Part of my mind will always measure time in school-years.
Have you ever realized how much of our lives we spend in school?
All around me this week, students and teachers are bracing for their first day back at school. I've never been a terribly driven person, or considered myself very studious. However, I've spent the majority of my life in a school environment - and even if I didn't always appreciate the attempts of those around me to mold my mind for the future (or sometimes, more accurately, pummel it into shapes they found more pleasing) - it's the mode of life I know best. And although I graduated with my latest degree not too very long ago - as friends talk about the classes they are going to take (or teach) - I find my mind gearing up for some serious input of knowledge.
While thinking about all the kinds of knowledge that we can acquire through study - I am reminded that many of us struggle to find what we want to do; struggle to find out how we learn best; struggle with feeling as though we're not doing well enough, learning fast enough, that we're falling behind, that we're BAD at learning. These aren't - in my opinion - always helpful things for us to focus on.
As a student - of whatever - I feel it's less important at first to focus on how I learn, and more important to just remind myself that I can learn and I am learning. Whether I learn faster or slower than anyone else doesn't matter - but as a human being, I inherently can learn (indeed, am constantly acquiring knowledge) - it's just a matter of acknowledging the ability and using it.
Knowing: "I am a auditory/visual/kinsethetic/etc learner" is less important than knowing simply: "I am a learner."
I'm not saying that I think it's useless or completely unimportant to find the way that you learn best - simply that we put too much pressure on ourselves to learn at a certain speed, at a certain level, in a certain way; rather than enjoying that we are learning. And whether or not we are pursuing a degree, or a grade - we should should not let the measurements others put on learning undermine our confidence in our ability to learn.
All around me this week, students and teachers are bracing for their first day back at school. I've never been a terribly driven person, or considered myself very studious. However, I've spent the majority of my life in a school environment - and even if I didn't always appreciate the attempts of those around me to mold my mind for the future (or sometimes, more accurately, pummel it into shapes they found more pleasing) - it's the mode of life I know best. And although I graduated with my latest degree not too very long ago - as friends talk about the classes they are going to take (or teach) - I find my mind gearing up for some serious input of knowledge.
While thinking about all the kinds of knowledge that we can acquire through study - I am reminded that many of us struggle to find what we want to do; struggle to find out how we learn best; struggle with feeling as though we're not doing well enough, learning fast enough, that we're falling behind, that we're BAD at learning. These aren't - in my opinion - always helpful things for us to focus on.
As a student - of whatever - I feel it's less important at first to focus on how I learn, and more important to just remind myself that I can learn and I am learning. Whether I learn faster or slower than anyone else doesn't matter - but as a human being, I inherently can learn (indeed, am constantly acquiring knowledge) - it's just a matter of acknowledging the ability and using it.
Knowing: "I am a auditory/visual/kinsethetic/etc learner" is less important than knowing simply: "I am a learner."
I'm not saying that I think it's useless or completely unimportant to find the way that you learn best - simply that we put too much pressure on ourselves to learn at a certain speed, at a certain level, in a certain way; rather than enjoying that we are learning. And whether or not we are pursuing a degree, or a grade - we should should not let the measurements others put on learning undermine our confidence in our ability to learn.
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