The Fallibility
of Reason Without A Sense of Purpose
Tommy Boone,
PhD, MPH, MA, FASEP, EPC
Professor
and Chair
Director,
Exercise Physiology Laboratories
Department
of Exercise Physiology
The College
of St. Scholastica
Duluth, MN
“To
my mind there must be, at the bottom of it all, not an equation, but an
utterly simple idea. And to me that idea, when we finally discover
it, will be so compelling, so inevitable, that we will say to one another,
‘Oh, how beautiful. How could it have been otherwise?” -- John
Archibald Wheeler
A Brief History
The first
twenty-four years of my professional life were spent teaching in four universities.
As a college teacher, I taught a lot of courses, developed academic programs,
created cadaver laboratories, collected a ton of research data, wrote books,
and published scientific papers. None of this is unusual or unexpected
behavior for college teachers. I even served on department and college-wide
committees, although not many for obvious reasons. I cannot tell
you how many lectures I prepared, how many theses and dissertations I directed,
or how many meetings I attended. I know it has been a lot.
It seems that I spent a lot of time doing things my colleagues considered
important. Publishing, for example, was always important. And,
so I published articles. Attending professional meetings was especially
important. So, I attended a major meeting every year and, perhaps,
a few minor ones, too. I learned much about what was important to
get tenure and little about how to survive in the academic setting.
In retrospect, everything was as it should be. I was happy and life
was good. With a big house in the woods and enough money to pay the
bills and travel a bit, I could not ask for anything else. As I said,
life was good.
Then, out of
the blue, and I mean completely out of the blue. Seldom are we smart
enough to anticipate it happening, a serious friendship went to hell in
a second (and it stayed there). Life changed, people changed, and
my sense of purpose changed. Life was no longer good, but an equally
unplanned event occurred. Another person stepped into my life and
told me about a small college in Duluth, MN. It was not until three
months later when this person asked me a second time to consider doing
an interview at the College of St. Scholastica [1] did
I consider it for more than several seconds. Part of the reason was
because, even when you are stuck in the mud, in some mysterious way, you
get use to it even if it is miserable. Another reason had to do with
my
sense of duty to a particular person and/or to an idea. In the back
of my mind, I always thought I could put things back as they were.
No doubt you have experienced similar feelings and have had hopeful expectations.
I was wrong, and the problem at the time was that I could not see the big
picture.
Following the
interview in Duluth, I felt compelled to start a new beginning. Frankly,
I did not know at the time just how much of a completely new beginning
it was about to become. As outrageous as it might seem, three weeks
following the interview, my family and I were completely relocated from
Hattiesburg, Mississippi to the Northland of Minnesota. I suppose
we were well into the mind change even before arriving in Duluth, so the
process was underway enough to help with the profound differences in weather.
As you may know, Duluth is one of several very cold spots in the United
States. Most of us who live in the Northland appreciate that the
Great Lake of Superior achieves all kinds of influence on the weather and
our lifestyle. It grows on you. After you have lived in Duluth,
there is a reluctance to fancy the notion of living elsewhere.
The Next
Twenty-Four Years
I read somewhere
that if we are to change, we must change the internal image of our own
reality. Of course there are many factors and forces against us,
and so the vast numbers of people who want to change do not change or do
so just a little bit. The problem is that many of life’s problems
require major changes to make legitimate steps toward our goals and dreams.
It is my hope that the next twenty-four years as an exercise physiologist,
that got underway during the Fall Semester of 1993-94 as Chair of the Department
of Exercise Physiology at St. Scholastica [2], will be
spent helping students in exercise physiology realize their dreams and
expectations. Finally, I have learned of an alternative way to move
exercise physiologists in the forefront of what they have been doing for
decades. Why it took so long to figure out is just one example of
the fallibility of reason when there is not a sense of purpose. My
task now is to help others understand that exercise physiologists have
the right to their own professional organization and, therefore, to not
resist change that is inevitable for the professionalization of exercise
physiology. This article is a step in that direction. I hope
it is helpful in promoting a dialogue of professionalism and, thus will
contribute to the understanding that without a professional organization
of exercise physiologists, there can be no profession of exercise physiologists.
Imagine yourself
a professional without a profession. That is exactly the problem
faced by exercise physiologists until the founding of the American Society
of Exercise Physiologists [3]. My guess is
that others have considered this problem well before we did, but were not
in position to do something about it. It is also much easier to not
rock the boat, which goes entirely against the notion of research.
