I see my graduate students anxious to have all the answers, to feel settled about what they are learning. They want desperately to succeed in their studies. They take their learning seriously. They want to do a good job on everything that they do in graduate school. Those are admirable sentiments, indeed.
Yet, at the same time, sometimes it takes us time to figure things out, time to settle in with new ideas or perspectives, time to marinate with our thoughts. And we need to be willing — if not relish the opportunity! — to take that time.
I fear that we have become, as a society, impatient with the time, energy, effort, and journey that meaningful learning processes take. Musician friends of mine complain about books/computer programs that promise to transform a novice into an expert musician in no time. This expectation of powerful learning being do-able in no time worries me.
One of my writing group-mates, Cleti, has a wonderful expression. When one of us is pondering new ideas or trying to make sense of an unfamiliar perspective, she will tell us that we need to “sit with it a bit.” I love that image, and I admire the sentiments behind it. Sometimes we just need to sit with things a bit and give them the time that they need to take. We don’t want to rush that process, because the journey is just as important as the destination (if not more so).
How can music educators and music teacher educators counter the expectations and desires of their students to learn/master in no time? What is lost when we as a society refuse to sit with what we need to sit with?
