experiential education

part of balancing my hippie and yuppie tendencies comes in the form of a daily internal battle made external: getting dressed.

one morning about two weeks ago, while preparing to look ultimately cute at an early-morning WF meeting and to also look professional for my first crack at hosting an all-day WU event, I opted for a black skirt and a saucy red sweater... and my favorite shoes of late, my black pumps. though I had another skirt-sweater combination picked out, I changed my mind at 1a and was actually much happier with my choice overall.

until I rushed around the medical school campus for four hours the next morning, making copies, moving chairs, and greeting attendees.

for most of the day I longed for the black flip-flops locked up in my car a painful quarter-mile walk away and envied hospital staff as they strolled quickly past in their supply supportive shoes. I walked confidently, barefoot, to my car at five, garnering funny looks from some but smiling knowing that the concrete felt much better than my bandolinos.

one of the other 20-somethings hosting the day's events offered me advice about an hour into our crusades across campus: never wear skirts on the day of an event. always wear comfortable shoes.

even at the end of the day, even with blisters on my big toes and a flash of hate in my heart for my pumps, I didn't want to take that advice. I love skirts, I am confident in them. I love cute shoes, I am confident in them. I can face any cranky customer, disgruntled doctor, or scary supervisor with my lower extremities covered in something I love.

a quick conversation with craig related the whole thing back to experiential education, the theory that people learn about something better through doing - or actually experiencing - that something, rather than being told about that something. experiential ed is completely social work-y, as it empowers people to learn and make decisions about things while being an active participant in them. a person with problem X will not benefit from me telling them that they need to change; they will benefit from trying out different solutions and experiencing how each one works and makes them feel, and weighing the benefits of each solution in their own way.

can I trade a little podiatric health for more confidence? yes. because in my experience, I can still force a smile when I'm limping better than when I think I'm underdressed.

in case you can't tell, experiential education is something about which I am passionate. I think it is universally applicable and understandable, and I would go so far as to say that any person who ever plans to manage/supervise other people should understand the concept of it. I realize that some details about events or life are entirely too important to allow others to screw them up in their learning process. but I also know that the detriment caused to the person's overall development as a confident and productive person outweighs these details more often than not. giving orders is completely different than giving advice; apathy, at least for me, sets in quickly when I am not allowed to be creative, to screw up, and to figure out my own way of doing something. even if that way ends up being exactly the same way as the person who assigned my task, my ownership and confidence, and therefore overall performance, are much greater when I am allowed to experience things firsthand.

my supervisor at my serious job comes from a family of academics; she is organized, highly intelligent and logical, she plans ahead. she is extremely good at what she does. regardless, she needs a serious lesson in experiential education. I have had a rough week of carefully-worded emails, "can we check in?"s, and pressure that was based in someone else's anxieties. I think I have fucked up more because of it, because I have no real concept of what is happening even though I am expected to, because I am working out of someone else's template, because I am not sticking up for my right to just experience. I leave everyday simply ready to go home and let her do my job.

I did stick up for a completely different thing this week: I stuck up for customers with allergies at WF. I was allowed an opportunity to be creative, to make a suggestion, to fumble through the idea, to offer up my experiences to help others. and I was completely rewarded with kind words, guidance, and an offer of new opportunities for growth. apparently part of balancing my hippie and yuppie tendencies also comes in the form of combining the two: using my education to benefit others, no matter who they are, in a way that also benefits me.

and that, while something I've preached up to this point, had yet to sink in at such a level until just now.