Newton North High School
Growth and Learning
From Life Experiences
Olivia Gómez
NNHS Capstone
Due: 5/4/15
Abstract:
Education in high schools has evolved into a monotonous and predicable routine. A
lack of stimulation, novelty, and emotion in the learning environment has transformed
students into merely temporary receptacles for knowledge. True stories of the people that
surround us show how experiences out in the world leave you with a better grasp of concepts
and a better understanding of yourself. Learning is not the bland activity of education systems
but rather the hunt that sustains us in our daily lives. I do not write this paper to force onto
students the idea of experiential learning, but rather to share the fruits of my adventures and
to urge that everyone jump at each opportunity to go find what gives their life meaning.
School is not the limit of learning; it is, on the contrary, simply the foundation. What rises up
from there is called life.
There was a fable told in India long ago about six blind men and an elephant. The men
had never heard of an elephant before, and when each of them laid his hands upon a different
part of the animal’s body, the elephant took on a dissimilar representation in the mind of each
man. John Godfrey Saxe transformed the fable into a poem, and it flows just the same – one
blind man touches the tusk of the elephant and concludes, “This wonder of an Elephant is
very like a spear!” Another feels the ear and says, “This marvel of an Elephant is very like a
fan!” In the same manner, each man develops a different idea of the animal in his head, “And
so,” as Saxe’s poem goes, “These men of Indostan disputed loud and long, each in his own
opinion exceeding stiff and strong, though each was partly in the right, and all were in the
wrong!”1 The story’s moral touches upon how men across the globe fight religious wars when
they, in fact, do not have any idea of what they fight against. After reading this poem,
however, I also find a second, related moral, and it is this: The world is an elephant, and if we
touch only one part of it, we will never truly know the nature of the whole. In the same way, if
we confine ourselves from the start to one narrow channel of life, we may fail to find what we
love the most.
Learning is not an act easily seen. In the brain it takes the form of a thickening
network of neurons and an abundance of synapses, strengthened by associations with sensory
inputs and emotional reactivity in the amygdala. Learning is escalated, also, in the presence of
novel stimuli. Taking this into consideration, it would make little sense to teach and test
students in the same manner and same environment day after day. And yet that is what occurs.
While I find school, more and more, to be a source of temporary information, I find
experiences outside the classroom to be the true origin of my knowledge as well as my
1
Hsi Yen, “The Blind Men and the Elephant.”
enthusiasm. In order to explore this topic more thoroughly, I posed the question, “In what
ways can the incorporation of "authentic experiences" into one's normal life routine enrich his
or her daily thoughts and decisions?” By the term “authentic experiences” I mean, mainly,
that these are unique experiences you can't find just anywhere. One is not going to learn
unless the experience brings completely new thoughts and ideas with it, and that requires an
adventure that is not routine or regular. After researching this question through three different
lenses – that of the neurology behind learning, that of the experiences of others, and that of
my own experiences – I have come to believe that while it is the heightened stimulation of the
senses, the strength of emotional connections, and the reflection on learned concepts that
anchor experiences into the mind, it is the novelty of such authentic experiences that triggers
learning and consequently impacts a person's daily perceptions of the world.
The Neuroscience Behind Learning:
Although I find it almost painful to confine learning to a set of principles, I will not
deny that the report, “The Neuroscience of Learning: A New Paradigm for Corporate
Education,” written by the Maritz Institute in 2010, presents a well-thought-out and wellresearched collection of design tools, all of which are meant to be applied to education. The
six principles include implementing the learning cycle, connecting with prior experiences,
engaging socially, incorporating emotion, gaining and holding attention, and involving a
maximum number of senses.2 I find that each of these ideas is critical in the process of
learning, and so it is important to walk through them.
2
Hendel-Giller, Ronni. The Neuroscience of Learning: A New Paradigm for Corporate Education.
The learning cycle discussed in this report is based off the Kolb Experiential Learning
Cycle, a four-stage process in which a sensory experience in first gathered, then there is
reflective observation within the learner, followed by the creation of knowledge in the form of
abstract concepts and ideas, and finally there is a conversion of mental ideas into actions
under the active testing stage. In order for proper learning to take place, a person must move
through the entire learning cycle. Sometimes that means spending time soaking in less
information for a more thorough understanding. This is the first principle of experiential
learning. After that comes the necessity to connect learning with prior knowledge and
experiences. Learning situations must start with what a person already knows, and an
impactful way to make connections is through previous experiences.3
The third principle states that an essential aspect of learning is working in concert with
other brains. As Louis Cozolino, a psychologist and university professor, says, “Each brain is
dependent on the scaffolding of caretakers and loved ones for its survival, growth and wellbeing… The brain is an organ of adaptation that builds its structure through interactions with
others.”4 Opportunities for social engagement in a learning environment must be created.
