What is learning, exactly?
Is the possession of knowledge synonymous with learning? What is learning? Here’s a piece exploring this, by Joanne Yatvin, a past president of the National Council of Teachers of English and now she supervises student teachers for Portland State University and writes books for teachers.By Joanne Yatvin
Back when I was a child, an important rite on the first day of school each year was the handing out of textbooks. By the time we had reached the middle grades we could expect to receive a math book, a reading book, a geography book, a history book, a spelling book, a science book, a language book, and maybe a health book, too. Having all those mysterious tomes piled on our desks that first day was a thrilling experience, especially if some of them were brand new, fresh smelling, and colorful. All the fifth-grade knowledge in the world was spread out right before our eyes and belonged to us for an entire year!
With a sense of pride and status we carried the whole load back and forth between home and school those first few days, making brown paper covers to protect them and showing them off to our approving parents.
Soon, however, our textbooks began to be used as files for our old homework papers. We drew hearts with our initials and someone else’s inside the front covers and guarded our artwork from prying eyes. By mid-year many textbooks were used as screens for our desks, behind which we giggled and wrote notes to our friends. When some of our classmates inscribed “Bored of