness to new ways of seeing the world.
I highly value life-long learning. I believe Solomon gives us insight into the value of wisdom, understanding, knowledge, discernment and discretion when he describes them as adornment to be worn or as silver to be searched for. He too understood that we must be explorers as well as students.[4] Adler’s conclusion brought everything back to the “why,” the growth of the mind. His remarks regarding the deterioration of the body compared to there being “no limit to the amount of growth and development that the mind can sustain”[5] reminded me of Paul’s words, “Though our outer self is wasting away, our inner self is being renewed day by day.”[6]
Here’s to exploring new worlds!
[1] Mortimer J. Adler and Charles Van Doren, How to Read a Book (New York: Touchstone, 1972), 10.
About the Author
Tammy Dunahoo
Tammy is a lover of God, her husband, children and grandchildren. She is the V.P. of U.S. Operations/General Supervisor of The Foursquare Church.4 responses to “From Student to Explorer”
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I appreciate this, Tammy. I will need to grow into becoming more demanding in my reading. To engage an author (once I’ve understood him or her) for my purposes and to bring my questions to it is a paradigm shift for me. I have great anticipation though. I need the reminder to scan the table of contents and the bibliography to determine my need and approach to each book. Excited to grow in this!
Tammy,
I loved your phrase of living in a healthy tension between critical thinking and childlike awe so you can be open to seeing things in a new way. How many times in ministry challenges are we prone to think “either/or” instead of “both/and.” I look forward to exploring and discovering with my cohort family on this LGP9 journey, H
Good for you for learning “childlikeness” again Tammy. May we all approach this new way of reading with the abandon and enthusiasm of a child, eyes full of wonder, anticipating what’s next.
Thanks Tammy for your post. The verse in Proverbs is so appropriate because it’s a good reminder that to seek understanding in our knowledge is so integral to our journey to our worship of God. Wow! That’s great. Adler’s admonition to seek understanding before we say “I agree,” or “I disagree,” or “I suspend judgement” turns out to be a godly exercise in our pursuit of knowledge.