The fourth principle covers the relationship between learning and emotion, a highly
undervalued relationship. The author writes, “Emotions can either enhance or inhibit the
brain’s ability to learn,” because everything we do with our brain involves both cognition and
emotion, and so the right balance of emotion is needed if we’re to progress through the
learning cycle – it is not beneficial to be apathetic or unstimulated, nor is it beneficial to be
overly emotional. Memory is also enhanced by the right balance of emotion. The author
writes, “We remember emotionally charged events better than neutral events,” So it is
3
4
Hendel-Giller.
Ibid.
important to “Create a strong enough emotional pull so that the learner chooses to engage
with the learning content.” It is also crucial, however, to ensure that the learner’s emotions are
not too strong. Especially with emotions like stress, a heightened emotional state can cause a
“loss of focus and lack of engagement.” 5
Principle number five is all about how gaining, holding, and focusing a learner’s
attention is the key to learning. Engaging a person’s emotions can be a way of grabbing his or
her attention. Creating connections to previous experiences or incorporating novelty can also
be effective attention grabbers. When new stimuli are presented, the intrigue can drive a
person to take an interest in learning more. The topic of the sixth principle is stimuli. It
explains, “Learning can be deeper, richer and more memorable when multiple senses are
engaged.” Memory is enhanced especially by visual images, which play an important role in
chunking, a natural process by which we sort information in our brains in a way that will
make it more easily remembered and retrieved.6
The emphasis on the six principles above makes it clear that experiences are extremely
valuable in the education of a person. It is not explicitly stated in the report that experiences
outside the classroom are learning opportunities, but when comparing the elements of a real
world experience to the six key elements proposed in the paper, the two match up. It is not in
a classroom that these principles can be met, at least not in any classroom in my high school.
Novelty, emotion, and stimulation of the senses are some of the most crucial components in a
learning experience, and it is rare that those can be found in the regular class setting.
5
6
Hendel-Giller.
Ibid.
The Real-Life Experiences of Others:
It has been made undeniably clear that learning from experiences and disrupting the
normality of a daily routine will benefit the mind. This point cannot be refuted. Now,
however, it is necessary to introduce the matter of the extreme. In the nonfiction book Into the
Wild, by Jon Krakauer, a young man named Christopher McCandless gives up all his money
and most of his possessions and heads out on the road to live a life of adventure. He
discontinues all communication with his family and practically drops off the grid, even
inventing a new name for himself. For two years he hitchhikes around the country,
occasionally remaining in one place long enough to secure a job, but most of his time he
spends moving on, not allowing himself to be tied down or to become stagnant. In April of
1992, McCandless enters the Alaskan bush. This trip marks the pinnacle of his eagerness to
break away from society. He survives for 112 days, a number that shows both his competency
and his indiscretion. The Alaskan wilderness is a place of peril and uncertainty, and for
McCandless to venture into its depths with a paucity of resources and experience, an
abundance of confidence, and no map, is very nearly a death wish.7 One of his most admirable
but questionable traits was his willingness to die while truly living.
Christopher McCandless suffered from, and relished in, an intense desire to remove
himself from life’s frills and live off the land. In the southwest, “McCandless was stirred by
the austerity of the landscape, by its saline beauty. The desert sharpened the sweet ache of his
longing, amplified it, gave shape to it in sere geology and clean slant of light.”8 In Nevada his
camera was wrecked and in his journal he wrote, “Thus the story has no picture book for the
period May 10, 1991 – January 7, 1992. But this is not important. It is the experiences, the
7
8
Krakauer, Into the Wild.
Ibid, 32.
memories, the great triumphant joy of living to the fullest extent in which real meaning is
found. God it’s great to be alive! Thank you. Thank you.”9 To whom he says, “Thank you,” it
is unclear. Perhaps he thanks God, for he was religious. Perhaps he simply thanks his
circumstances, the great opportunity he has happened across to decide his own path. In any
case, it is impossible not to feel moved by McCandless’s passion.
In the case of Christopher McCandless, his enthusiasm and romanticism were met by
copious adventure, and likely this was the result of his own indelible drive to seek out such
adventure. Romanticism, however, can be a dangerous thing. In the end, it was the romantic
lens through which he saw the Alaskan bush that became McCandless’s demise. Often it is
our expectations that tell of great thrill and success rather than our real experiences. Likewise,
in the midst of reflection on what we have done, we can tend to transform an experience into
more than it was. But unlike expectations, there is good in ambitious conceptualization.
Meaning is meaning, and whatever resonates in the mind – no matter how grandiose it may be
– can inspire new ideas, new outlooks; a new joie de vivre.
