Essays about learning in exactly 99 words
Why only 99 words? One successful way to learn is to get information in small, manageable chunks then take time to compare and contrast it with previous experiences or theory. Each of these stories gives a new perspective with enough gray around the edges so you can add your own meaning that's personal and relevant.
Use them to reflect upon your preferences as both a learner and a teacher. How might you approach your next educational opportunity differently? When you answer that question, please share your ideas. We'd love to hear!
| Choose a Story | |
| Turn Right to Go Left | Dead and Alive |
| Limits | The Slow Learner |
| Teaching a Lesson | High Expectations |
| Too Much Talk! | Life Lessons |
| The Wrong Notes | An Empty Desk |
Busy intersections are few in rural Vermont, but during tourist season you can wait a long time to make a left turn onto a crowded thoroughfare. Recently I just could not find a break in the traffic flowing east that coincided with the traffic flowing west.
Then an idea! Switching signals, I turned right into the flow. Less than a tenth of a mile later, I turned left into a parking lot and took another right joining the traffic in the direction of my original intent.
Got something difficult to do? Try the opposite!
Three times a week, that's my swimming goal. The results are better health physically, mentally, emotionally. But that doesn't mean that I am always motivated. Some days, looking at the end of the pool 75 feet away I feel tired before I begin. Too much work!
A dip in Sweets Pond is different. When I look down its length, I see a half mile of glassy smooth water that feels like satin as I dive in. I could swim for ever here, relaxed but challenged!
How easily we allow ourselves to be limited by the horizon we see.
Carol confessed that she didn't like to cook. She recalled her Home Economics class. She was beating an egg with a fork. The teacher said, "Not so much noise. I don't want to hear any clicking when you're beating those eggs!" Now, half a lifetime later, Carol admitted, "That only made me want to do it more. And I always think of that woman whenever I beat eggs!"
How would that teacher react if she knew the only thing Carol remembers from her class is having been scolded?
Often, the littlest comments have the biggest impact!
I was having a heart to heart conversation with my daughter. About to enter her teen years, I knew she would benefit from my reflections of how to survive those troubling pubescent times. As I revved up for a helpful review of my main points, I looked over in her direction.
She was staring into the middle distance with glazed eyes and slouched shoulders. She'd been turned off. I'd been tuned out.
Too much of a good thing had become another lecture. Less is more. I wish I'd shared my sage advice in only 99 words!
When Travis, the only saxophone player in the Guilford School fifth grade band, began his concert solo by playing "Hot Cross Buns" instead of "Merrily We Roll Along," he stopped, waved his arm, and said, "No, wait! That's not it. Wrong one. This is it." To everyone's relief, he then led the band in a spirited rendition of the correct number.
Our pursuit of excellence, our preoccupation with perfection, doesn't leave much room for mistakes - even when someone is learning a complicated task.
Bravo to the "performer" who can make a mistake and confidently move on.
On a springtime walk in the woods I came upon an unusual sight. Where a grove of sugar maples had stood last summer, now there were only stumps. Though disappointed, I was curious to see that each stump was soaking wet and surrounded by a puddle of water even though it had not been raining.
Looking closer, I realized that this wasn't water. It was sap, the raw material of maple syrup! Loggers thought the tree was dead but the roots thought it was alive.
We are quick to make assumptions about what we cannot see!
One sweltering summer day, I sought relief on the screened porch. An enormous housefly was bouncing against the screen trying to get out. Feeling charitable, I waited until it got to the door then swung it open. But the fly kept bashing into the screen door anyway. I pushed the door open further. Still the fly ping-ponged against the screen never knowing a right angle turn would set it free. Finally I let the door swing shut.
When we don't see progress, what makes us think doing more of the same thing will set us free?
Surrounded by friends and food in a small fishing village near Bilbao, I thought this would be a perfect opportunity to improve my Spanish. But forget about speaking. I couldn't even decipher the topic of conversation! I was completely frustrated.
Then I realized: we were nine people at the table and eight were speaking simultaneously! Not to mention the three children and a loud TV in the next room. Even a native speaker couldn't keep up with all that talk. I began to relax.
Holding ourselves to impossible standards we miss the joy of our current successes.
For three years I taught English in Egypt. Once a week, I volunteered to tutor a group of disadvantaged teens. But that had been ten years ago and now I was back for a visit, touring a new school.
Entering the computer classroom, the professor introduced himself. "I'm Emad, one of the kids you tutored. You know, I didn't learn any English from you." I was crushed, until he added, "But I did learn how to be a good teacher!"
I never realized I'd given that lesson!
We seldom know the real lessons we may be teaching.
For two years I shared an office with Mary Ellen, a high energy multi-tasker. I always knew when she was under a deadline for a big project or grant because she would spend at least half a day clearing off her desk. Rearranging, filing, dusting, was she wasting time? Cleaning a space to work? Clearing her mind? I couldn't tell, but her projects got done on time and her grants were funded. She was very successful!
Call it procrastination if you like but preparation for the activity is as important for success as the activity itself.
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