Lifelong Learning
First, the two winners, randomly chosen by Demon Baby are . . . drumroll . . . L.C. Grant. And RealmCovet. Please email me your address privately at erica@ericaorloff.com, and I will get a book out to each of you! Congrats and thanks for playing. Demon says hi.
And now back to our regularly scheduled programming . . .
A kid can spot a fake from a mile off. It's actually L.C. Grant who had brought that up here the other day. I can tell you how true it is.
And in my kid's case, it's the principal of her school.
The first time I saw this woman . . . the Buddhist in me . . . well, put it this way. I had to suppress the urge to dislike her very much. She had a bullhorn. The second time she didn't NEED one because that's just how she speaks. She's condescending, walks ramrod straight, and can barely contain her clear dislike for TEACHERS and students. My guess is she is a very fine administrator. So that's trying to see the positive for you.
My daughter, tested high gifted, has a teacher trained to work with kids like her. This teacher is without a doubt the most extraordinary woman I have seen working with kids in a long time. I know, because I go in there . . . I go in there and teach them about writing for an hour at a pop. And all those little geniuses are like popcorn kernels just starting to pop. The classroom is a jumble of colors and crafts and ideas and BOOKS. Lots and lots of books. And there's comfy chairs big enough for two to curl up in to read, and carpets on the floor. And a lot of learning takes place there. It's just lying on the carpet learning, or working in teams and laughing learning. Or curled in an armchair learning.
And apparently the principal didn't like it. She came in, saw the noise and chaos--controlled chaos--and as my 11-year-old said, "Berated us!" She also made them write apologies . . . and their teacher said they had to write her about whether she needed to change the classroom so they would be quieter and thus appease Eva Braun. Only of course she was way too nice to call the principal that.
Leave it to gifted kids. My daughter said some of her friends wrote notes like "I am writing this fake apology as an exercise in futility" (or some such). They're gifted kids. My daughter wrote something EQUALLY honest.
Anyway, so the other day, I'm driving by daughter and her friend somewhere, and how fake this principal is came up. Apparently, she yelled at someone else for something equally inane. And it slipped out of my mouth. "Your principal? She needs to get over herself and learn what learning looks like."
I know what learning looks like.
It is OPEN.
It is sometimes LOUD and sometimes QUIET.
It is not close-minded about new things.
It is courageous.
It is supportive.
It is sometimes really, really hard.
It is miraculous at the precise moment the kernel pops.
And if you stop doing it . . . if you think you know everything there is to know about writing . . . or life, for that matter . . . you will end up with writing that looks remarkably like a 55-year-old white woman with a stick up her butt and a bullhorn. I see a few people like that in cyberspace. They may not have a bullhorn, but their know-it-allness precedes them.
Be open.
Be a lifelong learner.
Go learn something new today. One fact. Report back here.
And then have a plan for something bigger you are going to learn this year. I have decided I am going to take a language course. And get on that damn electric guitar.
Thoughts? What does learning look like to you? And tell me something new today.
32 comments:
A while ago I saw a story on CNN about the young man that wrote Eragon. He said he spent most of his childhood roaming around the wilderness and just daydreaming. I think that just dreaming is a big part of learning.
As for my big plans this year, I just want to get through my upcoming neck surgery ok, get back to work, and go to Disney World.
I've really embraced learning recently, even more so than usual. That's partly why I study karate and take guitar lessons. Always learning.
But okay, you want to know something a little odd and new? I'm reading the nonfiction book "The Monster of Florence" by Douglas Preston and Mario Spezi. It's a novel about a serial killer in Florence, Italy.
Anyway, in Florence, young people tend not to move out of their parents' homes until they're married. Apparently this has to do with culture, housing prices and wages. As a result, there's this widespread phenomenon of couples having sex in their cars. They go out to the surrounding countryside and have sex in their cars. (Which is how the killer was selecting his victims).
The next step in that is a boomerang effect--as a result of all these people having sex in their cars, there's this widespread culture of peeping toms that go out and watch the people having sex in their cars, many apparently using video cameras, parabolic microphones, and, not surprisingly, the inevitable blackmail. (And vice versa, as it turns out, people who tape the peeping toms who are often married, then threaten them with exposure to their wives).
It's all this weird background.
Hi Cheryl:
I think uninterrupted daydreaming is VERY important. I was a HUGE (huge!) daydreamer.
E
P.S. Good luck with your surgery.
mark:
There is also a really weird phenomenon of people PURPOSELY doing that in England--parks where couples go to be watched and taped. They call it dogging.