Commitment, passion, and resourcefulness are all admirable traits that McCandless
possessed. He was the extreme, though. Learning and living through experiences does not
require quite that level of devotion or isolation. McCandless, too, at the end of his long
journey, next to a passage in Doctor Zhivago, noted, “HAPPINESS ONLY REAL WHEN
SHARED.” Krakauer explains, “It is tempting to regard this latter notation as further evidence
that McCandless’s long, lonely sabbatical had changed him in some significant way… But we
will never know, because Doctor Zhivago was the last book Chris McCandless would ever
9
Krakauer, 37.
read.”10 If McCandless’s journey left him with a greater knowledge of the importance of
sharing moments with others, then perhaps he learned the most important lesson there is. If he
did not, in fact, grasp that concept, then he instead remained sure of his happiness in moments
of solitude. Either way, McCandless found a source of true joy, and that is the meaning of life.
Just as McCandless realized the value of sharing adventures, biology teacher Ann
Dannenberg, who works at Newton North High School, also realized, after spending two
months in Australia, that she wishes she could have shared her excitement in the midst of new
experiences with the people whom she knows, loves, and cares about. In our interview she
added, “Although, if somebody told me I had to do it again, I would do it again. But I would
prefer to do it with somebody else.” Dannenberg traveled to Australia during her sabbatical in
the school year of 2012-2013. She spent half her time exploring places along her route from
Tasmania to Queensland, and the other half of the time she was with Earthwatch Expeditions
doing field research on both koala and rainforest vertebrate populations.11
Throughout our conversation, Ann Dannenberg continued to pour out ideas that she
had gathered from her trip, and I believe there were some fresh thoughts that popped into her
mind as a result of her being able to talk through her experience anew. In her reflection she
happened upon the topic of her career choice. She began, “The science part was great. It’s sort
of a direction I didn’t follow in life – being a field biologist – and I got a glimpse, a taste, of
what it’s really like day to day.” She continued, “Knowing that after two weeks I was coming
home to cushiness as opposed to living in flooded, insect-infested, snake-infested wild
lands… made me realize that there are people who live that life all the time, and I wasn’t
living that – it was just a temporary thing for me. I absolutely loved it, but I’m not sure I
10
11
Krakauer, 189.
Ann Dannenberg, Personal Interview, 12 Mar. 2015.
didn’t make the right choice in not doing that. I’m okay with the choices I made in my life.”
She then admitted, “Yah, I’m really more of a city kid than I like to pretend.” Dannenberg
said that she feels incredibly fortunate to have gone to Australia the one time that she did, and
to have explored many other parts of this country and others. She also hopes to travel more in
the future.12
When I introduced experiential learning into the conversation and started to get at
what I really was looking for, I was pleasantly surprised to hear Dannenberg say, “I love
experiential learning.” It was her next point, however, that shed light on an extremely
meaningful idea. “As I said,” she continued, “it is so easy for me to go back to those two
months and put myself exactly where I was then, whereas I can’t remember what I did
yesterday when I’m here. The sameness – the routine – is not one hundred percent negative,
but the kind of learning that one experiences by having an experience – it’s more real; it’s
much easier to integrate lots of different things into that experience, and it sticks better. It
doesn’t always play out in my classroom – I should do that more. I think it’s really
important.”13 To hear a teacher agree, not even to the incorporation of experiential learning,
but just to the idea of it, is a relief and a thrill. Both in and out of the classroom, adventures
teach people, inspire people, and change people. After four years of high school, it is no
longer enough for most students to sit in the same classrooms and take in information in the
same ways. A routine can be helpful and comforting, but the aim of learning at the high
school level should not be monotonous comfort. Schools expect students to pass through the
same, unchanging environment each day, listening and watching attentively as facts, numbers,
concepts, definitions, and principles are presented to them in a perpetually unvarying manner.
12
13
Dannenberg.
Ibid.
Then they are regularly required to squeeze what they have temporarily absorbed back onto a
piece of paper so that their “intelligence” can be evaluated and used to label them with a
letter.
It is easy to criticize methods of teaching when you are a senior in high school and are
on the brink of what many consider to be “more.” It is easy to complain about a routine that
has been consistent for close to four years. Learning, however, used to be different. In
elementary and middle school, learning was celebrated with projects and games, and, every
once in a while, a truly invested teacher would come along who dressed up as a Spartan and
spoke with zeal and animation about the wars of Ancient Greece. There was, every so often, a
teacher who really took the curriculum into his own hands and gave passion to each word that
he spoke, each story that he told. In high school, all too often the classroom experience feels
scripted, forced, and unoriginal. There are certainly intriguing lessons here and there, but it is
shocking to know just how many students are fed up with their daily school experience.
I conducted a survey with the seniors of Newton North High School and seniors
attending Bates College next year as my subjects and received sixty responses. I first asked
the question, “To what extent do you find yourself interested or uninterested by the classes
you take in school?” Respondents chose their answers in the form of a number on a scale from
one to five, one being “Very uninterested,” and five being “Very interested.” I was surprised
to find that forty percent of the respondents put their interest in their classes at a four.
