William Perry and Jean Piaget
met for lunch.
“Let’s mess with her head,”
Jean said with a grin.
“Maybe give her a ghost?”
William replied.
They toasted each other with
their mojitos.
As famous psychologists,
they’ve been messing with our brains
for decades.
But I recognized their
modus operendi
and googled their plan.
(Found out I’d actually been misquoting Perry.
I like my amended Theory of Intellectual Development
better than his.)
It goes like this:
McMillan/Perry Stage One: black and white.
Babies and some college freshmen
tend to be in this stage.
“I know nothing and you have the facts.
I must learn from all the keepers of wisdom.”
McMillan/Perry Stage Two: Anything goes.
Adolescence
“I’ve found one thing you taught me that’s wrong.
What else is untrue?
Maybe you know nothing!”
McMillan/Perry Stage Three:
Maturity.
I gather data to support my theories.
New data slide into them with grace.
Piaget would call this “assimilation”.
It feels good.
This stage of educated guesses
is held dearly by most academics.
McMillan/Perry Stage Four.
The Intellectual apex.
“No matter how much I’ve researched things,
I’m probably wrong.”
Augh!
Faced with new data that doesn’t fit into
my old beliefs,
I must
wrench out those antiquated schemata.
“Harsh, I’ve worked on them for years!”
I must
take those new neural pathways
to the gym and
make them stronger.
This hurts.
“Accomodation”, says Piaget.
So the two of them,
grinning devilishly over mojitos,
decided to send my scientific,
Capricorn-south-node self,
Una fantasma.
OK, I admit it’s fun.
Even at this ripe old age
I must drop my favorite “isms”.
Drop my favorite boxes for people.
Drop my favorite boxes for reality.
New data.
New experiences.
New theory.
New Reality.
And assimilation begins again.
