When we are children, we learn by mimicking others, and by repetition. I remember first studying languages - mimicking, and repetition were the keys, along with understand why sentences were constructed the way they were, or why things meant what they did. I still love that, and I've just started teaching myself - with online assistance - another language. Repetition is the key.
I was thinking about my post last week. Nothing I wrote there was new on this blog, except for the way it was expressed and packaged. The messages were the same I've been giving for years. This was not the first time I've repeated messages, or even whole posts. I felt a little embarrassed - am I all out of ideas?
But then I thought about the value of repetition.When I was adjusting to the fact that the rest of my life I would not have children, I knew only a few people who had entered the No Kidding world before me. I knew I didn't want to be like the person who was still stuck mourning her losses, decades later. A kind woman I had known 10-15 years earlier who lived a good life was an inspiration, as was another friend who was blissfully free of the self-recrimination I felt.
Mimicking the aspects of their behaviour and attitudes helped me learn more about myself, understand who I was, and what I wanted. Other discoveries - for example, learning that I could change the way I thought - were also beneficial, but only after repeating these lessons to myself over and again. It's how I learned to put the past behind me, and embrace the life ahead of me. It's also how I remind myself regularly of lessons that are worth holding close.
Repetition. It gets a bad rap. I'll keep doing it. Unashamedly.
Hi. I teach English as a second language to kids in an elective setting (as in, not part of the traditional school system). Sometimes when I start a particular grammar point, for example, someone raises a hand and tells me, "We already learned that at school." So I ask them to use it in context. Ummmmm ...that's when we all see the need for and value of repetition! So you keep going with it too :)
ReplyDeleteI love this. Because, even if you repeat a theme, the way you express it is different, the context is different, your experiences are different because you are different. I think it's like rereading a book at different points in your life... They hit differently at different times. I love what anonymous said about the power of context... That's a repeated thing for me as a special education teacher, too!
ReplyDeleteI never feel like you are repetitive, which is different from repetition. 💜