Are You Showing Them How to Be a Student?
Will learning about trigonometry help me be a better pickleball player?
“When am I ever going to use this in the real world?”
We hear that at least once a week during the school year.
The kids stumble in around 3 p.m. shoes off, backpacks down, and the chorus begins. The question usually follows a boring lesson, a bad quiz grade, or just the general drag of schoolwork that feels disconnected from life.
“It doesn’t matter if you use it,” I reply, puffed up with dad wisdom. “What matters is that you learned something.”
And then comes the counterpunch:
“Cool. So want to learn trigonometry with me?”
Checkmate. I guess I’m learning about sine and cosine today.
In today’s meditation from The Daily Dad, Ryan Holiday reminds us that one of the most important things we can do is model being a student, in school and in life.
He shares a quote from Gandhi that belongs on every kitchen wall:
“Live as if you were to die tomorrow. Learn as if you were to live forever.”
Learning isn’t just for kids. If we want them to value it, we have to live it. So I try to adopt a beginner’s mindset and stay curious. This year alone, I’ve taken up pickleball, explored vibe coding, gone deep into the implications of AI, learned about Labubu (don’t ask), studied tariffs, cleaned out an AC unit, tried matcha, and, launched this Substack.
Not everything sticks. I’m not joining the pickleball pro tour anytime soon. But that’s not the point.
Learning is the point. The pursuit is the point.
Ryan puts it this way:
“If you want your kids to value learning… then we have to show them what an adult committed to lifelong learning actually looks like.”
We can't expect our kids to stay curious if we’ve stopped being curious ourselves. So the next time they roll their eyes at school, I’ll be right there with mine, rolling up my sleeves.
Now… who’s ready to talk trigonometry?
What are you learning these days? How do you model learning for your kids?
Leave a comment or message me, I’d love to hear your stories.
And remember, we can’t always be great parents, but:
“Remember this: try.”