Learning 11: Learning

 Was getting kind of down about not learning anything today, so #1 Son asked if I would like to learn a drum beat.  He's a very good teacher and I learned how to lay down a pretty neat beat in no time.  Tonight I practiced the beat again, and showed it to Kevin and Nance. After they left I wondered about this thing called learning. What is it exactly? I re-read some thoughts about learning by Lewis and Moje:  "Learning involves and requires participation in something.... Learning goes beyond the moment of participation to constitute a history and to shape a future act of participating."

I participated for some moments in some drumming, but does this event shape any future acts of drumming?  I suppose it will because I know something now about how to hold the sticks, and how to count out the beat while I move from bass drum, to snare, to cymbal. But if I never drum again, did I learn drumming?  Probably not.  I think I only learned drumming if I keep drumming in the future.  Still mulling this over.

 #1 Son also helped me winnow through his hundreds of t-shirts that are stuffed pell mell into his dresser drawers.  As he lay on his bed, I held up each shirt and he would usually say something like, "Mom, that's a dope ass T.  Obviously I'm keeping it." We are keeping most of the t-shirts, so that's good.  It was nice to be able to see each tee shirt and talk about its history with #1.  A productive and fun day.