Thursday, November 17, 2005

The irony of slacking

Adults forget the depths of languor
into which the adolescent mind
descends with ease. They are prone
to undervalue the mental growth
that occurs during daydreaming and
aimless wandering.


—Scientist/Conservationist E.O. Wilson

If the dearth of postings didn't give it away, last week was my first week of serious slack since I've been here. It may be nothing more complicated than just learner's fatigue, but it was still a concern. I'm one of these people who worry if he lets himself go, he'll never get back on track.

But just because the light is off, doesn't mean nobody's home. Recent conversations have led me to put aside my belief that an inactive brain is an unproductive brain. Because it seems our grey matter is never really "off." According to one supportive source, once you've ingested a sufficient amount of raw material, your brain kind of takes over from there. What you assume are mostly un-organized sounds take on a life of their own inside your nugget. As long as you give your brain something substantive to work with then, rest assured that your natural learning abilities will kick in, making learning both a conscious and unconscious process.

And, true enough, I believe the week off was actually good for me. (I should note I still attended class, so it technically wasn't a total withdrawal.) When I turned back in earnest to studying on my own time, I found I had 'lost' nothing. Huh: maybe there's something to this rest and reprieve business.

eksoi pitama,
Rick

1 Comments:

Anonymous Anonymous said...

YES there is! and while studying, break for 10 minutes every hour you study! so I guess you could work that out to like...oh take one whole day off every 6 hehee
But the first part is true the 2nd I made up, but it sounds good eh!
-sami

Sat Nov 26, 07:48:00 AM MST  

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