A brief discussion of being self-taught, i.e., the self, teaching itself.
An autodidact is a self-learner. Most think learning is about the external world of what when where why and how.
Yet is important to learn about who is asking these questions. Both the external and internal are important; not to be disregarded. One first learns about the world. Then perhaps about who am I? But the investigation of “who am I” is often only regarding the one’s social and cultural aspects. Such as gender, job, marriage, family, etc. Rarely questioned is why does one wonder “who am I?” And how does one conduct this investigation? Which is a huge priceless rabbit hole that we’ll not get into today.
Are You an Autodidact?
An autodidact learns through self-teaching. They gain knowledge and skills independently, without formal instruction. A self-taught person pursues via their curiosity and learning on their own terms. They start and take responsibility for their own education, choosing their learning materials and pacing.
Passion and curiosity drive the desire to expand, explore and experience. And learning is the result is of experience, which is knowledge. This is love in childlike form. The wandering and wondering which is flexible, adaptable and learning at one’s own pace.
Structured Learning
Before classrooms existed, elders passed down learning as stories, parables and metaphors. Trades and crafts skills were via working alongside mentors and in guilds. Classroom learning developed along with the industrial revolution and the need for folks to run the “machine.” Whether at the level of fabric mills, production lines, or as administrators of commerce and civil matters. With the rise of the administrator class, universities came into existence. For good and/or bad, we have institutions of learning. Books, schools, mentors, groups, and other sources outside of traditional classrooms can deliver structured learning.
However, both before and after structured learning, which involves the family and later the larger community. It is largely by the luck of the draw and via the access and connections, i.e., opportunities afforded by one’s social economic class they were born into. Nonetheless, if a person grabs the opportunity to become an autodidactic or self-learner. They have the potential to self-determine their life, given their relative environment of history and culture.
An autodidacts’ self-directed learning can lead to unique perspectives and insights.
Benefits of Being an Autodidact:
You tailored fit your needs and learning style. You choose the materials, methods, and pace.
You control your learning journey, making it more engaging and fulfilling… or not. This is about your autonomy… and your responsibility.
You determine your depth of learning subjects. How shallow or depth of understanding.
Auto-didacticism encourages lifelong pursuit of wandering, wondering, experiences and knowledge.
The freedom to explore, experiment and experience often leads to creative, innovative ways of thinking, feeling and being.
The Challenges of an Autodidact:
Self-directed learning requires motivation and discipline. Which is determined by you.
The problem of “structure and feedback” is that it determined by you. The problem is as a self-fulfilling, biased confirmation—the blind leading the blind, and so on.
Autodidacts require structure, process and environment to learn and get feedback (evaluation). Whether it is called the “school of hard knocks, the school of natural consequences or the school of failing faster. The question that you have to remember is to ask yourself… Is what did you learn, how well did you learn it and what might you do differently next time?
Retrospective
Reflecting on my educational adventures. A chronological list of significant influences:
· Being orphaned twice while very young, I had trust issues and thus as a result became self-contained, self-reliant and independent.
· Learned by doing… thus hyper-active running around doing things, emotionally detached, self-reliant and self-centered.
· My adoptive mother was my kindergarten teacher… there was no fooling around or getting away with anything. Btw she was very pragmatic, organized and straight-forward; having grown up on a farm. Thus, tried to instill some common sense.
· Elementary school was about socialization and hanging out with friends
· Didn’t like to sit long enough to read and thus a poor reader. But was curious about things and would dive in, take things apart to figure out how things worked. Though rarely things got back together and working. But figured out how to make other things with the parts.
· High school dropout yet graduated a year early via GED.
· Started university on time with an expanding 10-year plan for 4-year degree… done in 8.5 years. Most of the time spent lost in the “stacks” of Love Library at the University of Nebraska (UNL). Don’t let school get in the way of your education.
· Several experiences during college taught me that while self-reliance is important, it’s not the whole story. That I needed to expand and consider the larger environment and cultural factors. In essence, we all survive and thrive by the kindness, compassion and grace of family, friends and strangers.
· Worked for 5 years in public MH. Then grad school with two kids and wife in tow. Insanity, 72 grad credits in 1.5 years, while working 20 hours per week. Getting a master’s degree is in counseling psychology, focusing on hypnosis and flotation tanks. Much gratitude to the woman who is still my wife… an amazing woman!
From grad school jumped into the frying pan of real-life education. Being and surviving as an emergency “MH crisis evaluator/consultant” for 25 years. Which was the post-grad finishing school of “in real life.”
I am primarily a visual and doing type learner. Though had to develop “working smart” with reading and academic skills. It is important to know your type of learning along with an awareness of both the pros and cons. It is an awareness of what you don’t know, your weaknesses, and biases… that will save you.
Picture or Pieces
“Big picture versus piecing-it” together learning. This is like strategies of doing a jigsaw puzzle. Some folks start by fitting each piece together, eventually having a big picture. Others like having the big picture and thus an idea of where the little pieces fit.
Deeply studying and understanding a subject, regardless of what it is. One develops a heuristic (short cuts or rules of thumb) framework and process, i.e., a model which transfers or parallels to learning other subjects. For example, a tactical short-cut is to first figure out the presumptions and assumptions. This is “first principles thinking.” It is a process and framework that breaks down understanding into what is the foundation. Which then allows one to understand how the remaining building blocks fit together. And subsequently may allow the ability to reassemble the building blocks into something else. Basically, the framework and process for defining and re-defining. And the opportunity to gain a different perspective. FWIW, this is the foundation of Love Change Grow.
In Summary
The skill of asking questions. If you want good answers, you need to ask good questions.
Learning is constant because change is constant. Be curious and grab the opportunities to question, discover, and experience something new every day. Be an idiot genius… lol.
The focus of this post is about the future. Specifically, your children are to teach and encourage them to be curious and to use their agency.
Mama, don’t limit your kids to grow up to be “only” cowboys/cowgirls, artists, musicians… lol. There is an undeniably of authenticity, genuineness, and integrity of being. An acorn (Acorn Theory, James Hillman) growing into an oak tree that has weathered the seasons and provides shelter, food, and a playground for beings great, small and all their generations.
Curiosity and agency are the under-pinning of discovery and growth. I.e., learning and experience. They are the foundation of the Love Change Grow framework and process. Love (curiosity) inspires us to change (learn) and grow into ourselves (agency).
Teach Your Children, (Graham Nash, 1968)
“You, who are on the road
Must have a code you try to live by
And so become yourself
Because the past is just a goodbye
Teach your children well
Their father’s hell did slowly go by
Feed them on your dreams
The one they pick’s the one you’ll know by
Don’t you ever ask them why
If they told you, you would cry
So just look at them and sigh
And know they love you
And you, of tender years
Can’t know the fears your elders grew by
Help them with your youth
They seek the truth before they can die
Teach your parents well
Their children’s hell will slowly go by
And feed them on your dreams
The one they pick’s the one you’ll know by
Don’t you ever ask them why
If they told you, you would cry
So just look at them and sigh
And know they love you
Don’t you ever ask them why
If they told you, you would cry
So just look at them and sigh
And know they love you
Ooh, and know they love you
And know they love you, yeah
And know they love you”
Sometimes the shortest distance between two points… is a curve.
Blessings,
Tim