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Learning is ....

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Learning is...


One of the biggest misconceptions modern education has taught us about learning is that it is immediate, specific and clear. Which is why modern education demands that the results of the learning can be tested, analysed and judged.


So when the teacher teaches, say, Archimedes principle, it is expected that the learner would immediately know what is the principle, would be able to understand it separately and uniquely from whatever else the child knows (specific) and that the principle is amply clear in the child's mind. In this way learning is considered to be binary - you don't know, I teach and snap! now you know.


But in my experience as a learner and as an observer of other learners, almost all - learning is slow (builds over time), it is messed up or mixed up with all that we know and it is confusing.

I guess even for Archimedes it took a lot of time to learn it, and in that process, his thoughts were constantly changing and the understanding dawned, the Eureka moment happened, not in one instant but after sorting out the thoughts via multiple complex and confusing iterations.


I realise that learning is very organic - in our mind, it is built bit by bit, over time, not like a clear laying of bricks over each other, rather constant moving back and forth through a multitude of thoughts and trial and errors and with no one certain outcome but a bag of jumbled hypotheses. 


In some way, we never learn. We just keep adding another into the mix, another data, dimension perspective etc infusing the current mix with more dough, many a time destroying current structure or modifying it - the whole process so amorphous, so vague that to output this learning in a test seems to me to be cruel to the learning itself and yes barbarous to the learner.


Which is why when it comes to learning (and to living) - we could consider slowness, confusion and vagueness as virtues, as essential ingredients of growing.


So in Jagriti, don't seek answers, don't seek clarity, if possible, do not seek anything.
Just keep ringing bells, here and there and yes everywhere.

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Aditi & Ratnesh

Aarohi is an Open Learning Community for learners of all ages: Open to all kinds of interests, abilities, styles and content areas. Learning by doing what one wants, how one wants, and self reflection. Community to co-live, co-learn and co-support each other. Aarohi's Campus is in a village near Hosur in Tamil Nadu (55km fm Bangalore). 

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