Blog #21--Knowledge Transfer Is Essential

When I decided to leave private practice and accept a job as Small Animal Extension Veterinarian at the University of Illinois College of Veterinary Medicine, I was granted permission to work toward a Master’s degree in Adult Continuing Education. Like I describe in my book “It’s a Secret, So Pass It On: a Toolbox For Life,” getting to think and write during these classes was quite a contrast to the memorization required for vet school. It helped serve as an impetus for the explosion of awareness that changed my perspective completely and led to the book.

One of the subjects required for the Master’s program was Education Psychology. One day in class, we were asked to pick one from a group of subjects to research and write about in a paper. Those who signed up for any one subject were to work as a partnership on the project.

I chose “Transferring knowledge from one situation to another.” I thought it was an extremely important subject, but I was the only person out of 20+ mostly school teachers to choose it. That made no sense to me. After all, students ask frequently why they should study something they won’t use in real life. Finding ways knowledge can be applied to various situations enhances our educational experience, gives us tools to cope with new situations and demonstrates the value of education.

Certainly, there were other good topics for the class to research. But let’s pretend for the moment that we can’t transfer knowledge from one situation to the next. Then, teachers would have to start over with each new subject. Theoretically, a new approach would be needed for each subject with each individual student. There aren’t enough hours in the day to teach each student separately.

After many years of confusion, it finally dawned on me why no one else considered the subject of interest to them. Our minds have two opposite approaches to life. We all have thoughts that unify and thoughts that separate. However, the general public tends to prefer separation over unification. Those who think this way assume there is no knowledge that can be transferred to new situations. Or, they think there is minimal value in unifying concepts.

Along similar lines, the head of the graduate school department I was in believed only in theoretical concepts. People like me who like to apply ideas practically to real-life situations were his enemy. The professor graded me worse than the others, and that was his only complaint. I didn’t like those results, but it is the way people think who tend more toward separation than unification in their approach to life.

Many of my veterinary patients had human owners who would consistently do the opposite of their pets’ best interests simply because they assumed their animals were different than them. It was one of my biggest frustrations in private practice because their pets suffered for it.

In reality, we are all connected to each other and every other part of the Universe. We have much more in common with others than differences. Many of us don’t want to know any of this, but that doesn’t change the veracity of the concept.

Transferring our knowledge is not only essential to our survival, it is a conduit for spiritual discovery. After all, if we expand our awareness of connectedness to encompass the entire Universe, we become one with our creator.

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