How We Learn

'The ability to learn a skill… needs a child's state of mind - the ability to play while learning the ability to pay attention - without intending to learn. It also needs, among other requirements, the ability to feel differences; that is, the ability to distinguish between one sensation and another very similar one. It needs attention with intention.

The child does not exercise in the sense a grown-up does, by repeating an action in order to improve it. The child's attention is directed by curiosity, which is innate in all living things. Repetition in a small child is more often due to the pleasure the act evokes and to its novelty than to any intent to improve. This state of mind goes together with total satisfaction of oneself and excitement and the absence of desires which tense the body and the spirit. The simple mood, posture, and movement are conditions for learning - which is also growth.

- Moshe Feldenkrais