Go Out and Make Yourself Struggle

Go Out and Make Yourself Struggle

I have often accredited much of my success in school and now working at schools, to growing up in a “literature rich environment.”  What that translates to, is that I grew up before computers were common and we watched little television. Instead, my room and our home was crammed full of bookcases, which were in turn crammed full of books.  The house rule was that on free weekends we did not leave our rooms until 9 AM, which meant I read for what felt like years waiting for the clock to hit the appointed hour.     

In addition, it was not just the quantity of literature or the time spent reading, for me it was the quality of books and time spent reading.  I was, and still am, a nerd.  I played Dungeons and Dragons with our babysitter, which led me to a love of Fantasy and Science Fiction and in turn to mythology.  So when I asked to if I could read the copy of “The Iliad” sitting on the “adult” bookshelf, the answer was not, “it is too hard”, but “Let’s read it together.”  I was never told that I was not able to read something, just that we would read it together.  Due to this approach I struggled, but never gave up on reading what I set my mind to reading.  This was the key; it was not the literature that engaged my interest, but the modeling from the adults in my life.  It was not that I grew up in a “literature rich environment”, but a “learning rich environment.”

It was not that I grew up in a “literature rich environment”, but a “learning rich environment.”

When I was growing up, the adults in my life were, at times, students, professors, researchers, government workers, and lawyers, but they were also painters,  home remodelers, a camp instructors,  woodworkers, chicken farmers, cooks and a host of other things.  Each of these things and so many more showed me about being a learner.  Moreover, not everything was a success!  This was perhaps the most important lesson, I saw them struggle at school, struggle through work, struggle to start a fire, raise a chicken, build a table.  I saw them try, and struggle, sometimes repeatedly!  One of our family’s favorite stories is of the years of Mom making fudge from her mother’s recipe at the holidays. Each year the same recipe, each year a different, largely inedible, result.  What made it fun was that we looked forward to the next year, hoping that perhaps this would be the year that Grandma’s recipe turned out just like Mom remembered it*.  I learned that it is not always about success, but about making the attempt, and that failure can be full of laughter and build memories.

I learned that it is not always about success, but about making the attempt, and that failure can be full of laughter and build memories.

What kind of kind of learning environment do you provide?  What do people learn about how to learn by watching you?  Those of us of a certain age are presented everyday with new technology, new research, new literature, and new ideas.  Do you dive in and find out what you might be missing, or do you avoid it, fight it, or say “I’m just not good at it.”?   Are you providing, and modeling, a learning rich environment or are you reinforcing the idea that if you might not succeed it isn’t worth doing?  Get out there and struggle, create a learning rich environment. 

*In case you were wondering, we stopped making fudge many years ago, never having made the delicious confection of Mom’s youth.