“Why do you study so much? Why are you going back to school? Haven’t you had enough? Collecting diplomas?”
You may have heard such remarks yourself. Or maybe you’ve been lucky enough not to have someone so bluntly tell you so.
One of the principles I learned in language school was that all of life is about learning. That, in fact, the more we know, the better we will realize how little we know.
It’s a principle I’ve strived to apply. Yes, I used to be a bit of a bookworm, there must be students like that. When I first started working, I would often give up the materials I was building for my lessons only to be forced to look for others, to create others. Somehow, I had the feeling that if I didn’t do that, I would become obsolete in the classroom. I had this idea that, anyway, kids today (or since) are more informed, know more, make connections faster and better.
Continuous learning is a principle we would all do well to embrace in this country. Nailing the book to the wall, as we used to hear in the summer holidays, is not a good solution at all. When I was a child, during the communist period, I used to hang up some books from school, it’s true, but I devoured the novels I borrowed from one and another in the neighbourhood, novels I could hardly find, I had to return them quickly because there were others waiting in line. I remember sleeping two hours a night to finish a book.
Now, when so many changes are coming upon us, the risk of becoming obsolete, of not being contemporary with our times, is ever greater.
Unfortunately, I’ve heard people say: ‘what can I learn, madam, at my age’ – the words of a gentleman in his 50s – or ‘that’s it, I don’t want to hear any more lectures, I’ve had it’, I don’t want to learn any more, I’m 30, I’ve learned enough.
We learn all our lives, from lectures, from books, from podcasts, from YouTube, from everyday conversations, from observing the world, from travelling.
We learn from others, from trainers, teachers, mentors, peers, and interactions on the street and at the store, even if sometimes we realize what we don’t want and how we don’t want to behave.
The important thing is not to behave like Teflon pans, where nothing gets caught on.