A lesson missed? Rethinking education.

I wasn't a great student, and if I went back to school now, I doubt much has changed. Perhaps I missed a core lesson?

Maybe I can get it now as Steemit is full of highly skilled people with many that probably made it to all of the lessons at school. I am sure that someone here can remember enough to fill me in on the lesson missed. I am not sure why I missed it, perhaps I was ill that day or at the dentist but for whatever reason, I did not get it.

What is the lesson? How to learn.

In all of the years I was at school, there was not one class I remember that focused on even rudimentary general methods on how to learn. I remember many lessons on what to learn and being told what to remember though.

In year 4 at about 9 years of age, we spent 10 weeks doing a report on Australian states. We had to research the main rivers, the state flower and animal, distinguishing features, population and a whole lot of other information. I would tell you all of them, except I don't remember much other than me having to rewrite it three times completely before being 'failed' for non-completion.

The reason was my continuing to write in cursive. My mother taught me to write, not a school, I write like she did, except messier. When she got the note about me failing to conform and write like the other children as the teacher had ordered, she smiled. Unsurprising I write what I do, really.

My point is, that we spent ten weeks gathering information from encyclopedias without first learning even the basic skills on how to learn them or even commit them to memory. The lesson I do actually remember had nothing to do with what was actually taught but taught me much more than the project work.

So, did I miss a class that everyone else received?

My question is (and I have had this question since early high school), how come they do not teach how to learn in school?

There are several scenarios perhaps but none are really satisfying. Maybe it is because there is just no good general information that applies to most people, maybe it is because teaching it is extremely hard, perhaps they use it as a sorting mechanism to find natural talent, it could be they want to retain their position in society and self-sufficiency destroys their educator role or, the governments do not want a populace that can learn whatever it wants.

There may be others but out of those, the last three or combination of are the most feasible to me as there are a myriad processes that can aid learning to learn and it isn't terribly difficult to at least start the process.

For me, Learning to learn would be the single most important lesson at school and should be developed as a compulsory class that is built upon until which point the children themselves take the responsibility to continue. And they do continue because they understand the importance and the way they develop further is to take the general lessons and tailor them for their own unique person.

The reason is that no matter what you know today, you are likely going to have to keep learning throughout your lifetime and the longer that is, the more things will require learning.

A straight example would be a phone. My grandfather in Malaysia would have had quite a steep learning curve to begin to use one in his 40s, one that my father didn't require for he was born at a time they were commonplace. My father however was okay up to basic mobile phones but never got hold of SMS, something I have no trouble with and I am quite competent with a smart phone but, in 30 years what device will my daughter understand 'naturally' that I will not?

That is a simple example of course and there are many much more complicated to be investigated but it is a simple demonstration. Imagine that at each generation, each had learned (to the best of the time) how to learn. Throughout the entirety of their life they would have been continually developing their learning ability and would continually test it by learning more.

How much can a human learn in a lifetime? We will never know because it is a boundary that will always be moving outwards from where we are.

Now, when I talk about knowing, it isn't just remembering information and useless statistical data, it can be applied to practically anything. Every skill starts at not knowing and progresses in depth and width as learning takes place. Even the physical skills benefit from knowing how to learn them efficiently and effectively.

Currently, general school is usually taught over a space of 12 years and has been for many decades. Have they not learned anything in all of those decades, all of those universities either about how to teach more effectively or to teach how to learn more effectively?

They sure spend a lot of time teaching about gender equality and bullying, why not learning? I am not saying that those things shouldn't be broached, I am saying that if all the kids knew how to learn, they would probably reach a very quick and effective solution to their own biases and prejudices. And if they didn't the lessons taught at school on these subjects would be learned efficiently.

It seems to me that there is a major hole in the curriculum and perhaps filling that hole is the key to personal growth, individual brilliance, reaching potential and a life where a person can have full agency over their decisions and outcomes.

That sounds terrible for institutions and authorities that want free reign over people's decisions and outcomes instead.

But, if we know this now, is it too late to learn? Definitely not. We can no longer get the depth of understanding that we could have if we started at 5 but we can go a hell of a lot further than we are currently.

The problem however is even though we may want this learning skill, it takes personal investment and the majority of us are too lazy to even look into it. We equate learning with boredom, but having skills as personal success. Quite an internal contradiction has been created.

When we here 'learn or invest in yourself' we tune out and instead fill our mind with whatever drivel is on the news, TV or latest app. We want to be entertained rather than learning how to entertain ourselves by learning more about our natural world, our lives, our mind, ourselves.

We live in a bubble that is designed to keep us in the dark but feeling like we understand. Take the time, at least to research a little. I think most will find that under scrutiny, the school systems globally do not measure up and require at the very least supplementation by parents.

The problem is, most parents do not know what that means.

Taraz
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