Repetition is the Father of Learning; Repetition is the Father of Learning

“Repetition is the father of learning, I repeat, repetition is the father of learning.” – Lil Wayne

Every fall, I go into the woods in an attempt to locate and identify diminutive warblers as they pass through Southeastern Pennsylvania on their way to their winter homes in the tropics.

By this time of year, they have lost their colorful and distinctive breeding plumage and are now literally identified in field guides as “Confusing Fall Warblers“.

I have been watching fall warblers for a lot of years, but still, I need to consult the field guides. I don’t remember from one fall to the next the difference, for example, between a Blackpoll Warbler and a Bay-Breasted Warbler in their fall feathers.

This is one area where Education gets it wrong. Education believes once you tell a student something once, she’s got it. There is no need to repeat it.

Fall warblers are something I have repeated to myself over and over again, every year and I still don’t “got it“. And fall warblers are something I want to learn as opposed to, say, how to identify a gerund.

This is something that Religion gets right. Religion knows that you must tell someone the same thing over and over again – 10 times a day for it to stick. People need constant reminders, we need rituals to really learn something, to feel it in our bones, to know it in our hearts.

Maybe next year I will repeat, as a prayer, over and over again every morning “obvious blurry dusky streaking on the upper breast and flanks” and think: Blackpoll warbler.

 

I am linking up with Welcome Heart for Let’s Have Coffee, Debbie at Dare 2 Hear, Random-osity for Little Things Thursdays, Knit by God’s Hand for Thankful Thursdays, and Crystal Storms for Heart Encouragement, Amy at Live Life Well, Susan B Mead for Dancing With Jesus, Raisie Bay for Word of the Week, Morgan’s Milieu for Post, Comment, Love, Lyli Dunbar for Faith on Fire, Embracing the Unexpected for Grace and Truth, and Worth Beyond Rubies .

Please click on the following link to read more funny or inspirational one-liners. One-Liner Wednesday.