See Twitter thread.
“Traditional education kills agency by {removing choice and interest}. Progressive education kills agency by {removing excellence and competence}.”
“Agency is rate limited by {competence}.”
Q. What kinds of activities does Matt Bateman suggest produce the conclusion “I can author my life”?
A. ”developing solid baseline competence in a handful of domains”—e.g. learn an instrument, build a shed, develop informed opinions on a topic
Q. Matt describes agency as the sum of…?
A. choice (big muscles, an initial lift), competence (small muscles, granular control), persistence (endurance, sustained interest)… “and more”.
Q. “Hardest”, “most fragile” ingredient of agency?
A. Persistence
Q. How does Matt suggest the choice ingredient of agency can be developed?
A. Someone more experienced can offer choices.
Q. How does Matt suggest the competence ingredient of agency can be developed?
A. It can be scaffolded. (Cognitive scaffolding)
Q. Why does Matt suggest that history can help develop agency?
A. “We can’t—“ “We went to the moon.”
Q. How does Matt suggest that the persistence ingredient of agency is first built?
A. “By getting joyfully lost in a task.”
Q. Matt’s diagnosis as to why many people struggle with the capacity to sometimes do things they don’t like?
A. That capacity “comes in large part from developing the capacity to do things you do like”—and that’s often missing.
Q. Why does Matt suggest that activities thought to be low-agency (repetition, memorization) are actually good for developing agency?
A. “These are good methods by which to intentionally shape your own soul.” (e.g. Spaced repetition may be a helpful tool to develop or change habits)
Related: Internally-modulated learning is self-actualizing; externally-modulated learning is self-abnegating