Last night, while sitting with 16 year old daughter at her swim instructor training, I had a thought. This kids learns a lot of new shit.. like, all the time. In the past 6 months: basic first aid, swim instruction (to be a swimming lessons teacher); classical Greek history (for a conference she’s attending), in addition to all the course work in physics, math, chemistry, english…. Its unbelievable.
As I sat there, I had this revelation. This kid leans more in a month – every month – than her mother or I would learn in a year… or more.
Why is that? Why is learning so emphasized for children and young adults, but once we reach adulthood we pivot to mostly just applying the knowledge we have. Sure we learn new factoids from the news or books. But we rarely learn fundamentally new things.
I had a discussion recently with a friend about our mutual new found love of surfing. We agreed that one of the things we really loved about getting into surfing was that it was really rewarding being a beginner again and seeing the steep learning curve that you experience as you are learning something new.
It made another thing pop into my mind. An old friend, who is my age, is always – always – taking a continuing education course. It might be history, literature or flower arranging. He’s always learning.
Its all made me reflect. I’ve become complacent in my self-betterment. I want to find some new interests that engage my mind… force me to learn. I’m not sure what to take on yet… but I will find something.
Anyway… something to think about.
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