Connections: An NPR Discussion

I characterize myself as an NPR junkie and am often in the car, pulling out my pen and a scrap paper to scribble notes fueling my blog ideas.  Today was no exception.  I am passionate about education and learning, wanting to help my clients understand their unique learning styles and today, the discussion brought up key points that are so important for us all to embrace.

Education is moving in the direction of being more collaborative and experiential, but since traditions change slowly, most educational environments still measure achievement by how much book learning and memorization one retains. 

What was refreshing to hear is that younger folks have an immense amount of knowledge available at the click of the mouse and that the successful learner will know how to navigate the web, knowing that information is available on the subject that is being learned.  Another key point is that students (and that refers to us all) must rely on others’ expertise in some areas, lending to a more collaborative way of learning.  This collaborative approach will facilitate more connection and as humans, connection is key for survival on each level-mind, body and spirit.

The emphasis of today’s discussion was on the 4 P’s:

Passion – find something you are passionate about to learn

Project – create a project in order to learn about the discipline

Peers – work with your peers – more ideas, different points of view

Play – use your imagination and don’t get hung up on perfection – it will thwart the creativity

As always, my hope is to inspire others to find ways to feel good about themselves.  I hope this blog does just that!

With love,

Julie