Growth and Learning

One thing I felt strongly about my college education was that I learned how to learn. I know that may sound weird but looking back at high school I feel like I floated. I took some challenging classes but because it was the natural flow, and that's what my friends were doing. Most of my elective classes were easy A's.

I expected my college courses to be the same. I knew there would be some classes I'd have to study for and memorize facts but I wasn't ready for the application factor of college. I have to thank Dr. Jean Lown for breaking me out of this. During class I expected that she would discuss what was in the book, like every other teacher had. Instead she would bring in newspaper articles and would talk about current events. This really frustrated me at first but then I came to realize she was showing us that what we were reading and learning was REAL and could help in life. Whoa! What a concept.

That really had a point, but I don't know if I can make the connection. Drew is in a Statistics class right now. Tomorrow morning is his final exam. (Hooray and Good Luck!) It has been exciting to watch him stretch his learning capacity. When he started college he was fearful to take ANY math class. Luckily he had a great math teacher that first semester. Math has been a rough road but the last 2 semesters I've watched him blossom. He has overcome the dragon that looms about. He will still become frustrated on occasion but overall he has been successful and one of the best parts for me is to watch him help others understand. It allows for his confidence to grow and it's a great review tool.

I may have learned how to learn in my college experience but in the time that Drew has been in classes I have learned how to teach. He likes to tell people about the first time I tried to help him with math homework and what a disaster my candy bar example was but then he will tell people about how much better I've been since. I really had to learn how to adapt to his learning style and not just assume he could read my thoughts that lead me to say something or conclude something.

I marvel at how much we can progress in such a small amount of time. As I type this, I think to myself that I may be guilty of not taking notice of the progress made in recent years or months. This can be applied at home, at work, in any skill being developed...