The Grand Experiment That is the Human Race
Tuck your emotions into a pocket. Don’t worry, they’ll still be there when we’re done. But put on your scientist hat and let’s take a look at what we human beings really are: a social science experiment that started two or three hundred thousand years ago when we learned to use tools, stand upright and eventually form societies to survive. And if you think we’ve come too far to think of ourselves that way, you’re not thinking about it enough. Just look around at things like education or government or culture, or even something as basic as work-life balance, and it becomes very clear that an experiment is exactly what we are.
Teaching and Learning
Let’s start with this subject which is near and dear to my heart. What more evidence do you need than to look at recent history of education to see “experiment” screaming loudly and clearly? Any educator knows that every five years or so, the new it theory comes down the pike and completely upsets the apple cart. I got vertigo from swinging pendulums on teaching math, reading, writing and science over my thirty-seven years in classrooms.
“This is the way to do it! Ah ha, we finally figured it out!”
“No, wait, we were wrong, but now we’re right, this is the way you do it!”
“Ooops, no, not that way, haha, this way!”
We threw out all the “old” and brought in the shiny “new” until new was old and old was new and I feel like I’m writing a Dr. Seuss book. Except now he’s out too. Unless he’s not. Sorry, but you can see what I mean.
The ugly truth is we don’t know what we’re doing because we don’t yet fully understand the human brain, and learning and teaching shape the human brain which is hard to do if you don’t understand how it works. And here’s a secret; Psssst no one knows how it works. People claim to, and prove their claims by setting up experiments with criteria that match what they think is true and then, whoa! The results prove they’re right! Until the exact opposite school of thought proves their claims. Theories abound, often humanistic versus scientific, some of which have fancy names like Montessori or Science-based. But in the classroom it all comes down to what the people at the top believe in at the time, and that changes as research indicates new ideas.
That Also Makes Parenting an Experiment
Trigger warning: If you’re in the middle of raising a child, please stop reading or skip this section, and do you. I’m not touting anything at all here, but if you’re in that hair-on-fire period of shaping the next generation (No pressure. Oh, wait.), the last thing you need is someone shining a giant spotlight on the fact that it’s all a crap shoot anyway. Off you go, make a nice cup of tea and hide in the bathroom to enjoy it.
Every generation wants to fix the damage done by the parents that raised them. It was Dr. Spock back in the 60’s who tried to tell my mother and her peers not to beat us constantly. After all, she was raised in the “Spare the rod and spoil the child” era. But I still got spanked, screamed at constantly, told that children were meant to be seen and not heard, and that a girl was only going to be a wife, mother, cook and housekeeper for the men. June Cleever, much?
We raised our kids the way we wish it had been done for us- to be adventurous, enjoy fun and nature and stories, try everything and search for their passions. We were still pretty tough disciplinarians, expecting obedience and respect we felt we were due. Our family motto was Work Hard, Play Hard; and we modeled that and expected our kids to do it too.
Now I’m watching my kids raise kids the way they think it should have been done for them, and I do my best to stand back and cheer-lead. It’s their turn to do what they think is the right way. I hope I stick around long enough to see how that plays out and even maybe watch my grandkids try their hand. Interestingly, on a sociological level, my cousin is raising her grandchildren, and herself trying to do better than we all did in our round. Wouldn’t wish it on anyone, but she’s doing an admirable job of learning from our “mistakes”, for lack of a better word.
Point is, again, no one has cracked the nut that is parenting. And a big part of the reason is that society is evolving and the “right” way to do it is a moving target. Our parents thought they were preparing us to deal with the world and we thought the same and I’m pretty sure our kids do too, but the world is not the same as it was and will never be the same as it is today. So, experiment it is.
Even Bigger Picture
Culture and government are both clear examples of human trial and error. They mandate how things should be in one’s daily life and lay out consequences for diverging from those mandates. Culture often evokes thoughts of art and music, but it’s so much bigger than that. It’s about accepted societal norms, expectations for everything from behavior to celebrations, from customs and traditions to personal principles and values. For one example, think about how sexuality has been viewed through the generations and across cultures, like the ever-fluctuating level of appreciation of women, and the level of acceptance or even celebration of those of LGBTQAI++ communities. I could, and may still, write whole articles about culture, but for the purposes of this one, my point is each culture thinks they are the ones who are doing it “right.”
Governing is no different. Every country, state or department (as smaller jurisdictions are called in other countries), town and city has its laws and its consequences for breaking them. Each has its theory and philosophy on the objectives of running their domain, and the role of the governed versus the governors. Democracy has shown itself to be a trial-and-error attempt to rule large swaths of humanity more fairly. Autocracy, aristocracy, theocracy, plutocracy, anarchy, all have had their run in the past and many continue today as our species attempts to figure out how to handle eight billion of us at a time. It’s a mind-blowing endeavor for a mind-blowing number of human beings. Is it foolish to think we’ll ever get it “right?” Maybe, but that won’t stop us from trying.
As I wrap this up, you may notice I left a huge millennia-long experiment out of this discussion: religion. I’m not doing a deep dive there because, first of all, I have no answers and don’t even really know what I myself believe. But, also, because many people who can be reasonable about all the points I did bring up already are completely irrational when it comes to discussing religion. So, I’m leaving that to a whole other article that I’m not likely to ever write, although writing my thoughts is part of my own life experiment so I’m not making any promises I won’t go there in the future.
So, Now What?
It may be scary to ponder the fact that no one has ever figured this all out and it’s likely we never will. I think most of us want things outside our control to be settled and sure, and it’s unsettling to think they aren’t, that it’s really a chaotic game of darts where the board keeps moving and everyone is throwing sharp-pointed objects at the same time.
But it’s also freeing in a big way. We dropped into this world in our tiny spot on the human timeline along with everyone else around us, and if we think of this life as our own personal experiment and are fortunate enough to have some control, we can really have some fun with it. We can follow the scientific method steps: Ask a question: Identify a problem or question to answer; Observe and collect data using your senses or tools; Research to learn more about the topic; Form a hypothesis about how things work; Predict what will happen if you test it; Test your prediction by conducting an experiment; Analyze the results of your experiment; Use your analysis to draw a conclusion; and finally, Report and share your findings. In case I have to point out the obvious, that’s exactly what I did in this article.
So, fellow scientists, you can take those emotions out of your pocket now but don’t forget to occasionally take a step back to look at big picture things with curiosity and even awe. It makes this experiment we call life more interesting to say the least.