However, after they answered another handful of questions and got to thinking about school,
survey participants came upon another question that reads, “In general, how fed-up with or
bored by school are you?” In this case, a one meant “Very fed-up” and a five stood for “Still
interested.” To this prompt, over fifty percent of respondents answered with a one or two,
meaning that the majority of students who took the survey are feeling quite done with high
school. In addition, over eighty percent of respondents professed that they learn best by doing
or experiencing, and yet less than fourteen percent said that they actually encountered this
type of learning in school. Ninety-five percent of respondents were of the opinion that a
change of pace or scene in their school experience would help them feel more enthusiastic
about learning.14
There were also a few longer responses that struck me as insightful. I questioned
participants about an experience they had outside of school and what aspect of it had the
greatest influence on their success in learning something. Perhaps the most basic but essential
response to this was, “Being directly involved in the situation rather than just hearing about
it.”15 This relates to the idea that Ann Dannenberg brought up. When you find yourself
immersed in an experience, your emotions running high and your attention locked on the task
at hand, your memory of that moment will, neurologically, be infinitely more resonant than a
moment of vapid emotion and empty presence in a class that fails to stimulate you.
Connections between neurons in the brain are made when emotions and senses are brought
into the picture, and if a lecture falls flat when it comes to exciting your mind, then the
memory of that lesson will be lost. Sure, you can take notes and then cram those into your
working memory later, but it is unlikely that they will remain there for long.
Experiences outside the classroom take learning beyond the textbook, too. One
respondent wrote, “I can't point to one specific experience, but I learn the best in nature and
more hands-on situations. Sure, I'm not learning academic things necessarily, but I'm
developing my mind, self, and body.” Another explained, “Volunteer work always teaches me
14
15
“What’s the Best Way to Learn?” Survey, 12 April. 2015.
Ibid.
more and more about how other people live and I can then better understand the situations in
different societies and communities.”16 This is an issue that I have mulled over for quite a
long time now, and it seems to arise in each significant experience that I have the opportunity
to take part in. I believe that it is crucial for a person to see and understand all degrees on the
spectrum of privilege. As an adolescent living in Newton, Massachusetts, I am faced with few
challenges to my safety, liberty, and fortune each day. There has been no influence more
capable of unearthing the appreciation I have for my circumstances than my encounters with
those who are less privileged than I am. On countless occasions I have found myself in a state
of guilt and resentment for the situation in which I have grown up. Recently, however, after
much reflection, I realized something of great importance. It is that there is no wrong way to
live. There is no culpability inherently attached to my privilege as long as I am grateful,
respectful, and resourceful. I strive to see myself, firstly, as no better than another, for we are
all flawed and all gifted. Secondly, I strive to take hold of the opportunity I have to help
others and myself. And thirdly, I strive to never feel bitter towards the life I lead. I became
aware of these ideas not as a result of sitting in a classroom, but because I changed the scene
before my eyes. I have had a number of incredible chances to spend time with people who
lead wholly different lives than I do. I have gotten a very small taste of what it feels like to
labor from dawn until dusk each day. I have escaped the ordinary, and it is entirely because of
this that I am who I am today. Certainly the classroom has shaped me, but that is largely
because it has driven me away, off into the world.
It is critical to revive the notion that each person learns in a different way. In light of
this concept, it can be reasoned that plenty of today’s students are content with the school
16
“What’s the Best Way to Learn?”
system as it is, and in addition there will likely be no one solution to it that accommodates the
needs of every person. Some students are listeners, others are observers, some are doers, and
still others are readers or talkers. The way that schools pass information on to students may
function just fine for a portion of those students, but an issue arises, in my mind, because it is
the schools that decide how the information will be sent and received, and there is scant
variation in this process. I do not write this paper with the intent to convince people of the
unequaled supremacy of experiential learning. Instead, I write to inform of how it has worked
for a handful of people, myself included, in the hope that those who are intrigued by its
implications make an effort to introduce some piece of it into their lives.
One extremely creative and innovative man who believes in lifelong exploration and
the celebration of learning is Victor Saad. After college, while working with middle school
and high school students in Chicago, Saad became attached to the idea of “social enterprise; a
way for businesses to use their products and profits to do good.” Instead of returning to school
to get his MBA, he began to ruminate on the thought of building his own master’s program,
and soon his concept came to fruition. Twelve experiences in twelve months produced in Saad
an unmatched transformation. He called his journey The Leapyear Project and wrote a book
about his experience, which also features the stories of other leapers that followed Saad along
his path and took risks to reach their own dreams.17 Constantly changing one’s learning
environment, Saad believes, “Keeps you humble,” and “Helps create new brain patterns.”18
While this second idea is one that I have already broken down, his first point is one to
address. Sarah Caldwell, an American opera conductor, impresario, and stage director of
opera, once said, “Learn everything you can, anytime you can, from anyone you can - there
17
Saad, Victor, Alex Bogusky, Tyler Savage, and Michelle Lincoln. The Leapyear Project. Ed. Ben Skoda.
