As I've been exploring the online learning available to all at no cost, I am considering the potential. It seems limitless. Anyone who wants to learn, can. Living at a time when learning is available for everyone is my kind of magic. I see open windows, avenues and worlds for learners. Yet, I am reminded of the many people who will never actualize this benefit. Those who do not believe they are learners.

I remember my first teaching experience.

As a beginning early childhood education teacher in Los Angeles, California, I realized quickly that not everyone believes they are a learner. I began at Hillcrest Drive Elementary School in the SRLDP program, a School Readiness Lanauage Devleopment Program. It is an oral language program intended to prepare students for kindergarten.

My students from Monday through Thursday were 4 years old, on Friday, their parents or guardians came to school instead. I realized the learning impact with these moms, aunties and grandmothers of the children I taught. They subtly revealed their unbelief in themselves as learners. Why would they be interested in something they believed they could not do? Tossing the approved curriculum aside, our Friday mornings together became a time for me to listen. If I could summarize their disinterest in learning, the curiosity fire had been snuffed out so early in their lives that they lost any recognition of it.

How does the profusion of free learning affect these disbelievers of their own learning potential?