24/11/2016 2 Comments Learning - A Primordial Instinct....It is a strange, new world that we live in, where teaching and learning are neither compulsions nor obligations, either on the part of the teacher or of the student. Yet we frequently congregate on the internet of our own volition, to learn and to teach. This is a world, real in its design, yet virtual as an entity, that has altered the fundamentals of teaching & learning. The methods of learning are indeed a paradigm shift from the conventional teacher-reads-student-listens-in-the-classroom mode. Here, neither does the teacher insist on attendance, nor is the student under any compulsion to attend. But, we still flock to the websites for information and knowledge.
Why ? This brings to the fore, the basic issue on which the entire edifice of our learning process is built – man’s yearning for knowledge – a primitive human instinct. It is precisely this primeval character that has never ceased to manifest itself in man, despite millions of years of evolution, that drives him in his quest for enlightenment. An inherent detestation for the process of knowledge being shoved down the gullet has always been the single biggest barrier to the quest for knowledge. The conflict between learning out of interest and that of being taught as a regimen has never been better illustrated than by the golden words of Sir Winston Churchill - “Personally I am always ready to learn. It is just that I dislike being taught”. It is in this perspective that internet brings with it not only the novelty of the medium but also a draught of freshness in the methods of learning, where we learn because we want to – arguably the first step to helping ourselves learn. We learn every waking moment of our lives – sometimes consciously, sometimes not; sometimes through a deliberate effort to learn, while at other times by default due to the bombardment of information from sources all around us. By this definition, all human beings on this planet are learners. Yet, every individual perceives and retains in different quantum. The difference is in perspicacity. My opinion is that this perspicacity is never entirely a product of conditioning. It is one that is borne of the extent of development of the five senses that we have been blessed with. Knowledge, experience, attitude, skill ,etc are many of the props that we acquire over the years since birth, that support and assist in the receipt and assimilation of the information gathered through our senses. The manner in which we process the gathered information is the manner in which we learn. This, in my opinion, is the method by which every learner learns. However, it also raises the very important question on the interest of learning. I have two lovely children – a 13 year old girl and a son who turned 5 years last January. My daughter has grasped the nuances of English language very early in life. This has been because of the fact that she has been inherently attracted to the printed word ever since she was a small girl. An avid reader, she does not need parental prodding in order to read. While children of her age indulge in Nancy Drew books, my daughter has evolved to Oscar Wilde. My son, on the other hand, has so far displayed none of the readership affinities of his elder sibling. He is content with solving jigsaw puzzles and other tasks that require analytical skills. While, I have noticed, tasks requiring analysis disinterest my daughter, they push my son on an overdrive. Therefore, in context, I consider it immensely important to recognise and pursue one’s interest in order to be an effective learner. He who adopts a path of knowledge in contradiction to his inherent interest has already sabotaged his journey. Such a learner will always remain a pretender, grossly incapable of helping himself learn, his herculean efforts to the effect notwithstanding. While the stream of my thoughts continues to flow on this subject, I feel that the growth of an individual’s intellect is not limitless. In the real society that we live in, with all the burdens of our personal and social obligations, we can only receive this much information and no more in our everyday lives. However, how much of what we receive we actually assimilate and retain, is the index of how good or how poor a learner we are. In this, it is important to be a keen listener. Well, listener, metaphorically speaking. It would amount to training ourselves to utilise our senses to their fullest potentials. Once we succeed in stirring these receptors of information from their state of dormancy, that we seem to so easily relegate them to, we automatically start becoming better learners. And, if the learner is able to marry this keenness of his senses with a burning desire to learn, he will have doubtless discovered the magic potion of learning effectively. Another very important aspect that is a pre-requisite to being a good learner, in my opinion, is the absence of ego. I have spent over fourteen years of my professional career at Haldia Refinery. Haldia hosts a training institute called Indianoil Management Academy, a very impressive establishment. I have walked its portals countless times in those fourteen years. I do not remember all the instances of my visits there, but what I have never been able to forget is the very apt sign at the entrance – “Leave your ego outside this door”. Ego is easily the biggest impediment to the process of learning. Inquisitiveness and the urge to query are the worst casualties on the face of one’s ego. The people who have made the biggest difference to mankind have been the ones who have never ceased to question – some of whom have even not refrained from questioning the very existence of God. A learner who queries incessantly is the learner who teaches himself best. Thus, a person learns slowly and surely. The product of one’s efficacy of learning is that enigmatic term – knowledge. A very vital constituent of this knowledge is experience. However, one lifetime is too short a span of time to gather all the experiences that life has to offer. Neither is it desirable. Life would be too difficult to deal with if one had to undergo every conceivable experience in order to take lessons from them. Here, nature has bestowed man with an invaluable attribute – that of living in and being a part of society. Through our gregariousness, we must enrich our knowledge from the experiences of others. An individual who has learnt the art of being sociable has already opened the door to his receptacle of knowledge into which wisdom acquired by others will ceaselessly flow in. Our family, friends, acquaintances and society at large are a veritable repository of experience from which an able learner will always draw his enlightenment. It is in this context that working in teams not only assists in quicker and better accomplishment of tasks, but also enriches one’s learning and understanding of various facets of work and indeed, of life in general. I would like to narrate a small incident that involved my grandfather and I more than thirty years ago. I had seen a chess board at a friend’s house and had pestered by father into buying me one. Armed with the preconceived notion that chess was just another game like carrom or scrabble, I laid out the board on the table and requested my grandfather to teach me the game. My grandfather sat patiently and taught me the moves of individual chessmen. Once I thought I had learnt the moves, I arranged the black & white chessmen on either side of the chessboard as directed by my grandfather. Then I asked him to teach me the method of playing the game. The old man smiled and told me something that has always stayed with me, although my grandfather has long been gone. He said, “There are things in life that can be taught and there are things in life that must be learnt. Chess has to be learnt, it can never be taught.”
2 Comments
raja
25/11/2016 03:38:55 am
Wonderful - and importantly - thought-provoking read. I've never really thought about the process of learning. It's been one of those things that has just happened. Like you say, sometimes consciously, often not so consciously.
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Joy
25/11/2016 06:34:22 am
Thank you for your analytical comments.
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