Do yourself a favor, LEARN!
Become a learner
Hey hey hey hello! Can I get your attention?
In our world which is bound by time, nothing stays the same. According to history, humans have lived through different times and revolutions. I believe you must have heard of the agricultural revolution, before then humans used to be Hunter-Gatherers i.e. hunt and gather no domestication. And then the industrial revolution followed with the rise of machines that explored the earth, beneath it and above it in the sky. Again, the digital revolution ensued and is the time we live in. With this concise, summarized and oversimplified historical account I provided you, I hope you’re convinced that “Nothing stays the same in our world”.
If you’ve lived for about 2 decades or more, then you might have owned a Nokia 3310 and then maybe an Ericsson mobile before Nokia’s xpressmusic or BlackBerry and now you’re currently on iPhone. All accomplishes the purpose of communication, but at varying extents with iPhone/Samsung probably at the acme. If we could apply this logic to education, you’ll first guess that ‘education’ has you know it today has evolved with time. Then “what education seeks to accomplish?” is the next logical question. Once we get an appropriate answer, we can evaluate if a revolution or reform is appropriate for our current time.
My belief is that the purpose of education is that you become a learner.
That belies the notion that it only must bless your hands with skills or your head with a certain refined knowledge. Education should make you adaptable with time and not fix you to it. It should not only provide definitions but help you redefine these definitions. Above all, it should provide you one skill – the ability to learn! This skill is timeless and dates to King Solomon of the Bible, “Wisdom is the principal thing; therefore, get wisdom: and with all thy getting get understanding”. Isn’t it to the end that we add value and serve our world by the work we do and are rewarded for? With a clear picture of the end, we can simply backtrack to find that there are numerous means to get there. And the only common feature they share is that “you have to learn”.
Education should make you adaptable with time and not fix you to it. It should not only provide definitions but help you redefine these definitions. Above all, it should provide you one skill – the ability to learn!
Therefore, my final advice to you is that: it’s not about what you learn as it is about becoming a learner. And if you must become one, put these things in mind and to practice: think critically, work hard – no shortcuts, search and re-search, seek important questions and ask, gather and analyze relevant information, seek challenging situations and experiment new ideas etc.
Opportunities abound, seek them!
NB: Ideas for this article was adapted from “Becoming a Learner” by Matthew L. Sanders
