They say you can’t teach an old dog new tricks, but is that really the case?
The Science and psychology bit…
Well, actually, it is the case and you actually can teach an old dog new tricks. You see, our brains are wired to want to make new connections and keep making them to strengthen the brain bonds; this is called neuroplasticity.
Science and neurons aside, though, you also have to believe you can learn a new skill. Carol Dweck, an American psychologist, coined the terms of fixed and growth mindset, which I see when I teach calligraphy. In fact, I love teaching calligraphy, particularly to beginners, for this reason.
Getting started
Fixed mindset students don’t believe they can learn something, particularly if their first attempt isn’t successful; they get frustrated and give up, writing it off (pun intended). They’re very rare though; most of my students come to my workshops with a growth mindset. Our style isn’t perfect straight away, but students with a growth mindset approach any setbacks with a view to trying again and learning from last time. I walk round demonstrating anything they are struggling with for them to copy so they can see in real time how to approach a particular stroke.
Building confidence
I really enjoy watching the transition over the course of a workshop. My students start the workshop feeling unsure about whether they can master modern calligraphy but I love seeing them gain in confidence and believing in themselves as they start to pick up their new skill. Lots of students start by not pressing onto the paper with their nib for fear of breaking the nib. Having stabbed myself (accidentally) with a nib and coming off worse, I know they are pretty sturdy! I’ll remind my students to press on a little more to get a better definition between thicker downstrokes and thinner upstrokes. They’ll start to gain in confidence working through the warm up drills, which are designed to help you to learn to make different shapes with your pen.
Slowing down to speed up
When we move onto writing letters and words, we have to learn to slow down; calligraphy is very slow and precise, far slower than ‘normal’ writing. We also have to remember to keep lifting our nib between strokes. Some letters can have a couple of lifts between strokes. Even how we form letters can different to our normal handwriting.
As we continue to practice throughout the workshop and beyond, our brains start to make the connections over and over and the bonds are strengthened with every practice. Writing in modern calligraphy style quickly starts to become muscle memory, to the point where you might even see it seep into your daily handwriting. For me, I see it most often when I write my grocery list!
The lightbulb moment
Most important is the reaction I see when my students start to ‘get it’ – the smiles on their faces, the lightbulbs going off in their heads, and the confidence in how fluently they start to write: it’s a real pleasure for me to be able to play a part in.
So in short, the more we believe we can learn new skills, the more we can learn new skills…and that has a massive impact on our mindset!
Learn with me
You can learn with me at one of my in-person workshops that run regularly in Staffordshire and Derbyshire – you can find more details here:
If you live further afield, fear not, I also run on demand online courses – find more about them here: