InfoGuide4Parents.com

We all use math in our everyday lives. Many of us consider ourselves to be “math phobic”, “math deficient” or “mathematically challenged.” Perhaps we communicate these ideas to our children or perhaps we and our children truly are any or all of the above. In educational institutions, where math is taught largely in the abstract and without practical application, particularly in the elementary grades, this inability comes as no surprise.

Have you ever tried to teach someone how to tie shoelaces by describing the process? Did you learn to cook pancakes by reading about the process of mixing flour, eggs, milk, and baking powder? Was your driver’s license awarded to you after reading an article on how to parallel park? Let us hope not.

Transactional Analysis (TA) was developed by Eric Berne over 50 years ago. It still stands as one of the best maps for navigating the inner wellsprings and outer seas of the human condition.

Berne simplified the language of psychoanalysis so that everyone can understand it. He noted that we all have inner ego states (regardless of our age) that serve important functions in life.

- An inner Parent tells us what we should and shouldn’t do. This ego state was programmed by our own parents, school teachers, religious teachers and authorities in our broader society. This inner Parent can speak with a supportive voice or a critical tone.
e.g. “You can do better!” vs. “You sure screwed up again, didn’t you!”

An alien, reading the stories of our primary school kids would be very puzzled. Did the human parents starve their offspring - all the small human children ever seemed to write about was food? Obviously travelling was a huge excitement for the humans too. Bus trips and car trips featured frequently in the small human’s writing. While beds clearly had a mystical quality in human civilization - at least half the stories by the small humans started with ‘I woke up…’and then finish with ‘And then I went home to bed.’