Learning how to learn

Of course, we did learn specifics. The inexorable logic of Euclid’s geometry theorems, for example. How to conjugate Latin verbs. Memorizing famous monologues from Shakespeare. The difference between a rabbet and a dado joint. The periodic table of chemistry elements.

But more importantly, we learned to learn. It was not just WHAT our teachers taught, but HOW they taught it. They gave us a safe environment in which to make mistakes, and to learn from those mistakes. They had faith in us, as learning beings, even when we made fun of them.

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Categories: Soft Edges

Tags: school, learning, Teachers

Apr

2016

Five dollars a year keeps girls in school

Author: Jim Taylor

Everyone looks for “tipping points” -- the place in a social structure where the smallest input will have the greatest effect. Malcolm Gladwell popularized the term with his 2000 book by that name. Tipping points can be, and often are, little things overlooked by people obsessed with the bigger picture. In New York, apparently, fixing broken windows and beautifying basketball courts started the city towards renewal. Polio vaccines and Rick Mercer’s mosquito nets have also captured tipping points -- small individual actions that can make a huge difference. Sometimes it takes an outsider to see the obvious.

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Categories: Sharp Edges

Tags: Uganda, girls, school

Jim Taylor's Columns - 'Soft Edges' and 'Sharp Edges'

Learning how to learn

Five dollars a year keeps girls in school

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