Where Does Learning Come From

“Thank you, God, for this good life and forgive us if we do not love it enough.” – Garrison Keillor

There is a misconception that I work with my students to move on from each year. There is this isea that if you get a 100 on everything that means you are learning. Getting a 100 on an assignment means you have learned something, but that doesn’t mean you have stretched yourself to the point of overacheiveing. Many walk into a classroom thinking the goal is to get a A on everything, but the actual goal is to learn. Grades only matter if you are learning something. Research has shown that the best learning comes when we make a mistake. Very rarely do we learn from our success. More often than not, we learn from our mistakes and failures. Our brains are wired in a way that we don’t want to fail again. So we train ourselves to prevent. While learning from our mistakes is difficult to do, it still is one of the best ways to learn.

Some of best skills in photography cames from making mistakes. From over adjusting the ISO to not understanding the role of light in photography. Some of my favorite photos came from after I ruined a great photography some how. All of this practice paid off when I visited Victoria, Canada last summer. I had been practicing street photography in my neighborhood for the last few months. Now I am able to take street photography shots in a place that I might only be able to visit once. These shots I captured while we were walking around the city and taking in all of the sights. Let me know if you have a favorite photo in the comments.