As a student I used to dread exams, the time that I used to study seemed hard and unnecessary. I thought that I had done the work and I knew my stuff. (My marks often demonstrated the truth or not of that!)
As a teacher I understood the need for them, but dreaded all the marking. The demonstration of how little or how much my students had taken in over the course of the year.
Now I am a stay at home mum with no exams to set, mark or even sit, and I am struck once more by how useful the process is.
You see I have been engaged in an awful lot of input over the past 6 months or so. Doing on-line courses, listening to lectures, attending retreats and getting loads and loads of input into living a creative life, getting better in my writing, getting better in my leadership. All this input has got me to the point where I actually feel like I am going to burst and my soul is saying “now what?”.
You see I haven’t taken time to really process any of this input. I haven’t taken the time to study what I have been learning, to write an essay or sit an exam. I haven’t had any formal way to take the learning from just information to deep-seated knowledge. And while essays and exams aren’t the best way for every student to learn They are one way that learning can become embedded as knowledge.
I feel like I need a study week or even a study month. A time to process just what I learnt in Cambodia; a time to let settle in my soul the wisdom from Fresh leadership; a time to examine and inspect my creative traits that were uncovered in the creative retreat; and so much more.
Yet I have no teacher setting an exam, no essay question, no assignment. I just have to give myself the time, give myself the space, and yes do the work.
And part of that is to (reluctantly) slow down on the input for a while, and in this time of pause actually allow what has already been learnt to find a place to take root. Else I am like a farmer who spends precious money on seed, sows it at the right season, but is too busy sowing the next seeds to take the time to water it and let it grow.
Space, time and do the work,
Back to study for me!
Jodie
Great! I just took two days off writing so I could concentrate on other things.
I’ve given myself permission to contemplate for a while.
The muse will be there when I return.
So hard to do though isn’t it Elaine. There are so many good things I could be doing. It is just remembering to choose the best thing for me now! I like the give myself permission thing. I might have to do a Brené style permission slip! xx