Learning Through Action

As an early childhood teacher, I often speak with families about the education and development of their young children.  The one thing I always come back to, is the the value in playful authentic learning.  People are motivated to learn, and learning happens best by actually participating in the activity.  We don't teach babies to walk.  We don't show them a powerpoint, read them the steps and tell them there will be a quiz on Friday.  Of course this is laughable, but for some reason conventional wisdom says that this drive for human learning changes as we get older.

Some people realize that this natural inclination to learn and grow doesn't go away with age. It's understood that if they want to do something, they just have to jump in and figure it out.  Much like a child learning to walk, adults who want to learn new skills follow the same steps. First a learner notices a desire begin to grow within.  Then she looks around to see if there is any help in watching others and she follows her intuition to take the first steps.  The steps are generally the same, whether the goal is to pull oneself up to standing at the coffee table, to get into theater by auditioning for a school play, to learn a new trade by getting hired at a new company, or to start a first business by finding a mentor and writing a business plan.  Everyone who participates goes through the process- idea, work, fail, work some more, fail, work some more, and on and on until success is achieved.

Unfortunately, as we get older we not only learn great skills such as how to walk and run and sing and dance, but we also learn how to be afraid, to avoid risks, to shy away from collaboration/lean more toward competition and to play it safe.  Even more sadly, this can happen at least partly as a result of traditional schooling.  In school it is easy to learn how to do just enough to pass a class, to follow the directions to the mark and never see a value for thinking outside the box.  On the bright side, information and the possibilities for learning pretty much anything we want, are greater today than ever before.  We must simply keep reminding children and adults, that learning is not just what happens in school.  Learning is a life-long activity, and its fun!  With a goal, a can-do attitude, and patience, life is full of possibilities. Whenever I start to feel like giving up, I remember the question posed by great speaker and life coach Tony Robbins at his life-changing seminars, "how long do you give your kid to learn to walk before you give up?" Seriously, anything is possible if we are willing to take action and persist!