Reflections on Learning

Our BPW Chapter is running the Individual Development Program (IDP) this year.   Over the next six months, we all have the opportunity to widen our horizons and acquire new skills and insights.  Learning not only feeds the mind, but it also gives us the opportunity to teach.  Learning and teaching are a cycle.  We wear each hat at times. 

I once interviewed Michelle Messier, the Education Director at Terra Nichol Academy, a very unique and special pre-school.  We spoke about the process they use when approaching a new learning module, which in this case happened to be “worms”.  
She explained that before embarking on a new unit, they enlisted the children’s thoughts about how best to approach the topic.  Depending upon their learning style the children contributed ideas about a multifaceted approach to learning about worms.  Drawing them, touching them, and watching them were just a few of the suggestions.   Michelle explained how the teachers act as facilitators to the learning process, and they themselves learn with each new topic undertaken.  She described how joyful it was for children when they contributed to the body of knowledge by sharing information with the class. 

The roles of teacher and student are fluid.  We all learn as we teach and teach as we learn.  Mark Van Doren, a poet and a contemporary of Jack Kerouac and Allen Ginsberg said, “The art of teaching is the art of assisting discovery.”   The process is symbiotic, and together we grow.  I look forward to sharing this process  with you.