“Grandpa, how much longer?” My grandsons Brandon and Brian would ask. My response was usually, “when you stop asking”. For some reason they never stopped asking. 

There is a sense of not making any progress your  focus is only on a goal. You have a goal in view but are not conscious how much progress you have made along the way. 

We can apply measuring to learning. I call it The Learning Gap. I learned about The Gap from Bill Harris of Centerpointe who learned it from Dan Sullivan of Strategic Coach.  Dan identifies two kinds of people and how these two types measure and evaluate their progress in life. One has an ideal in mind for who they want to be and where they want to go, and they evaluate their progress by that ideal.

An ideal is a concept of what is perfect. An example of an ideal is the horizon. The horizon isn’t real, it exists in your mind. You travel toward the horizon but no matter how far you travel you never get there. When you start to learn something, you may have an ideal in mind and benchmark it against how others have succeeded.  Having the goal with mental pictures to motivate is important. The frustration happens when you measure your progress against your ideal. You never have the satisfaction of making progress. It becomes an exercise in futility because you feel like you’re never making any progress. The gap between where you are and where you want your learning to be stays the same no matter what you do. 

Albert Einstein asked “What if we change the yardstick?”. The question is what are we measuring and why? About 10 years, Linda, my coach, challenged me “What are some other ways to measure your success besides how much money you are making?” For the following week I began to count how many times I smiled while interacting with people. Also, how many times I made a person smile. It shifted my yardstick of success.  It became how many people I touched.  

 Create your own learning yardstick to track your progress. For example, how many books did you read this month. What are 3 things you learned from your reading? What is one thing that you could share with someone else? 

It’s the steps you take on the journey, not merely the destination.  Measure your learning progress by your own standards and  celebrate your learning milestones. You may be surprised at your progress.

“Happy Father’s Day”, Ashley said as she handed me my medium dark coffee. It caught me by surprise. I laughed and said, “Thank you. I forgot what day it is. I treat every day like it’s important.” 

I told Ashley why every day is a gift to me. Many years ago, I got in an industrial accident and lost four toes on my left foot. Also, over the past 20 years, I’ve had three major car accidents. Seat belts saved my life in two of them. Then, 4 years ago, I had a severe reaction to food poisoning. That many brushes with death reminds me that I am alive because God still wants me here. 

Later, as I was leaving, I gave Ashley and her co-worker Mary a card to get a free New Testament study Bible from Bibles for America. http://www.biblesforamerica.org. “Most people don’t read the Bible because they don’t understand it. The Bible is the Word of God and communicates God’s purpose and how He wants to have a relationship with us through His son Jesus Christ.” I said. 

She thanked me and assured me that she would order her free Bible. That made me happy. This afternoon, our oldest son Judson called me to wish me Happy Father’s Day. I returned the favor. It was already a happy day and it just got happier. 

Happy Day every day to everyone. Each day is a precious gift to live, learn, laugh and love. I encourage you all to get your free study Bible. We all need help to learn and understand things. This Bible will help you understand the truth. May you be blessed with the free gift of eternal life as I have.  May you enjoy and grow in the divine life each and every day!

“No more books, no more teachers’ dirty looks”. I distinctly remember saying that the last day of school for 7th grade. I was one of those kids who usually got teachers’ dirty looks and sent out into the hall for talking too much in class. Hey, I’m a guy with lots of energy. Besides, since when did learning only occur in a school building confined to a room and strapped to a desk?

I have been fortunate to have a few good teachers. Miss Maurice, the librarian who challenged me to read with an eye on quality. Mr. Harper, 6th grade teacher who used real world examples from the Wall Street Journal to teach us math and English.  Their examples encouraged me to learn in school. And I never quit learning because school was out. To me, it just meant no grades and no stuff I had to learn. The summer reading program at the public library in South Bend,In was an annual event for  me.

Earlier this year, I retook the Gallup Strengths Finder Profile. Learner is my #2 strength. Which clearly explains my passion for learning. The learner loves to learn. It is the process that excites me. A new skill, a new subject all become a new challenge for me. Engaged in the process, I then want to share that information with others. 

