In addition, environments that provide structure in the forms of clear rules, expectations, and guidelines help to facilitate the experience of competence.
– The Role of Parents in Facilitating Autonomous Self-Regulation for Education
Where a system has many attractors, a minor change in the parameters of the system can result in sudden changes in the system’s trajectory. This is called a bifurcation. There are three different kinds of these: subtle, catastrophic and explosive.
– Systems Theory and Complexity Introduction
An object in motion stays in motion at a constant velocity unless acted upon by a net external force. This is the basic premise of the ancient practice of bonsai. When left to their own devices, would children choose what is good for them in the long term? Is it even possible to do so?
It is a natural tendency to discount the future and be lopsidedly focused on the short term. Psychologists call this present bias or hyperbolic discounting. Adults with benefit of experience accumulated over several cycles of trial and error remain susceptible to choosing immediate rewards over delayed gratification because this is how we have been hardwired. It takes mindful effort to go against natural instincts.
It is not as hard to counter instant gratification instincts of children who rely on guidance and are somewhat more malleable while still young. However, as bonsai practitioners would attest, caring for bonsai is a lifelong commitment. Children though would need to stand, dart, run and dance on their own two feet at some point in time. Some children grow up well adjusted and are indeed quite able after the training wheels come off and the scaffolds are removed.
These children have the benefit of a comprehensive playbook handed down to them. They know what works and what does not in good situations and in bad. That they continue to grow from strength to strength is indicative of three factors, the relevance of the playbook, their fidelity to it and their agreement that the goals of the playbook are still worthy of pursuit.
The playbook is essentially a rulebook. A rule encapsulates the relationship between cause and effect. For example, children are told not to get wet in the rain though it can be a very enjoyable experience. Getting wet is sometimes inevitable and quite alright; staying wet is not. A rule reflects agreement between members of a community. We agree not to interrupt whilst someone else is talking because nothing can be heard if everyone speaks at once. A rule describes how something works. An isosceles triangle has two equal sides and two equal base angles. All triangles have three angles which add up to 180 degrees. Taken together, knowing any one angle of an isosceles triangle would also reveal the size of the other two.
A typical playbook might contain the following rules or general guidelines of engagement. Work hard. Be honest. Make friends. Don’t give up. Be disciplined. Work before you play. Save before you spend. Avoid trouble. Be safe not sorry.
Some versions infuse more nuance. Work smart when you work hard. Be honest with yourself, others and avoid situations which would compromise your ability to be honest. Choose your friends. Spend on some wants along with needs. Avoid trouble when it does not compromise your interests. Be safe but not overly cautious.
To the extent that a playbook addresses a game with more than one player, its relevance depends on the actions of other players. Players are not the only variables of static games in dynamic environments. The goalpost could shift, the field could tilt, the ball could become heavier, there may be four teams on the same field, referees could disagree and fans may run onto the field.
Making friends seems an intuitive and adaptive thing to do and so this rule features in most playbooks. It is premised on the notion of reciprocity, some version of quid pro quo. It is assumed that when we are friendly and generous, others would return the gesture. The rule of working hard is premised on the notion of seed and harvest. It is assumed that the ground is good and would yield. It is assumed that money saved would find expression at some point in the future. We are told to avoid debt because the borrower has been considered servant to the lender.
However, from time to time, it becomes necessary to question the validity of these assumptions especially when following the rules flowing therefrom produce unexpected or subpar results. When the game changes, the playbook needs to be updated.
Take saving and avoiding debt for example. Firms now pride themselves in creditworthiness. Securing a new line and debt headroom are highlighted as merits warranting investment. When credit is cheap, it makes little sense to be conservative. When others in the field are borrowing to seize opportunity, everyone needs follow suit. Triple B bonds which are merely one step away from becoming junk, are considered maybe more worthy than triple A because of the higher yields and because issuers have an interest to guard against being downgraded. Risk pays well at least until it doesn’t. Also, commodity merchants have always been reliant on trade financing. Without borrowing to spend, there can be nothing to earn and nothing to save.
Of course, history is replete with cautionary tales on underestimation of risk but at the same time, looking back all the time prevents forward motion. It is not straightforward to prescribe action today based on what might happen tomorrow and what happened yesterday. This calls into question the relevance of playbooks.
When the game changes very often, playbooks lose relevance altogether. In nature, there are several and compelling instances of groups engaging, without prior agreement, in simultaneous and spontaneous behaviour in response to some change in their environment. Consider how a school of fish or flock of birds switches direction all at once without any perceptible signal from any leader. Each member appears to engage in autonomous behaviour in sync with the others. While the transition itself might appear chaotic, it gives rise to a stable albeit different state. Complexity theorists call this emergence (Gare, 2000).
The basic idea of complexity theory is that nature is able to and does reorganize itself into a more efficient and stable structure based on prevailing environmental factors.
After studying why some children are able to regulate their own behaviour without feeling “helpless regarding their assignments” and requiring “extra prodding to complete them” (Grolnick,2009), it was found that such children were cared for, allowed to make their own decisions and provided a clear structure within which they could make such decisions. The ideal structural environment was found comprising the following (Frakas & Grolnick, 2008):
1 clear and consistent rules, guidelines, and expectations
2 opportunities to meet or exceed expectations
3 predictability
4 informational feedback
5 provision of rationales
6 authority
We hear often of how students need to be prepared for working in unpredictable and complex environments. For example, what happens when a group of strangers meet in an unpredictable situation when previously held assumptions no longer hold true? What happens when there is no de jure leader? In such a situation, would someone who has always had clear and consistent instructions on how to classify a situation to respond accordingly know what to do?
It would be adaptive to self-regulate in an unpredictable and unfamiliar situation in which the environment and actors in it all change and change each other. This requires some form of coup d’oeil. Current thinking recommends allowing children to make decisions on their own and to fail when stakes are low. It might be useful also to allow them to frame situations on their own by asking, what the stakes and goals in question are and how best to pursue them.
Arran Gare is a philosopher who studies systems. He says that in a dynamical system, an object continues in its trajectory towards a fixed end point. The end point attracts the object. If it is captured by a ‘strange attractor’ (Gare, 2000), there is a sudden change in direction. This attractor creates instability and is the subject of chaos theory. As children go through life, they may experience shocks or be lured by temptations which change their trajectory. There might be some instability for a period.
To regain balance, they would be well served by an overarching self-selected goal. This way, even when things go wrong and they can no longer continue in the same trajectory, they would know where they need to ultimately reach and esteem it worth the while to stay the course.
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