Journal for Week 3
Do you ever feel dumb?
Do you ever get that kick-in-the-gut feeling that maybe you really just aren't up to par?
I'm reading through all of these very interesting educational theories... theories about how people learn, and about how all of these studies have been done to come up with the best learning strategies to help students.
And then it hit me: I'm not ever going to be one of those people who comes up with a new educational theory. I'm not going to be that person who cures cancer, or designs the space elevator.
I'm ok with being the behind-the-scenes person who reads everyone else's theories, and then applies them to my own life. I'm ok with wanting to know all I can about the crazy things that happen in the medical field, knowing full well that I don't deal well with blood & guts and could therefore never be a doctor. I'm ok with knowing what I know about the IT field, but politely deferring to other people when faced with questions these days. I'm ok with just being that girl who speaks when spoken to, but can knock your socks off if given the opportunity.
This new program has been very eye-opening for me. I'm not used to feeling dumb.
I've gotten used to the Country Mouse and the City Mouse feeling. I've gotten used to not always being the person who understands politics, or religion or race relations. Posts from our blog won't make it into a book, I won't have a patent in my name, and I will never be a famous actor. You won't read about me in this newspaper (though you can occassionally find things about me in this one).
But dumb? Lately, I've been feeling it.
It's an odd feeling. It's hard for me to come to terms with it, to be perfectly honest.
I've been a student most of my life. And once I got into higher education, my classes were all IT - constructing databases, writing programs, installing stuff. And now, I'm having to get in touch with parts of my brain that haven't received a lot of attention over the past several years.
And it's uncomfortable.
When it comes to learning things, how do you deal with the "uncomfortable" nature of it all? I'm curious.
posted by The Girl @ 8:49 AM
6 comments
6 Comments:
Honestly, I think it's important for us to feel dumb, otherwise we'll never be open to learning new things. I read blogs and articles all day long that are written by geniuses, and I know I could never write or say anything half as profound. I can't diagnose a disease like House or explain how olive oil is made like Alton Brown, but I can learn from these people and try to get a tad smarter every day. If you already think you're smart, you won't be as open to learning.
So just keep learning. That's more important than already being smart anyway.
I agree with Sarah; you are constantly learning. My uncomfortable feeling comes from people who aimed to know too much. You need to learn from the world around you, not just from books. We all have "duh" moments, but learn from them and keep going.
I don't feel dumb while learning new things but I find it highly annoying when someone acts as if they know it already when I know for a fact that its new to them as well.
Their constant interruption of how much they know actually inpeeds my learning and makes it difficult to focus on what the instructor is actually trying to teach.
On Open Book blog recently there was a thread about Theology grad schools, and one commenter asked what exactly one does with a Theology PhD. One professor commented back that other than teach college for the past 20 years, spend hours being humbled by the theological understanding of housewives with blogs.
We all have that kind of experience, I would wager.
I feel really dumb in China, that is for sure.
By the way, one of the most freeing experiences I have ever had is learning that I am not going to be the best at even any one academic thing. That lesson, that I am not going to be a greatest or even a great anything, a PhD in something, a MacArthur genius grant recepient, had freed me to pursue happiness instead.
Oh man, you don't even know. I'm going to have to blog about this now.
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