N.p.: Experience Institute, 2013. Print, 8.
18
Victor Saad, Personal Interview, 4 May. 2015.
will always come a time when you will be grateful you did.”19 I believe that this is an
important way to live life – always humbled in the presence of others – for there truly is
something to learn from everyone.
Victor Saad, after completing his Leapyear Project, went on to found The Experience
Institute, “a place where people can learn through experiences as we begin building bridges
between universities, employers, and future leaders.”20 Upon asking what aspects of the
Experience Institute make it an improved approach to learning, Saad explained, “Students
design their own education through establishing and completing various experiences. They’re
in the driver’s seat rather than the passenger seat.”21 Unfortunately, while college offers the
promise of more independence and customization in its course models, it is difficult to say
whether or not putting high school students in the driver’s seat would be successful. Certainly
there are many who would be prepared for such a responsibility and who would benefit from
that responsibility. The Newton North High School Capstone Program is the perfect example
of this increase in autonomy and its rewarding qualities. As was mentioned previously,
however, not all students learn the same way. For some, taking more control of their own
education could be a life-changing opportunity. For others, it could be a catastrophe. In any
case, the ideas that underlay Victor Saad’s Experience Institute ring of freshness and change.
Incorporating real-world experiences into students’ education strikes me as ingenious.
19
"Quote by Sarah Caldwell." Goodreads. N.p., n.d. Web. 04 May 2015.
Saad, The Leapyear Project, 174.
21
Saad, Personal Interview.
20
A Breakdown of My Own Experiences:
At the beginning of the second semester of my senior year in high school, I was
handed an opportunity, presented a choice. I could either let myself go to the temptations of
the infamous “senior slump,” or I could continue to be passionate about something through
the end of my high school career. Stefano Chinosi, the head of the Capstone Program at my
school, convinced me that I did not, honestly, have a choice, because to give up on the idea of
putting time into something that fascinates and inspires me would be plain foolish. To
extinguish my own, fervent flame would be mindless. And so the choice was made.
In the beginning I did not know exactly what it was that I wanted to preoccupy myself
with, but surely I was always meant to find the topic that I did, because now it has become a
remarkably impactful aspect of my life. For many years I have yearned to travel, adventure,
and discover myself in new landscapes. Gradually it became clear to me that I was most
joyous when taking in new sights, sounds, and ideas. I was fortunate enough to be able to fill
my summers and vacations with trips to Maine, Canada, Alaska, Montana, Spain, France,
Ecuador, the Galápagos, and places in between. At first I relished in the culture, especially the
food, and pranced around with little awareness of my difference from the new people I
encountered. Down the line, however, as I matured and became more reflective, I became
increasingly more obsessed with the concept of privilege, and, as I mentioned before, I
became resentful of my economic status, not because I am rich, but because I had more
money, more commodities, and fewer struggles than many of the people that I met in different
parts of the world.
My thought processes underwent a drastic evolution over the course of my high school
education, and while there were plenty of moments in which I believed that my thoughts
would surely remain endlessly contradictory, in the end it was my second visit to a ranch in
Montana that sorted out the majority of the kinks. The truth is that I would take complicated,
irreconcilable thoughts any day over a lack of thought. I enjoy each internal struggle because
it reminds me of the power that just one seemingly insignificant idea can have as soon as it
enters the mind. Reflective thought has been one of the greatest contributors to the meaning
behind each life changing experience that I have taken part in.
Despite how self-analytical I have become, it was Mr. Chinosi who unearthed the idea
that I should focus my research project on learning from experiences. Soon after I began my
research, the topic clicked, and since then the concept of experiential learning has been at the
forefront of my brain. I found, in the end, four experiences that I wanted to personally invest
time in as an addition to the other research I would be doing on the neuroscience of learning
and the experiences of others. My own adventures were really what became my primary
sources. There is a story behind each one of them, and no better place to start than with the
one that got away.
At the start of my project, I was just finishing a philosophy class, and my teacher was
a Zen priest. I liked many of the ideas that we were reading about, but I also disagreed with a
number of them. I knew I couldn’t rightfully deny any the ideas because I had so little
experience with the subject, so it occurred to me, as I was beginning my hunt for experiences,
that I could attend a weekly meditation session. My teacher recommended a few different
locations, and it turned out that the timing of the Tuesday evening sit at the Greater Boston
Zen Center was the best fit with my schedule. I was exceedingly nervous to attend my first
session, but I knew already that an essential part of learning is pushing yourself outside your
comfort zone, so I did just that: I pushed myself all the way to Cambridge, all the way through
the door and up the stairs and into a room with wooden floors and several straight lines of
cushions. After a brief orientation we got right into the practice. And everything about the
experience was fascinating – the chanting, the sitting, the breathing, the walking, the
questions asked – but it was also very new. I felt a bit out of sorts. It was all rather comical,
really, because my leg kept on falling asleep, and I clearly was focused on that rather than my
breathing because I continued to shift my position and contribute to the only source of noise
in the room besides the heater. Anyway, it was an experience, and I made it back another
time. After that I continued to make excuses, and I realized, after talking to my project
advisor, that you can only push yourself so far out of your comfort zone before you shut down
on the learning front. On top of this, all the other experiences that I chose for my project were
largely about learning from other people, whereas the meditation required me to participate in
a predominantly independent experience. I may not have stuck with it until the end, but
there’s something to be said for learning from your experiences what you do not want to do,
or at least what you are not ready for.
