Teaching in the classroom this year has taught me a myriad of things about the way we learn, and possibly why we don't learn.
The thing is, my theory is that most humans are capable of learning most concepts, but it's just a matter of having them explained to you in a way that is accessible. Concepts are just regular old thoughts, but they seem foreign to us because they are either overcomplicated, or all too often, just badly presented. Let me use music as an example...
Imagine yourself in your third-grade music classroom watching your teacher explain that the "line notes" of the treble clef are "Every Good Boy Does Fine," and that the space notes spell "FACE." Raise your hand, boys and girls, if you thought these were just random phrases your teacher wanted you to mindlessly memorize along with "Please Excuse My Dear Aunt Sally," "In 1492, Columbus sailed the ocean blue," and so on...
Did you ever stop, as a kid, to realize that those phrases you learned were simply spelling...uh...the ALPHABET? (Refresher course: there are line and space notes, so starting on the bottom line "E," you go line-space-line-space, and say the alphabet through "G." When you get to "G," start over at "A" and keep going.) I discovered as I was teaching the treble clef notes that many kids thought that the letters of the musical alphabet were randomly placed and had more to do with the phrasing of the mnemonic devices than with the order of the alphabet. SO many of my kids have had these revelations like, "OH! It's just the alphabet!" and I have even heard, "Finally, someone's teaching me how to read music!"
The point is, kids are capable of understanding most things we may throw their way. We just have to find a way that makes it make sense. Maybe it's academia that taught us to overcomplicate things in the first place. Who ever said that learning had to be difficult to be meaningful? I would argue that the learning environment that is the most inspiring is often the simplest. Often, when kids don't know they're learning, they are learning the most. My job as a teacher is to, as Plato said, "ignite a flame," not fill them up with cluttered ideas that never intersect, only filling up their minds and making them replicas of our educational curriculum, and not letting them become who they need to be.
And finally, as adults, we can learn from this as well -- we are capable of learning most things, if we put our minds to it. Never be intimidated by the world's "fluff," because most of the time people over-complicate things to sound impressive, and not because they actually want you to understand a concept. If you want to learn how to sing harmony, and someone has told you, "Oh, you have to have a good ear for that," hear none of it! It's a skill like any other -- it can be learned. I've seen it done. If you want to learn how to crochet, then learn how it works! I have found that most things are a system that can be broken down into a logical process or pattern.
So I'll get off my platform. It's just that lately I've had these revelations about the capabilities of the human mind, and how much we underestimate our own potential. Be inspired! Go learn! Reach your potential!
Or, you can get some sleep...as I'm about to do. :)
