Episodes
Thursday Sep 03, 2020
Humility Helps Create Confidence - Humanist Thought of the Week
Thursday Sep 03, 2020
Thursday Sep 03, 2020
My son thinks I'm confident. The reality is - I'm humble. I expect to screw up. I'm ok with screwing up and when I do - I just set about - fixing the problem. That seems like confidence, but it's really just humility.
Monday Jul 06, 2020
Humanism is a great social equalizer.
Monday Jul 06, 2020
Monday Jul 06, 2020
I have the same dignity and worth as everyone else... and so do you!
My Humanism – for me – eliminates power differentials.
Using Humanism I don’t need to be afraid – all humans are – human – we are all equal. When you internalize that – the idea that some people are higher up or intimidating - just doesn’t happen – they are human. Just like me.
Tuesday Jan 07, 2020
Positive Psychology - and the words "No" and "Stop"
Tuesday Jan 07, 2020
Tuesday Jan 07, 2020
Spoke to teacher, she asked about positive psychology – not allowed to use the word no or stop – as they are negative.
First – words aren’t negative. They are just arbitrary sounds. How you respond can be positive, negative or neutral.
Second, if you positively reinforce a word – it becomes positive, not negative.
Third, Stop and No – should be used as deltas and positively reinforced when the child or person responds positively to it – that’s how you create a positive association with the word instead of a negative one.
Fourth – you may not be able to totally do this – as others probably do use these words as negatives and negatively reinforce them.
Regardless – you do need delta’s and bridges. You just aren’t supposed to respond to a positive response to a delta using a negative response. You want to positively respond to the correct behavior once a delta is issued. All a delta is – is – that wasn’t correct – stop and reset.
Basically focusing on the words and not whether you are positively or negatively responding to them – IS the problem.
Finally – this isn’t “new” – behavioralists have been studying this forever. Every time I come across a positive parenting or positive psychology person – it’s like – they just discovered behavioral psychology – read up on it and don’t fully understand it – but they start teaching it anyway.
I was apprenticed in this and it’s frustrating to listen to teachers who have been through a positive psychology training – a person with a background in clinical psychology a) not have been exposed to behavioral psychology at all and b) not be taught behavioral psychology properly! It underpins everything. Seriously. It does.
Saturday Aug 31, 2019
Pragmatic Atheism as a Humanist practice
Saturday Aug 31, 2019
Saturday Aug 31, 2019
Humanists reject theism and supernaturalism because we want to solve our problems. As my friend Kalai pointed out to me - You can pray all you want - but Jesus isn't going to brush your teeth for you. There are things we have to do for ourselves. Best get on with getting the work done.
Tuesday Aug 29, 2017
Don't Take it Personally
Tuesday Aug 29, 2017
Tuesday Aug 29, 2017
The world doesn't revolve around you: Critical Thinking
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