But I have been trying very hard to learn these past few weeks. Like, really learn stuff. Not from textbooks. Not from my lecturers.
But from public lecturers. From animals (yes, they do teach you stuff if you'd just look). From prospective employers. From children with cerebral palsy.
See, throughout my intelligent side of life I have been exposed to mostly one thing, learn what I am taught. My career will be decided by my high school results, because that determines the courses I can be qualified to take, which I can have the privilege to choose.
And in university, the cycle is repeated. You are taught what is deemed to be required of you in your professional career. I don't know about Arts papers, but the view of science people here are that they are totally unemployable.
So I sat back and contemplate, on what learning really is. Is it truly just a transfer of knowledge, or is there something more going on?
I came to a conclusion which I hope is not cliched. Learning is best when you take the initiative to learn. When you feel comfortable about a learning routine, you forget the purpose of learning and you learn what is dished to you. That, in my entire time harping about education, is perhaps the first real argument I feel I have come up with.
So I tried a different approach to my own learning, since I came all the way here to learn after all. I decided to use a bit of initiative, to talk to people and to get involved. Not trying to brag, but trying to perhaps tell people who might be in a state of education limbo as I was.
And I know how cliched it gets when people tell you to just go out and try. I heard that 123614346237 times, and of people who said they have learned heaps but obviously couldn't communicate properly what they have learned.
No, I will not try to tell you what I have learned, because it is not something tangible, nor is it explicit enough in words. Rather, I will tell you what I have been up to, and hopefully you can see the path and shaping of the way of thinking that these input will have to my mind.
I've been involved with RSPCA Auckland, and mostly doing menial labour of cleaning the rabbit/guinea pig cages, feeding the rabbits and essentially just taking care of them. What good can this possibly do? And what can I learn? Hard to tell, but one thing is certain, it is easy to think when you're doing something physical. That's point one, and I think that might be a conditional statement. Second thing is, you meet people who have spent 11 years volunteering at RSPCA, and having children who owns 10 ponies, and devoting their entire salaries (after personal use) to caring for these animals. Yes, you meet people like that, and you only need 5 minutes of chatter to get some idea of how different people can be.
I have also recently signed up for an engineering challenge to tackle real social issues. And the issue this year is utilizing our engineering knowledge and skills that we have supposedly learned in class (which I bet are mostly useless when it comes to actual application. One thing I have learned about practical paper is that being practical is best; the paper is useless) to help improve the learning and general living for children with cerebral palsy.
The project has just started with a visit to the school for them special children, and is currently in a state of break due to looming exams for everyone. But trust me, in the 1 hour I was there, I saw real children with cerebral palsy.
You can see pictures, you can hear stuff about them; heck you could research the whole lot about them and know more about me without having ever seen one. But the point I would like to make here is, you do not understand the emotional issue behind this. Because you have not seen them. They are intelligent people, stuck in a useless body that they cannot control. And they have no speech. You might feel empathy reading about them, but until you've actually seen them you cannot truly comprehend their plight.
Which is why I think that alone is worth as much as all the time and research you can put into understanding the condition.
And in case it was not explicit enough, I was indeed trying to grow up. I believe we are capable of proper community living, which we are not doing very well currently. The locks on your door are a testament to that.
So I hope I have managed to insert a wee bit of insight into the view on education and learning, and because it involves everyone I hope everyone can form their own opinions and not be a zombie that takes whatever the system dishes out.
