DIY Baby!

Two days ago, my wife did an amazing thing. 

She was born with thick, curly, red hair. It's one of the reasons that people never forget having met her. At least once a day, and often several times a day, strangers will compliment her hair. Over our nearly four decades together, I've learned, through proximity, more than most about the care and maintenance of curly locks and believe it or not, there is still so much more to learn.

One of the biggest challenges for her are hair cuts. Most stylists simply do not have the expertise to cut her curly hair the way she wants it cut. She is always on the hunt for people who have certain certifications or who have mastered specific methods. These people tend to be located in big cities and charge big money. That's one of the reasons we love that our daughter has been living in New York City these past seven years -- it means that we are fairly regularly near one of these curly hair experts. And even then, she often comes home on the verge of tears. One would think that once you get a good haircut from someone, you could stick with them, but that hasn't turned out to be the case. Just because she gets a good cut from someone hasn't proven to mean that she'll get a good cut from them the next time.

Two days ago, however, she took things into her own hands. She made a virtual appointment with one of the curly hair experts she has been following online, a woman based in San Diego. She purchased the equipment she needed, and then, with the step-by-step guidance of this expert, she gave herself one of the best haircuts she's ever had. DIY baby!

Of course, the internet has, in only a few short years, completely transformed adult education. I recall my father taking weeks of night classes when he wanted to learn to re-upholster a chair or to make a stained glass chandelier. Today, I handle all of my bicycle repair and maintenance by watching YouTube tutorials. When I recently decided I wanted to perfect the poached egg, I started by watching videos from world renowned experts like Martha Stewart and Gordon Ramsey. What my wife did yesterday was the next step in DIY.

"Give a man a fish and you feed him for a day. Teach a man to fish and you feed him for a lifetime." This is an ancient Chinese proverb, often attributed to Lao Tzu. We've all heard it. We've all said it. But the part that is often left unspoken is that all your teaching efforts go for naught if said man has no interest in learning to fish. 

My wife was highly motivated. For days leading up to this appointment, I could sense her excitement. She was nervous, of course, and I was nervous for her. And now that we're on the other side, I catch her smiling into the mirror, not just happy about her haircut, but immensely proud that she did it herself. She's already thinking about small things that she can do differently next time to make it even better. This is what learning ought to look like.

And it is how learning rarely looks in standard schools. On the other hand, this is how it always looks in play-based preschool. DIY baby!

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"I recommend these books to everyone concerned with children and the future of humanity." ~Peter Gray, Ph.D. If you want to see what Dr. Gray is talking about you can find Teacher Tom's First Book and Teacher Tom's Second Book right here. 

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