Facebook has many posts (mine does, at least) that are e-Card messages or slogans. Most that I see are entertaining, and most have some truth to them. But in the nature of slogans, they are oversimplifications.
I had dinner with a friend earlier this week and then a few days later met with a colleague about a course we are proposing. A topic that came up on both occasions was the importance, as well as relative paucity, of reflection. A common slogan, attributed to Edmund Burke, is that “those who don’t know history are doomed to repeat it.” It shows up attributed to others in various permutations. Possibly. I once, only somewhat snarkily, asked my senior English class last year, based on that saying, how many of our leaders ever took American history. I fear that Kurt Vonnegut’s version, “We’re doomed to repeat the past no matter what” is more accurate. But, apart from its apparently being an aspect of human nature, why?
My two friends and I thought the answer might be reflection. In general, we don’t learn much either from our successes or our failures unless we reflect on them. Some reflections take place in what I would call background processing in the mind. That is, we’re considering an idea at some level, but we’re not focusing on it, so we’re not aware of doing so.
But in general, to learn much from our mistakes, particularly in order to decide on what new things to try in their places, we need deliberate reflection. “Why did that class not work?” “What different could I try next time?”