E
Mark:
P.S. there you go . . . something new. ;-)
Courageous, courageous, courageous, amen to that! The limitations we place on ourselves are shocking. That is literally ALL I do: remove limitations. I have four new 1st-2nd graders, and they all have what I call "limitation parents." I can't even deal with them, because they infuriate me so much. They LAUGH and say, "Hah-hah, they just can't memorize," which is TOTAL BS: they're just not remembering to practice with their babies. They leave my studio with it already memorized, after playing it once or twice!
Adults are difficult: they want to do things one way; they think they can only "learn best" one way. Then they blame their failures not on their method, but on their age. I've definitely learned to be open from them. Any time I hear myself think or say, "I do it this way," I automatically force myself to do it a different way.
I've known I wanted to homeschool my kids since I was 10. We will be "roadschooling" and living in the RV, and the WHOLE COUNTRY will be their school room. There's a whole community of roadschoolers out there; it's amazing to me!
I would like to learn a language I'm clueless about (French, maybe), and an instrument I'm clueless about (the cello, maybe).
Photography, cooking, dancing, fine wines...
There never seems to be enough time to do the things you want to do once you find them.
--Jim Croce
To me, learning is listening. Not just hearing, but really listening.
spy:
Kids will blow your mind with how much they can do if you let them.
Do you know last night, Baby Girl told me she "can't decide" what to be when she grows up: film director, artist, poet, astronomer (she REALLY wants to discover a planet), sign language teacher, writer (like mom!) . . .
I told her to do them all.
Jude:
I have gotten into a cooking a tiny bit. But I don't like recipes. I just like messing around in the kitchen.
E
LurkerMonkey:
Buddhist say, simple, "Speak less."
I sometimes forget that. And I always regret it. I am naturally gregarious . . . but really, speak less should be my mantra.
E
I don't know how anyone can be a parent and not learn something every day. I feel completely overwhelmed with new knowledge all the time. And when it slacks off, I Google something obscure and follow the trail. Last night it was "Dr. Death." Gruesome, I know, but the evils committed in WW2 fascinate me. The next guy I'm going to study is the bishop the pope just reinstated who believes there was no "final solution." He kind of reminds me of Creationists, ignoring Truth even when it slaps you in the face. And THAT fascinates me, too.
Ok, off to learn... :)
Incidentally, I've been running up against my son's teacher this year. There's nothing overtly wrong with her. She's strict and I'm down with that. But I finally hit it on the head:
She is a teacher who has stopped learning.
I had a language arts class in 7th & 8th grade that sounds a lot like your daughter's class. It was held in an old home-ec room and I specifically remember writing my own greek myth - in marker, on construction paper - while lying on a kitchen counter top. That teacher definitely stands out in my mind.
Something new? I learned today that Zolft can ease an upset stomach and is sometimes prescribed for that reason alone (someone said that on my blog).
Sex Scenes:
First . . . OMG, but yeah. I do that all the time. I literally will be driving and think, "You know, I wonder what the outcome was 15 years later to that event in Hungary . . ." (or whatever, something obscure I haven't thought of in ages). And then off I am to Google. I Google news figures all the time, and so on.
As for teachers . . . my oldest son runs into problems a lot more. My younger daughter is such a typical avid learner. You don't have to ignite anything in her. He is a kid that you kind of have to work to know a bit, and then you uncover this amazing, gifted, brilliant, funny mind. But he makes you work for it. Teachers don't like that. And there are definitely a few he has who stopped learning a long time ago. But he has two male teachers this year who have inspired him in way no one ever has before. I would give these guys a medal, and have told one of them so.
E
Melanie:
REALLY? Fascinating. Who knew that was an off-the-box usage?
E
I've run into the problem of languages & math. Teachers condemn me because I pushed for my kids to take a language in 6th grade rather than wait till 9th. I also had my children skip a grade or two in math. Doom and gloom, my child will fail, kids that young can't handle a language or advanced math. Those kids are making A's in math and B's in language. The oldest is in his 4th year of Latin and he's in 9th grade.
I think the overwhelming fear is that the school will look bad and they site the rare parent that does have a false sense of their child's abilities. Mostly though it is the school forcing low expectations because they fear their own failure and thus create it.
Helping people to learn also involves inclusiveness. I was a teacher for twelve years, and I watched this happen, overt exclusion of gays or others who happened to see things differently.
Richmond:
I have run into that--where the school's position is "EVERY parent thinks their child is gifted." Well, you know . . . as far as I am concerned . . . yes, every child has gifts. Don't stand in their way.
e
Joe:
It is amazing how often, for example, people will assume a writer is white, a character is white. People will assume the only way to explain certain things to kids is from a narrowly defined definition of family or what have you.
