Life - Long Learning

I love learning.  Since, I was very small my mother read to me.  When I was a baby, she read the Bible to me.  When I was a toddler, I would sit on her feet while she cooked dinner and she would ‘read’ a book called Cars and Trucks.  Once I learned to read my family went to the local library at least once a week.  This was my normal.  Today, I learn almost constantly.  Someone asks a question, like why is Friday the thirteenth unlucky and I have a puzzle to solve.   It’s great!

According to some people there are seven habits to be a life long learner.  I am not sure, but I certainly do a lot of them.  Probably the only one I don’t do is start with an end in mind.  Sometimes when I am learning something, I just want to learn for the sake of learning.  It is fun!  I don’t plan to use it.  I will probably never need to know how highly metallic water tastes, but when I went to Teddy Roosevelt National Park and they said not to drink the water because of its metallic content, I still felt I had to taste it.

Another of the habits is to be responsible for your own learning.  I am not even sure I know what this means.  I mean who else cares what you learn.  I admit I take classes that are hard for me, like English, because I think some day I might figure it out.  But, nobody else will care if I know how to write a technical paper.

I know I can learn stuff, if I have time.  I expect there are things which a general lack of interest in, will keep me from learning, but that doesn’t mean I couldn’t learn them, just that I am unlikely to.  And it doesn’t matter what I am learning it will take some figuring to know where to look for it.  Goodness, it doesn’t even matter if I cannot find it quickly, I suspect then that I am looking in the wrong place.  Let’s be honest Algebra is not U.S. History.

I have always enjoyed technology and teaching.  Ask the students, I tried to help in the second grade.  Fear, which seems to get in the way of learning about technology or teaching, is just there to get in the way.  So learn, keep learning, and go, go, go.  After all, we all need an education and if we stand still we won’t get it.