Genuine Curiosity

Author Dwayne Melancon is always on the lookout for new things to learn. An ecclectic collection of postings on personal productivity, travel, good books, gadgets, leadership & management, and many other things.

 

An Environment for Learning

"We live in an atmosphere of shame. We are ashamed of everything that is real about us; ashamed of ourselves, of our relatives, of our incomes, of our accents, of our opinion, of our experience, just as we are ashamed of our naked skins."

-- George Bernard Shaw, Man and Superman (Act I)

I just read Rosa Say's latest post on Talking Story, "Learning Needs a Cool Factor." Boy, did she nail it. Rosa observed from interacting with her kids' friends (college-aged), it's apparent that learning is not percieved as a cool thing. And I agree with Rosa that we've got to help kids find the Cool Factor in learning.

I've seen the same dynamic with my son and his friends. He wants to keep secrets about most of the character-building things he does. He's active in Scouting, and takes Tae Kwon Do - but doesn't want his friends at school or around the neighborhood to know. At 13, he was invited to take the SAT early because he showed academic promise. He participates in community service projects. And he doesn't want other kids to know about any of this because some of them make fun of him when they find out. Not all of his friends would make fun of him, of course, but what 13 year old wants to take the chance to find out which ones are which?

I'm very proud of my son, and I'm sad that he can't show pride in the good things he does because of the reactions of some of his friends. I'm sure Rosa and I aren't the only parents that see this sort of dynamic. No matter what support we try to provide at home, the pressure to "fit in" out in the real world can be hard to overcome. Unless you're excellent in a team sport, it can seem like it's not OK to stand out.

When I was growing up, the background message was: "Reading Is Fundamental," "A mind is a terrible thing to waste," Bookmobiles, and even those Schoolhouse Rock cartoons. Where's that learning drumbeat now?

Maybe this is a generational thing. Maybe it's a U.S. thing. But how are we raising a generation that places so little value on learning? Will they change their attitudes as they get older?

Maybe we're so caught up in honoring diversity that we've lost sight of honoring excellence. I hope not - that wouldn't bode well for the "knowledge-based economy."

On the bright side, "corporate America" is doing some things that will help.

But I don't think this is enough to hit the mainstream and make learning cool. What do you think? Dare I hope for a tipping point to make learning a cool thing for our youth?

Join in the discussion - here, or in the comments over at Rosa's place.

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More tools before you fly

In the past, I've shared some of my tried & true tools for travel - here's a partial list:

Today, I'd like to share another resource: Flightstats.com

I found out about this from my colleague Tom, who turned me on to it when I told him about Seatguru. Some of the useful things you can do with Flightstats - all from one place with no hunting - include:

  • See the latest government air security bulletins
  • Find out what the typical security wait times are for your airport, by time of day (in graphical form, as shown here, also in a table by airline / concourse, with hourly detail)
  • Find out the historical on-time ratings for your flights (and even compare the on-time performance of flights you're considering)
  • Find out about airline mileage club promotions and other "specials"
  • Forums to share experiences with other fliers
  • And a lot more

They even offer an "All In One Widget" that lets you check flight status, view flight performance, sign up for notifications, and view current airport delays within the United States - right there on your desktop.

You need to register to get all the features, but it's free and their privacy policy is good.

Check it out - and make travel a bit more bearable.

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In sanity: Tips for inbox sanity

If you're a "Getting Things Done" follower, you know the value of fewer "inboxes" to process. Reducing the number of places you have to look for information as inputs into your life, the better.

Here are a few tips I've picked up along the way to help reduce the number of nesting places for inputs.

  1. When someone asks you to do or consider something, ask them to send you an email about it. Just say, "That's interesting - can you send me an email about that? Otherwise, I'll just forget it." This technique:
    • puts the burden back on the requester
    • puts the information into an inbox you're already planning to process (your email inbox) which makes it easier for you to delegate it, etc.
    • can sometimes cause things to go away - if they don't feel attached enough to it to send you an email, you're off the hook
  2. Send yourself an email about it. If, like me, you carry a PDA and you have an idea, a thought, something you want to remind yourself about later, etc. just drop yourself an email about it. This technique:
    • puts the information into an inbox you're already planning to process
    • provides a quick way to capture a fleeting thought in a way that allows you to better define it later (if I enter things directly into a task list from my PDA, I'm more likely to leave it in a vague form that never gets acted upon)
  3. Send yourself a voice mail about it. When you're driving, call one of the voicemail boxes that you process regularly and leave a quick voice mail about it. Then, when you process the voice mail, you can drop it into your trusted system. This technique
    • puts the information into an inbox you're already planning to process
    • provides a quick way to capture a fleeting thought in a way that allows you to better define it later
    • doesn't require writing or typing

Do you have any additional tips you've learned that make your journey toward mastery any easier? I'd love to hear what you've learned.

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