Okay, first off, YIPPIE!! I won!! I can't wait to get your book in my grubby little paws. I sent you an email with my info already...Thank you so much. And a smooch for Demon Baby too!! :D
And then second, boo for stickwielding principal. It's funny, but I know exactly what you are talking about, as far as the "bullshit detector" goes. I think my mom had it fine tuned in me as a kid, cause I was so damned gullible. But yeah, I had to reckon forces with my son's 4th grade teacher last year, even had to fight with the principal to make sure he didn't get the same teacher next year. Wasn't easy, but there was no way my son's skills were going to be nurtured in that kind of suffocating environment. Honestly, I think people like that need therapy. Someone to talk to about what's making them so afraid in life, to just, you know, LIVE?? I was that way for a long time, and then well, you know, talking about it really helped. Wasn't easy, but it was better than having to walk around with a stick up my a-hole all day. Life sucks when you can't live for yourself. Hopefully this chick will come around sometime.
Lol on the whole "I am writing this fake apology as an exercise in futility" letter response. I LOVE graceful sarcasm. (If one can even call it that!) I love precocious statements from youngens' too!! :D
I'm still in Happyland over my win!! Woo-hoo!!
When I hear about people such as Mrs. Principalwithstickupass, I just want to go all "Dexter" on them.
And how timely this blog because yesterday while in class (mind you, I'm the oldest student) another student made the most ridiculously misogynist statement that I had to dig my nails into my chair so that I wouldn't leap to his throat. The guy is probably 21. What I learned: That I really do have self-control.
But, something new I learned while in my stress reduction class: Children stop diaphragmatic breathing when they enter kindergarten, and that they begin laughing less. That's SOOOOOO sad.
And I feel that when we think we know it all, as writers, we may as well drop the pen and stop wondering why our stories aren't getting published. As non-writers, we've just taken the first step toward an early grave and have morphed into a zombie-like life.
Right now I'm learning more than I ever wanted to know about promo. Eeek!
I thought I knew a lot about writing, but these past couple years I've been getting insight after insight. And I'm going to buy a harmonica and learn how to play it. I'm excited about this. Something I can carry around from room to room with me.
I learn something new every day - sometimes just a new word, small fact, or how to better use my new Blackberry. Learning depends on being open to it, so for a principal to squelch the creativitiy of a teacher with a successful classroom environment - well that just seems like a crime to me.
I like learning new words and peruse dictionary sites for words of the day. Today's word was new to me. Is it new to you?
girandole • \JEER-un-dohl\ • noun
1 : a radiating and showy composition (as a cluster of skyrockets fired together)
*2 : an ornamental branched candlestick
3 : a pendant earring usually with three ornaments hanging from a central piece
Example Sentence:
"I sat in my usual nook, and looked at him with the light of the girandoles on the mantelpiece beaming full over him…." (Charlotte Brontë, Jane Eyre)
Did you know?
The earliest uses of "girandole" in English, in the 17th century, referred to a kind of firework or to something, such as a fountain, with a radiating pattern like that of a firework. Such a pattern is reflected in the word’s etymology: "girandole" can be traced back, by way of French and Italian, to the Latin word "gyrus," meaning "gyre" or "a circular or spiral motion or form." By the 18th century "girandole" was being used for a branched candlestick, perhaps due to its resemblance to the firework. The word’s third sense, referring to a kind of earring, did not appear in English until the 19th century.
*Indicates the sense illustrated in the example sentence.
Realm:
Let me tell you, the kids in her class . . . they are just these really amazing kids and yeah, just CRACKS ME UP.
E
Kath:
Yet another reason why I just totally think you are awesome.
E
Edie:
Very cool. Every time I hear an old blues harmonica, I think that's just a fun thing to learn.
E
ANTI-WIFE:
What a cool application. Love that word. Didn't know it. I had "seen" it before and probably just figured it out from context (first meaning), but not the other meanings!!!
E
This year I'm going to learn everything I can about publishing and marketing and more about how to write better books. I'm just starting to build a tiny trickle of fans and now I have people who are counting on me to write things that don't suck.
And I also want to learn more about fitness and healthy eating.
And, if I have the time I really want to get back into bellydance more and learn more about that.
Awww, Erica, thanks so much. Birds of a feather always flock together, right chickie? ;)
You have a point on learning. I think the trick is to get kids(us) to care about what we're hearing and to want to know more about it. Most teachers these days just act like they're there because they have to be.
This is what I love about writing, it's not something that can be mastered, there fore I'll never wake up one day and truthfully say to myself "Well, I know everything there is to know about writing books..."
Very compelling indeed.
J.T.
That is so true. It's a true lifelong learning process. But it's also an openness to learn all your life, every day.
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