My second adventure was also one that involved more than one visit. Some family
friends of ours once took us to a farm, which is owned by friends of theirs, Karen and Larry
Gould. The farm produces both sap for making syrup and a large quantity of milk. I traveled
to the Gould Maple Farm on two occasions for my project and spent time with both Karen and
Larry. I have always had a soft spot for farms, mostly because I am a romantic when it comes
to locally grown, raised, or in this case, milked foodstuffs. Let me say, right off the bat, too,
that milk that has been outside the cow for only forty minutes is something to kill for. Perhaps
the most interesting part of the whole experience, however, was Larry. He and I get along
very well, and likely that is because I really respect him and when I was with him I tried to be
as helpful and as pleasant as I possibly could be. I also decided, from the beginning, that I was
going to do my best to fit in and I was going to avoid talking about my life at home if I could.
Of course, I could not avoid it entirely. In fact, it was difficult to escape the fact that I was
there for a project. I was desperate, at times, to put the project completely out of my mind, but
I was simultaneously attempting to reflect on each moment so that I might form some
significant ideas that I could contribute to the project. In the end, I gave up trying to run from
why I was there, because the experience still had meaning even though I was aware of its true
role in my life. Meaning is meaning, and it was easy to find it in a person like Larry, who
wakes up at four-thirty, works until nine-thirty, and goes to bed at midnight. At the end of my
first night, when I had been there only a few hours, I wrote in my journal, “It matters
already.” Eating dinner with hardworking people who invited me into their home with no
hesitation was just the beginning of my journey, and it had already made its mark on me.
At the end of my first full day, during which I worked from seven-thirty to nine fortyfive, I was absolutely exhausted. I was proud, though, of having made a difference in that day.
On top of all that I learned about maintaining a farm, I also conjured up a slew of ideas just
from observing Larry and the other people helping out here and there. I happened across a
similar concept to the one that I discovered in Montana. While it was clear to me that Larry
and I do not have the same political views and that many of his opinions have their roots
firmly in the past (to the point where they could be considered politically incorrect), it did not
change the fact that I admire him for his work ethic and his commitment. It is much more
valuable to love the parts of a person that you respect than it is to succumb to animosity in
light of what you perceive to be his or her flaws. Error is inherently inside all of us. It is when
you find an outstanding quality in someone that you ought to pay attention.
My experience on the farm gave way to countless thoughts that, if nourished, could
bring new insights. Instead of listing each seedling of a thought, I will offer up just one more,
larger idea. When I first asked Larry if he enjoyed his job, his answer was one of ambiguity.
He seemed to think of his daily routine as more of a habit at this point. That does not mean
that he finds no satisfaction in his work, but perhaps the constant routine is becoming tedious.
He seemed to enjoy telling me all about life as a farmer, and I could not help but wonder if it
was refreshing for him to be around a new face. It is not that he never leaves the farm or
meets new people; it is just that the majority of his days are filled with the same sights. It
occurred to me that while I love their farm and thoroughly enjoy spending time working on it,
I do not think I would have the dedication that it takes to run it day in and day out. While the
farm is a new scene for me, it would be, I presume, a place of equal normality and
ordinariness to my school if I were to spend each and every day there. Novelty is what helps
the brain learn and make connections. The novelty of the farm – and consequently my
enhanced learning opportunity – is erased if I see nothing but the farm.
My final two experiences both took place in Florida. I took a week off from school
and traveled with my mom down to Naples, where we stayed in the guesthouse of a friend.
Naples is home to an extremely dense concentration of wealthy residents. It also is full of very
active people. The two came together for a bike ride to raise money for hungry kids in Florida
and Haiti. The owner of the house we stayed in, Ed Mullen, was also the founder and sponsor
of this bike ride, known as the Pan-Florida Challenge. My mom and I were expecting to have
small roles in the organization of the ride, but it turned out that each of us was going to have
quite a bit to do over the course of the week. In addition to helping with the PFC, I also spent
three mornings working from seven forty-five to noon on a few houses that were being
constructed by Habitat for Humanity volunteers. This was a wholly different experience from
my PFC duties in the afternoons, because I spent most of the time just laboring away without
talking to anyone, and a good amount of my conversing I did in Spanish with a man named
Marcos and a woman names Yuridia. Each day for lunch, they would invite me to eat
Mexican food with them, and they were incredibly generous with the meals and snacks they
had. I did my best to follow everything they said in Spanish, and that in itself was a fantastic
opportunity. I wish that I had had more time there, because it always felt like the calm before
the storm. It was not complicated or even easy to overthink. I was just given a job, and I
would hone in on that one task without issue. It was interesting to note how quickly you can
forget why you are doing something when it becomes automatic and routine. Often it would
pop back into my head that I was building a home for someone who could not afford a regular
house, and it would startle me, because I had forgotten it so easily.
