Janus isn’t just for January

Get Started...Again!

Dr. Sue Fisher at The Lukeion Project

It’s that time of the year again – a few weeks into January and the glow of a new beginning is starting to wane. Perhaps you have already broken your New Year’s resolutions or have missed that first assignment or even that first class and are feeling a little glum. This year, the semester was going to be different after all, but now it feels like some of the same old same old is creeping back in.

This year more than ever before there has been a preponderance of articles in the news and online about why it’s okay, perhaps even healthy, to break your New Year’s resolutions. Things are a bit crazy after all, so why shouldn’t we give ourselves a break. There is some wisdom in this, since beating yourself up can be counterproductive, but is it truly healthy to throw in the towel this early into the year or the semester? Is all truly lost because of one set back? Even just asking yourself the question can make you realize how silly this line of thinking is. Perhaps a healthier way of looking at resolutions and new beginnings is to look at the Roman god for whom the month of January was named.

The god Janus is one of the oldest gods in the Roman pantheon, dating back before the founding of Rome in 753 B.C. He was the first god invoked in religious ceremonies – even before the Jupiter, the king of the gods. He was kind of a big deal. Janus was the god of beginnings and from that, thresholds, and doorways. What many people don’t know, though, is that not only was the beginning of the year sacred to Janus, but so was any beginning – the beginning of a month and even the beginning of the day. 

In short, every morning is a new January. You blew your New Year’s resolution? According to Janus you have today and every day beyond to start again. Are you going to argue with the wisdom of the one who out-ranked Jupiter? I didn’t think so.

The god Janus doesn’t just stop with letting us know that new beginnings are plentiful, but he shows us how to walk into them – how to cross those thresholds into a new way of being. This is seen in how Janus is portrayed in art. He is generally shown with two faces – one that looks forward and one that looks back. To move forward you often need to examine where you have come from and what mistakes you have made. Identify these things but don’t stay there feeling glum and looking backward. Use what you have learned to face forward and step into a new beginning where you leave those mistakes behind.

As for the occasional four-faced Janus sculpture, well I’ll leave those other two heads to your imagination. Those two extra heads can be parents, teachers, or friends who help you make the step from past troubles to future successes. Or perhaps they are voices of pros and cons as you weigh out the best way forward on your own. Or maybe something else.

The important part is recognizing that what is behind you is behind and the future you face is yours to step into and every day is New Year’s Day.

 

Docere et Discere

Learning How to Teach vs. Teaching How to Learn

By Amy Barr of The Lukeion Project

As the world has changed rapidly, so too has education. Some parents who might have rarely pondered pedagogy were forced to discover new ways to balance out the chaos of their child’s on-again-off-again education. Home education has more than doubled in the last year as more are taking matters into their own hands. The Lukeion Project has welcomed many new families seeking to either supplement their children’s education or, having newly switched to home education full time, provide some much needed educational help. I figured some teaching insights from the ancient world might bring perspective. The Romans had a lot of thoughts about learning, teaching, and being teachable.

The Latin verb docere (to teach, to point out) is the source of the English word “doctor,” a person who is an educator (not a medical professional who was a medicor). Also a doctor was a person who has already been taught or well-instructed, coming from the verb’s passive participle doctus. The Romans would have also used this participial form to describe an experienced or clever person who knew a subject very thoroughly which really the source of one earning one’s “doctorate” degree. Docte is a related adverb meaning “shrewdly” or “cleverly.”

Monere (also meaning “to warn” or “to remind” about something that a person should already know). A monitor (from which we get the modern English word) meant “prompter” as in a person who sits discreetly near a stage to help actors remember forgotten lines. By-and-by the English word “monetary” comes from the same verb but that’s a very convoluted story to include here.

Instruere (where we get “instruction” and “instructor”) meant “to build or prepare.” This verb (struo or instruo) might be used setting up one’s home, setting up a battle line, or building a wall. The passive participle instructus means a combination of “equipped” and “supplied.”

Praecipere means to “to warn” and also “to anticipate.” When using the word to indicate “to teach,” the writer implies how an educator equips the learner to be ready for something that will eventually happen. A praeceptum (precept) is a command or rule—something that must and will happen so one must plan for it.

We get the English word erudite (scholarly) from erudire which can mean “to instruct” in the sense of taming or removing roughness from a student. Look at ex + rudis, a word meaning rough, raw, or uncultivated sort of like a weedy field before it is made into a garden.  

