Magic Valley NLP

Presupposition: The map is not the territory

This week I took my Special Olympics athletes on a school field trip to a museum and a warm springs.  We were going with other students from the school and there were five busses going.  In years past my group had held up the other groups. This year our district purchased a couple of small busses that teachers can drive and we decided to take a small bus so we would not hold things up.  We had to wait for a late bus to arrive with my students on it, then get a wheel chair on and secured before we left.  The night before I downloaded several maps to guide me because I knew I would be on my own.  I could not follow the other drivers.

            When we arrived at the museum we found, to our surprise, that we were the first ones there. I was worried as we had left a half hour later than the rest of the group, and I had stayed right at the speed limit.  We enjoyed our museum visit, and had the entire museum to ourselves to explore.   As we left the other bus drivers arrived. They had not taken the time to down load the maps and information, had driven to the wrong museum, found it closed and taken the disappointed students to the swim hole.

I thought about the maps I had downloaded.  They served me well in several functions.

They were created for a purpose.

1. They use codes, pictures, symbols and words to try to recreate a mental picture, give it meaning.
2. They have a creator with a specific point of view, highway, topographical, and so on.
3. The map creates a world in map form.
4. The map is not the world as we see it because it highlighted some things and hid many others making it easy to use.
5. Detail unnecessary for the purpose of the map are left out.
6. The map gave me a tool to reach my destination

This incident brought me to thinking about one of the most fundamental presuppositions of NLP; the map is not the territory.  We mean by this that each person sees the world by a different map.  The map describes the territory as he sees it, not as it really is.  Each map is created by the experiences we have had previously and by our family, or culture and even our history.  Many believe that our maps are even in our genes.

            Dennis Wood, in The Power of Maps wrote, “this, essentially is what maps give us, reality,  a reality that exceeds our vision, our reach, the span of our days, a reality we achieve no other way.  We are always mapping the invisible,  or the unattainable or the erasable, the future or the past, whatever-is-not-here-presence-to-our-senses-now and, through the gift that the map gives us, transmuting it into everything it is not…into the real.”

            My students also use maps of their world and each has his or her own map, distinctly different from any other.   We can use the same functions of paper maps to compare and contrast with maps of reality belonging to each student.

1. Their reality map is created with a purpose.   As my map helped me make sense of the roads I needed to travel to get to my destination, so their reality maps help them make sense of the experiences of life and travel to their destination.
2. The maps use pictures, symbols and words to give the reality map meaning.  Reality maps have symbols, too.  They may be a loving or angry teacher that begins to symbolize all teachers.   It could be words.  If the student has always had a good experience in art and the teacher says it is time for art the reality map will say that this, too, will be good. But what of the student who has had others make fun of his art work, maybe years ago, and taunted him. The teacher says time for art and wonders why the student rebels not knowing that the student’s map of reality contains symbols she is not aware of.
3. Each student is the creator of his own reality map. But he has a lot of help along the way.  His parents, teachers, friends and enemies all take a turn advising the student on what to put on the map and where.
4. The reality map creates a world in map form, but the map is not the territory.  Using the art experience from number two above, let’s say the student did not understand the assignment and the children in the class laughed at him, but in our reality, the student is a talented artist. Still the student’s reality map denies his talent as it has “I can’t do art” drawn on in indelible ink. 
5. As I drove I looked out at the beautiful winter landscape and was very aware that my map left out the incredible beauty that I was feasting on.  Likewise student’s reality maps leave out the beauty of life.  The student may know it is there but cannot get it on the map.  The student may understand that for others art is a favorite class, but cannot seem to draw that onto his own personal map.
6. The student’s reality map does have a purpose. It is a tool to lead the student somewhere.  It gives the student’s life order and certainty.  I don’t have to worry about art.  I know I don’t like it.  I no longer have to worry whether I like art or not. 

As teachers we  realize that each student has his or her own reality map.  That map serves a purpose. It gives structure, order and certainty to the world for the student. We also understand that the map may not be an accurate representation of the world for that student, but is merely a tool. One of our purposes of teaching is to give our students a more accurate and  functional map of reality and help our students create the maps they will need to be successful in their future.

© by Debrah Roundy 2008

The idea for this article was gleaned from a slide show by Charles Faulkner found at http://www.nlpco.com/pages/articles/nlp/NLP-Slide-Show.php Charles is an author and developer of NLP books, seminars and programs.  I was fortunate to meet him at the IASH conference 2010 where he was the keynote speaker. 

 Maps are from Mcrosoft clip art