I was on the edge of understanding...

The Palm Springs CUE conference was outstanding. There were so many good speakers and presenters. The best part was networking and conversing with fellow participants. As I was walking by a couple of people talking, I overheard one of them say, "In the last workshop, the speaker was good and I was on the edge of understanding.”

I know what she means. You begin the one hour workshop prepared to take notes and remember all the important stuff. Then the presenter says something that you don’t quite understand, or worse yet, it is really exciting and you need to think about it some more. But then the speaker goes on to another topic because time is flying by. There you are; lost between the thought of the last subject and the new information that is racing at you like a locomotive. You are on the edge of understanding one thing, and the next thought jumbles up the previous one.

There is never enough time for depth of thought, quality experiential thought that becomes a solid memory, or even better, a physical use. We do the same thing in the classroom. We are so pushed to get through the book, through the standards, through the high-stakes test, that we ignore the quality of learning. The instruction is good, but the learner never goes deep enough for the knowledge to become useful.

I suggest that it becomes useful in the workplace, after the school experience. It is made useful from the school of hard knocks. What a shame we can’t find a way to create this experience in the classroom.