The essence of science is founded on the “outrageous” notion that something
else may be the cause and, therefore, the reason for new, different, and
even unpopular hypotheses. Yet this style of thinking is not common
among exercise physiologists when thinking about the professionalization
of exercise physiology. It does not show up at national meetings
and, yet it is not too soon to expect critical discussion of what is ultimately
important to us. What is common among many academic exercise physiologists
(i.e., research) can and must continue. But, they cannot deny that
what is going on with our non-PhD exercise physiologists is not important.
This notion of looking the other way seems central to consciously keep
things as they have been.
A Reality
Check
Many, if not,
most exercise physiologists need a reality check. It may seem strange
to state it so directly. It is nonetheless a declaration of faith
in what we profess to be when we sharpen our senses and concentrate on
becoming what we say we are. It is humbling to do so, but it is the
ultimate reality check; an encounter that will bring us to the hypothesis
that exercise physiology is not free to evolve without its own professional
organization. The reality of being a professional is demonstrated
in accordance with the “professional organization” that gives purpose and
direction to the professional. Anything less than this thinking is
an oversimplification and outrageous in its thinking. This is indeed
a bold statement, and it is the problem we face in the conceptualization
of a new paradigm that has taken the hearts of many exercise physiologists
today. This new thinking is the collective belief system of the ASEP
members. They are working to reveal the potential of exercise physiology,
when “professional thinking” is also in principle compatible with “professional
organization”. When this point becomes truth that cannot be
escaped by identification with other professional groups, the greater the
potential for inner change will be within the organization of exercise
physiologists.
If “believing
is seeing” as we have often heard, there are many potential members wanting
to join ASEP. In fact, this conclusion is supported by the extensive
and varied work that makes up the ASEP organization. It is simply
a matter of time. Resistance to becoming a member has decreased.
Every member of ASEP has helped to dispel the illusion that ASEP is not
an organization of importance. Intuitively, there is an understanding
that its existence is both right and imperative if exercise physiology
is to grow. The professional commitment of the ASEP members to exercise
physiology has already made an impact. It may seem obvious that the
whole (i.e., exercise physiology within an exercise physiology organization)
is better than the sum of many parts (many professional groups under one
organizational leadership). Yet this all-important idea has not been
appreciated for a very long time; thus the lack of a common understanding
has led to differences.
To discover
something as fundamentally important as ASEP is to the professionalization
of what we do is not a threat to other professionals but, rather an obvious
necessity among exercise physiologists to stop the depersonalization.
This aspect of the re-perception of exercise physiology through the eyes
of ASEP makes sense. This is what the sports psychologists and sports
biomechanists did years ago. They made their professional organizations
to bring respective members to the fullest development of their professional
power to bear on the public sector. Others have been equally driven
to do the same. By deliberately creating their reality, they have
gained legitimacy and personal affirmation of a sustainable collectiveness
that feeds a sense of purpose. They understand the purpose and, as
a result, they share a greater commitment to a shared vision.
New Visions
of Expression
Sense of purpose
leads to action; an action leads to a positive feeling that transcends
criticism and even failure. We are fortunate now to have a purpose,
and we have the choice that we did not have before 1997. Like most
journeys in this field, mine began years ago in physical education.
My expectations were not that different from anyone else, except the PhD
in exercise physiology from Florida State University unexpectedly landed
me at Wake Forest University and, as they say, the rest is history.
Now, in Duluth and, frankly, not by accident, I have found order, change,
autonomy, and control in ASEP and my vision of exercise physiology.
New visions of freedom, new knowledge, and layers of work yet to be done
have resulted in an alternative, advanced view and career for exercise
physiologists. This view is consistent with the expanded efforts
that created the ASEP Board Certified Exam (EPC) [4]
and the ASEP Accreditation Guidelines [5]. The
world is not an impossible place. Order can be found in disorder.
Returning to
my first year in Duluth as a college professor at St. Scholastica, several
things were clear at the outset. First, I was the Chairperson of
the Department of Exercise Physiology. I was no longer a member of
a Department of Human Performance. I was no longer plagued by the
inertia of physical education, recreation, and coaching departments.
Each has its own professionals, and this article is not about putting other
hard working people down. It is about why exercise physiologists
continue to embrace the senseless, mistaken thinking of what has trapped
us outside our true form. This is what I learned during the early
months at St. Scholastica. To illustrate my position again, my department
is located in the Science Center. The important point here is that,
for the first time, I was working alongside physical therapists, occupational
therapists, nurses, biologists, chemists, and others with a science background.
It was like my friend said, “You will have to see it to believe it.”
The problem
in seeing something different than what you have been accustomed to for
decades is that you begin to believe it. As an exercise physiologist,
I understood the distinction and the meaning of new possibilities.
