Comfort Zone

Learning is about making changes. Do the changes happen before, during or after the learning? I’d argue they happen throughout the entire process. During our attempts to learn something new, we go back and forth. We take forward steps, sideways steps, backward steps. 

It’s a feature of human learning. It’s a rare person who masters something at their first attempt. Even the most talented people (sports stars, musicians, scientists, anyone really) began somewhere. 

My first attempt at snow skiing was a disaster. I couldn’t coordinate the skis into anything other than crossing the tips, which resulted in a fall. Luckily, the instructor was sympathetic. She reminded me that all skiers began as I did. It made the learning process a little easier. I envied how she skied away from my group at the end of our lesson. She seemed to glide over the snow, her skis maddeningly parallel.

I’m pleased to say that my skis now stay under control, and while I’m not at instructor level, I have a similar degree of downhill glide. To do it, I had to leave my comfort zone. Leaving a comfort zone means being afraid. Our brains want to keep us safe. Their idea of a good time is not tearing down a snow-covered hill.

If I stayed in my comfort zone, I’d still be crossing my ski tips and skidding downhill on my butt. (Or, more likely, sipping schnapps in the chalet and not skiing at all.)

I solved the spelling issue from last time by engaging my students’ comfort zones. Instead of one list of twenty words from our classroom learning, I created three graded lists. 

The children chose their words. Some went for the difficult list. Others, the middle one or the easy one. Whichever one they chose, they had to leave their comfort zone. 

It meant taking a risk and not choosing the easy list each week. To move the not-so-good spellers gently, I had them delete five words from the easy list and add five from the middle list. 

We worked our way up to the entire middle list. The kids on the hard list? I encouraged them to research more challenging words based on the ones on the list.

Leaving the comfort zone applies to any skill we want to master.