Or to learn to swim by mastering, in succession, the movements of the wrists, arms, shoulders, torso, hips, legs, and feet. Or, for that matter, to write a novel by mastering, in succession, the exigencies of the first chapter, then the second, then . If you ve raised a child, you might have been startled at how rapidly the human organism assembles whole language structures. She still does. I still do.
Human beings learn in wholes.
We strap together sets of performances in what some call constellations of skills. Most importantly, we respond to context . We learn that the rules change as does the situation, and that behavior that is appropriate in one case may be hazardous in others. It s OK to run and jump unannounced into dad s arms. It s not such a good idea to confer the same delight on the visiting dishwasher repairman.