No Coincidence

No, it’s not a coincidence that I have been a lifelong learner. It was a family trait starting at least with my paternal grandfather, who taught himself to play several instruments and to carve and make intricate ship carvings. My Dad was a marine engineer, and the sort of creative methods of self-tuition on the Liberty Ships and the Presidents’ Line ships he served on encouraged him to learn a number of practical trades. So I came by it in a traditional manner, and it became a centerpiece of my lifelong learning style. The son sees what the dad does and imitates.

But the approach differs and matters. My family was pretty much part of the self-tuition school. This made a lot of sense for them. Formal education in those trades was expensive, and informal and self-tuition was practical and priced right. But you miss things that formal education insists that you learn. Some of that can be advantageous; you miss some of the myopic vision of the formal school. But you also can miss some of the good formal techniques that stop you from making bonehead mistakes.

When I made the shift from just being a carver to being a teacher of carving, I had to make sure that I covered the bases of the more formal approaches, especially as regards agreed-upon safety and instructional procedures. I tried to do this without throttling the creative bent of my students.

Self-tuition and more formal forms are not mutually contradictory. We can move between the two, blend them, and as I like to say – fold, spindle and mutilate them as needed! The important thing is that you keep moving and innovating in life.

Daily writing prompt

Are you a lifelong learner?

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