What I Think About When I Think About Learning
This title is modeled after a memoir by my favorite author, What I Talk About When I Talk About Running by Haruki Murakami, which I admittedly read many years ago. The title has always stuck in my mind, and when I think about learning – which I do often – this title stands out to me.
When I think about my own learning or my own curiosity, I know that I am a lifelong learner, and I wonder how, as a teacher, one goes about creating other lifelong learners. Is it something instilled in a person from birth? Is it how they are raised? I suppose that I was raised to ask questions, to be curious, to look at the world around me with a keen and curious eye. For example, as a family we would go on hikes and play “name that plant” or when travelling on road trips, my dad, who is visually impaired, would often ask us to describe what we were seeing – what the signs say, what the landscape looks like, etc. Maybe visualizing and verbally describing the world around me and paying this close attention to detail helped form me into being a lifelong learner.
Now, as a teacher, how can I pass on this ability to visualize, describe, and notice details to my students? How can I teach them to be curious and to ask questions? Because truly I feel like being a lifelong learner must be one of the greatest gifts one can have.
I began reflecting on what makes a lifelong learner last summer while taking Lisa Coyle’s 12:00pm yoga class. Yoga class at noon on a weekday is a real treat as a teacher, and Lisa brings words of wisdom and reflection into each class she teaches. As we started our practice, she spoke about approaching our practice, and really our life, with a curious and friendly mind. I think this perfectly describes how I aspire to live my life. At a time in our world that is so polarized and uncertain, to be able to approach things with a curious and friendly mind, to me, means being open to all views and ideas, assuming best intentions, and being willing to learn more.
At a time in our world that is so polarized and uncertain, to be able to approach things with a curious and friendly mind, to me, means being open to all views and ideas, assuming best intentions, and being willing to learn more.
As an artist and art teacher, I often get asked if I too am making art. I feel a lot of pressure to continue making and creating while at the same time I am pouring a lot of my creativity into my students and my classes, leaving little time or brainpower for my own work. However, I have remained engaged in my own creativity through learning new skills and techniques in a variety of creative workshops.
Lately, my creativity and mode for stress-relief is in the fiber arts. I’ve been learning about natural dyeing, sewing, and quilting. I was inspired to start quilting during a summer challenge from @farmandfolk on Instagram. Each week she sent instructions for a new quilt block, advertising this as a challenge for “confident beginners.” Both my grandmothers were sewists. My Grandma Schlosser sewed clothes and costumes and all kinds of things for me when I was a child and my Grandmother Francis was a quilter and made each of her grandchildren multiple quilts. Between my grandmothers and my mom I learned the basic functions of a sewing machine and made pillows and simple things, so I felt like the title of “confident beginner” fit. What I most appreciated about the summer sew-along was Sara’s instructions. I could easily follow along with each step because she included both pictures and text. This was a huge help for me and has since informed my own teaching practices and the instructions I give my students.
Although I might have a good foundational knowledge of how to do whatever is going to be taught in these workshops, one thing that I’ve learned throughout my life is that by having an open mind, you might be exposed to a new way of doing something that could be better than what you already know. While I was studying under his direction during graduate school for my MFA, Juergen Strunck–Professor Emeritus at the University of Dallas and internationally known printmaker–instilled this idea in me. Each semester he would invite a printmaker from somewhere around the country to come to campus to work with his students and teach us their techniques. Juergen often told us that he knows a lot, but being able to learn from someone else can be a game changer for your own work or learning. In this way, was this teacher of mine teaching me to be a lifelong learner?
Even if I do find that I know many of the techniques and practices in a particular workshop, there is often so much wisdom in the room that I can learn something from my fellow classmates or teachers, and at times I go simply to observe the teacher or to see what I can learn from the other students. This past summer I took two bag-making classes at Stitchhouse in Richardson. While I learned new techniques and made beautiful bags, one of my major takeaways was how the teacher, Laura Voigt, taught her classes. She had between 6 and 10 students in the room, and we were all always on a different step, yet one thing that I admired about Laura was just how calm and patient she remained. She provided us with a good set of written instructions and then would help us decipher those instructions on a case-by-case basis. I hadn’t expected to be pulling some professional development out of this sewing class, but ultimately, I did. When I think about my Book Arts and Papermaking class, I get most flustered when students are all on different steps, so I hope to remember how Laura calmly made her way around the room, helping each of us in turn because, like Sara in the summer sew-along, she had provided step-by-step instructions.
When I think about my creative practice, I can physically see my brain working. I don’t think I’ve really had a studio space of my own since graduate school, but now, looking around our loft/guest bedroom, I can see my studio unfolding around me. I can see piles of fabrics that I’m considering for a certain project, and I usually leave them sitting together so I can think about them and what they might become. Perhaps this mess is the embodiment of my own learning–my own creativity. Everything has not been perfect throughout this journey, but the mistakes are where I am learning. Through those mistakes and through the creative process, I keep reminding myself of my new mantra: to have a curious and friendly mind, to be open to new ideas, to be willing to learn and try new things, and ultimately to find joy in creating and appreciation for the world around me.
Images below: A blanket Sarah quilted for her sister in law's baby, dyeing with natural elements, and a block from one of her quilts
Comments