2M2M — Day 57: We are all learners, always
This is a post in a series concerning a challenge called 2 Months 2 Master: learn a difficult skill between 1 March — 30 April 2018, spending a maximum of 15 minutes a day on practice. Report every day on your learning process. We were inspired by Max Deutsch and his M2M. I teach first year students at LUCA School of Arts in Ghent, Belgium. All students have their own challenge. Mine is: do a one arm pull-up.
I had people over tonight. We worked out together. Very messy. Very nice. I have learnt that you generate energy when you get together with a few people in an environment where working out is possible. You just work out. You talk a bit. Someone does something, some other tries it also. It is fun. It is social. It is learning in a very pure and accidental and free form. And you can get so much done without even noticing, because you energise one another.
So I’m a bit sore now :-) That’s fine. Like Mattie Rasker said the other day: there is something sweet in sore muscles: you feel you have worked out, that’s a good feeling.
Now it is getting late. It was a beautiful day, full of pleasant get-togethers with kind and interesting people. Some sun. Some wind. And of course: the most beautiful dog in the world, Otto.
This morning I spent a few hours talking about feedback, and the learning process and what it takes to get people to learn. And it was something of a throwback to the time I started the process where I am now. There is so much research on learning, and in the end, it is not that complicated, but we have learnt so much nonsense, that is it hard to recognise the bullshit and the stuff that is worthwhile.
It comes down to: live it. Live the life where you are interested, open to new stuff, new experiences, growth, and share that with the people you meet. Those people might be students, or colleagues, or parents, or friends. Forget those labels, just be human and enjoy our ability to communicate and to learn not only from our own experience, but also from the experience from others. That is uniquely human, and that is a very social thing, in which our communication capability and social skills play a vital role. The moment we created hierarchy by making up roles like “teachers” and “students”, this deeply social and communicative magic got corrupted because people feel entitled being the teacher, or the student with more years to their record.
I have a proposal: let’s all be human and let’s focus on staying open to learning. Let’s be learners, always, all of us. We can give ourselves credit for it, and by doing that, we can give others credit for it, because we crave recognition. And the big advantage: we get to see that there is a core of sameness in all of us. That connects us. All the rest — how we learn, what we learn, for how long, at what level? — is up to the individual.
There is a blog by a guy that I respect, he has made learning his job. He quotes a principal in a very forward thinking school in New Zealand who says: “It doesn’t matter what students learn. Provoking, isn’t it?” I love that. It is about the learning, not about the thing we learn! The thing is just that that draws our attention at a particular moment. The learning stays with us, with us all, always.
- 1'40" Hanging neutral grip — difficulty ***
- 1'40" Handstand facing wall — difficulty ****
- 1'20" Hanging overhand grip + 1 pull-up — dif ****
- 1' Hanging underhand grip + 4 chin-ups — dif *****
- 10 dips
- 1'40" Hanging overhand grip + 3 pull-ups — dif ****
- 1'30" Hanging overhand grip — dif ****
Weight: 76.1 kg
