Cob: experience is overrated -- an eight-year-old with acookbook could do th

[Chandra Glick]

There are many learning styles. You are apperantly able to earn well from 
mulling over other people's experience. Some people learn best by jumping in 
with both feet and DOing. ie: theory be darned I wanna get my hands dirty! I 
personally found the labs to be the best part of high school science. I was 
bored silly during the textbook part of science. It was like "yeah, yeah I 
already know that. Now can we have some fun?" For you the doing is 
monotonous. For me endlessly reviewing what is essentially the same material 
in order to tease out a greater understanding of the material is. After a 
certain point, I simply learn better by tha actual doing of the thing.
   -Chandra
besides which, in reference to the cookbook thing, I never could follow a 
recipe to the letter....


----Original Message Follows----
<snip>
I'm wondering, though, could the reading of case histories replace some of
the monotony of practice-learning?

Also, a curious learning phenomenon followed me in the development of my
artistic skill  (I'm talking drawing, painting, sculpting.)  I would do a
little art, leave it alone for a few years, and then hit it again to
discover that I'd gotten much better during my hiatus.  I don't actually
have a lot of works to show, only a lot of progress.

I appreciate the importance of getting down the basics in laying cob. <snip>
Would you agree, though, that, at some point prior to finishing an
appreciable portion of a wall, a student becomes bored and the learning
curve flattens for a long, monotonous time?

Without skill, faced with a pile of dirt, my thought would be to plan in
advance for what I wanted to do, think about some contingencies (can't get
'em all,) plunge ahead and then, when faced with some unforseen quandary,
depend on things besides skill such as ingenuity, other people's ideas,
stories and analogs, and the wisdom of my years, to get me through.  I might
not make the Mona Lisa of barns, but I never fancied anyone needed a great
work of barn art.
<Snip>
It just occurred to me that those silly "labs" in high school might have
contributed to this "tell-me" mindset I have.

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