15 Things You Might Be Wrong About Learning

For those who don’t know, I am a huge movie junky.  I love watching gun-slinging, explosions generating and princess saving movies. Not to mention the occasional chick flick, provided the story is good since I am a sucker for a good story.

When its family movie day, my dad will always ask my family what we’ve learned from the movie. This happens quite frequently, and even when it doesn’t, I can’t help not to think of the lessons displayed in the movies. If I think hard enough, every movie has a lesson to offer.

I can learn from every movie and some of the teachings are invaluable. If movie the 3 STOOGES was made to lower my IQ and I can learn from it, pretty much means I can learn from anything.

It made me rethink what learning truly means. Therefore I’ve compiled a list of what learning is and isn’t to me.

This is in no way a complete list, but it’s a personal one to me. Enjoy.

What learning isn’t

1. Learning is not going to school: We all think that just by going to school we will learn something. This could not be further from the truth. School presents us with an opportunity to learn, learning is up to us.

Moreover, some people have learned so much more without school, so school does not define learning.

2. Learning is not memorizing: This is another myth most of us are conditioned to believe.

We think that as long as we memorize long paragraphs of History it will make us smarter. Well it might help you pass the test, but it doesn’t make you a better learner.

After all you might never use it again and forget it right after.

3. Learning is not the same as understanding: This relates to point #2. We think we learn by memorizing, but if we don’t understand what was learnt, it is hard to actually put it to action.

However, if we understand the concept, we can tweak it to meet our needs. That’s how we become better learners.

4. Learning is not following rubrics: In school our work is graded according a specific set of rubrics. It’s what the teachers expect to see if you want an A. So students often follow what the rubrics want and never try anything out of the box or something they believe in. It’s an indirect way of controlling what you should do, and learning is never about controlling.

5. Learning is not controlling: In reference to point #4, rubrics or marking schemes control what we learn. Most of the time we never explore beyond what is wanted by the teachers.

We are subliminally controlled to learn something and this is not how learning is done. Learning should be free, just like how a baby has a desire to learn about dinosaurs and robots without anyone telling them to do so.

6. Learning is not a destination: Learning can never be a destination or a goal. While it’s important to set goals, but it is the process and journey that teaches us.

If we are so focused on reaching the end for its sake, we will not enjoy the process. The destination is never as important as the lessons that can be found in the journey.

What learning is

1. Learning is everywhere: Those that say they don’t learn anything at all are those that don’t want to learn. The truth is that you can learn anything from just about anywhere, as long as you look hard enough.

Even if your school subjects doesn’t interest you, you still can learn something. The next time your lecturer releases sleeping gas, try thinking of ways that you can make her boring teaching fun.

Do that and you just taught yourself how to not bore people to death and be able to use that in future presentations.

2. Learning is experiencing: This is probably why I love travelling so much. I learn when I exit my culture and comfort zone.

This teaches me to adapt and it helps me experience a new culture; pick up a few phrases in different language and a heck lot of life lessons.

3. Learning is about change: When we learn something, it’s not really learning if we don’t get anything out if it. We need some form of change to happen, it could be a call to action or a change of mindset.

Whenever you learn, ask yourself how will this change me, that’s what learning is about.

4. Learning is important: Learning is pretty much one of the most important thing in ones life. It stimulates your brains and changes the way you think. The way you think then changes the way you act.

If you are not learning everyday means you are fine with being stuck in a rut. I know I’m not, that’s why I try to learn something new every day.

5. Learning is like eating: I can’t help to notice the similarities between eating and learning. If you force something not palatable  down our throats, we would most likely puke it all out. It’s the same with learning, try forcing ourselves to learn something we are not passionate about and we will most likely throw it all out.

Just like the food we eat that taste like crap and don’t sit well in our stomachs, we regurgitate it. Does that sound like boring facts we are forced to memorize in school?

However if we learn something we love, we take it in willingly and digest it. It then becomes a part of us. Just like how the nutrients that are obtain from food helps build us up.

Learning what we love would make us a better being.

6. Learning is relearning: I’ve try to re-read articles I’ve read a long time ago. Every time I do so, I pick up a new lesson or two.

It’s important to realize that when we read an article we might learn something different from it every time. When we keep learning, the way we evaluate things changes, this will affect the lesson we pick up as well. So it’s important to relearn things we already think we know.

7. Learning is unlearning: Learning is all about keeping an open mind. Don’t ever get married to a certain dogma and think it’s superior. Then when something new comes out to disprove it, all your feathers get rustled.

Information changes over time, and sometimes to fully learn, we need to unlearn a few things that we’ve once learn and not let it hold us back.

8. Learning is a want, not a need:  It breaks my heart to hear people say the need to learn something because of an exam or because pleases my parents.

I thought about this when I saw a security guard reading a book, he didn’t need to but he wanted to.

True learning can only be achieved if you want to learn it on your own and not because of some sort of external motivator. It is important to learn not for the sake of anything else but for the sake of learning. 9. Learning in its true form is the best education: The reason why I used the words “true form” is because many people have a misconception what learning is. I’ve written what learning isn’t and if you think you are getting some form of education through your “fake learning” you might want to reevaluate yourself.

Finding what learning really is and having the desire to learn will give you the best education you will ever have; something schools will probably never be able to provide.

Wrapping Up

This is somewhat a very personal post. I try to learn something new every single day, and the points above is what learning means to me. To really sum it up, learning boils down to learning out of curiosity and not obligation.

When you only read a book because of a test, learning loses it’s value.

Learning is all about educating yourself. To end this post, I’ll leave you with a thought on what a good education is:

The difference between a good and bad education is that the latter forces you in a box. A great education however, removes the box

A good education helps you think outside the box, but a great one completely removes the box. <—- Click to Tweet!

 

I hope that my thoughts about learning will prompt you to evaluate what learning means to you. Which is the your favorite point or maybe the point you disagree with? Or maybe what do you think should be added to the list? Leave them in the comments below and don’t forget to share this to let  others know what learning is!!

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