Why LinguaG?
LinguaG (Lingua Galaxiae) is a writing game that guarantees completion* will result in:
1) better grades
2) better self
3) better world.
I can offer this money back guarantee because of a discovery I made during 3-years of private study. Graduate school and 5-years as a classroom teacher taught me that context is the building block of learning. Our brains learn through association with what we already understand. The greater the context, the higher the quality and quantity of learning.
Then, sometime in the beginning of the third year of study, I discovered systems theory. Well, I didn’t personally discover systems theory, it was more like I stumbled into the world of systems theory after reading Buckminster Fuller. He was the one that opened up my eyes to the application of systems theory as a tool of understanding. Writers like Fuller and Ludwig von Bertalanffy lead me to see how language could be understood as a human system. For example, applied systems theory, as practiced by the learning game LinguaG, states in Code #8:
All statements must be built using the 3-Steps of Systems-Thinking:
1) List all the parts of the system
2) determine if the system is open or closed
3) Observe the interaction between the system’s parts.
Step-1, listing all the parts of the system, is the science of creating and managing context. Listing all the parts of a set raises the question: What is a part? LinguaG understands the parts of a set as the physical evidence that makes up the whole set. That definition in turn begs the question, What is holisticness, the nature of holistic? The point being that listing the parts of a system, just by itself, is a complicated and demanding process. The nature of evidence, the dos and don’ts of listing all the parts of a set, is laid out in LinguaG by Rules 4-7.
LinguaG produces better grades because it teaches how to build and manage context. For those that already max-out the grading system, complete this course and academic work will become easier and more fulfilling. Complete this course and you will show up at university better prepared than the competition.
Understanding language as a human system includes the human condition. Human language, the use of agreed upon abstract symbols and sounds to convey meaning, is a creation of the human mind. If there are no humans in the room, there is no language. Having the capacity for language as described by linguistics is not the same thing as practicing language -- you cannot practice language without a living human.
If humans are an essential part of language, then it is impossible to separate language from the human condition. Who you are is a part of your use of language, the way you perceive your own use of language and the way you perceive the use of language by others. In this way, self-knowledge becomes a central part of language. The better you know yourself, the more you will understand about your use of language and the use of language by others.
Self-knowledge is so important to LinguaG that it is the second rule “The essence of knowledge is self-knowledge.” Each of the game’s 83-Steps has a component for practicing self-knowledge. There are few academic settings that apply the quest for self-knowledge on a daily basis and in a specific context as applied by LinguaG. Ask the question Who am I? in enough different ways and enough times and there is no way the end result will not include a better sense of self. More importantly, the end result of such self-inquiry instills a lifelong practice of constructive self-discovery.
The third promise for those that complete this course is that it equips the student with the skills to create positive change. An understanding of self, coupled with a detailed understanding of language, puts the practitioner in a position of creating positive change because they now have the skill set to envision, design, build and successfully operate new human systems. This is the result of LinguaG, once you understand language as a human system, that knowledge allows you to go and lead others in creating new human systems.
I received a good leg-up for independent study from my time studying at University of California, Irvine, during the years of Jacques Derrida, the father of literary deconstruction. It was the 1980s and the humanities were still stylish. Donald Bren, developer of the Irvine Ranch, made one of many donations to UCI and the school spent a portion of those funds hiring Derrida, his group from Yale and other prominent literary theorists like J. Hillis Miller. These were many of the literary theorists that blazed the trails that eventually opened the door to post-modernism. Having already served in the Marines followed by 8-years trading government securities and traveling the world, I was uniquely ready for college. I spent 5-years there using my electives to take graduate seminars, independent studies and otherwise spent my time attending open lectures and office hours.
I reread Arthur Lovejoy’s The Great Chain of Being during independent study, was inspired, but saw things differently. The moment the ruling class executed Socrates, everyone got the message: Don’t challenge the power structure in any meaningful way or that power structure will destroy you. You can go ahead and think, just not in any way that disrupts the system of top-down control. Plato was a student of Socrates. He sees his teacher executed over philosophical teachings about how to make society better and we’re to believe that experience had no impact on how Plato shaped his subsequent philosophical ideas? What might we expect was foremost in Plato’s mind, social acceptance and staying alive or speaking truth to power as his teacher, Socrates, had done?
I don’t remember exactly when it happened during private study, but I eventually connected systems theory with the role of context in learning theory. I realized the relationship between self-awareness and learning and how all that is connected to running a successful society. Then it all came together and I realized that learning, self-awareness and societal success are three parts of the same system. I wrote a book that lays all this out, The New English Class.
BETTER GRADES: I know players will get better grades because I apply systems theory to language so that language can be understood as a human system. Applied systems theory can be understood as a way of building and understanding context, which is the cornerstone of learning. LinguaG offers direct instruction in the tools needed for building and understanding context.
BETTER SELF: Raising the question: Who am I? is the second step in the game. Throughout the 83-steps, players learn various tools to further the practice of self-discovery. Becoming self-aware in a productive and forward moving exercise lays the foundation for lifelong self-improvement.
BETTER WORLD: Once players learn how to understand language a human system, they are equipped to envision, design, build and successfully run new human systems, which are needed to make the world a better place.
* Completion of the game includes the addendum course, The Perfect Thesis Paper. This course teaches a proprietary system for writing thesis papers and concludes with writing a paper based on the player’s short daily essays written while playing the game.