Joy in Learning

I want to return to this idea of joyful learning and to dispel misunderstandings - like shadows from the corners, or abandoned spiderwebs in forgotten cellars.

Joy in the classroom is not smiles, although those are excellent symptoms of joy. Having fun is an important part of joy: a day of class that has no jokes, stories, or mischief is a sad day. Exam days are like this - and they should be done away because assessment should not mean tying students to a chair and flogging out how much they know. Fun is important, not the core of joy.

The foundation (an old metaphor that says IDEAS ARE BUILDINGS) of joy in learning, as I see it, is a far more serious thing. It relates to what joy is in everyday life. In everyday life, joy requires three attitudes:

1. That Life, as opposed to non-life is worth it. Living is worth the ache, the "slings and arrows."
2. The present is more important than the past or future. The present is where we live.
3. Creating balance between your soul and the outside world is mandatory. Another way of saying this is contentment with what you have and what you are, even as you improve your world and yourself. You can want more, or less; joy, however, does not depend on what you have or are, but on the relationship that you create between the what you have and what you want.. Another way of saying this how the Rolling Stones put it: "You can't always get what you want, but...you get what you need." Another way is what C. S. N. & Y. sang, "If you can't be with the X you love, love the X you're with."
This maps quite nicely onto learning with joy:

1. Joyous learning takes hard work.

2. Joyous learning happens right now.

3. Joyous learning is about responding to yourself, not adding to/fixing/correcting yourself.

Its important to realize that teachers create or destroy an environment for joy; they don't create/destroy it directly for their students. Some people refuse joy even when it is there for the taking; others relish it despite the void in which they learn.

Joy is the satisfaction of solving a hard problem, discovering something new, writing a really good sentence, building a solid house, turning over the key on an engine you rebuilt yourself and listening to those turbos wind up.

Joy is also defiance in the face of failure, what others have called dignity in defeat.

When Job had everything, he continually said "Blessed be the name of the Lord," and when he lost everything, he said "Blessed be the name of the Lord." Having the same, optimistic and life-embracing response to every situation is what joy is about.

Joy is how we choose to live, not merely react to stimulus. It can be that way in the classroom too, given encouragement and room.