Mastering The Learning Process

The achievements of Newtown’s young people spill out in our education and sports pages week after week, and sometimes it is hard for us to keep up with all the news. That is particularly true in June, when the work of the entire school year seems to come to fruition at once.

With more than 5,000 children in Newtown’s public school system, we often paint the picture in broad strokes, highlighting championship seasons, successful dramatic productions and concerts, and the myriad projects successfully planned and executed in classrooms across town. When we speak of academic achievements, we tend to focus on collective achievement as measured in mastery tests or college admissions. But as the Class of 2005 gathers itself for one last collective show of caps-in-the-air unity later this month, we need to remind ourselves that educational excellence is accomplished not all at once, not in a crowd, but day by day, student by student.

Some of the most profound achievements never show up on a report card and are never heralded in The Bee. They are witnessed only by teachers, parents, and the students themselves at those innumerable roadblocks to learning where patience turns frustration into just enough understanding and progress to reach the next roadblock, where the process starts all over again. Real success comes with the eventual realization that all of life is a learning process, requiring patience and fortitude in the face of frustration. We never really graduate from our ignorance. We just whittle away at it day by day.

This week we single out the ten individuals in the Class of 2005 who seem to have mastered the learning process. These “top ten” students now enjoy the recognition of success, knowing that much of the sacrifice and extra effort along the way played out without an approving audience. We hope that by telling their stories we can also bring some measure of understanding and appreciation to all the private hard work and sacrifice of all the unsung others who choose day by day to lean once again into the unending process of learning.