(What is) Learning, Knowing and Teaching?

Here's what I wrote as a response to these questions in class:

Learning is growing. Growing is what we do. At first growing is physical. Our bodies gain strength and balance. Our minds gain capacity and efficiency. Eventually these faculties plateau and then slowly ebb. Yet through our lives we continue to grow. Our knowledge grows with information such as, what mushrooms to keep out of reach of our children. We grow emotionally and become ever more sensitive to the way we speak to others. Indeed, we grow throughout our lives. This is learning. Sometimes people grow in unpleasant ways and sometimes they adapt to one or another pursuit extremely well. Everyone learns all the time though. It’s a natural process. It’s unavoidable.

Knowing is a fact, definition or idea that one puts their entire faith in. It might be that you’ll fall if you go over a visual cliff. It might be what not to say to a bully. Some things we know may not be true. Many things are.

Teaching is role modeling and attempts to implement processes of sustained discipline which are easy to follow for a deliberate learner.

The people in the course expanded upon these definitions. Mary Beth commented that learning has to do with expanding on previously gained knowledge. There was an interesting discussion of the social nature of learning.All in all I feel that the theories of learning that we have been reading about reinforce and give voice to what we talked about and what I have been feeling about teaching for a long time.

If the premise that, "We teach as we were taught" is true then I am a progressive educator. I went to The New Lincoln School, a progressive school in NYC, since folded unfortunately. It was not so well funded and it was still very traditional in major ways, but there was a respect for the young individual there. I called teachers by their first name, not always but often. Now, I'm known as Dan (the music man) where I teach. I also went to an arts Camp called Bucks Rock. This was a place run completely on Montessori principles. You had your choice of activities ranging from fully functioning shops for metal smithing (my nieces specialty now!), sculpture, glassblowing, ceramics and more. The place also featured folk and classical music programs, theater and dance. There was almost no scheduling. Kids just had to do something. If that was hang out on the hill and blow off everything, so be it. You just couldn't be at your bunk sleeping. It worked. Positive peer pressure set in and silly suburban kids became true badasses. I went there and then I TAUGHT there.