The Most Underrated Part of Learning

When you think of learning, you might think of machine learning and artificial intelligence. Or you might think of the boring busywork and painful drudgery that comes with the academic institution known as school. In fact, I would argue that for many people, learning more about a topic is very much tied together with school. Why learn more about a topic when the painful memories of struggling or the trauma of a bad teacher have impaired you from enjoying its most beautiful parts? Why learn more about a topic when throughout your life, you have been forced to learn information in an academic setting that is not coercive to appreciation of a subject but rather temporary results? In fact, why learn more about a topic when you've never really learned how to not take part in the learning process, but to enjoy the learning process? Well, let's take a look at how this can take place, not in a classroom setting, but in our everyday lives:

This survey got 17 responses. I asked JetPunk Discord members to name a subject that they like and what about their learning experience with it has made it enjoyable thing for them to learn about. The responses were pretty normal overall, but I did notice a few general trends:

1. The learning environment is conducive to greater enjoyment of said subject.

"And a lot of my interest in learning these subjects originally pans from teachers who were actually enthusiastic and excited about what they were teaching."

"YT video essays are always interesting, and reading books on the subject, even old books, is great and helps with learning to read better. The people that 'teach' me about the subject are nice and open, and talking about this with my IRL friends has been very interesting and fun."

2. That said person is fascinated with how that subject connects to the world around them.

Examples (from respondents):

"[Linguistics is] viewing a huge part of our societies in a completely different angle."

"Everything we see is defined by geography, whether positionally or just why it's there."

3. Or, more normally, just an interest in what comes along with studying a subject.

"Math, learning about new, more advanced concepts is interesting to me."

"Music. It's interesting to discover and explore different genres and artists and have that sense of discovery for forms of art and media for time periods."

In all these cases, enjoyment of learning said subject was not due to what I'd call "negative threats": such as the need to study for a test, or a long and high-value homework assignment that necessitates mastery for the survival of a grade, but rather "positive motivators", which includes the stuff above, and certainly many more, although that's something to be covered in another blog.

We don't exactly live in a world where learning is valued from this perspective. While some might argue that schools' main purpose is to help us learn, which is true to a certain extent, schools also value the product of their students more than the enjoyment that can come with learning. Think about your average classrom:

You get lectured about a subject for an hour, or study it for an hour. Then, you have to answer some questions or do some classwork or homework on the subject, and hope to get the best understanding possible of it. While this isn't a bad way of learning per se, it ignores this key principle of enjoyable learning that all these respondents found within these subjects:

Being able to enjoy learning something doesn't come from solely doing work on it and being as productive as you can with a positive attitude, but rather being able to take information in and see value in it. The more value or connections with the way you learn you see, the better you're able to value the subject.

Consider the average student (like me) who hates their English class: "Why does it matter to analyze the significance of this author's choice?" or "Who cares about the significance of this in the plot? This is the theme, move on."

The main reason for this is the lack of value emphasized on why the subject should be enjoyed for longer than one's academic career: if analyzing something in a story is made fun, with discussion, or with passion and enthusiasm for English, then even the strongest haters of the subject, like myself, will enjoy or perhaps value doing so more. Although this isn't necessarily guaranteed, as we all have our preferences as to what we love or hate studying, a teacher's ability to make a subject more fun to learn can work wonders for many learners.

I would argue that education is not valued as a way of teaching children to value the wonders of science, mathematics, or literature, but rather a way of preparing them for life, aka the workforce and real-world challenges. Again, while this has its benefits, such as providing an environment where it absolutely helps to have a good work ethic and attitude towards what you're learning, the problem is that it doesn't lead to any internal fascination or love for a subject, like I mentioned earlier.

However, this can easily change. People should be given the ability to immerse themselves within learning something, and on a more technical level, more should be stressed not on "how to understand thing x or thing y" or "this is how thing x or thing y works", but rather "this is the beauty/flaws of thing x or thing y because.... and you should appreciate it because...." While I've had some good teachers in my lifetime, the ones that were truly great not only injected enthusiasm into the subject, but you could tell that they loved it and wanted you to love it back with all its beauty and ugliness and flaws.

That being said, we as a society also need to value learning differently. As an American, we shouldn't view advancing to the next course in calculus as just getting ahead, or fighting for a better college, or increasing one's standing in the grueling competition of college applications. And while I can't judge how other societies value education, I can't imagine they value learning in the education system as I've outlined it, as most developed nations have their own grueling and challenging exams, and some competitive educational environments in certain nations are worse than ours, but that's something other people can better educate you on, not me.

Learning is not a checklist to be fulfilled. Rather, it is a continuous, lifelong process: new ideas going into our minds every day, concepts that our brains form connections between, and realizations that we may not have thought of in the past are all part of what makes learning fulfilling. As human beings, we are constantly absorbing new information and evaluating it.

At the same time, learning is not solely passive: the learning we enjoy the most fulfills us beyond simply reading it, it gives us a fascination with the world around us and connects with the way we express ourselves. While I'm not going to lay out a detailed plan for how we can make learning in society and our school system apply these ideas more, I will say that when you learn something, you should enjoy it. You should feel a variety of emotions, realizations, and acceptances of what you need to learn more about. That is how we become not just more intelligent learners, but more understanding of each other's experiences.

So, I leave you on this note. To learn with feelings and wonder. To learn with the mindset that there is always something new out there. To learn not because of the social and external pressures that seem to define more and more of us these days, but out of internal and intellectual fulfillment. After all, there are few greater joys out there than the fun that comes with learning about what you love with no strings attached. So make the most of that fun, and spread that fun to the world around you. Thank you.