Amidst work and assignments, if I have realised something, it is that as long as the purpose of my education is learning I cannot be completely discouraged from working hard even in tough times. No matter which grade you are currently in, whether you go to school or are in university or even if you are not a student anymore, learning is a part of our lives that ends only with our own selves. It keeps us going and makes us more dynamic each day because we evolve with the knowledge we gain and our opinions, beliefs and ideas change as our mind begins to understand new concepts and learn about topics previously unexplored.
I love learning. I love to know more. I believe it is a power that makes me more confident and that allows me to constantly better myself. I want to know what the international system of the world looks like, I want to study how philosophical thought from Plato to Kant has diversified , I want to learn how certain fiscal policies can affect our economy, I want to know why the value of pi in maths is 3.14 (approx) and I want to learn so much more.
You might be wondering if all subjects in the world intrigue me? Certainly not. What instead intrigues me is the art of learning, what truly fascinates me is the power of the human brain to absorb so much knowledge in such a small physical space and to not keep that knowledge as a static entity but to manipulate it to its own advantage. Its the human mind that saw wood and thought of making paper out of it. It was the human mind that saw a fire that burnt skin and thought of using it to cook food. The human mind is wonderful.
Every single day, we are learning something new. All learning isn’t beneficial. You might learn about the new family that moved into your neighbourhood and that knowledge may not really expand your vision regarding life. The idea is to learn more actively than passively. Passive learning is when you hear and learn something or when you are exposed to a situation and you learn how to deal with it. It may or may not be beneficial. On the contrary, active learning is a choice you make, it is like an opportunity cost where you sacrifice your time for the sake of learning something new. It can be a new language, a new culture, a research paper on narcotics drugs and it could be simple daily news from the newspaper. I admit I am guilty of not really being a newspaper reader but I would love to inculcate that habit in my routine.
Why is learning necessary?
I understand that everyone has different interests and some people may not be enthusiastic about sitting in front of their laptop and reading research papers for no reason. The truth is that there is no need to do so. You can learn by listening to a podcast or by reading a novel as well. You learn to make you feel better, not to burden yourself.
Learning allows us to educate ourselves on topics we knew nothing about. We learn about the world and treat the world as one identity. Most importantly, it allows us to break the shackles of our ethnocentric thinking and transcend imaginary boundaries created by us humans so that we learn to accept and tolerate people who mean or bring no harm.
The beauty of learning lies it its vastness. It is like swimming in an ocean on a hot summer’s day. It is pure bliss. You can keep going deep into the ocean and keep exploring new regions without realising how far you might have gone. This will only happen if you know how to swim. Unless one knows how to be open minded in their learning, it’s hard to learn for the sake of it. I don’t mean that your beliefs do not matter when you learn. Your beliefs can be sacred but instead of becoming a hurdle in learning, they could instead facilitate learning as well. For as long as you try to learn for the sake of taking every opinion as opinion and not treat them as factual knowledge, learning stays relevant and beneficial. We can read the same things and form different opinions on it. Learning allows us to be different and it allows us to accept those who are different from us.
That’s it for today. I really hope that this post sparked some love for learning in your heart. I would love to write more blogs on the topic if you would be willing to read them.
Thank you!
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