Inspiration or Learning?

Today in Environmental Science class a student was back after a trip to Chicago with the AP Art class. I asked her what she had learned, and she said, "nothing." I was a little taken aback and asked had she been inspired. She described some wonderful art that had inspired her. I asked her if there was a difference between learning and inspiration. A wonderful conversation ensued about creativity and learning and inspiration and what makes us be a part of advancing the topics that interest us. I learned this: for juniors and seniors, at least the ones in front of me this morning, their definition of learning was very different from mine. I would not want to learn if learning meant what they thought it did.

I think that truly learning something, something that makes you think a new thought, see the world from a new perspective, ask a new question, explore a new technique, express who you are better to those around you is inspiration.

What do you think? Are inspiration and learning the same thing? What do we do so that our students see learning as something as important as inspiration? What have you inspired in your learners recently?
1 response
I have some words to try out... but I thought i'd ask students too...so today after talking about this with Jim, I asked my students to respond to the following questions on our blog:

1. What is Learning?

2. After being at the Art Institute yesterday, what did you take in that you will carry with you? In other words, what "HIT YOU?", "inspired you?", "made you ask a question?", or "is just now part of your memory, experience, and way of seeing the world?

The plan was to distinguish the two--inspiration and learning--without exactly asking...or see if the two require distinction. Some student responses to 'learning' had a tone of WONDER that matched their responses to 'inspiration', some really didn't and the responses were cold then hot, some didn't necessarily see the connection between the two, some made clear distinctions... Varying thoughts, varying grammatical goofs, but some really good stuff i think. Here are a few excerpts. If you want to read them all you can head to the blog:
http://tofromandotherexchanges.blogspot.com/

Okay...here are a few excerpts from the questions above:

1. Learning is the gaining of anything you can't hold.

2. I will carry with me the personal feel of all the work. Not so much the original pieces but the fact that they paintings were what these artist were thinking about way back when. For example the portraits of people from the 16th century, those people really lived, who were they, what did they like to do on sunny march days, what were they like.
----------
answer #1
i think that learning is when you experience something new which influences or affects you enough to change your perspective.

answer #2
the thing that struck me most was seeing the guitarist painting by picasso. it completely changed my perspective on it when i saw it up close and personal because then i could see the brushstrokes and the texture and i guess it changed the painting for me.

-----

1) I think that learning is exploring new things and trying to understand them. I think that learning is looking and seeing and then thinking and trying to understand.

2) I liked the Joseph Cornell boxes!! I loved how minimalistic they are but the arrangement and objects make you think more about the piece. I think that seeing all the art in the museum gave me hope of all the new art that will be made and enjoyed by others. The 11th century Buddhas were so OLD!! And I thought that was cool because they lasted through more life than any of us have experienced.

--------

1. Learning is the gaining of knowledge in a particular area through information and experiences, and then being able to apply it effectively.
2. Inspiration is the application of knowledge, but with a passion / want / need to react to what was learned...
I was inspired by the progression of the art through the different time periods and how each time period seem to bring about another thought, or idea, on how to express art. The different categories really seemed to hit me especially...
Though, specifically, I was inspired by the Architecture and Design section. A lot of the 'pieces' seemed to be doodles of buildings and ideas (i wouldn't have been surprised to see a napkin). I also really enjoyed the different figure drawings and paintings... and I liked the contemporary section...
...I liked it ALL, it's hard for me to pin down any specific thing that jumped out at me more than another...
...I was jumped at A LOT!

It also seemed as though some students have a temporal understanding of these words. I.E: learning=happening over time. Inspiration = something that happens in a burst. I am interested in digging into this more: especially to explore how both learning and inspiration might be held onto as sustained activities as opposed to isolated moments.

thanks jim.

--meridith