Lifelong Learning

Every Tuesday, I get together with a couple of mates and play music in my garage. I play piano, one guy plays bass, the other acoustic guitar. We’re all around the same age–we’re retired. 

Retired, but keeping our brains active by making sense of dots and lines on a page. Music notation is a marvellous invention. Where else can you take a page of strange symbols and turn them into a sound that evokes strong emotions? 

My dad used to listen to classical music on the radio. My brother and I would ask him to turn it off. Emotions, right there. We didn’t like it. He did.

So far, our Tuesday Garage Band hasn’t brought any complaints from neighbours. I have to assume our music is acceptable, even if we are learning how to play together and making frequent mistakes. The comments about learning that we make after playing a new song are revealing. 

We humans never stop learning. It’s a lifelong process. We spend 12 years or so attending school. Add on some years if you have a University Degree or took on an apprenticeship. So, let’s say, on average, it's 16 years. Doctor training is more, but other degrees and training take fewer years.

We spend more of our lives out of school than in school.

We’d have a very narrow range of learning if we confined it to our school years. Learning takes so many forms, so many shapes, so many feelings, so many mistakes. 

During one teaching year, I regularly tested my Year Four students on 20 words they had to ‘learn.’ The kids who scored 20 out of 20 consistently achieved that score. The ones who didn’t hovered around their score. 

Were they learning? Probably not. The 20 out of 20s had forgotten last Friday’s words by the following Friday. The low scorers kept getting low scores. Nothing changed. Remember, learning is about making changes. I fixed the spelling thing.

Stay tuned.