ListenI am learning a new computer program this week. Now, whether it is because of a tired brain, or an aging one, I am finding it to be a steep learning curve. But when I stop criticising myself, I realise it has always been this way. At first the task seems overwhelming, impossible even, and then slowly (sometimes, I confess, too slowly) it starts to make sense. A new pattern or map starts to etch itself in my brain and the pieces start to fit – a little like how a jigsaw slowly takes form and starts to make sense.
Along the way, I confess, I get frustrated, discouraged, feel like I must be stupid, cuss under my breath and wish the whole thing would go away. But I persist and, sure enough, it takes form and I find a new competence in some small way.
I am hoping the steps are going to start to unfold soon with this new computer program because, I confess again, it really is starting to ... well, you can fill in the blanks.
Now, I am thinking, I have had years of experience in learning new things and I was even raised to appreciate the process of learning. “Patience, Thom, patience. It will start to make sense soon,” one of my parents occasionally encouraged. “Well, I wish it would start soon!” I sometimes exclaimed, although not always so politely. Gently, sometimes forcefully, I was nudged along to success and the “learning curve”, in retrospect, didn’t seem so bad. The taste of accomplishment, it seems, overcame the bitterness of learning.
Makes me wonder about the experiences of the children and young people with whom we work. Often their history is filled with learning experiences that are not so fortunate. Name calling, failure and even abuse fill their learning history. Faced with a new task, or new learning territory, they often shy (or run) away. And who can blame them? When your experience tells you that you are about to have yet another negative experience, why give yourself to it, especially if you have no experience, and therefore no expectation, or even hope, that it will come out well?
And so I am also wondering what it is that keeps me going when I have to learn new things:
Value: that’s got to be number one. I notice that I only learn well when I see some “good reason” for the learning. Without it, I may learn, but not enjoy or even just leave it for another time, which often never comes. If I do not see a positive value, it interests me much less.
Belief: Yes, that’s up there too. If I did not believe I could do it, why would I even try to do it? It sounds too much like setting myself up for an experience of “self as failure”. And I have had enough of those in my life to know I would prefer to avoid them.
Encouragement: Now by this I don’t mean someone standing beside me cheering me on. Rather I am talking about being able to notice the little steps of accomplishment along the way; having that good feeling of success even before the learning task is complete, so that it becomes a process of small positive experiences of myself. Of course, I realise that means I have to be able to like, or even enjoy, that experience of self. Although having a cheering section focused on you can be a nice experience too. The problem is that I could easily become dependent on that external encouragement.
Focus: I find that my learning goes better when I am focussed. When I have too many other competing demands, it is too easy to find an excuse not to continue with the task or I get sidetracked. I know that this is related to the first three points I have mentioned, but it also stands alone as an important factor for me.
Anyway, I know what I am doing here – I am avoiding learning that new program, and I do want to know how it works because I have already begun to see how it is going to make some things in my life just a little easier, more efficient, and I like that idea.
Learn well.
Thom
