Learning is a tricky business. Having a goal helps. Then a person has an open mind, which is what it takes to learn something. A person who has no goal in mind doesn't know what will apply to something (s)he might encounter, so (s)he follows the path of least resistance - not to learn. It takes too much energy to learn. So, when the encounter finally does come, the person doesn't know to expect it or what to expect during the encounter, didn't learn the principle that would apply to the encounter, thus cannot capitalize on what the encounter might offer. Sometimes opportunities happen twice, but more often than not, opportunity knocks but once. So, many people lose chances to succeed because they are unprepared.
There are a few other reasons why someone might not learn something, but by and large, transfer of knowledge, that is, learning, happens because it is utilitarian for a person. This is especially true of adult learners. But, the energy factor is hard to overcome even for adults. Life gets more complicated the farther upstream a person gets from adolescence. One's energy has to be distributed among more people or more encounters. Thus, transfer of knowledge happens for a person in a narrow band, one that is utilitarian. That leaves just enough energy to meet the demands of children, friends, family, and problem encounters.
One lesson from this is to learn while young, before life gets too complicated and scatters one's force. Another lesson is that adults should force themselves to not have such a narrow band for transfer of knowledge to happen. Perhaps they should be aware of and act on the driving forces, whether extrinsic or intrinsic, or develop interests outside of their main interest in life, their job. Maybe someone they identify with a great deal would like to talk with them about a subject if only they knew something about it. That's all wishing. The world rocks on. "You can't change the stripes on a zebra," so they say.
But I personally want to be around and with people who learn, learn more, and learn a lot. For them, life is much more than an existence within a narrow band of knowledge. They're prepared for many kinds of encounters. It's the cut between men and boys, women and girls.
2 comments:
How about knocking a third time? Chemistry at MHS come August. IPC at MFHS in 2006-2007. Chemistry at SOC in 1974-1975. Third time's the charm. Lots of re-learning of Chemistry to come this summer. Yee-ha!
The third time I hope is the charm. I can't imagine that Chemistry is more enchanting than literature, but I guess it has a certain practical application to life. It's not Huxley, Swift, or Crane, but finding the next fuel for NASA might be energizing. Good luck taking the rust off of the elemental tables.
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