[From Rick Marken (960506.0800)]
Cross posted reply to CSGNet and respthink:
Me:
1. What does it mean to "understand the program"? How does one determine
that an administrator or teacher understands the program?
Tom Bourbon (960501.1734)
It's sort of like saying someone "understands a tracking task," or
"understands driving a car." You look and you see them "doing it."
What, then, do you think the variable under control is when one "understands
the program"; is it the way the kids are treated? the way the kids act in
class? the amount of teaching the teacher does? or something else?
Using your example of the tracking task, is the program analogous to a
particular handle movement or to a particular cursor position?
I might as well reveal what I am trying to get at with these questions. I
think the PCT view of human nature would lead one to be suspicious of the
notion that _any_ particular program, even (especially?) when rigorously
applied, could produce improved human behavior and/or relationships.
I'm wondering whether the reason Ed's program works (when it works) is not so
much a result of accurate implementation of the program, per se, but, rather,
of an accurate understanding of the theory behind the program.
My hypothesis (which you can feel free to test or not, as you wish) is that
the places where Ed's program works best are the places where people have the
best grasp (not necessarily technical) of the essentials of PCT: that people
control their own experience; that what we see as "behavior" is often a side
effect of this control; that we can't control people arbitrarily, etc. That
is, my hypothesis is that the people who "understand the program" are the
people who understand PCT (even if they can't use technical jargon to
describe what they understand).
Best
Rick