Hi friends,
You’ve got mail.
Letter No. 10 pushes you to think. I hope you do. What does a good education looks like for you? And, what’s on your continued education list? I care to know.
Thank you for reading. Hope you are able to enjoy some melt cheesy goodness today.
Xiao-Yu
Letter No. 10
J,
I was chatting with my mother about learning, teaching, and the general idea of education. She has decided to give piano lessons. One of the stories she shared was about a student – a perfectionist, who passed out during one of the class performances. Our Lady Perfect put so much pressure on herself. Judge me all you want, I laughed out loud when my mother shared this story. She is only teaching five students, and all of them are retired with no musical background. It is a relaxed and fun atmosphere. You know my mother – if it is not fun, it is not worth her effort.
I feel compassion towards our Lady Perfect. I wonder where this impossible standard within us comes from. Something has to happen in a person’s history for him/her to want this much control. She is obviously not able to relax and I am certain it is for a good reason. I suggested that my mother remove class performances altogether. This is when we started talking about teaching and education. It is a wonderful intellectual discussion, which I miss having with you.
All three of us are in a privileged position to even think about education. Well, the two of us. Your educational journey has come to an unfortunate end. I am deeply sorry, mostly for me. I can imagine a life of migration, hunger and desperation. I feel sad thinking about it precisely because I have a vivid image from Ai Weiwie’s documentary Human Flow. All the human potential wasted – that makes me sad. I think you would have more to say about the refugee crisis and people would want to listen.
Education is important. We all agreed on that. The discussion got juicy when we talked about what a good education looks like. I looked back at my educational history and recalled fond memories of learning. I zoomed in for a high resolution view. I want to understand what made me enjoy learning music so much. One, I had a great teacher – my mother. She was patient with me and inspired me to ask questions. I was given enough space to play with any and all instruments at hand. Two, I have a natural gift to understand harmonies and rhythms, so I was good at making beautiful sounds and it shows. That led to encouragement, praise and attention. Three, this healthy cycle propelled more curiosity in me to dive deeper and swim further. I put in the time and effort, for I wanted to know more and make music and sound I have never made before. This closer view of my own experience illustrates one important layer of education – growing and developing a fondness of learning and discovery in an individual.
One other important layer of education, largely missing in schools right now, is teaching the skills of understanding oneself and one’s environment. You could call it healthy adaptation and resourcefulness within the context of understanding oneself and constraints from one’s environment. The schools does create a ground for learning about one’s environment. But this learning is misguided when one is only learning and observing about what’s outside of oneself. The other half of the equation is missing. I think psychologists or therapists in general could come together and design amazing curricula that could benefit all of us.
My sexy brainy scientist, I could talk on and on with you. (I love the sound of your voice so sometimes I am not paying attention to what you are saying.) I need to think about what you’d say to challenge my argument. For continued education, I am proud to report that I am learning to make baguettes. Thanks to your demise, baking has become my healthy (?) obsession. I am thinking about making grilled cheese for lunch. I won’t miss your favorite ingredient – jalapeños.
Eating my feelings seems to be good for my overall life quality. In my head, you look perfect today.
Xoxo,
Hannah
