A few random Facebook posts lately has had me reflecting on school and learning and my own experiences.
I love learning. I always have.
I love finding out about new things and going down a rabbit hole of whatever piques my interest at the time.
I didn’t love school and being in a classroom.
I didn’t love being told to slow down or feel that I was wasting my time learning stuff I already knew.
When I was younger, I loved creative writing and would lose myself in stories. I did not love the way they told us to write stories in English class.
When I was in Primary school, my love of science was sparked by some people coming in from the local university and showing us chemical reactions that blew up. I would devour magazines & be part of the CSIRO Double Helix Club. But I didn’t love science class as it was slow and boring and didn’t inspire me.
These are just a couple of examples.
When left to my own devices, I’ll learn what I need to in a way that suits me.
When I’m told to learn in a certain way, I struggle.
When I’m doing formal study, I love the discussions and learning new things, but when it comes to assessment, my brain seems to say ‘nope, not doing that’.
This is one reason I don’t have any higher education degrees. I have tried and failed more times than I can count. It’s not the learning that’s the issue, it’s how it’s presented and how they want me to present it.
I have no idea what the answer is, or, really, the point of this post. It’s more a reflection on learning and how it’s fascinating that there are so many different ways to learn information, some that can inspire people and others that can put them of… there really is no one size fits all way to learn things.
Leave a Reply