College

I recently shared with my girls I was returning to college.

Ever wanted to blow a 4 year old's mind and not know how? Tell them you decided to go back to school when they still think you know everything. My youngest let that marinate for about 5 minutes with no other comments, and then all of a sudden, a barrage of questions flew and I chose to quick hit the answers and see how long she could roll.

Why are you going back? I have a goal I want to accomplish, and I like to learn
Old people go to school? Technically child I'm not that old....but yes
I thought school was for kids? I left a tad early.
What's a tad? It's about your size, and it asks lots of questions
Are you going to play volleyball for your school? If they have an over 40 team with lower nets and promise I won't yank a hammy, maybe.
Does this mean we can do homework together? I would like help with calculus, you got my back?
Is your teacher nice? They seem to be, but can you really know anyone on the internet?
Do you get recess? It's called happy hour, same general concept
Do you get a buddy? I get one at school, it's a 4th grader. Just the other "students" at happy hour
Why don't you have a uniform? They don't make 'em in my size, but you look good in yours...

The exchange made me think. Am I communicating what I want her to believe about learning as a life long endeavor, or, have I been conveying that learning is only for kids and when they finish school they are done?

At a certain point in the conversation with her, it must have sunk in that I was in some type of "adult" school for old people. I now receive encouragement from her when I sit down with my laptop to complete my homework. Sometimes that encouragement is hidden in the form of "you're done right?" repeated 74 times while attempting to get my attention. I've received no calculus help offered yet, however, I'm sure she would lend me her crayons and dolphin lunch box.

Without going back to college, how do you teach a child to enjoy learning so much, they take joy from the process of doing so and decide to continue doing it? How do you convey that learning happens in and out of college, and is really a mindset? I've met many people who would benefit from the paraphrased advice of the Dalai Lama, "If you speak, you only learn what you already know, but if you listen..."

Perhaps teaching my children to be better listeners is the first step now. Perhaps the second will be to encourage them to love the process of learning by positively reinforcing attempts and failures as learning errors. If they love to make attempts, regardless of outcome, and listen well, perhaps they will find the joy in the process.

I doubt their minds will be blown if I'm still finishing school when they are 13, although, Rodney Dangerfield has certainly laid a blueprint for an interesting college experience if I'm still in college when I'm 60. Regardless, the experience has taught me that I need to work harder on teaching my girls to enjoy the process and not the outcome.

I plan to give it the old college try, so in the immortal words of Thornton Melon from Back to School:

"Please, try to understand. I don't have the background for this. I mean, the high school I went to, they asked a kid to prove the law of gravity, he threw the teacher out the window!"

Enjoy

bvd