The Learning Zone

To my son

(Today starts his first CBSE paper : English)

We are standing in front of the gate of KV-4, the center for CBSE examination of my son.
There was a long queue in front of us. So I recounted the story of Demosthenes as we were taught in our primary classes 4 decades ago.
Time pass.

Demosthenes, the greatest orator and lawyer in ancient Greece studied a lot of law and philosophy. A lawyer has to persuade other people. But he had a stammer and a habit of lifting his shoulder involuntarily.

1. To get rid of an odd habit he had of involuntarily lifting his shoulder, he practiced his speeches in front of a mirror, and he suspended a sword from the ceiling so that if he raised his shoulder, it would hurt.

2. To speak more clearly despite a lisp, he went through his speeches with stones in his mouth.

3. He built an underground room where he could practice without interruptions and not disturb other people.

4. Since courts at the time were very noisy, he also practiced by the ocean, projecting his voice above the roar of the waves.

If courts are his performance zone, the ocean and mirrors are his learning zone.

Great masters go through life deliberately alternating between two zones: the LEARNING ZONE and the PERFORMANCE ZONE.

If career is in your performance zone, then school is your learning zone.

……..”A learning zone is where you aren’t AFRAID to make mistake, a performance zone is where you aren’t ALLOWED to make mistake.”…..

Both of these zones should be part of our life. The way to high performance is to alternate between the learning zone and the performance zone, Purposefully building our skills in the learning zone, then applying those skills in the performance zone.

My son, if you are shy to make mistakes in your class room now, you will commit those in future.
A learning zone should be your low-stakes situation.

And then I saw him off into his examination centre.