I have a theory about learning. The more you know, the more you can learn. I think this explains why a more knowledgeable, mature reader will obviously get more out a book than someone who understands less about the subject. The more background information you have, the more you will understand and remember. For instance, over Christmas break I read D.A. Carson's Becoming Conversant with the Emerging Church, but most of it went over my head. I have a vague understanding, or at least a familiarity, with the supports and critiques offered, but nothing that I can articulate particularly well. I'm sure my father, who also read the book, remembers more.
I'm mildly distracted right now because a bunch of glee club guys are serenading a girl on my floor outside her window to invite her to their banquet!
Here's how I picture it. Our minds are round and covered with little hooks, like velcro. When you read something or are told something, some of that information will stick to the hooks in your mind. This is the stuff you remember, and thus the ball that is your mind grows. Since the surface area is bigger, more can stick to it the next time you are taught something about that subject. This analogy falls apart in place, so I won't "stick" to it pertinaciously, but I think it makes some some sense. I'm learning, or at least being taught, a lot here at Wheaton. I wish my mind were bigger so more of it could stick.
So the question is, what should I read or reread this summer? What will prepare me to learn more and remember more next year? How can I grow and learn and mature this summer? What will make me a more critical thinker? A more articulate writer? A stronger Christian? A more thoughtful friend? I don't want just head knowledge.
Am I right to think this way?
Any suggestions?
3 comments:
yes, you are right. it's call the schema theory. Jean Piaget.
check this out:
http://katesbuttons.blogspot.com/2005/12/for-carol.html
Dietrich Bonhoeffer's Life Together.
Life experience produce those hooks also - and more of them. The more life experience that can be combined with college education, the better. When too much is theoretical we run into trouble. (I'm biased because I did not attend college till age 24.)
To answer your question more directly, I would encourage you to choose a few excellent magazines to read. My suggestions would include the Atlantic and Christianity Today. That will give you a wide variety of topics to chew on, and in the case of The Atlantic (like the New Yorker, but not as liberal) will also provide examples of solid professional writing. (The New Yorker has some of the most talented writers, but sometimes goes over the top into pretentious; I like the New Yorker though.) Christianity Today gives you a sense of what is going on in the church around the country and in different denominations.
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