Learning to the Music: An Intellectual Jam Session

by Tammy

Have you ever been to a jam session? Where maybe a guitarist, bassist, pianist and drummer come together and just mess around with their instruments? Each person has their interests and expertise, and brings something different to the table. Yet, by playing together, they learn not only about their own instrument, but also about working together with the other players. The purpose isn't to learn. The point isn't to see who is the better player. It's just about playing. All the learning and growing just happens.

My son and husband are both learning how to play instruments. They are both naturally musically talented. Sometimes, they sit down together and one will start a riff, or rhythm. The other will listen for a while, then step in and add to it. With their own rhythm. It's a musical conversation. Going this way and that. A conversation where nobody's trying to be right. Nobody's trying to teach the other anything. Nobody's trying to test the other's knowledge of their instrument. It's a movement of exploration, curiosity. Wrong notes are accepted. Right notes repeated. Uneven rhythms adjusted. Laughing together, as the process is not always smooth. Listening to find a place where they can fit in with each other's style.

Imagine for a moment, a conversation like this. Where we are with our friends and neighbors and family. And as we talk with one another, we listen, try to fall into their rhythm, appreciate where they are at and what they bring to the table. Imagine for a moment, talking politics or religion or education or any of the other volatile topics with people where we treat it like a jam session. We're all passionate about our instrument (our perspective), and we each have our own style (how we phrase our opinions), and instead of trying to play over each other, or trying to point out how each other is not a very good player, we listen to each other, try to find the rhythm, then see how we can bring our own instrument into the conversation. How we can add to the music. Instead of trying to control the song.

In the writing community, we have an event called National Novel Writing Month. It's a challenge to write a 50,000 word novel in one month. Why in the heck would 76,000 people choose to write a book with 50,000 words that nobody else is going to read? Why would a real writer ever waste his time working so hard on something that doesn't get seen and assessed by others? That doesn't earn money? That is probably horrible? Why bother putting words on paper that isn't furthering our career? It's a jam session for writers.

Chris Baty, creator of NaNoWriMo wanted to have a place where jamming with words was encouraged. "People get together to make music because it feels great—it feels wonderful to lose yourself in that sound, in that noise. For some reason the writing world has been so slow to catch onto that. The idea is that unless you’re on the New York Times bestseller list, or are headed there, you are woefully off course. That’s so strange. In the music world, there are so many groups and performers that just play once a month in a bar or play in the student center and put out their own CDs, and that’s as high as they want to get on the ladder of fame, because it comes along with its own sense of satisfaction."

Do we have the same expectation about learning? That if we aren't getting A's on our papers or heading towards Ivy League, we're "woefully off course"? If we're not academically minded, putting all of our efforts into skills that get us into college or allow us to become a doctor or lawyer, than we're not worth being taken seriously? Why do we not find value in intellectual jam sessions where there's no goal, no interest in using our talents for making money or getting a grade?

From my experience, homeschoolers have more opportunity and interest in knowledge jamming. You know, when we talk about things just because they are interesting - not because we are trying to understand it for a test, or to prove our smarts. Homeschooling allows for more impromptu idea volleying. For more side-by-side interest sharing. For more practice just for the sake of practicing. Not because we've been assigned, or because he have to, or because if we don't, we'll "lose" what we have.

Real life can be like a huge jam session. Until there's a reason for some serious music making, then it starts looking more like a career. But, if it's not a career yet, why make it look like one? And, I bet, most musicians, even when they are in their careers, still make time to sit around and jam, just for the heck of it - without any intention of coming up with a hit song.

It reminds me a bit of the image of Einstein and colleagues sitting around and debating about math, philosophy, religion and science. How often do people do that in today's time (without being called super-geek)? Why do we have to make sure that all the math we do is to "learn" so we can do harder math? Why do we have to write papers on philosophy or religion so that we can learn how to "think critically"? Why do we have to do science experiments in order to "understand science"? Why can't we do these things simply for the joy of doing these things?

Thinking about things, talking about things, writing about things, doing things - they all contribute to a full and happy life. But somewhere along the way, we learned that if we don't make these things difficult, focussed and productive, then it's a waste of time. Somewhere along the way, we are taught that unless there is some obvious benefit, then why even bother at all? That there's no time for all that playing. Playing is for people who aren't serious about their life.

I believe in the importance of having a meaningful and purposeful life. I also believe in balance. If we don't spend time jamming to the rhythms of our passions and interests, then we can get so caught in the "meaning" of everything, that we forget to take time to enjoy the things that we are working so hard to achieve.

Doing NaNoWriMo is my way of finding balance. So is writing my blog. I enjoy writing for the sake of writing. I like volleying ideas around, for the sake of playing with perspectives. I like having "debates" for the sake of hearing new ideas and perspectives (and learning how to better express my own in an effective way). Most of it doesn't get read by more than a handful of people. And that's OK. Just like it's OK that most of the "work" that my kids do, doesn't get assessed or judged.

Letting my kids have their own intellectual jam sessions, that's what we are doing when we let them follow their interests. And when I can (which is pretty often), I jam right along with them. And together, we make music.

Tammy Takahashi lives and learns with her three children (10, 7 and 4) and supportive husband in California. She is the author of Deschooling Gently: A Step by Step Guide to Fearless Homeschooling. She also serves as the editor of the California HomeSchooler magazine, a bi-monthly publication for the Homeschool Association of California. You can read more from her about education and homeschooling on her website. And you can email her at tammy.takahashi @ gmail(dot)com.

Comments

[Jackie]

Awesome post! I never would have thought about the similarities between jam sessions and homeschooling; yet there they are, easy to see. I grew up with music jam sessions on the front porch, in the living room, and even in the barn. There is a generosity, a spiritualism, a sense of shared humanity in the midst of a jam session that is almost tangible. This is a post I need to go back and read a bunch of times because there is so much good stuff to learn. Thanks for sharing this perspective with us.

[Adina]

Gah, too true! I spent my whole schooling looking for this kind of stuff, and only really found it after second year university in math club, conferences, and just hanging around the lounge talking with like minded people. It's really frustrating that it took so long! This is one of the reasons the unschooling philosophy attracts me so much. I hope we can figure out some better ways of shifting more formal education in that direction too.