The Pan-Florida Challenge consumed much more of my time during the week, and all
of my mom’s time. The amount of work that went into this one event was astonishing. The
one hundred and sixty-mile ride took place the last weekend that we were there over the
course of two days. Friday night, before the event began, we found ourselves in a workout
room sorting food, clothing, and cowbells into bins and taking care of endless miscellaneous
tasks. My diet that day had consisted of primarily donuts, because we had little time for a
thing like eating. We stayed up working until one in the morning and then proceeded to rise at
three so that we could prepare for the start of the ride. At this point, we were running on pure
adrenaline. This all sounds pretty miserable, but I was, in fact, though moody, having quite
the time. The air was practically pulsating with energy and enthusiasm. As soon as the riders
took off in the morning, we were on duty all day, following along in our minivan as part of a
caravan of support vehicles. I sat in the passenger seat, frantically receiving and forwarding
pictures of bikers to their friends, family, and sponsors while also coordinating the minimal
social media activity that the event engaged in. For the majority of the ride my head was
down and my fingers were typing and clicking away in order to shoot out email after email. I
could not help but feel jealous of the riders. Many of them were certainly suffering at times,
but as I sat between the window and the outdoors, feeling carsick and fatigued, all I wanted
was to be out on a bike, with the wind sweeping across my back and with a gratifying ache in
my muscles. I made a silent vow to myself that I would try to ride the course next year rather
than drive it.
At the end of our adventure, there was infinite gratitude paid towards volunteers and
an abundance of emotions hyped up on a lack of sleep. While some of the other volunteers
were complaining about how greatly they had been overworked and while others discussed
how we could make improvements for next year, I decided that I was going to just be blissful.
In the midst of all the chaos, incredible connections and friendships had been formed, an
amazing event had been pulled off, and a significant amount of money had been raised for
hungry kids. The weather was beautiful, and I felt accomplishment all through my body.
There was really nothing to be upset about other than that we were going to have to leave and
fly home that night. As we pulled away in our minivan, I felt a deep longing to stay, because
there was where I had experienced such exceptional emotion. It did not matter so much that
there had been moments of anger and frustration and suffering, because there had also been
copious joy and connection, and regardless of what it was that I felt there, the intensity of the
emotions was novel. In the classroom setting it is so rare that I feel passion or fervor. In the
routine of each school day, even instants of ardor are infrequent, but that is exactly what
learning calls for – ardent emotion.
Conclusion:
My objective in sharing with you the ideas that I have gleaned off of my experiences
is not to convince you of experiential learning as the true way to learn. My aim is not to
choose for you the path towards conceptualization. I write only to expose to you the beauty of
finding that path. I believe very strongly that seeing the world and understanding its people
and its cultures is an incredible way to expand the mind. I implore you to take advantage of
the opportunities that you have to find what it is that you love. As a student in high school,
bound by the repetitive schedule of each day, there is little opportunity for me to explore my
passions. With this in mind, I am infinitely grateful to have had chances in my life to break
away from a conventional education and experience the lives of others. How can we know
what it is that we enjoy, what it is that eagerly demands our time and attention if we do not
allow ourselves to search for it? I no longer merely ask that you consider the role of authentic
experiences in education, but that you strive to embrace them in the passage of your life. To
reflect on what has impassioned you, to feel an intense desire to push on in the face of
suffering and adversity, and to explore the world while exploring yourself, that is the joy of
life, is it not? To find your purpose in helping others, to realize the longing you have to share
each moment with the people you love, and to discover the dreams that lie at your core, that is
the meaning of life, is it not? No. That is the meaning of my life. I urge you to find yours.
Works Cited
"Blind Men and the Elephant." WordFocuscom. WordPress, 19 Oct. 2011. Web. 06 Mar.
2015. <http://www.wordfocus.com/word-act-blindmen.html>.
Dannenberg, Ann. Personal interview. 12 Mar. 2015.
Hendel-Giller, Ronni. The Neuroscience of Learning: A New Paradigm for Corporate
Education. Rep. The Maritz Institute, May 2010. Web. 5 Mar. 2015.
<http://www.themaritzinstitute.com/~/media/Files/MaritzInstitute/White-Papers/TheNeuroscience-of-Learning-The-Maritz-Institute.pdf>.
