This kind of learning

Larry suggested that I should start writing about what both of us are doing, since we're both doing incredibly interesting work right now – no, seriously – and although I'm not quite sure whether he really wants me to chronologize his projects and how much time that might actually take, I'm taking his suggestion as permission to share a piece of a conversation we had two nights ago:

NICOLE: So, how are you teaching yourself 3D printing? What method book are you using? Whose pedagogical training program are you following?

LARRY: You don't use a method book for this kind of learning. I'm just figuring out what I know and what I don't know, and figuring out how to learn what I don't know as quickly as possible.

NICOLE: You know what I'm going to ask next, right?

LARRY: I have a pretty good guess.

NICOLE: Why doesn't this work for piano students?

LARRY: It probably does, for the ones who are really interested in learning piano. It's what I'm doing now. But I still don't think you can start this kind of learning when you're five years old. You need the method book until you're ready to decide to really learn how to play.

I was thinking about this when we had our preview performance for CINDERELLA (Enchanted Edition) at the community theater. I'm running the tracks for that performance, which means I spend a lot of time watching the actors and the audience – the latter of which includes a lot of very young children – and it occurred to me that one of the purposes of community theater was to serve as a kind of sort.

Ten of those kids may end up taking one of the theater's youth classes, either at their own or their parents' insistence.

Five of them may end up participating in the community theater long-term.

Two of them may pursue theater as a profession.

One of them – every ten years or so – may attempt to pursue theater as an art. To really learn how to play, as Larry put it.

This makes it seem like education is about exposing people to a bunch of stuff and, in many cases, forcing a particular type of participation until a student either A) quits or B) is ready to learn on their own, at which point you can begin the real work of teaching.

Because a student who really wants to learn how to play isn't going to accept a method book.

That said, I still think that kids are more than capable of this kind of learning when they are five years old. I mean, I was. It's the decision to learn that's the interesting part. Larry has told me more than once that he didn't really decide to learn anything until college, and he wishes he could have had those earlier years of his life to do over again, and yet here we both are, very happy with where we are and who we are and what we're still learning, which seems to indicate that one can make this decision at any time.

Even today.

All you have to do is figure out what you know and what you don't know, and then figure out how to learn what you don't know as efficiently as possible.