When I was in graduate school some of my professors talked about “different ways of knowing,” meaning different from the standard scientific, quantifiable research. Not that the school didn’t think it was important, but they were also committed to offering us different ways to see the world, different ways to observe, learn, draw conclusions. Many thesis projects took on the form of ethnography or action research. The school had a program that allowed people to gain college credit based on life experience. The professor who ran the program worked with these students to write and demonstrate their learning from those life experiences. I was always in awe that someone could turn their life experience into credit in an academic institution. It seemed to fly in the face of academia, and I was intrigued.
Now that I look back it seems to make perfect sense. I guess, at the time, I didn’t think that I had any life experience that was profound enough to qualify. And, maybe that was so, or not, but I have been reminded this week that sometimes knowing comes with the small things.
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