We were talking about the learning process. Children are so spontaneous. One important thing for the learning process is the space to make mistake we offer the student. The student ought to know that there's no way to learn but on a trial and error basis. That' s how we learn. Sometimes, we teacher, have short memories. We have forgotten how was that we learned all the names and movements. With it's variations and complexities. Some aikidokas were " natural". They learned so easy. Others, like me, required more time and effort to grasp the movements and the principles underlying the art of Aikido. But I dare say that in both there were the same process of trial end error. Are we giving this space to our children and adults alike?. It is the same process, the only difference are the ages and abilities and, possibly all the excessive baggage of judgements and preconceptions we adults use to carry around. Lets try one, two, three times and even more if we require it to learn...never give up. And even more, let us not forget to be compassionate with one another giving to each of us that permission to make errors in our learning path.
Sensei Myriam
