Friday, May 10, 2013

What I Know I Don't Know Anything About...

Question from a reader:

Do you ever discover any gaps in your learning?

I liked this question a lot. It made me start thinking about allllll the things I know and allllll the things I don't know. Here are a few lists first, off the top of my head, in no particular order:

Some of the things I consider myself decently well-versed in (I would have something to add to a conversation):

  • current mental health practices
  • sea lions
  • native plant life of southern CA/Santa Monica Mountains
  • the work of Joss Whedon
  • ceramics
  • California history
  • Civil war fiction
  • California's college systems
  • Baha'i' culture
  • developmental disabilities
  • Alaska
  • fishing
  • volunteer management
  • pregnancy and fertility
  • raku
  • cooking
  • goal setting/accomplishing

Things I know more about than I would have thought because someone I talk to a lot is an expert:

  • fantasy football
  • wildlife fire fighting
  • backpacking
  • dog training
  • feminism
  • tv show structure/arcs
  • sororities
  • Deaf culture

I consider myself an expert in (10 years or 10,000 hours)

  • knitting
  • yarn
  • crocheting
  • mixed media art
  • event planning
  • journalling
  • unschooling
  • being an extrovert
  • reading English
Things I consider serious gaps in my knowledge (that I've run into in the past)
  • Geography - capitols, where in the world is...
  • Wiring and electricity
  • Car mechanics
  • The really big universe stuff like black holes and comets, etc.
  • The really tiny universe stuff like atoms and molecules
  • Re-upholstering furniture
  • Baking bread
  • Foreign languages
Things I know I can look up online really, really fast if I ever have a question about it:
  • Geography - capitols, where in the world is...
  • Wiring and electricity
  • Car mechanics
  • The really big universe stuff like black holes and comets, etc.
  • The really tiny universe stuff like atoms and molecules
  • Re-upholstering furniture
  • Baking bread
  • Foreign languages

Ahhh see what I did there? 

So to answer the original question - do I ever find gaps in my knowledge?

Yes! All the time! I have a ton of gaps in my learning. The universe is HUGE, I know a tiny, tiny fraction of information about it. I can't presume to know everything. I know for elementary school and high school they make lists of "what a 4th grader is supposed to know," etc. Is there a list like that for 28 year old's? What would be on that list? With the help of myself, my husband, my friends, my family, and the internet I have managed to survive this many years knowing exactly what I know right now. I live a mostly happy, mostly grateful, pretty darn comfortable life. I have a Master's degree, but I am realizing that the things I learned from that degree only made it onto 1 bullet point in my list (side bar: I can come up with a much bigger list of things I learned from getting my master's, but it's interesting to note that in a quick list of Things I Know it's not super featured). In any case - this happy, comfy person knows what she knows right now. So can I really say that there's anything I *should* have learned? Nope. And as it comes up, I'll learn it.

Over my life, I have made the conscious decision a lot of times to NOT pursue more information about certain topics, and to delve even deeper into others. Our lives are trade-offs. There's no way to know everything. So I think the most important thing to learn is how to learn, and how not to damage learning. That's why I put those last two lists. I know I don't have a great working knowledge of car mechanics - just the other day my husband was stunned that I didn't know how the emergency brake worked. So you know what? I learned. I probably would have learned sooner than age 28 if I lived in San Francisco or somewhere with hills, but I never have, so it never came up.

I remember being in a marine biology class making a connection and having that light-bulb aha moment, when suddenly a bigger connection was made - and I realized how little I knew about the ocean. I remember so clearly that moment when you learn just enough to know how little you know. I felt like I really was standing on the edge of the ocean, and I could suddenly see just how wide, just how deep, just how incredibly vast and enormous it was, and that there was no way I would ever know everything. That's a good feeling to have, every now and then. To realize how much more there is to learn. I don't remember being 2 years old, but I bet I had that feeling (just not so clearly articulated) over and over and over again. I remember when my picture of the world expanded from our neighborhood to include a few other cities. I remember that feeling of expansion. I like that feeling. [sidebar: husband just switched channels and is now watching a show about marine life on animal planet. Coincidence!]

I get that feeling still, when I am watching tv and I recognize an actor from another show, and I open up IMDB and look up their entire filmography. Then that leads to this leads to this leads to that... and more worlds open up, connections are made, and I feel small but strong and looking forward to more.

What do you consider yourself an expert in? Are there areas you know you "lack" information? Is there anything in these lists you'd like me to expand on in a future blog post? Let me know in the comments!




10 comments:

  1. I'm loving your blog, Roya, and I'm sharing it with a local group of new homeschoolers. I went to school and have gaps in my learning. Funny how that happens. :-)

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    1. Yay! I'm glad! It's fun to write when I know people are reading :) I'm curious for anyone who reads this -- what you think the biggest/most important gaps are?

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  2. Another great post, Roya! This is so very awesome. The biggest gap is probably to not have the desire to look up for information, to dig deeper, to have lost the enthusiasm for learning much of anything...

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  3. Great post!
    I didn't unschool my son but we did what we called Mindfeast Fridays which involved going to the library to check out a banquet of books on whatever interested him/us that day. We built as much of the rest of our homeschool years around his passions (history, animals, diseases) as possible. I, on the other hand, went to traditional schools all my life. Guess which of us has a better grasp of history, geography, government ...? And we both excel at finding gap-filling info on line whenever we need it.

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    1. I think something that can be hard for traditionally-schooled folks to grasp sometime is how much easier it is to find information now than it ever was before. It's not as though if we don't learn it from our 3rd grade teacher, we will never have access to that information again - like you pointed out -- there are so many ways to fill those "gaps."

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  4. Great post Roya. I enjoy your enthusiasm and confidence in your writing. I was always schooled through masters, public and private and parochial. I am an unschooling mom. For me, the biggest gaps (or areas I feel I am still learning much about) are in life skills. Things like embracing happiness, letting go of guilt, being patient, being a part of a functional family, identifying, validating and following my passions and interests, being confident in the insecurity of swimming against the current of how the majority of folks I know are living their lives. I feel these areas are a result of both home and school life.

    I agree with Catherine that the loss of enthusiasm for learning is the biggest gap one can have, and I think this is definitely a result of compulsory school. The things I really know from school are the things I was really interested in and I imagine I would have pursued those interests, likely with more vigor, if I were unschooled. All the tedious, busy-work, brain-numbing irrelevant tasks of most schools harm the desire to learn.

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    1. It's so interesting to hear you say that those "life" skills are the biggest gaps - because you are not alone. I'm a marriage and family therapist, that's what I help people with, every day. It's clear to me that the majority of people need help in those areas. It's what brings people in, week after week, spending (sometimes) a great deal of money to learn -- and yet, when someone is questioning home/un schooling, what they are worried about is whether or not your child can do multiplication tables? Does not compute!

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  5. Replies
    1. Thank you Cathy for your no-school blog, because it's what inspired me to finally start my own writing :)

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  6. I think for most people in this day and age (and this society, given a presumed basic economic level/access), the only real learning gaps are: inability to get along with other people, and inability to use Google. If you're a nice person and you can Google, you're solid. I will never ever have to multiply two numbers in my head again, if I don't want to. I will never need to have memorized the capital cities of any state or nation. I don't need to be able to recite the list of US presidents (even though I got extra credit for that in a western civ class once) -- I have an iPhone.

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