I Skyped with my dad last night, and he said he started feeling smart when he turned 55ish.
I said I started feeling smart when I turned 40ish.
I barely graduated from undergrad (university) and I was shocked I even got into any graduate school. During the first semester of grad school in 1993, I suffered an immediate decline in grades because I couldn’t solve problems: I only learned how to follow formulas and follow directions — other people’s directions.
In 1994, during my second semester of grad school, I had to teach myself *how to learn*. I realized that I was never taught how, and I was never taught the importance of how to think.
I was taught what to learn, what to think, and what I should achieve.
Because of this, true knowledge remained out of reach.
To others, it looked like I “knew” something. I knew nothing.
I couldn’t study in any libraries — I never could — people’s mere presence distracted me. I couldn’t concentrate the way I needed to. I had to find large empty lecture halls or classrooms. When all the students flocked to libraries, learning through a camaraderie of learning, I went to empty classrooms with littered floors, and I studied.
At first, I had to read each word, each sentence, sometimes many times, for my brain to register and then for whatever registered to “mean something”.
Then I had to draw and write out what I thought I read, to make sure I understood what an idea meant.
I felt scared and discouraged because I had to struggle so hard to understand what I saw my peers “get” immediately.
I felt really stupid.
I felt like I was teaching myself how to walk, because I only learned how to crawl and no one ever taught me to walk properly as long as I “looked like” I was walking with the crowd.
It’s been 20 years since grad school. It took me 20 YEARS to learn how to learn.
EVERY CHILD LEARNS. Every child can learn.
More important than what to learn, is teaching my child HOW to learn.
More important than what to think, is teaching my child HOW to think.
More important than what to achieve, is teaching my child WHY he should even bother.
I hope my child blooms sooner than I did.
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