Some Thoughts on Acquiring a Skill

Some Thoughts ...

How many times have we heard someone say, I wish I had the talent to paint (or to carve wood or play music or whatever) but talent isn't the answer and in my opinion,  the word should be stricken from the language. Talent only allows a person to learn something faster than he would otherwise. One of the problems with learning any skill is that there is a lot of things that you have to learn. 

I look at it like this.  Every student in any discipline must face two things if he wants to learn.  The first thing is humiliation.  In a teacher - student relationship, the teacher knows far more than the student.  It's like basic training in the army.  When the drill sargeant says to move, you move. Once past the first shock of humiliation he has to deal with it on a continuing basis and the student is faced with acquiring a whole lot of skill-sets he does not have. 

  The second thing the student has to face is frustration.  The teacher has the power to correct and to judge and that entails a certain power over the student.   It will take time and a lot of effort to learn the necessary skill-sets.  There were be failures and the student has to be able to accept the failures for what they are, necessary steps to acquire the knowledge of the craft.  

This is the same process that any student has to go through whether you are talking about ninth grade history, calculus 101 or wood carving.  I wish someone had taught me this when I was a kid.  I wish the teachers I had in school knew this!

Learning is hard!