An Introduction to Our Learning Model

Opening to Learning

There is a vitality, a life force, an energy, a quickening, that is translated through you into action, and because there is only one of you in all time, this expression is unique. And, if you block it, it will never exist through any other medium and will be lost.       Martha Graham

When we talk about the love of learning, we are talking about the enthusiasm, passion and urgency – the force of life that lives within – to know our selves, others, and this world in which we exist. It’s an innate and energetic curiosity that moves through all of us – young and old alike – to explore and learn whatever we need to know to come to a place of rest. Such knowing brings understanding, completion, and a visceral sense of pleasure and fulfillment, and it allows us to open to what is next. It is like the experience of the composer or artist when, after a long and intense engagement with the creative process, they know a piece is complete.

Opening to learning is a creative and continuous movement. And creating a work of art, ultimately, is a journey of learning and revelation. Like artists, we are aware that our lives have inherent potential and we seek to learn how to bring the impulses that live within us to fruition. From this perspective, we think of self and life as an emerging work of art. The Academy’s approach grows out of this innate and mysterious movement, or pattern, of learning, and is thus more about the spirit of learning itself than the content of what is learned.

This basic human impulse to learn is powerful when it’s awakened and allowed to flourish. It leads us towards creativity, expression and connection. It thrives on exploration and inquiry. We could say that it’s the natural movement of individual and shared consciousness as it evolves.

Unfortunately, too often our experience of learning in the context of formal education and sometimes our family environment, rather than stimulating the learning impulse, sends it to sleep. We learn to imitate rather than innovate, let alone originate. In the absence of teachers who transmit their passion for learning, we lose touch with our own inner urgency and creativity. Without elders who embody a wise, equanimous and awake relationship to the culture in which we are situated, we cannot develop our own capacities for discrimination. Thus, education often becomes more a process of indoctrination into a prevailing culture than an initiation into self-discovery, interconnection, and inviting the not-yet-known.

Although it may lie dormant, the impulse to learn never leaves us. Given the proper field conditions, and supported by self-awareness and the company of other learners, it can quickly reawaken.

At its heart, we believe the impulse to learn – this human desire to be connected to others and the world – reflects the desire of the human spirit to love and be loved. Hence, we combine love with learning in our name: The Academy for the Love of Learning.

The Learning Impulse

In our view, whether as children or adults, the learning impulse starts when we are inwardly touched by something – as in an aesthetic experience. We are moved. At that moment an adventure begins: a part of ourselves stirs, curiosity is activated, and it moves us toward what wants to make itself known and understood.

This impulse is an inner-outer experience. It moves us into relationship with the source of this prompting and there is a softening of the definition between subject and object: a movement towards what Martin Buber called the I-Thou relationship.

If we can stay connected to the aliveness of our curiosity and our feeling of relationship with the object, and open to it, we are invariably drawn to explore the knowledge that informs this experience. By allowing and following this natural movement or learning impulse, simultaneously we begin to know something of ourselves and of the outer world – we experience an ‘ah ha’ – a recognition of the integral nature of life. It is through this self-knowing that we come to a place of deep inner rest or satisfaction.

Over time, and with discernment, we become acquainted with these learning urges and how they guide us. With practice we can develop the skillful means to engage them with increasing clarity, and to enhance them. Aesthetic experiences, in particular, seem to have the power to touch our senses deeply and directly, and to provoke this movement towards learning. We are touched by music, art, poetry, dancing, being in nature, or contemplation, or by the presence of another; wonder arises; we become curious; we try to understand.

The urge to learn can be fierce, exhilarating, and even frightening. From within the experience we may feel pain and disorientation – we may want to resist. With practice, however, we can cultivate a learning edge just a little beyond our comfort zone. Learning to learn from this place in ourselves we become more expansive. We move into a dynamic, engaging, flow and to higher levels of integration – a wholeness of being. We are transformed.

For this quality of learning to be possible, we must attend very carefully to the learning environment, or what we call, the learning field.

Cultivating Learning

If learning is an innate human impulse, and if learning fields are the medium in which this impulse can flourish, then what does it mean to be an educator – in the broadest sense of the word – within the context of the emergent paradigm? Whether learning is taking place in an academic environment or the workplace, or in informal settings such as home and community, it is the human being – the teacher; facilitator; consultant; parent; friend – that stands before the individual who is the transmission of the learning spirit. As educators it is our responsibility to lead or guide out – as in the meaning of the Latin educare – what lives within those who learn. Through awareness of how the learning field lives in us, we can invite and sustain the learning impulse in others.

Our ability to catalyze the learning field depends on the depth of being – the compassion, presence, and self-understanding – that we bring to an individual or a group, as well as our capacity to engage intimately with a wide range of human experience. Education, in this context, is an initiation into the process of learning itself. It is an invitation into the not-yet-known, as distinct from indoctrination into the status quo. Conscious learners establish a wise and discriminating relationship with knowledge. They come to value not knowing – as much as knowing – as an integral part of learning.

The educator’s work is mysterious. Feeling into the field; recognizing the teaching moment; guiding with insight and skill; mediating another’s growth: these are all profound interactions. The educational exchange is, in a way, an act of destiny between human beings. From this perspective we engage with a new culture of learning. As educators, in whatever form, we must do our best to embody the quality of learning that we are trying to support, and to ensure a clear alignment between our practiced and espoused values.