"I Think I've Finally Learned Something!", by Dane Christian Joseph

Poetry, chapbook, 36 pages, from Bottlecap Features.

Too often we hear the word ‘learning’ and jump to the conclusion that somewhere a student sits in a classroom, head buried in a book or furiously scribbling notes that will eventually be lost or not even appear on the final exam; the instructor long forgotten why they once enjoyed sharing their knowledge. But learning applies to so much more! It can happen at the most inopportune moments, or when trying to help others; after crashing a bike, or asking for forgiveness; and perhaps just from watching people navigate their own lives. It can happen early in life, closer to death, serendipitously, or even ignored.

The twenty poems here are sometimes playful (e.g., "The Speechless Speech" and "Practicing Patience"), and at other times far more reflective of the self within contemporary society (e.g., "Hugo Reacher" and "The Hamrat"). But all twenty are part of the author’s ongoing contemplation to navigate fatherhood, professional responsibilities, education politics, and the angst from observing those closest to him struggle—from navigating anxiety to flirting with death. In the end, after two graduate degrees and a couple decades of teaching and coaching, he finally begins to understand what learning is all about, and how memory, belief, and a speck of curiosity can make or break what we glean from our experiences.

Then comes the harder part: learning how to be vulnerable enough to share that knowledge with others—not to teach them anything per se, but so that they might remember or find their own courage to ask more difficult questions, to relax and laugh some more, to confront their own biases, or to just realize that all human beings suffer in one way or another; though some certainly suffer more. And that when it’s all over, and everyone returns to dust, what’s left are the words to express the sum of the human experience.

Dane C. Joseph is an associate professor at George Fox University, with over 15 years of teaching and studying educational and psychological research methods. He is a futurist at heart and deeply passionate about the nature and nurture of intelligences and how (cap)ability impacts learning strategies. Moreover, he enjoys wrestling with philosophical issues, especially ethical ones, in the conduct, interpretation, and use of research, evaluation, and assessment data within teaching-and-learning populations.