You Can Learn Anything You Want to Learn - Part II

You Can Learn Anything You Want to Learn

If You Are Willing to Learn – Part II

Second, each year basketball tryouts would end with a few heartbroken players who were certain that they would make the team.  These guys were self-taught players who cultivated their shots and game on dirt courts in their backyards.  I remember keenly one such basketball court which stood adjacent to our large family garden.  We cleared a patch of land for our makeshift court which in our minds rivaled Madison Square Garden in New York City and the Staples Center in Los Angeles.  The pole was a longleaf pine tree that we cut in the nearby woods.  Our backboard was the sturdiest plywood we could find.  Initially, we had an empty metal hoop.  The sound of the ball connecting with the rim and falling inside was confirmation of the points.  As our court became the gathering place for our adjoining neighborhoods, the kids of Salterstown Road and Rebecca Cove pooled our meager resources and bought a set of white nets.  As I write, I see in my mind’s eye the pride and joy each of us shared as we hung those nets.  Nonetheless, on courts like ours, players would develop what became known as “the country shot” which would go in the basket but lacked finesse, poise, science, technique, acumen or polish.  That shot certainly won many pick-up games on dirt courts and playgrounds.  In contrast, it proved ineffective in school gymnasiums and official athletic conference competitions.  Coaches cut the players who specialized in the situationally successful “country shot.”  Realizing the inadequacy of that shot and their inability to assist a player in relinquishing it, coaches would cut these types of players.  “I have coached for years and I just can’t get kids who perfect the country shots to let go of them.”  Though these players appeared eager to gain a place on the team roster, they held in the crevices of their mind that they would digress to the security of “the country shot” in a clutch.  This hidden motive meant that these players were not really open to learning the fundamentals of the game of basketball.  Already, they assumed they possessed the requisite skills and abilities to excel.  They would not erase their assumptions and learn to build a solid foundation in the sport.  Their refusal to be honest and let go of their cultivated crutch prevented them from making the team.

Humility demands total surrender of anything you presume you know about the subject you wish to learn.  Take a sledgehammer and smash your presuppositions and paradigms.  You must annihilate any idea that you bring anything meaningful to the classroom, studio, garage, lecture hall, kitchen, gymnasium, field, courtroom or construction site.  Humility empowers you to become teachable.  An adage endures, “The teacher will appear when the student is ready.”  Acknowledging your lack of knowledge about a new subject perfectly situates you to learn from a master teacher.  Ironically, you could acquire a depth of knowledge and expertise that exceeds your teacher.  However, your success begins with your willingness to humble yourself and be open to whatever you are taught.  A graduate school professor denied the application of an intelligent, talented and gifted applicant to the doctoral program in history.  As an undergraduate, this aspirant majored in history.  He also earned a master’s degree in the discipline.  In applying to doctoral programs, he resolved he knew a lot about the guild of academia, generally, and consortium of historians, specifically.  His personal statement contained meticulous detail about the courses he would teach and books he would write.  Taken literally, he did not need a teacher as he projected an arrogant and close-minded image of being self-taught.  He simply wanted an advisor and other graduate school professors to approve what he previously decided.  This would be an untenable situation as this applicant was unteachable.  One of the deans met with him and shared this frank criticism.  The dean stated forthrightly, “We believe that we have the right to have some say in what our students learn and how their careers will unfold.”  The applicant’s refusal to dismantle the house of card he constructed made him unwilling to humble himself and learn from new teachers.  Relying upon the angle of “evidentiary standards” to understand and practice the historical, critical and analytical method in teaching and writing, this applicant was not open to anything he would learn in graduate school.  To the professor who foiled his application and aspirations, this candidate would have been a burden instead of a blessing.  This man’s experience demonstrates the necessity of humility in learning anything.

It is amazing what a person can learn if he keeps an open mind.  As he strove to invent the lightbulb, Edison failed one thousand times in his experiments.  Most people would have abandoned that quest much sooner.  Some people would not have made a hundred attempts. They would have relegated the hypothesis to be a lost cause.  Others may have made several hundred tries but would not have made a thousand.  To compound the agony of his many failures, Edison’s laboratory burned to the ground on a winter’s night.  When asked what he was thinking and feeling, he responded, “Now, we know a thousand ways that do not work.”  Ever the optimist, Edison remained open-minded and forged ahead in his pursuit of the light bulb.  A friend of mine who is an engineer shares the story of his first days in a few required courses.  Each professor assured the class that he could teach and train them to succeed in their current generation of bridge designers and builders, sound systems creators, municipal grid systems operators, alternative energy architects and general infrastructure developers.  To achieve this grand goal, the professors asked my friend and his classmates to have an open mind.  Their teachers insisted upon the suspension of previously accepted theories and principles in the field of engineering.  One professor boldly declared, “If will discard these ideas, then I can teach you everything you need to be successful.”