Learning to Make Pickles
This week I spent a wonderful morning learning to make pickles in my neighbor's kitchen. Marilyn watched and coached as I boiled brine, sterilized jars, packed them with garlic, red pepper flakes, dill, cucumbers, and other fun stuff, and placed them in their hot bath.
I performed my tasks with the uncertain awkwardness of a novice, feeling all of twelve again. With Marilyn's patience, encouragement, and instruction, I was pretty good at it by the eighth jar. She was the perfect teacher of an adult learner.
By the time we have careers, homes, and families, we learn new things very differently than we did as a child. We bring life experience and wisdom to the classroom. We want to understand the "whys" of what we're learning, and we want to be actively involved at our own speed. We want to be in control.
Whether you're learning to can pickles or studying for a law degree, the principles are the same. Understanding this as a student helps you choose the right place and the right way in which to learn. If you're a teacher, knowing how adults learn will make all the difference in the impact you have on your students.
I'll be grateful for Marilyn every time I open a jar of "my" dill pickles.
Photo by Deb Peterson (of the actual pickles!)
Comments
Your story is a great example of why it is so important to keep learning throughout our lives. I sometimes avoid situations where I will be a novice because I can get frustrated when I am learning new skills. I have recently been expanding my cooking skills – some recipes are hits, others aren’t, but each try is a learning experience and that is what is important!
I’ve recently been learning to do – housework! At my age! But my mother never taught me anything except how to be a clutterer (well, I learned to wash dishes). Now that my house is on the market, I have to keep the place spotless and tidy at all times. A friend has been generous with her time and expertise, but a lot of it is trial and error, and error, and error. I’m also indebted to About Housekeeping.
This is a great story of why it’s so important to keep learning, no matter how old you are. I’m teaching myself to quilt, for example – and I love learning about new technologies, new languages, and new literary genres.
You said, “By the time we have careers, homes, and families, we learn new things very differently than we did as a child.”
This is so true! When I started college at age 40 I had to go back and learn a lot of math all over again. As a child, I hated math because it was just too hard. You could ask me anything and I could spit out a correct answer but I could not do it on paper or tell you how I knew the answer.
My second semester I had a great psychology professor who thought I sounded dyslexic – not “stupid.” She had me tested and found out that yes, I was dyslexic, as well as ADHD but my IQ was a lot more than previous tests as a child in school had shown. She said it was not an inability, or even a disability, but just a puzzle to be solved.
I was given some remedial ideas how to learn from a different point of view and it worked. But one of the most important things I was taught had nothing to do with being learning challenged, but simply to do with the adult brain. It does truly learn differently!
The prof told me when I got stuck reading something from one source, instead of going over and over it again until it “clicked” to go to another source and read the same stuff presented in a different way. It worked great!