Continual Learners

I grew up in St. Louis, graduated from Berkeley High School and dreamed of going to Washington University.  Instead I moved away, learned a new language, got married, had children (that was a real learning experience!), got a job, learned new skills, got another one, learned some more, etc.  After a few more moves and more new learning experiences I moved back to where it all began.  I finally got to go to Wash. U. and now have a master’s degree in Nonprofit Management to show for it.  I am grateful for the Foundation’s Support of Education policy for that.  We’ve all experienced Dr. Kimmey’s pride in his well-educated staff, and the next time he asks for a show of hands if you received your Master’s while working here at MFH, I’ll be raising mine, too.  

If there’s one thing life has taught me so far, it’s that you never stop learning.  At the Retreat this year I opened my remarks on Continual Learning with four deadly words:  “I already know that,” and followed by describing a scene from Men in Black that illustrates how we used to know that the Earth was the center of the universe and that the world was flat.  Even when we feel confident we know something, it is important to remember that nothing is absolute.  Things change.  The more we know, the more there is to know, and the more we realize we don’t know.  Since we can’t stay teenagers all our lives – if you’ve raised teenagers who know everything, you know what I mean – we must remain open to new ideas and new ways of doing things. 

We learn every day from our co-workers, our grantees, and the organizations we partner with.  We have different learning styles and different methods of applying acquired knowledge.  Some of us prefer traditional education, some of us are hands-on learners, and many like a mixture of both.  Our new CEO is a former CLO, which I recently learned stands for Chief Learning Officer.  I’m sure he’ll be happy to know that we value Continual Learning here at MFH enough to include it as one of our eight Staff Values, one of the important tenets we try to live out in our daily work.  

I have a lot of respect for all the smart people I work with.  We’re all different in a lot of different ways, but one thing we all have in common is that we are continual learners.

What is your personal story?  How are you a continual learner?

Betsy