Bringing young people along in their education has always been a mix of forming, warning, building, furnishing, and equipping—but what about the job of being educated? What is a student’s responsibility in all this?  

The Latin verb reperire means “to learn” in the sense of finding out, obtaining, getting to know something. A repertor was a discoverer or inventor. Both words come from re + parere, a word meaning “to produce” or “to create.”Reperire also means “to create again and again.”

Discere, from which we get “discovery” a term related to “didactic,” means “to acquire knowledge of” or “to find out” in much the same way that an investigator discovers the facts of a situation. The -sc- part of the word is a special ingredient in Latin that suggests the process takes time and grows as it goes (we call -sc- an inceptive).  Similarly, the verb conperire also means “to discover by investigation.” From this Latin verb we get the English word “compare,” like when we hold up several objects and investigate the differences.

 The verb percipere means “to collect” or “to seize” as well as “to learn.” A perceptive person mentally comprehends all the principles at hand and collects them in mind much like a detective.

Notice how all the words for educating suggest a supporting role (like a tour guide or the person that helps remind a student of forgotten lines or maybe the person that keeps the supplies available). The words for learning are active and primary. The student is the investigator, builder, observer, the main agent in gleaning and gaining knowledge. The educator? Our job is just to be here to help.

Tell Yourself Valuable Things

You are What Your Team Says You Are

Amy Barr of The Lukeion Project

Does teamwork make the dream work? Often our team is our family. Occasionally we get to work with a group of our own choosing, such as with friends. Most often we are teamed up with others without much personal choice involved like when we volunteer to help to clean up after a big storm or when we join a league to play a sport, or we are part of band or dance group. Even if we live in isolation and can’t remember doing much of anything as part of a team, each of us still works as part of a very small team: we have to work with ourselves.

Some of us don’t have to imagine what it is like to have “that” teammate who constantly complains or interjects doubts.

“It’s too hot to do our best today!”

“We haven’t practiced this very long so now we are going to do a terrible job!”

“I’m not very good at this, I am probably going to mess this up terribly for everyone else.”

“The odds are really against us so why try?”

Ask any coach or director (of any kind) and they’ll likely tell you the most important part of their job is keeping a team’s spirit positive and productive. It only takes one person with a defeatist attitude to bring progress and success to a grinding halt. Employers avoid promoting grumblers and complainers even if those complaints are genuine. No matter what the task might be, productivity is destroyed by Wally Wet-blanket who pollutes everything with negativity.

“But I am only raising accurate concerns!” screams Wally (or Wanda) Wet-blanket who assumes he (or she) is the very first person on the team to realize that conditions are not ideal for swift and easy success. Most humans are naturally pessimists without assistance from negative teammates spelling things out. Statistically accurate complaints need not be expressed in most team situations (except in those horror movies where everyone weirdly agrees to hide in the basement instead of running toward the busy well-lit road nearby).

Good teammates defy reality! They cheer everyone else on to success despite the odds. They shout to struggling teammates, “you got this!” They celebrate each step toward victory with congratulations:
“Yes! That’s better than last week. Good work.” 

We hear these encouraging words and eventually come to believe what our teammates tell us. We become what they think we are. Maybe we really can do this!

Put two otherwise equal teams into a match and the one that shares a positive encouraging team approach will succeed over the group that wastes energy niggling about every obstacle and flaw.

The smallest team you play for is yourself and you maintain a constant dialog with yourself, even while you sleep. Maybe you say things like, “You aren’t very good at learning new things.” Perhaps you say, “You are not good at sports (or languages, writing, or math).” Sporadically you say, “everyone is much better at this than you are so you should give up.”

Hopefully you say, “Yes! That’s much better than last week!” or possibly, “You got this! Just another couple of practice sessions!” or maybe, “Sure, you are hot and tired, but you can finish well so don’t give up.”

A match between two otherwise equal teams will always be won by the team that cheers its members to victory. You face each day with a choice. Which team would you rather join? Wally Wet-blanket believes he is justified in spouting negativity about why it is unlikely he (his team) will do well, or he’ll mumble relentlessly about how unprepared he might be, or he’ll moan about issues outside his control. Since we are our own team, we become who we say we are. If we say we are not up to a task, we will not ever be up to that task.

Decide instead to tell yourself valuable things like, “I will give this situation my full energy and I’ll succeed better and better each time,” or “I practiced this so I know I can do it,” or “I really am capable at being good at this!” 

Let your internal dialog be the place where there never is heard a discouraging word.You are what you say you are. Start saying you are excellent.