Let’s Learn to Learn!

“What’s that?” you may say, “Learn to learn? But I’m already up to my neck in learning! Math, Science, English, History, Geography and anything else anyone supposes I must know before facing the world!”

Yes, but what if I told you that before trying to prove your mettle and show your worth, you must first understand that learning is a process.

It’s not just about triumphantly handing in your answer paper a half hour early or racing to see who solves that abstruse algebra problem first or who finishes reading that passage first or who bisects that angle first. There will be times when you shoot off into the race only to realize you have no idea what to do! It’s okay if you look at the algebra problem and feel like you have a 3­year­old’s brain or reach the end of the passage with still no idea what the author is trying to say or have no clue why we use the compass to draw those little arcs. We all start off knowing nothing. (So did Einstein).The good news is we can only get better. Sure, there’s going to be discomfort in not knowing, in failing but if you understand that this discomfort is what precedes ‘understanding’ and get comfortable with that discomfort then there’s no end to what you can learn.

Now, of course, I don’t want you all going and grabbing calves. If instead you acknowledged the fact that if you persist, you can improve then you have already made progress. Give that algebra problem another shot. Try to relate it to what you already know and THINK! Go back and read that passage again. This time, slowly. Angle bisection? Why don’t you take your time and think about it. If you don’t get it, think again tomorrow.

Remember that the brain is a muscle and it only gets stronger if you keep exercising it. Can’t find x? Can’t solve that sudoku? Can’t remember faces? Can’t do the math before the shopkeeper? Can’t remember how to spell ‘embarrassment’? Don’t give up. Try, try, try. And relish the joy when you finally ‘get it’.