This week, Adrian got me thinking about the ways that we learn. As I watched one of my peers explain to Adrian how to read a book (tedious does not even BEGIN to describe it), I started thinking about how I’ve learnt all that I know- there may not be all that much going on up there, but how did “it” get there in the first place? Yes, a book is a book. Yes, it is to be read from front to back. What is it, though, that goes on in our brains and makes us WANT to pick up a book?
Perhaps it is a question of genre. Perhaps our tastes are inherited to an extent. Perhaps our upbringing, our environment, what we are disposed (or pre-disposed) to dictates the things that will excite us somewhere down the line. Does one’s taste in books then dictate our tastes in music, in fashion, in PEOPLE?
When we offer an explanation, of any kind, to another person, do our opinions weave their way into the explanation? Take an explanation that requires the “explainer” (let’s call them the teacher) to be completely objective- teaching someone to pick up and read a book, for example. Would the teacher’s pre conceived ideas or opinions about reading, about the book, the author, the genre, even the person they are teaching, rub off onto their student?
This may be the beauty of the web. Opinions are flying about, waiting to be read, deconstructed, accepted, criticised. Then we, the students, can learn from them what we will.
