I recently bumped into this guest post on one of my favorite blogs, The Park Bench. I had no idea anyone else felt this way about learning:
After graduating college, I still underlined sentences in books I read
and wrote in the margins to the point where I can’t loan anything out
these days without checking it first for embarrassing or revealing
notations. I walked down the aisles of office supply stores, delighting
in the tummy thrill I felt at being near shiny paper clips! Post-it
notes shaped like fish! Or folders in all the colors of the rainbow!Those
toys of the student impart more than just nostalgia. They signal the
aura of school and education and the learning that revitalizes our
senses, wakes up our brains, and changes our perspectives. Learning
forces us to pay more attention and in doing so, start seeing the
things we were taking for granted and embrace their charms again.
I try to explain this phenomenon to some of my friends, but they look at me like I’ve just joined some kind of cult. I don’t understand how people don’t like to learn. How can one sit through an entire class of any subject and not take any notes or pay attention? In high school, I would be astounded at how many student just didn’t care. In college, where most of my classmates are better off financially than I am, I can’t believe my eyes when I see them drift off to sleep during a class that is costing them thousands a year.
For me, learning is not just about wanting to “pay more attenion and in doing so, start seeing the things we were taking for granted.” It is about being aware and informed so that every decision we make is an educated and well-thought one. Whether this is in buying a used car or voting for a president, one is much more likely to be taken advantage of if they have less knowledge backing up their decision.
And learning doesn’t have to take place in school. Check out your local library. As cheesy as it sounds, they’ve got some fantastic stuff there. Go on Project Gutenberg and read something published before the 20th century. Wikipedia the shit out of life. Or, if you’re really lazy, Googling something new is a start.
Just don’t let the world go by making decisions for you. You have just as much right to think for yourself as anyone else.
