The Ability to Learn: A Fascination of Mine

It’s kind of funny how knowledge is a progressive feature of this life.

Today has been a day of thought and of recognition. I’ve been home and helping out around the house while my mother has been picking up extra shifts at the hospital. As well as oiling baseboards, shining steel, dusting tables, and folding clothes, I’ve been in charge of helping my little sister, Chelsea, with her math homework. 

Being in kindergarten, Chelsea is dealing specifically with addition, namely with 9s. As she struggled to find the answers this morning, I turned and told her simply, “ Whenever you are adding 9s, first add a 1 to your answer because all of them are going to be either ten or more (except when you are adding 0). Then see the number being added to 9 and take one less than that number as your second number. That’s your answer!” She looked at me confused for a few minutes. She didn’t really get it for another 10 minutes or so, and even then, she didn’t understand the “why,” just the “how.”

She got done with one worksheet and I was relieved. That took a while. Then I realized that she had, not just one, but five worksheets of the same nature that were due for today’s class.  In that moment, I found myself wishing that I could just do them for her rather than making her do them herself. I already knew how to add 9s. I already knew the difference between a circle and a square. It would only take me a minute a piece, whereas it would take her probably fifteen minutes each.  Then I recognized the meaning of that thought: Think of how far you’ve come since age 6, Krissy.

I bet that’s how our parents feel when we make mistakes; “I wish that I could just do it for them. I know how to do this. I know how to combat that.” But they know they cannot do it for us. They can’t fully express their experiences to us. We have to live through those moments on our own in order to feel It and learn it entirely.

The cool thing is this: after a while, those lessons, like adding 9s, become so basic that they become embedded in us- we start applying the principles without even thinking! That is true wisdom: the application of the knowledge we obtain from life experiences. I just find that so fascinating and compelling. Who would have thought that we could do that? Who would know that we could store so much information within ourselves after so many years?

Just a few thoughts for the day J