This week has actually been quite rewarding for me. I watched my next Craftsy.com video and it talked about extensions, clasps, end loops and so many other techniques on how to fix things! Did she say fix things? Ding ding ding! I quickly ran into my bedroom and grabbed that little bag of "forgotten" earrings and other jewelry. We all have them! Tucked in in a little bag or a drawer, wounded and unwearable, rusty or chipped, but still kept. What on earth for? They are memories, that's why. A bracelet I bought in Greece that is missing a few beads and a clasp because I got stuck at a door handle somewhere. A pair of earrings my friend brought from India that is missing a loop, another pair that I got for my birthday that is too rusty to wear (a pair I absolutely adore!!! even they are worth nothing!), and so on. Oh, and that necklace I wore in high-school that is now too small.
I never kept them because I actually thought that I would ever be able to fix them. Was I in a state of learned helplessness, as Dweck would call it? I adore that article, as I am convinced it changed my life by changing my mindset. At one moment in my life I stopped believing that I can develop. Sure I could work on my existing skills and talents, but I was literally convinced that I am "too old" to change anything radical in my life, or learn a new skill. Jewelry making was one of those things. Is this a matter of losing creativity or maturing? Or both?
I would say that my learned helplessness has to do with some sociocultural experience. When you are little they keep urging you to study because "the train will pass" (it is a Serbian saying! it means "a time will come, when you won't be able to do anything about it"). And while that is true for many things in life, I really wonder if it is true for learning. It seems to be anything but true. But our culture is very fatalistic about learning. There are numerous ominous sayings like the one above. We say "you do not put hooves on an old horse", meaning you cannot teach older people how to do things (agism??!!) and so on and so forth. I wonder if some of that comes from the utopistic post-WWII politics. Anyhow, I have lived among people who literally did stop learning after securing that first job, and who defended it by the fact that they are "too old to learn" now, but that I should not take that against them, because they too "had learn when they were suppose to" (????!!!).
As it turns out, it is all a matter of having the right zone of proximal development. Max Goodman, the craftsman from Craftsy.com provided enough scaffolding for me to develop my craftiness to a quite useful level. Obviously, my actual development was not far from it, even though I would never have thought it. And before you know it, this old horse got some brand new hooves! :)
I never kept them because I actually thought that I would ever be able to fix them. Was I in a state of learned helplessness, as Dweck would call it? I adore that article, as I am convinced it changed my life by changing my mindset. At one moment in my life I stopped believing that I can develop. Sure I could work on my existing skills and talents, but I was literally convinced that I am "too old" to change anything radical in my life, or learn a new skill. Jewelry making was one of those things. Is this a matter of losing creativity or maturing? Or both?
I would say that my learned helplessness has to do with some sociocultural experience. When you are little they keep urging you to study because "the train will pass" (it is a Serbian saying! it means "a time will come, when you won't be able to do anything about it"). And while that is true for many things in life, I really wonder if it is true for learning. It seems to be anything but true. But our culture is very fatalistic about learning. There are numerous ominous sayings like the one above. We say "you do not put hooves on an old horse", meaning you cannot teach older people how to do things (agism??!!) and so on and so forth. I wonder if some of that comes from the utopistic post-WWII politics. Anyhow, I have lived among people who literally did stop learning after securing that first job, and who defended it by the fact that they are "too old to learn" now, but that I should not take that against them, because they too "had learn when they were suppose to" (????!!!).
As it turns out, it is all a matter of having the right zone of proximal development. Max Goodman, the craftsman from Craftsy.com provided enough scaffolding for me to develop my craftiness to a quite useful level. Obviously, my actual development was not far from it, even though I would never have thought it. And before you know it, this old horse got some brand new hooves! :)
Beautiful reflection. I had no idea about that Serbian saying, but I don't agree with it. I feel like I learn new things all the time, although there is something special about the suppleness of children as well as the time they (hopefully) have to learn new things.
ReplyDeleteJust finished a paper with my student, Whitney, about adults' learning in my Craft Tech course. People actually changed what they thought they were capable of. I had no idea that would happen! I'm pretty excited about the idea of adults changing identities and learning new things at the moment. :)
I know!!! It is so awesome!
ReplyDeleteI find this "identity change", as you call it, to be one of the best presents I received in this class. Thank for making me think about my own cognition :)