How Do We Learn?

I read a comment on a blog post recently that made me think about blogging. (I can't remember which blog since I read so many, so I can't give credit, unfortunately.) The commenter (not the blogger) said that he doesn't blog because there's no point in saying the same thing that other people have already said.

Of course, that made me think about why I blog. Should I continue? Is it worth it? Is it beneficial to anyone else? I feel very inadequate as a writer, so I why do I write where the whole world can read it? (Of course, I'm like Percy Shelley, who compared himself to Shakespeare and thought he was never good enough. I like Shelley's works--he makes you think very deeply. I like Shakepeare's works. He says stuff in ways that no one else ever has.)

Then I got the answer--even though I might say the same thing that hundreds of others have already said, we all have different audiences, so it's okay if we repeat each other. In addition to that, I learn when I blog, just from expressing my thoughts.

So this time I once again turn to my nephew for a lesson that many others have already discussed in blogs and wikis and Twitter and who knows where else.

Like many people (not just teenagers), he received several video games for Christmas. That's a picture of him playing a game on his XBox 360 on Christmas Day.

One thing I noticed about him when he plays a game for the first time is that he never reads the instructions or goes through the tutorial. I always think he has already played the game, but when I ask, he says he hasn't.

Sometimes I ask him where he's supposed to go or what he's supposed to do in the game, and he says he has no idea. However, he always figures it out, and it always seems to happen right after I ask him.

So why do I write about my nephew YET AGAIN? Besides the fact that he's one of the most important people in my life, I learn a lot from him about learning.

You know the joke about never reading the instructional manual? I never do. I want to put together the "thing" (whatever it may be) or learn the program on my own.

That leads to the question--instead of TELLING our students what they need to learn and expecting them to memorize it and spit it back out on a test, why oh why, aren't more of us allowing them to learn on their own?

My nephew has his own learning techniques, which I think are good because what he learns will stick with him, but he goes to school and has to take notes and take notes and take notes, and then take test upon test. And in Virginia, as in many states, our kids are tested to death.

Why not allow them to discover the answers for themselves (with our guidance)? It will be SO much more rewarding for them, and they will remember SO much longer.

AND--isn't that what we do in "real life"? Isn't that what they need to know how to do in order to succeed in the "real world"? These people are going to be making decisions for me when I'm old and decrepit. I would like to teach them the best way to think so that they will make good decisions? Don't you?