“So what did you think of blacksmithing?” friends ask.
“I loved it,” I say. “Though it was one of those classes I could have loved or hated based solely on the teacher. Thankfully, I had a really good teacher.”
In my ten weeks here at the Folk School, I haven’t just been studying blacksmithing, or cooking, or writing. I have also been studying teachers, and myself as a student.
During my years of “traditional” schooling, I excelled. Not because I was necessarily smart, but because I was good at doing what was asked of me: namely memorizing information and spitting in back out. I was also one of those kids who wanted to please the adults in my life – namely my parents and teachers – and so I did what it took.
Thankfully, I’m mostly over my need to please other people. But not completely. Holding the beginnings of what would hopefully become a hook, I asked my blacksmith instructor what he thought of my work so far. “Well, do you like it?” he asked. “Yeah,” I said, wondering what that had to do with anything. “If you like it, it’s good,” he said. Wait – I determine what’s good here? At first it was a little alarming. I don’t know what I’m doing. How do I know if it’s any good? But then the idea started to grow on me. After all, I was the one that was going to take this hook home and use it.
Later I told another student what my instructor said. “That’s what so great about this place,” she said. “You’re not trying to please a teacher – just yourself.”
Tending the Forge
Making a Bottle Opener
[...] It was August, 2011. I was not planning on starting my preparations until January, 2012, but this guy scared me a little. Gerald Murphy had hiked most of the Appalachian trail. He’d biked coast to coast. He was here at the Folk School leading paying students on ten mile hikes every day that week. He knew what he was talking about. But I knew that people can only do so much at one time, and my focus for the next four months was on two things: my job at the Folk School and my classes at the Folk School. [...]
By: 10,000 Steps « RenaissanceRebecca on January 25, 2012
at 7:50 pm