Mirror Magazine

Mirror Magazine

A thirst for learning
By J.P. Siviter
Take a moment to list all the things you want to do but have not found the time to do since you left school. Become a painter or musician? Learn another language? Or perhaps you want to change your career direction. What do you need to do? Get a degree? Learn to drive? The chances are that learning something new will be needed. Is this the year that you are going to do that course?

The benefits of learning something new periodically are manifold. Our minds are kept active as we rise to the challenge of doing something we have not done before. We have to accommodate new ideas, new techniques and perhaps new ways of seeing things.

Away from our areas of immediate expertise we have to cope with uncertainty, with having to question, with problem solving and possibly with tests. We have to cope again with getting things wrong, as well as right, and to learn again that failure is every bit as important as success. Perhaps things we have not done since school or university.
Going on a course often makes us work with people we would not encounter in our daily lives. Social and intellectual interactions are stimulating. They broaden our perspectives and make us more interesting people.

Accepting the fact that many of us will either want to learn as we go through life or will be required to do so because of changing job markets is essential. We need to appreciate that learning is not something which is confined to school, it is for life. And remember, it is never too late. In my own home country, the UK, some of the oldest learners are aged well over 100. One of them, who is 107, has been attending weekly art classes for the last 25 years!

For those still at school, one of the most important attitudes to be acquired is that of the ‘love of learning.’ One of the most important skills to be learned is that of ‘learning how to learn’. Schools should offer a broad and balanced curriculum which will engender a true love of learning for life. (The writer is Principal of the British School in Colombo)

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