Krakauer, Jon. Into the Wild. New York: Anchor, 1997. Print.
"Quote by Sarah Caldwell." Goodreads. N.p., n.d. Web. 04 May 2015.
<http://www.goodreads.com/quotes/25639-learn-everything-you-can-anytime-you-canfrom-anyone-you>.
Saad, Victor, Alex Bogusky, Tyler Savage, and Michelle Lincoln. The Leapyear Project. Ed.
Ben Skoda. N.p.: Experience Institute, 2013. Print.
Saad, Victor. Personal interview.
Annotated Bibliography
"Blind Men and the Elephant." WordFocuscom. WordPress, 19 Oct. 2011. Web. 06 Mar.
2015. <http://www.wordfocus.com/word-act-blindmen.html>. This poem by John
Godfrey Saxe is targeting the disconnect between religious nations, and it certainly does
a brilliant job at that, but I think that it also can apply to the broader topic of groups of
people who live their lives differently. As the author of the article says, "We only 'see'
the culture in which we are immersed," and because of this it is important that we
immerse ourselves in multiple different cultural experiences, so that we are open minded
and knowledgeable. This message is very central to my project, and that is why I love
this poem. In past experiences I've been caught off guard by cultural differences, but
those situations taught me that there is no "right" way to live life, and because of this it
is essential that people are respectful of and interested in learning more about the
lifestyles of others. I believe that Saxe's poem will be a great way to convey my message
to the followers of my project.
Dannenberg, Ann. Personal interview. 12 Mar. 2015. Ann Dannenberg is a Science teacher at
Newton North. She took a two month trip during her sabbatical a few years ago to
Australia, traveling from Tasmania to Queensland, spending half the time on Earthwatch
Expeditions doing field research in ecology - one expedition was with Koalas in
Victoria State, and the other was with rainforest vertebrates in Queensland. Dannenberg
said that while the trip was a few years ago, it still is very fresh in her mind, and while
she may not be able to remember what she did a few days ago as part of her regular
routine as a teacher, she can remember very clearly her adventure in Australia. When I
asked if she had learning anything of particular importance on her trip, she mentioned
that her experience had been a pretty independent one, and she realized that in the midst
of the excitement, she wished she were sharing the experience with the people she loves.
In addition to her sabbatical, she had some extremely helpful opinions on experiential
learning in general. I am confident that her ideas as a person who has experienced and as
a science teacher are going to be a great resource for my paper and project.
Hendel-Giller, Ronni. The Neuroscience of Learning: A New Paradigm for Corporate
Education. Rep. The Maritz Institute, May 2010. Web. 5 Mar. 2015.
<http://www.themaritzinstitute.com/~/media/Files/MaritzInstitute/White-Papers/TheNeuroscience-of-Learning-The-Maritz-Institute.pdf>. This paper has a lot of
information on why certain learning methods are more effective on a neurological level.
Most of the research that the paper references points toward experiential learning as a
superior way to gain knowledge. It's difficult to find research done specifically on the
effect of experiential learning on the brain, but most of what this paper describes as “the
better way to learn” appears to be connected to experiences. Throughout the report's
analysis of emotions, senses, reflection, social engagement, and attention, it is clear that
worldly, physical and emotional experiences are the perfect situation for learning. This
paper provides a thorough look into the cognition behind proper learning, and I think
that this could definitely play a role in my project, especially if I decide to delve more
deeply into the neuroscience behind learning.
Krakauer, Jon. Into the Wild. New York: Anchor, 1997. Print. Jon Krakauer tells the story of
Christopher McCandless, a young man who ventured into the Alaskan wilderness in an
attempt to survive off the land. His body was found in an abandoned bus in 1992, and it
was determined that McCandless had survived for 119 days in the wild. Krakauer
recounts the adventures of McCandless, coming to conclusions about his motives and
thought processes based on evidence he collects over the course of several years. To
have a look into what drove McCandless to make the radical choices he made will
function as a great resource for my project. It has added to the discussion of what it's
like to be so invested in an experience that you are willing to die while taking part in it.
Saad, Victor, Alex Bogusky, Tyler Savage, and Michelle Lincoln. The Leapyear Project. Ed.
Ben Skoda. N.p.: Experience Institute, 2013. Print. This book recounts the twelve-month
adventure of Victor Saad, which involved twelve internships and a great deal of learning
from experiences. The book also contains short accounts of the leaps, or experiences, of
others, and each one testifies to the knowledge and realizations with which people
walked away from their adventures. Over the course of the book, Saad takes readers on
a journey through his twelve months of twelve experiences, and he includes blog-like
entries that take us through his thought process. The connection between Saad's learning
process and the learning processes of the other leapers included in the book is obvious
and inspiring. It is clear at every moment in the reading that experiences have a
powerful effect on people.
Saad, Victor. Personal interview.