With all of the reading we’ve been doing about education, I have, not surprisingly, been thinking about learning. After having to read the educational memoirs of so many different people, I decided to write my own. I think being homeschooled gives you a slightly different view of learning, or at least being homeschooled in my house does. Until high school, my mom never really gave us grades. If we got something wrong, she would make us correct it and study the material until we understood it. Then we would move on to learn the next thing. Although it was laid back and we often went on educational rabbit trails, I did learn a lot because we were focused on learning. We did not get distracted by busy work in text books or unnecessary exercises about material we already were proficient in. Many homeschoolers enjoy the flexibility they have to speed through or spend more time on subjects according to their needs. It seemed like every year, though, no matter how hard we tried, we could never get done everything we had planned to. We didn’t do enough lessons in math, or all the assignments in history, or the last chapter in science. But despite our seeming failure, we learned so much. We spent time studying things until we really grasped it, and at the end of each year I had a better understanding of so many different things that I would not have gotten to learn had we stayed directly “on track.”
Then I took a debate class. My goodness, those kids in debate were so smart. Every Monday after class I literally had a headache from thinking so much. There were some people that I was seriously terrified of debating—they could be brutal. (There was an excruciating process called “Piranhas,” where four or five people would cross-examine you after you read a new case. Definitely not the most fun experience I ever had, but it would weed out a lot of bad ideas in your cases. One girl was particularly good at cross-examinations. Some have described the experience of debating her as “crucifixion.”) And yet, they truly were the nicest kids I ever knew, and were so dedicated. Not only were they great debaters, but they were good in all their school, and most played an instrument well and maybe a sport or some other hobby. They were so intelligent and mature, and I wanted to be intelligent and mature, too. Debate was the most painful class I ever took, and also one of the classes that I learned the most in.
And then last year, I signed up for a Spanish class at a community college. I didn’t really know what to expect, but I liked it for the most part. For some reason, I always like to be prepared. This usually means that before a test I study until I memorized every word in the book we’re looking at and every single word out of the teacher’s mouth. In mom’s classes, I had to do this to get good grades (she writes the hardest tests!) and in debate, even when I did this I still felt less prepared than the super-smart debaters. Spanish, however, was a lot easier than I thought it would be. I was so shocked when we had our first vocabulary quiz and, after studying so hard and knowing each word and phrase frontwards and backwards, it turned out to be a “matching” quiz. Like the kind I used to get in first grade. “Match the word in Spanish to its meaning in English.”
My classmates in Spanish were a lot different than my classmates in debate, too. The debaters strove for excellence and talked about things I could not even pronounce much less understand, while my Spanish compañeros were content just to pass. Some people would come to class and say, “Oh, we have a test today?” Little by little, I allowed myself to study less and procrastinate more when I realized good grades could be gotten with half as much studying, and it wasn’t necessary to be quite as prepared as I was. This is partially a good thing because I probably needed to relax a little, but on the other hand it is a dangerous attitude to adopt.
Lately, I have been thinking about school work and learning. As a senior, it can be so tempting to let things slide because it’s “my last year.” I have worked hard and deserve a break, right? Not exactly. Your intellectual life doesn’t end at graduation, so your desire and motivation to learn should not either. From a spiritual standpoint, intellectual laziness is not a good thing, either. God has commanded us to work at what ever we do as if we are working for Him, and not for men. Christ also said we are to love God with all of our minds, which means using them to our full potential. Both of these things have convicted me of my poor attitude towards schoolwork. They have reminded me how important it is to put your heart into your work and strive to do school assignments out of an earnest desire to learn, not just for the sake of doing them. Otherwise, what is the point of school? If you don’t truly want to learn, your work won’t be productive.
