Rules vs. principles
>>Principles are things like treating each other kindly, respecting other people's property, trusting your children. Those principles will look different from home to home in the details, because respecting one child means helping them create some sort of schedule, where another child despises that sort of thing. Unschoolers naturally do things very differently from home to home, even child to child because we are principle, NOT rule driven.<<
Here's something that rarely gets said in the rules vs. principles arena.
Rules are derived from principles.
"Don't play in the street." is derived from the principles of physics regarding mass (two masses cannot occupy the same space), in this instance, a car as one mass and a body as another. This principle of physics as applied in this instance is harmful to the body, not the car.
Because humans have minds and cars don't, we naturally try to avoid the application of the principle by not attempting to put our body in the same space as a car. We know that generally moving cars are found on streets, so we keep our bodies out of the street.
Except if there's a parade, but I'm getting ahead of myself.
Further, because we have minds and survival instinct, we transfer that principle of physics into one a human can relate to, and that is, it's better to stay safe than not. It's better to do those things that will not put us in the path of applied physics, and so we have developed as humans the principle of safety.
It is a most basic principle of being human. Maslow and all that. It is applied differently from era to era. "Don't venture out of the cave when the mastodon is nearby." "Don't go out on the sand when the waves are higher than your head." "Don't climb into the gorilla enclosure."
Those are all applications of the principle of safety. They are rules that we have derived from the basic principle of safety, which is derived from the basic principles of physics.
The problem with rules is that they are made to be broken. Principles are not.
"Don't play in the street." Just what do you call a parade? Work? What about the basketball hoop at the end of the cul-de-sac? Basketballs don't bounce on the grass.
Once you can determine that the street is no danger according to the principles of physics--the street is blocked off for the parade; you stay alert for cars--you are free to apply the principles of joy and happiness, in the street or anywhere.
The rules are a watered down outgrowth of misguided attempts to apply principles. It's impossible to make a rule for everything. It *is* possible to apply principles to everything. Principles don't change. The application of them does, and that's how we end up with so many rules.
posted by Karen Ann @ 7:18 AM
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