Younger people, with less life experience, must learn necessary skills to navigate and live their lives. This outsourcing is a necessity in the earlier stages of life and the pedagogy of this process will be explored separately. At a certain point, outsourcing one’s choices must evolve into insourcing. As we mature, amass life experience and make more consequential choices, we must acquire the skills needed to unpack them, understand them, and be accountable for the results. However, embarking on an insourcing journey can be perilous, or cause ruptures. Opening up your inner world risks opening a floodgate and boundaries must be set in place to ensure the gate can be safely resealed. The pedagogy of reflection, of the “long, short way”, focuses on acquiring the language and tools with which to safely explore and learn from existing experiences, habits and choices, at appropriate life stages, through reflection and agency.
January 2023
Insourcing, Reflection, and the “Long, Short Path”
The pedagogy of reflection focuses on acquiring the language and tools to learn from existing experiences, habits and choices, at appropriate life stages
Chanie Chein co-founded the Chabad House at Brandeis in 2001 to engage students through relational and engaging experiences. She has created innovative programming, with a focus on growth, centered around conversations that address the realities and nuances of life, with the purpose of gaining agency over life’s choices and deepening a relationship with Judaism and G-d. She develops and oversees the social, educational, and Shabbat programming for hundreds of students each year and also nurtures alumni relationships. Chanie studied for a year in Australia, then graduated from Mercy College in NY. She lives in Waltham, MA with her husband Peretz and six children - whom she loves, up until bedtime.
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