Do you know your best learning style? Do you immediately comprehend information from reading? Are you a verbal processor who has to practice restraint to let others have a chance in classroom discussion. Are you a deep-thinking introvert?
Have you been conditioned to think a certain way about how learning is measured? Are tests the only way to go because the law says so? Does project based learning really support building 21st-century skills? Do you learn better when you teach the material to someone else?
What is knowledge? What is your responsibility to knowledge (self and others?)
If this sounds like the worst writing assignment ever -- you probably haven't struggled with these questions yet, or are so overwhelmed by these questions because they face you at the end of every day. How could one possibly summarize their responses in one paper, or even one dissertation?
Since the dawn of recorded history, philosophers have wrestled with these questions. Generations of thinkers have wrestled with these questions. Students have wrestled with understanding the questions and the subsequent measure of demonstrating their comprehensive awareness of these questions.
It's exhausting, isn't it?
Why can't we just be? Well, for one thing, we have this millennial institution called, "higher learning." And we're in a state of crisis. At one point, higher education is seen as the solution that everyone needs in the creative economy. At another point, the digital age has brought an incredible access to information; almost like the breach at Helm's Deep (guess that literary reference). Behold, the
MOOCs.
[Take a deep breath, hold it for 5 seconds, slowly let it out over 5 seconds. Relax your shoulders. Deepest apologies for the drama - but I'm asking for something that, for some, is a stretch...]
Each day you've been on this planet, you've learned about the world and your relationship with it. From the day you were born, you have learned through experiences. Your first lesson was compassion from your mother. You didn't read about it. You experienced it. Later in life, you learned what the word "compassion" meant in reflection of love and comfort. You may have learned deeper compassion by becoming a parent, or caring for another person. Or you may have learned about compassion by not having it when you needed it most.
What other values do we need to learn or to pass on to others? How do we express what we see, feel or understand about our world? This is not the kind of knowledge one typically demonstrates on a written exam. Last I read, there are no core curricular standards for "compassion." But this world surely needs it. So how can one acquire this knowledge, or other human values?
It is certainly the kind of knowledge one could develop in a life-long relationship with art.
Having a relationship with art does not require intensive conservatory study, hours in the dance studio, or years of solitude with paints or a keyboard. A relationship with art - especially since it's all around you - starts with giving the experience your attention.
Go ahead and say, "Hello, [insert art experience]." Ask it some questions.
"Where are you from?"
"What's a nice portrait like you doing in a place like this?"
"How in the heck did you think of that?"
Relationships are a two-way street, right?
It's time to think about approaching art with your own life-long experience. Don't check your baggage at the door. Let your relationships with other people and situations feed your knowledge. Even better, listen to what others see in the art experience. Their observations may highlight something you haven't thought of, or didn't see from your perspective.
This approach to learning was exactly what the first cohort of the Center for Developing Urban Educational Leaders (C-DUEL) did yesterday at the Metropolitan Museum of Art. It was one of two "Creativity & Imagination in Leadership" seminars held in conjunction with the C-DUEL's partnership with the
Maxine Green Center for Aesthetic Education and Social Imagination. The second one will be July 11th :
...This is a rare opportunity for participants to expand their awareness of the importance of multiple perspectives, collaboration, risk taking, and reflective practices. We will enjoy a live jazz concert and interact with the performers as to their practice in terms of collaboration, improvisation, etc. We have a final debriefing session as to how these experiences might impact our own practice as leaders and educators. The results, of course, vary from participant to participant but are usually quite powerful and in many cases have a lasting impact.
The students in the first C-DUEL cohort are amazingly compassionate educational leaders. Through this shared experience, they revealed insight into their sensitivity and awareness of human value in others. I see great things in people who express curiosity about the world, who are also interested in understanding things they don't initially understand - people who approach learning by asking questions. Being open to this way of thinking can only inform their leadership.
You're a leader. Whether you are a long practicing educator, or a student, you are a leader of your own path of knowledge. The question is... do you want to know more?
I started recruiting with a hashtag on Monday, after posting a picture of me helping one student dig her car out of a Lehigh parking lot. Through a few comments in social media, it became clear that many residents understand the conflict: students don't have the equipment needed to dig out their cars. And guess what? The stores are not stocked with shovels either. I was so happy to see a few friends join me in not just complaining, but in their willingness to pick up a shovel.
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