Now, I believe we all love to learn. Unfortunately, some of us had a rough start. Possibly not enough example and encouragement in the home. School teachers who could only relate to students who learned like them. And usually have zero tolerance for students who learned differently. 

Well, don’t let your past learning experiences stop you from learning today. I often had to remind myself “this is now, that was then” whenever a negative experience surfaced. Those negative experiences combined with some professors who couldn’t teach. They say, “those who can’t do, teach,” So what does that say about the ones who can’t do or teach?

What helped me was to focus on my goal of finishing the degree so I could get a good job to support my family. And I would energize myself by resurrecting my inner joy of learning recalling times that were pleasant, usually learning outside of school.  

Someone said, “we start school as a question mark and we end as a period”. That’s not good! Let’s help each turn that around for our learning today and in the future. Also, to help our children navigate their learning in and out of school so they always maintain the joy and wonder of learning.

What positive experiences did you have in school? What made them positive? The teacher? The subject?

What positive experiences did you have learning outside of school? How has those experiences impacted you?

“Register for kindergarten” the outside display sign announced at the neighborhood elementary school.  If they aren’t old enough to attend then what? Is the child’s learning postponed?  

It has always amazed me how much thought and planning go into the child’s attending kindergarten and how little planned and implemented learning occurs in the home. In general, there is a tendency for parents to rely heavily on the child’s attendance in school to guide them in learning. Too often parents lack confidence in their own ability to be the first and best teacher for their child. 

The base foundation for my learning began with my parents Clarence and Phyllis Pfeiffer. They both read books and magazines. My mother taught me the alphabet. Once I learned the basics, she taught me to write my name. My parents didn’t consciously encourage our learning (didn’t fixate on grades) as they modeled it and allowed it to happen. Some of our learning is organic, spontaneous. Some is guided by example of word and deed. 

I’ve been toying with an idea I call “The Learning Profile and Plan. Each parent would have a learning style profile. That way each parent could understand his or her own approach to learning and support the other in their learning. As the child grows, a profile could be administered. 

The Learning Plan would include questions to address certain key decisions:

• How much do I value learning?
• What are my personal learning goals?
• What do I know well that I can teach to my children?
• What resources do I need to help my children learn?
• How much money can we spend on education per year?
• Will we home school our children? If so, when do we start? What resources do we need for this?
• Will we put our children in pre-school? If so, at what age? Which pre-school? What criteria will guide our decision?

You get the idea. What plans do you have to educate your children? Let me know what they are and how I  can support you.

“We saw you and Mom reading. That’s why we read now” Marchem told me last week.  Judson and Marchem saw me reading the Bible and books about business, education, and biographies.   ln kindergarten Judson drew a picture of my workplace with the caption underneath, “when I grow up I will supervise people, fire some people and come home, eat dinner and read books.” Wow, he remembered hearing me speak about how I had to fire someone. So, not only were my two sons watching me, they were listening as well. 

Our influence as parents is more than we know. That knowledge brings with it a responsibility. The early years of child development are fast and furious. Their brains are absorbing non stop new information-sounds, words, objects, people. Most of the physical things they learn and do are hard-wired in the brain. Our words of encouragement and reinforcing the things they are doing and learning provide  fertilizer for their brains and bodies to grow.

Dave Lavinsky, co-founder of Growthink wrote this comment, “ I grew up in a household where education was everything.And after being brought up in a pro-learning environment, I have learned the value of education and constantly seek more education.”

Learning begins in the home with us as parents. What we say and do lays a foundation. What are some of the building blocks? A few suggestions:

PLAY – get on their level and do whatever they are doing. Find the child in you that loves to play. 

TALK – share with them the little things that you are doing.  I  took my sons to run errands with me. I’d tell them where we were going, what we needed to do,etc.

LISTEN - from your heart to what they are asking and saying. Pay attention, no multitasking! 

READ - all the research proves this is the best way to guide their own reading. Read the books that you liked as a child. Go to the library and let them pick books they are drawn to. Let them see you reading.  

LOVE - Love them as your children and as human beings. Communicate your love for learning. What excites you will transfer to them. 

What have you learned from your parents?

What are you teaching your children?