Getting Started (Continued)
C: Number one: first we see the words "basic
text." I think when we see those words, we are alerted to the type
book we have in front of us. We all remember what a text book is. We used
them in school.
We didn't particularly like them because they meant
work and study when we'd rather be doing something else. They meant having
to take tests, which always had the possibility of
failure which would put us in a bad position. And most of us had an
aversion, and still maybe today, have an aversion to a text book.
But I think--if we would look at a textbook in it's
simplest form--I think we could say that a textbook is a book that is used
to teach with. We also have an aversion to the word teaching. But Bill
Wilson tells us in the pamphlet "Problems Other Than Alcohol"
that the sole purpose of an A. A. group is to practice and teach the
Twelve Steps of "Alcoholics Anonymous. '
If we will take teaching to it's simplest terms, I
think then we can find some words we can begin to live with. You know,
teaching is nothing more than taking information from the mind of one
human being, and in some form or other transferring it to the mind of
another human being, thereby increasing the knowledge of the other human
being. Whatever it is we're teaching the subject on, really doesn't make
any difference. As the information is transferred, and it enters the mind
of the other human being, then the other human being's knowledge of that
information, knowledge of the subject matter, increases and becomes
better.
Now, a textbook is nothing more than a tool that is
used to teach with by the written word. There's lots of ways to teach, but
a textbook does it by the written word. It takes information out of the
mind of one or more human beings, puts it down in the written form. Then
the user of the textbook in the reading and the studying of that book transfers that information into their mind, thereby increasing their
knowledge of the subject matter also.
A textbook always assumes that the user of the book
will know very little about the subject matter, almost always starts at a
very simple point. Then as you progress through the book and your knowledge increases, the material presented to
you becomes harder and harder. But you can understand it because your
knowledge is increasing all the way through the book.
For instance, if I had a textbook on mathematics, and let's say my friend
Joe here knows nothing about mathematics at all. Joe can't even add and
subtract. Oh, he can count okay. He can count to twenty-one if he's
standing there naked and got everything there where it's supposed to be.
(laughter) I said that one night and he said no, twenty and a half that's
all we could do. (laughter) And I walk up to Joe, and I hand him this
textbook on mathematics.
I say, Joe, I want you to go to Chapter Five. There
are problems in there dealing with algebra. I want you to work those
algebra problems and then come back and see me.
Joe being a good fellow, of course, will open the
book up to Chapter Five. He would see those algebra problems, and they
look like so much Greek to him. Remember he can't even add and subtract.
Chances are he'll close the book up, lay it on a shelf, and may never pick
it up again.
But if I said, Joe, in this textbook on mathematics,
Chapter One deals with addition and subtraction. If you'll read it and
study it, ask questions when you need to, by the time you're through with
Chapter One you'll know how to add and subtract and you can work those
problems at the end of Chapter One on addition and subtraction. And sure
enough he does this and he learns how to add and subtract.
Then I say, Joe, Chapter Two is based on multiplication and division.
Based on what you learned in One, you can now go to Two and learn how to
multiply and divide. And sure enough he does that. And then Three: to
fractions and decimals, and Four: to something else, gradually preparing
Joe's mind for Chapter Five. By the time he gets there, with the
information he now has, he can read and study Chapter Five, and learn how
to do algebra.
We think one of the greatest mistakes being made in
A. A. today, is the newcomer walks in the door we hand him the Big Book
"Alcoholics Anonymous," we say go to Chapter Five and do what it
says and you'll be okay. They go to Chapter Five and they open it up. They
read "How it Works." They see the Twelve Steps of
"Alcoholics Anonymous," and they're just so much Greek to them,
period. They don't understand the why or the wherefore of it at all.
Step One says we admitted we were powerless over
alcohol and our lives had become unmanageable. He says, hell, I'm not
powerless over nothing. Step Two says we came to believe that a power
greater than ourselves could restore us to sanity. He says Man, don't tell
me I'm crazy. Yeah, I do stupid things when I'm drinking, but I'm not
crazy. But if you're not powerless and you're not nuts, then you don't
need Step Three to turn you will and your life over to the care of
Somebody greater than you are. So they close the book up. They lay it on
the shelf and may never look at it again.
We think it is a textbook. And we think it's designed as all textbooks,
starting with The Doctor's Opinion, beginning to explain to us what the
problem is. If we can once understand the problem, then we can begin to
look for the solution. But until we know the problem, we'll never know
what the solution is. And after we once find the solutions then we can
look for a practical program of action necessary to bring (about) that
solution. But if we don't know the true solution, then the practical
program of action will also be wrong.
So we think it is a textbook, and it should be
treated as such. And it takes a lot of reading. It takes a lot of
studying. It takes the ability to get rid of old ideas, and be able to
change our minds, and absorb new information and new ideas into our head.
But if we follow the process, then most surly we can expect recovery as
that first forty, who later became one hundred, did too. It also said: (p.
xi, par. 2) 'Because this book has become the basic text for our
Society... there exists a sentiment against any radical changes being made
in it. Therefore, the first portion of this volume, describing the A. A.
recovery program, has been left largely untouched... ' (The word
"largely" is not found in the third edition.)
