Learning From Baby George Response

 In the Ted Talk Learning From Baby George, by Mike Wesch we learn that learning is a fundamental human trait, however it has been misdefined for us by school itself. Especially in higher education, we are trying to sneak past our education in all different kinds of ways. Wesch, a professor of cultural anthropology at Kansas State University has studied his students and found out some fundamentals on how students learn.

Wesch had hit a point in his career where he thought he wasn't getting through to his students. He felt defeated and like he wasn't doing his job right. Questions were always based on getting the grade and he was fearing real learning wasn't taking place. So he started taking students to lunch. He would spend hours getting to know them and he discovered that there were three important questions students kept asking:

1. Who am I?

2. What am I going to do?

3. Will I make it?

These three questions were what were driving students. Wesch tell several stories in his Ted Talk about various students, one who has been orphaned and taken in by a teacher, one who's wife and child left him and so many more. Wesch then talks about his son George, who is one and learning to climb stairs. George has no fear and when he fails, he continuously tries again laughing the whole way. George eventually gets it right. 

What Wesch discovers is that real learning is about the questions you take out of class that inspire you and force you to take chances. It is about learning how to make a life worth living. It is about loving yourself enough to pick yourself back up and using the resources afforded to you to better your life. 

Wesch unknowingly acted on these beliefs before he even had them. He felt stagnant and stuck. He felt he wasn't doing his job correctly. So, he asked questions, he learned from his students, his son, and the world around him. He grew exponentially from his social experiment and continues to grow from it.