For a Minor Reflection

For a minor reflection…

My stay here in Iceland was and still is a great experience. From the moment I set foot on Icelandic soil, until I leave, I will probably keep on learning new things every day. Not only my Icelandic, but also my cooking and my knowledge about repairing bikes improved. Also I learned to say things in all different kinds of languages... I learned this from being with other people, observing them and talking with them. This is how I like to learn, because it is a way in which I’m am able to expand my knowledge in an easy and non-effortful way. This improved knowledge is constructed with the ideas and opinions of others. It would be narrow-minded if we think the only right way of learning something is through a book. A book you use in school to learn about math will never let you reflect on the things you learn. In this case you are not learning, you are transmitting. I ‘learned’ that to really acquire new information/knowledge, you have to discuss or at least talk about it, experience it. I think we all have to learn how to take risks. There is a dignity in risk-taking. This allows us to explore and make mistakes. As I always said to my parents when I came back home with a bad mark. “I’m sorry, but I learn more out of my mistakes then I learn out of books.”

What I found out the last few months is that real knowledge doesn’t just pops up. It is co-constructed, it shouldn’t be something that you can forget easily. I figured out that learning is not just limited to the classroom. Before I had this course, I still thought it was. I’m sure that because of these lessons I became more reflective, open for discussion and not thinking of one truth, but many.

Even though I’m not on my way to becoming a teacher, I am sure that I can use what I learned last semester in my practice at home. Working with people who experience impairments asks a lot of creativity and openness. Now, I’m more eager to let them speak about what they want, instead of me...