Teaching and Learning Useful Little Secrets
July 26, 2007
During a recent trip to Chicago, K and I stopped at an old church she'd always wanted to visit. Entering through the double doors at the front, I noticed that K pushed on the door meant to swing outward. I showed her how to tell which way a door opens by pointing out the strip of wood that ran along the outside of one of the doors and covered the other one. That serves to seal the door from rain and cold, I told her. It was a little thing, but I was happy to share it with her, because I know that for the rest of her life she is going to be able to use this bit of information. And maybe she will think of me every time she opens one of those doors.
My grandmother taught me how to remove debris from fabric without damaging it (by rubbing it against another piece of fabric) when I was a small child, and I still think of her, 50 years later, every time I get something on my clothes. My friend Paul taught me his version of how to get ketchup out of the bottle (by hitting the neck of the bottle against his overturned knuckles), and his childhood face still comes to me every time I have a hamburger.
I love lessons like that - useful secrets freely shared that provide value for a lifetime. This type of learning - one person showing something useful to another - is how knowledge has been passed through generations for many thousands of years. Of course, you can learn such secrets at any age. But when you learn one in your 50s, you have mixed feelings: gratitude for the information, and frustration that you didn't have it when you were younger.
posted by M. Masterson @ 9:18 AM,
1 Comments:
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At 4:34 PM,
said...
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To quote the Lion, "Ain't it the Truth, ain't it the Truth!"
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