What a Foraging Class Taught Me About Real Learning

I attended a foraging class last night.

It felt good, but challenging, to be a beginner at something.

What I wanted to walk away with was to be able to identify berries, nuts, and mushrooms I could eat on our family hikes.

The class completely failed me in this regard.

But I loved the class.

Here's why.

I realized that I went in with completely inaccurate assumptions about what it means to forage.

But I left with a better understanding of the domain, healthier goals, and an idea of the next steps necessary to be a real forager.

Specifically, I learned to be a better steward of the woods and to appreciate the complex, interconnected relationships between plants, animals, and people.

Most importantly, I left with a greater passion for foraging, and greater appreciation for the divine wonder all around us.

And that's exactly how a proper education works.

The Four Stages of Real Education

1. It puts you in touch with a source context much greater than yourself. Then...
2. You get humbled and overwhelmed by how much you have to learn. You don't know what you don't know. The more you do know, the more questions you have, not less.
3. You get excited about having a plan to dive in. Real teachers guide you step-by-step.
4. And you get confident by measuring your progress backwards. Look back at how little you knew a year ago (or in this case, just a day ago) and see how far you've come.

This applies to art, and to any field. It's especially important for kids to understand this as a new school year gets underway.

What This Means for Your Kid's Art

So next time they say, "I don't know how to do this," it might be a sign the lesson is working. They just need to stay encouraged long enough to keep trying.

How do you help them with that?

✅ Pull up a drawing your child made a year ago. Put it next to something they made this month. That visible progress does a lot more than a generic compliment ever could.

✅ Help them develop a real plan to get better. An actual next step, not just a vague sense they should "get better."

Igniting the passion, seeing their progress, and having a plan that moves them forward, is what turns a beginner into a confident artist.

Stay creative,

Daniel

PS. We're teaching a shading workshop this Sunday, where we'll break down these concepts further. We'll help students head into the school year more confident in their ability to learn and do hard things. Do they want to become a better artist? Not sure where to start? We're showing how a slow, steady process like shading gets you humbled, excited, and confident, all in 90 minutes. Click here to see what we're drawing, and reserve your spot.