Notes on learning: ?What works best?

“A day um kwee lay tiff ee kot u vem tu tem may um” (I’m obviously spelling phonetically), Father John shouted at us. We (a group of 4th grade altar boys to be) repeated those words (and more Latin prayers) while going up and down a school stairwell, lugging a relatively heavy bible across our forearms. The Latin prayers were never translated, so we did not know what they meant, nor did we care as the rote memorization project took its toll, especially on one of my weaker, uncoordinated classmates who dropped the holy book – “Oh my God!”

I am sure those words had some very significant historical context that would have been interesting to learn about. They were prayers that were mostly about asking for forgiveness and honoring the saints: maya cupa, maya maximus cupa, etc.

All I remember is carrying this heavy book up and down the stairs until we got it – that was how it was drilled into us. The ones who could easily carry the book, because they were more athletic and stronger, typically learned the prayers faster, being unencumbered by the exhaustion that clouded our thoughts that some of us were feeling.

My teachers from K through 12 were all Franciscan nuns and priests, and I find it very unfortunate that I don’t have any found memories of them. I can’t fathom up any inspirational moments that may have emanated from the Franciscans to influence my life in positive ways – perhaps my memory fails me. This is odd because I lived across the street from the convent and about five houses down from the rectory. I was literally surrounded by Franciscans. My interactions with them, however, were limited to the time I spent at school or in church, both of which ironically lacked any real meaning.

In those days corporal punishment was allowed. I was hit several times. I vividly recall one of my good friends being viciously slapped in the face because he was talking – this was in the first grade.

Well as a society have learned a lot about how we learn since those silly and damaging days.

Today, the most effective learning is mostly about experiencing things. Stated simply, we learn by doing.

How much do we learn by listening? In the altar boy scenario, we learn only how to repeat things drilled into us – route learning. It’s popular in the Chinese educational system, which is why I believe China will never surpass the U.S. for innovation and invention. That’s why we have all those copyright issues with the Chinese. They copy our creativity because their creativity has been stifled by route learning.

Yet, we still do it here in our educational system, it is just not as prevalent as it used to be. The emphasis we place on certain kinds of fill-in-the-blank testing is a good example of how we still emphasize route learning.

I was never any good at taking tests, which has actually been to my detriment at times. I did not get accepted into a graduate school that I was interested in many years back primarily because I did poorly on a GRE exam. I ended up taking a graduate course as a non-matriculated student with cohorts who were accepted, and I contributed much more to the learning and discussion going on in the class than any of them.

I also went through all kinds of trauma in high school when they almost did not grant me a diploma because I got a 64 in geometry, which I hated. The teacher was a big fan of route learning. I did get a 90 something in English only because I did not have to memorize anything – only read and write essays that my teacher found to be intelligent and written without any glaring errors.

And what about workforce training? When I was in the corporate world the training I received was never quite right. There was always something lacking that I cannot pin down. I remember paging through three-ring binders of information for sales training that did not leave a mark on my skills, and it cost the company a lot of money.

Has workforce training gotten any better? I don’t know.

I would love to hear some comments on how workforce training can be productive. What do you need to do in order to teach anyone anything really? Is there some sort of guidebook that can help in this area? My gut answer is no – that is only through hands-on experience (including reading and conducting research) that we ultimately learn anything. What do you think?