Thoughts_I_have_been_mulling_Shari

After all, the usefulness of the cup is in it's emptiness. (Bruce Lee, 1971)

There is a story of a Zen master who is visited by a University professor. Different sources identify him as Nan-in, a Japanese Zen master of the Meiji era who lived from 1868 to 1912. I don't know if this is true, but the story regarding him is a fable worth considering. Bruce Lee (a popular martial artist of the 1960s) developed his own form of martial arts called Jeet Kune Do, which he based on the best elements of many different disciplines including Tak Kwon Do, American Kenpo (developed by Ed Parker), and Aikido. When he accepted a new student, someone who was already an accomplished martial artist in some discipline, he shared with them the story of of Nan-in, which is as follows:

//A learned man once went to a Zen teacher to inquire about Zen. As the Zen teacher explained, the learned man would frequently interrupt him with remarks like, "Oh, yes, we have that too...." and so on. Finally the Zen teacher stopped talking and began to serve tea to the learned man. He poured the cup full, and then kept pouring until the cup overflowed.

"Enough!" the learned man once more interrupted. "No more can go into the cup!"

"Indeed, I see," answered the Zen teacher. "If you do not first empty the cup, how can you taste my cup of tea?"//

So why do I think this applies to Instructional Design? Well for me, I have been around the block. I've had a successful career. I teach adults in graduate school. I walked into ET 702 with the confidence and knowledge that this would be familiar to me. After all (if you remember) I stated that ID is Systems Development on steroids. With the exception of the instructional strategy, it was just like creating a new system. And Linda shared some interesting stories about efforts that she participated in that would suggest that is true. However, at first, my cup was full. I responded in my mind, "yep, just like requirements development, yep, been there, done that, yep, yep, yep . . . " And one day - actually, the day Kim shared Chapter 7 with us, it dawned on me that there was so much for me to learn. I needed to empty my cup to taste the tea.

Wow.