It probably won’t come as a surprise that a couple of years after that, I became an English teacher (or that I prized verbal jousting and quick-wittedness in my students). For these reasons, my decision to pursue learning as the topic of my MFA thesis probably seems predictable. But in fact, I came to this thesis topic not because it was familiar but because design school felt so unfamiliar. Being a design student disrupted fundamental assumptions I’ve had my whole life about learning, intelligence, and achievement. Design school led me to reevaluate the leftbrain verbal and analytical skills I honed in myself so intently — which are precisely the skills most valued by traditional education. It also led me to reevaluate the worker-bee mentality that had fueled my successes in school up to that point.
23 metaprocessing
At school I was praised for these skills. To maintain that praise, I became a worker bee: I never skipped a homework, cut class, or half-assed an assignment. My singleminded dedication to doing well in school helped get me into Yale, where I majored in English. Four years later, I got the first job I applied to, as an editorial assistant at Random House.