Search This Blog

Sunday, December 12, 2010

Good Learning Is Like Good Poetry

Let me start off by reminding everybody that I never had an education class in my life, in fact I have only had two literature classes, 19th century English poetry and "Bilddungsroman or Novels of Development". My classes were mostly in the sciences with a healthy dose of philosophy added in.

I have read a lot lately and I have lived a lot, starting all my life. From one of my psychology classes I have learned the more areas in your brain you get involved in the learning process, the stronger the memory. Each one of the senses correspond to a different part of the brain. The stronger the memory, the more readily it is to be recalled. That is what makes effective learning.

The same thing can be said about good poetry. It excites your senses. Coleridge is my favorite poet, but Blake is right up there. A good poet paints with words. Life is the canvas.

Our libraries are our galleries of knowledge. In the Lynn Public School system most of our libraries are closed in the schools lucky enough to have them. What does that say about us?

2 comments:

  1. Maybe we should trim the admin budget and bring back librarians.

    It's sad to see, in many homes, a huge TV in the living room and TVs in each bedroom and NO BOOKS in the house.

    How about a campaign to turn off TV-watching for one week with a reward at the end of the week?

    ReplyDelete
  2. Reading is where learning starts. Unfortunately the TV Guide is the only book in a lot of personal libraries.

    ReplyDelete