To continue with the St. Scholastica view for a moment more, how many times
have you had the opportunity to see the other side of the fence?
Most of us will never have the opportunity, but when it arises it can sometimes
be special. St. Scholastica is such a view, and it has helped me
to believe what I had never believed was possible. If you are like
me, you have always been struck by “what is” versus “what can be”.
Somehow, therefore, I have always accepted exercise physiology as exercise
science or as kinesiology and, even worse, as human performance.
There were moments of difficulty raised by the lack of distinction among
the titles but, surprisingly, based on what I know now, the circumstances
did not constitute a sufficient reason to jump ship. The net effect
of our history of exercise physiology existing within physical education
(or its several new names today) is that it took the conditions at St.
Scholastica to open my mind. Fortunately, the same conditions do
exist at other colleges. My hope is that more faculty members will
move to do the same at their colleges. For certain, I did not know
what the problem was before joining the faculty at St. Scholastica.
It is more than reasonable to expect that a significant number of exercise
physiologists’ continue to see the field from the traditional view.
Why?
“Most
people know what to do, but they don’t do what they know – because they
haven’t found their inner drive. Their passion.” – Tony Robbins
Implicit in this
brief analysis is the student’s education and the passion demonstrated
by the faculty. Students deserve the very best from the faculty.
When there is a sense that the academic program is not the quality it should
be, responsible members of the faculty should improve it. The faculty
could ask themselves three questions:
1.
What do students love about the exercise physiology field?
2. What inspires
students?
3. Is there
something faculty can do to improve academics?
Vision Gives
Rise to Passion
The answers
to these questions point in the direction that there is something special
about exercise physiology. Students get it because they are looking
at the bigger picture of the field. The faculty members, for the
most part, do not get it because they are more inspired about how to get
tenure, promotion, or noticed. Students are inspired, and they have
a vision for sharing their hopes and dreams through ASEP. Some have
asked: “Where are the faculty with the vision that we have?” Finding
an answer to this question is important because they believe that the ASEP
vision (i.e., the idea that we can be and must be more than technicians
are exercise specialists) gives rise to the passion to move the field forwards.
That is why I have concluded that many students have a sense of purpose
that few faculty members understand. This may be the reason some
students are willing to pay $100,000 and more for their undergraduate education.
Their feelings about exercise physiology, as an emerging profession, help
them deal with the psychology of loans and eventual payments. Their
anticipated future with new and powerful credentials refuels and restores
them.
Students have
said to me that faculty members do not have to be perfect or agree on every
point with ASEP. Meaning, even if the department name cannot be changed
then, perhaps, the academic degree title could be. Or, if the both
cannot be changed to better reflect the emerging profession then, certainly,
the academic program could be upgraded through ASEP accreditation.
Risk-taking is important in all walks of life and, in particular, it should
be part of education. Risk-taking, such as joining forces with ASEP,
helps to commit the department to certain ideas that produces action and
results that help to improve the self-esteem, hope, and probability of
success. Risk-taking is a form of revolt based, if not, on
information and knowledge, then on vision that gives rise to passion that
courts a revolution.
By “passion”
I mean the willingness to see a job done. In a sentence: Men
and women who have shared their time and energy on behalf of ASEP and the
bond they have forged with the students to collectively improve upon exercise
physiology. The idea that a new, Science Center-based Department
of Exercise Physiology would have caused me to think differently before
1993-94 is a bit fuzzy. Frankly, the fact that I did not take the
time to ponder the possibility suggests to me that I did not fancy such
talk or thinking. Talk about the “fallibility of reason”. In
place of what I should have been thinking, I reasoned that everything was
just great, which meant simply this: Next year we will present even
more research abstracts to the regional and/or national meeting.
It was not enough to present; instead my impression was more is better.
It was the way (and still is for many of my colleagues) to be part of the
system. As for as I know, it has always been that way. And,
so when I think back to those years, it occurs to me just how little I
thought about the students and exercise physiology.
I owe an enormous
debt of gratitude to the young man and his wife who kept at me to interview
for the Duluth job. Everything that I have written here (and have
previously written and published via PEPonline)
is directly a function of their persistence and support. ASEP would
not have begun without the move to Duluth, at least not in its original
form. This is not to say that others were not wrestling with similar
ideas. Professional organizations are always important. Throughout
history, professionals have belonged to professional organizations.
It is not a cliché that a profession requires a professional organization;
it is a fact. This has been hard-to-grasp thinking for some of our
colleagues. Part of their fallibility in reasoning is the idea
that exercise physiology should remain a discipline, that only the PhD-degreed
person can refer to him- or herself as an exercise physiologist, and that
the professional organization of exercise physiologists is sports medicine!
