Life-Long Learning

The term life-long learner is probably overused and under-defined. I can't imagine anyone not learning something new as they age. Even if it is how to better remember things as our minds slow or what to do about body aches. Basically, everyone has to come to terms with aging, and in that everyone has to learn.

However, most of us in education think of something deeper when we think of life-long learning. We think of advancing and enhancing and building on what we already know. And often it is through this gaining and building of knowledge we start to see how much more there is to learn. And if done correctly, we WANT to learn it!

Not a new idea.

Of course, we recognize that we are not going backwards when we realize there is more to learn. We are developing. Growing. Advancing. We see the faults in past beliefs and assumptions and connect new illuminations to those old beliefs. Our intellectual selves seek the interconnectedness of everything.

Every once in a while a new realization occurs. We mull it over, look at it from many sides, and refine it until it is acceptable. Often we need to offer these ideas to others who help us to see flaws or missing pieces. They will connect your new gem to their understandings and quite likely end somewhere different than you did. But it is all okay. We walk our own paths. These steps, or leaps, bring about a feeling of accomplishment and becomes the incentive to learn more. It is this that we want students to feel in our classrooms.

This process of thought growth indicates that we must honour every idea brought forward. As educators who are mentoring growth, we must be the safe place to bring fledgling thoughts, respect and nurture them in order to get them to fly. We must model this process for our students and colleagues. It's important that we foster the enjoyment of learning, even when we see the wrong turn being made. We help the student see where the path diverted, an incorrect assumption developed, and return to that spot so a correction in thinking can be made. The ownership of the process needs to be the student's. 

Is this easy? No. It is much easier to just give the answers. Point out the mistakes. It is always easier to do it ourselves because we feel that we simply know more. We know more because we learned along the way. No one robbed us of that learning! 

Be patient. Be supportive. Be resilient. Model who we want our students to be.

And if you want to learn something new each day, check out Highbrow. Choose one fascinating topic from a vast array and have mini-lessons emailed daily over two weeks. I've recently gained knowledge about ten superfoods and will soon start learning those ten science questions to which we should all know the answers. go ahead and ask me! :)