| Learning
Model: A Bicycle Built for Two
Prasad
Kaipa with Michael Miley
Perhaps
you're an educator, or a business person concerned about
training of your employees, and of late, you're worried.
You're worried about the debates raging over the direction
of American education and the future of your work-force,
but in a moment it comes to you: We focus so much on training
and education,yet we still can't answer the question: how
do people really learn?
In
fact, let's ask an even more basic question: just what is
learning? When, over the course of several years of research,
we asked over 200 people what they thought learning was,
we found that each person had his or her own answer and
all of them were subtly different.
We
thought you might be more interested in a story than our
answer. Here it is:
An
Indian Tale
We
have a friend Vidya, a 25-year old woman from India, who
didn't have a chance to learn to ride when she was growing
up. Since she moved to the states, she's had an intense
desire to learn, but never attempted it for several reasons.
The first reason was her embarrassment. In America, at her
age, she's already supposed to know how to ride. At this
point in life, even asking someone to teach her was almost
an insurmountable barrier - or so she thought. Next, she
didn't want any neighbors, or worse, their children, to
laugh at her when she fell down. Finally, interestingly
enough, a barrier arose that was the least of her concerns:
her fear of hurting herself. So much for physical cowardice.
How
do we know this? During a dinner party, Vinoda (Prasad's
wife) mentioned to Vidya that she herself has never learned
to ride a bicycle. Vidya was astonished. When Vinoda could
casually admit her ignorance in public and other people
didn't make fun of her, Vidya got the courage to admit it
herself and to overcome her shame of admitting it. Well,
her admission opened things up. We soon discovered that,
out of a group of ten Indian women, only two could ride
a bicycle.
Where
Prasad grew up, most boys learned how to ride, but generally
girls didn't. May be it was not comfortable or seemly to
ride a bicycle wearing a Sari, the traditional dress for
Indian women. Regardless, their ignorance wasn't a problem
for Vidya and her friends until they came to the United
States where many women know how to ride.
Beyond
the barriers: Unlearning
By
the time the party ended, Prasad offered to teach Vidya
how to ride a bike and they decided to start the following
weekend. They bought an inexpensive bike and went to an
empty parking lot. Vidya got on the bicycle and Prasad held
her up so that she wouldn't fall.
It
first appeared to Vidya that she had many different things
to learn: how to pedal; how to hold the handlebars; how
to turn; and how to keep her eyes ahead on the road while
she did all this. She didn't see the synergy between those
actions and wanted to focus on one at a time. For her balance
meant not falling down.
During
the first few hours, Vidya did fall down a lot and often
got discouraged. She demanded that Prasad hold the bicycle
at all times and to help her to stay on the seat. When she
really felt comfortable with what she was doing and asked
Prasad to let go, she fell down again. Prasad soon realized
that teaching somebody to ride a bicycle and knowing how
to ride oneself are two separate skills and his knowledge
of bicycle riding is incomplete. Teaching someone to ride
was also not not as easy as he'd imagined. He was beginning
to wonder about his abilities to teach and why he'd promised
to help in the first place! It was frustrating for not just
Vidya but also for Prasad.
Vidya
didn't stop trying. Each time she fell down she got right
back up though tears were beginning to show in her eyes.
While her anxiety, pain and frustration increased with time,
her determination was obviously dominant. Prasad was inspired
by her intention to learn and was willing to continue working
with her. It was a challenge to both of them. It was not
just Vidya learning to ride, but also Prasad learning to
teach.
By
the time Sun set that day, they were both exhausted. Prasad
acknowledged Vidya's persistence and showed a willingness
to come back the next day if she was still interested. Vidya
sure was interested. Though she was frustrated at herself
for not learning it in one day, she promised to show up
bright and early.
On
the way home, Prasad thought deeply of the events of that
day. The bicycle lesson did not pan out as expected and
he did not understand what went wrong.
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