3 entries for Sunday, June 14, 2020

[Experts can distinguish specific features beyond basic categories: instead of cat versus dog, the specific species; instead of red wine versus white, the dryness or type of grapes used.]

[Experts develop their precision by comparing many examples over years. Presenting contrasting cases shortens the time to learn by using carefully juxtaposed examples.]

[Learning what something is also means learning what it is not.]

[Decide which features are important to notice and pick contrasts for each of them.]

[Noticing differences is easier when similarities dominate.]

[Evaluation reveals wisdom/adjustment, errors, imprecisions in the practice. Evaluation corrects and improves our practice, and augments our efficiency. Practice needs evaluation like a fish needs water or like crops need rain.]

[Practice needs planning, which means: having a clear idea of the objectives; knowing the conditions in which to act, as well the instruments and means to use; knowing who to count on; anticipating the terms (short, medium, or long.]

[If our objectives are correct, the evaluation teaches us that our means are not the best or that our terms are not realistic.]

[A non-colonial education stimulates collaboration and not competition, values mutual aid and not individualism, develops creativity and critical thinking and not passivity, proclaims the non-existence of neutrality and affirms the interests of the people.]

[The revolutionary task is not merely to inform, but more importantly, to form.]

[Nobody forms themselves without assuming the responsibility to do so.]

[Our people will not form themselves in passivity, but in action always united with thought. We avoid suggesting that comrades memorize mechanically. We challenge comrades to think and analyze reality.]

[Before cutting down the tree, they knew they were going to make a boat. Working, we transform the world. Transforming the world, we transform ourselves.]

[The tree belongs to the natural world. The boat belongs to the world of culture.]

[A society without exploiters and the exploited is one where there are no privileges based on whether you work with a pen or with your hands. Everyone is a worker in service of the good of others").

[A new society doesn't create itself overnight. It is important to first have its form in your head, the same way they had an idea of the boat before cutting down the tree.]

[Everyone has something to learn. Pedro knows how to cultivate cacao. Antonio knows how to print a journal. Each one doesn't have the knowledge of the other. Both the cultivation of cacao and printing of journals are important practices for national reconstruction.]

[The human body is conscious and working involves the whole body - using one's hands involves thinking. This makes it erroneous to separate manual and intellectual labour. Rural and factory workers are intellectuals also. Only in societies that look down on using the hands for practical activities are cacao cultivation and journal printing seen as inferior.]

[Before literacy, we are already 'reading' the world: we look at the sky and the colour of the clouds to anticipate whether it will rain and the amount of precipitation.]

[Culture is: the instruments used by the people to produce; the form of understanding and expressing; the drum; the movement of bodies in rhythm to the drums.]