Hey all, so I’ve wanted to start a blog for quite some time now and just haven’t done it. I discovered the benefits of writing last semester when I took 2 English classes and a Psychology class, that = tons of writing! Between those 3 classes I was able to write about a lot of things that interested me which helped me to learn even more about those subjects and myself. So I wanted to try it out with more things that I’ve been interested in and see where it goes. I know I’ve sent some of you a few things I’ve written and I really appreciated your feedback; hopefully some of you will also be interested in some of these topics as well, and this will turn into a big chat about awesomeness.
So the first thing I’ve been thinking about is education; big surprise right, at this point in the semester? This stemmed mostly from my grumblings about finals and all the cramming we’re doing as summer draws nearer. Why do we even need education anyway? I understand that you wouldn’t want a surgeon cutting into you if he wasn’t educated, sure, but what about most of us that are just going into business and will learn much from on-the-job experience and just a bit in the classroom? I guess the real reason I’m so annoyed with all of this is because I’m still in my generals and most of the classes I have to take don’t really apply towards my major and so I’m not really that interested in them. Why would I need to take something silly like Astronomy when I’m going to be a Chiropractor? Know what I mean? I’ve been trying to reconcile myself to the fact that all this is necessary, even if I don’t like it, and here’s what I’ve come up with:
Education is as much about learning as knowledge. I think because we’re all so focused on grades that we fall into the trap of “memorize and regurgitate” instead of internalizing and learning what we know. Kind of like how Google “knows” everything, but without a user it can’t do anything with its knowledge. I think that’s been my mindset in most of my classes. I can spit out the answer to the questions on the test, but I can’t really do anything with what I know, I haven’t learned it. I’ve come to decide that’s the point of generals, to help us to learn how to learn. I’m sure some of it is just to help people that don’t know what they want to do with their lives find things they are interested in, but I think that without generals, we would be woefully unprepared for our majors. I don’t know about any of you, but I for sure did not learn how to learn in high school. I was much too concerned with girls, diving, girls, my friends, and girls to care much about learning stuff. So now, somehow, I’m actually grateful for generals.
As many of you know I served as a volunteer missionary for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints for 2 years right after high school. This was one of the most defining experiences of my life. While serving, I learned a lot about learning and, because I’m a bit of a dope, I’ve had to relearn a lot of it here recently to help me get through some of these generals without going nuts. One of the biggest things I learned about was desire. I think desire has a lot to do with learning. Our desires affect our attitudes about certain things, and if we don’t have a desire to learn then our attitude about learning is bad and therefore our ability to learn decreases. Have you noticed how the classes you like least are your hardest classes? I think that’s true not just in school but in life as well. Maybe this is just me, but do you also fall back on the same old stupid mistakes time and time again? I do. It’s the worst when it’s something that we don’t like about ourselves. I have plenty of things about me I wish were different, but trying to fix them is really hard because I don’t want to, I don’t desire to, learn more about them/myself in order to fix them simply because I don’t like it about myself. Did that make sense? I can’t learn how to fix my problems because every time I think about whatever it is, it makes me feel the pain it brings me and I don’t like it, I don’t want to focus on it anymore and so I try to do everything I can to not to. With that attitude, how in the world am I supposed to fix my problems? Same thing with school, if we hate that subject and try to spend as little time/effort on it as possible, well of course it’s going to be hard come test time. So I’ve tried to find a desire to learn, even about the things I don’t like/am not interested in. So far, very small progress, but hey, forward momentum is building… slowly. Haha.
Here’s another thing I’ve thought about in terms of learning instead of having knowledge, understanding principles. Boyd K. Packer said, “A principle is an enduring truth, a law, a rule you can adopt to guide you in making decisions. Generally, principles are not spelled out in detail. That leaves you free to find your way with an enduring truth, a principle, as your anchor.” He was speaking in a more spiritual sense in learning from scripture—which I love and think is the reason why religion or at least a moral code is so important in one’s life—but I think it still holds true in any kind of learning. This is kind of what my Business class has been about this semester, which also happens to be my hardest because I like it least. It’s one of the only classes I’ve taken where a memorize and regurgitate style of “learning” won’t work. I suppose you could just learn the rules of business by rote, but if you can’t learn to apply them, then why do you show up for class? You could just read the book and copy definitions and get an A and move on. How does that help? This is where Packer’s quote comes in handy, “Generally, principles are not spelled out in detail. That leaves you free to find your way with an enduring truth, a principle, as your anchor.” If you take these principles and use them to “find your way” by sticking to them in your decision making, then that’s when learning takes place. I think that’s the point of generals, getting to some kind of mindset that you can take any knowledge given you and turn it into something useful so that when you get into your major, you can excel in your chosen field and be of some benefit.
Anyway, that’s what I’ve been thinking about. I’d love some input from you all to see if I’m crazy or have any gaps in my line of thought. I hope this was of benefit to someone, I know it was for me to be able to put it down somewhere. Thanks for reading!
