Creating is Learning

There is no learning without creating. To create is to learn. Most education systems don’t focus on creation, and that’s why most education systems miss the mark. A couple of bold statements are made here; it’s time to be bold. So, humor me as I ask a few questions:

1. How do you know that you’ve learned something new? I recently took an interest in making homemade pizza and wanted to learn how to make pizza from scratch. Notice that while I could have written, learn about how to make pizza, I didn’t. I wrote, learn how to make pizza. After reading some articles and recipes and watching some videos, had I learned to make pizza? No. I hadn’t learned how to make pizza because I hadn’t made pizza. The only way to know if I had learned how to make pizza was to make pizza. I made pizza from scratch. It was pretty good, and my kids ate it all. I can get better as I keep Learning and creating.

2. Where does learning happen? The general assumption is that learning happens somewhere in the mind. The classical learning model suggests that information goes in and is retained, which equals learning. But learning must be more than information going in and sticking. That information has to then come out in some form. If it comes out in the exact same way that it goes in, that’s not learning. That’s memorization. Learning happens through creation, which is evidence of behavior change.

3. Why Creation? What makes me say that learning is creating? To create is to be human. Creating is the act that seperates humans from all other animals. And the uniquely human trait of creativity and creation is the result of learning. A focus on the end product of learning, the creation that comes, allows all to create the rich, human experiences that are needed. Robots can memorize. Robots can produced many of the tasks that were required by humans unitl just recestly. But robots can’t feel what it means to be alive through creating. We must embrace creating. Let’s let robots be robots and help humans to be human!

3. How can creation happen in the classroom? Ok. So maybe you’re on board with me that learning results in creation. And maybe you’re a teacher asking how this happens in real life with real students. It happens by guiding students through the creation process all the time. And, I’m going to challenge many here and say that creating, in the sense that I’m presenting it, is not about everyone making the same prescribed project. That model is the same as filling in the blank on the worksheet, but with stuff instead of a pencil and paper. I’ve developed a model for how this works in classrooms everyday and I will share that model more here in posts to come.

Those questions are intended to spark some thought. And, after you’ve thought about them for a while, have you learned anything from the words here? If you think so, how do you know? You don’t know unless you create somethign with the information shared here. That creation might be a converation with a friend. It could be a comment to thsi post. Or, it could be a lesson you write and teach as a result of somethign this may have sparked in you. After all, teachers are human too and must be allowed to create to live and learn in the classroom! Human creation is the manifestation of learning, and without creation, we don’t know and there is no learning.