Quote-A-Day: Day 290

Treat your #learning as if it were via dry-erase marker, rather than a permanent one. #QuoteADay #Day290 #edchat #edu #ASCDL2L #Lead #Learn

Sure, learning is a continual process, but it isn’t good enough to just focus on that.

Learning also needs to be erasable; if all we learn is to be useful, we have to be able to overwrite some learnings and replace them with others.

As educators, we know the challenges that breaking misconceptions can bring.  Once learners internalize an idea, it can be extremely difficult to get them to a place where that learning can be edited.

Yet, we don’t often see this type of “dry-erase” style learning as applying to us (possibly because we think what we learn is somehow different).

We are just like all other learners, though, and are just as susceptible to misconceptions and the problems associated with “permanent marker” learning. 

For that reason, we should never hold onto any one idea or any one learning too tightly, as a given idea can be removed and replaced at a moment’s notice.  We also have to be certain we don’t hold onto our own ideas with an iron grip, simply because “we came up with them.”  This is important for two reasons: First, there are very few “new ideas” (which means someone likely was thinking the same thing), and second, just because an idea was “ours” doesn’t mean it is any better than an idea that is “theirs.”

So, as we continue to lead and learn, we should approach every nugget as one that has been drawn with a dry-erase marker, and that, whenever necessary, can be edited, replaced, or highlighted to showcase new thinking and the evolution of us as effective leaders and learners.