Each of these ways of thinking is outdated and without merit. Note
that at no time is there an expression of concern for the development of
exercise physiology and, of course, essentially no concern expressed for
the undergraduate education of so-called exercise science students.
It is now clear
that one of the most powerful advantage exercise physiologists now
have is their ability to bring members together under one title, ASEP.
This is a simple but powerful lesson that has taken far too long to learn.
Talk about old habits dying hard, which reminds me of another saying, “If
you are so smart, why didn’t you know the answer?” It’s not that
the many hard working exercise physiologists for the past three decades
are not smart. They have demonstrated all too well through their
research that they know a lot of answers for many questions. However,
it is one thing to be good at research or to embrace the work and style
of other researchers. It is quite another to look beyond the meetings
and the research by non-exercise physiologists and see that their work
has a purpose. As an example, researchers from within physiology
were not escaping a heritage of work that the public sector and professionals
from other fields of education showed little respect for. Here is
a vital lesson to learn; their work had a sense of purpose. Their
work was not separated from their professional ethics, their professional
organization, or an audience of professional colleagues who embraced an
education, a vision, and a passion that augmented their body of knowledge.
New Rules
for Success
After just
5 years of thinking about exercise physiology outside of the sports medicine
model, students and professionals alike have learned that there is another
way. Now, they have objective criteria to help them reason correctly
if they are on track. They even have for the first time in their
history a code of ethics! There is a new model for careers in exercise
physiology. It has not been easy, and there are plenty of problems
yet to deal with and, true, there are continuing job issues that must be
resolved. But, we are different today. Exercise physiology
will never slip back to the level of thinking and complacency of the past.
There are new rules for success and new warning signs ahead of us.
Because some of our members need licensure to practice in the hospital
settings, there is the question: “Do all exercise physiologists need
licensure?” Similarly, is this new model of professional thinking
designed simply to secure licensure? Of course not, it is about distinguishing
exercise physiologists as professionals who have the education to practice
throughout the public sector. The goal is recognition in the field
to practice globally, not to push exercise physiology into just the clinical
realm of work.
And there you
have it: You have yet another view of exercise physiology that I
hope helps you to experience the intangible of ASEP. It is a small
organization, but the professional value is much greater than anything
before. It reflects what is needed by all exercise physiologists;
the opportunity to create their future. It is, therefore, a measure
of the exercise physiologists’ ability to reason correctly, given their
sense of purpose, to perform at a level that distinguishes them from members
of other organizations in the industry of health, fitness, rehabilitation,
and athletics. This view is also consistent with the exercise physiologists'
Bill
of Rights [6]:
1.
Decide for themselves their own future.
2. Express
their feelings without apology or explanation.
3. Say “no”
to sports medicine, kinesiology, or any other field of study that keeps
exercise physiologists from being themselves.
4. Decide
for themselves their organization or society of choice to embrace and commit
resources and time.
5. Ask other
exercise physiologists, particularly those with the PhD, to help with the
professionalization of exercise physiology.
6. Move forwards
with the development of their own society even should they fall face flat.
7. Forgive
themselves for not having all the answers should others expect it of them.
8. Share their
feelings with whomever to make decisions, to share thoughts and/or expectations,
or just to listen to another.
9. Admit that
they may be wrong on some things, but have the right to believe in what
they are doing.
10. Be free
as exercise physiologists to create their own thinking, as critical thinkers,
about their work in the public sector.
References
1. College of St.
Scholastica (2002). CSS Home Page. [Retrieved February 28, 2002 from the
WWW].
http://www.css.edu/
2. Department of
Exercise Physioilogy (2002). EXP Home Page. [Retrieved February 28, 2002]
from the WWW].
http://www.asep.org/asep/asep/dexp/home.htm
3. American Society
of Exercise Physioloigsts (2002). ASEP Home Page. [Retrieved February
28, 2002 from the WWW].
http://www.asep.org/
4. American Society
of Exercise Physiologists (2002). Information for EPC Exercise Physiologist
Certified Exam: A Guide. [Retrieved February 28, 2002 from the WWW].
http://www.asep.org/epcmanual/
5. American Society
of Exercise Physiologists (2002). Guideslines for the Accreditation of
Undergraduate Programs in Exercise Physiology. [Retrieved February 28,
2002].
http://www.asep.org/accreditation/
6. Boone, T. (December,
2001). Mastering New Thinking About Exercise Physiology. Vol 4 No
12 [Retrieved February 28, 2002 from the WWW].
http://www.asep.org/asep/asep/MasteringNewThinking.html