Of learning and knowledge

Learning

Papa what is learning ? My 4 year old daughter asked me one Friday afternoon just as I was making myself comfortable with a nice cup of hot coffee and a spanking new book which I had been looking forward to read for the past week. I closed the book with a sigh and turned my attention to her, fully aware that the rest of the afternoon would be spent answering an unending barrage of questions ranging from the mundane to the bizarre, each asked with a wide eyed innocence which would make it impossible for me brush them off. If my teachers had questioned me as much during my school days as my daughter was doing now I am sure I would have emerged a much more learned and knowledgeable man than I am today. I somehow got through that afternoon giving as many answers as I could and changing the topic wherever the going got tough for me, while trying to keep alive the image of a heroic know-all father, conjoured up by my daughter in her naivete, but her question stayed with me.

Now what is learning? Easy question you say, everyone knows what learning is, however the problem arises when one tries to define it. A simple way of defining learning could be to state that- it is a process of acquiring knowledge through education and experience. Sounds ok right? Being the curious type I decided to look up what learned and knowledgeable people had to say on the subject.

“You cannot open a book without learning something”.-(Confucius) I read, followed by “There is only one thing more painful than learning from experience and that is not learning from experience.” (Archibald McLeish) and “Education is the process in which we discover that learning adds quality to our lives.” (William Glasser). So far so good, but then I hit a bump in the road: “Education is an admirable thing, but it is well to remember from time to time that nothing that is worth knowing can be taught.”(Oscar Wilde)! Interesting, I decide to probe a little more into the relationship between education and learning. The results are disastrous!!

“The only thing that interferes with my learning is my education.”(Albert Einstein). “The least of the work of learning is done in the classroom.”(Thomas Merton). “Men are born ignorant, not stupid. They are made stupid by education.” (Bertrand Russell) And to top it all: “Everybody who is incapable of learning has taken to teaching.”(Oscar Wilde)! Certainly not the definitions that I want to give to my daughter.

Deeply shaken, I surmise that it would not be correct to establish a causal relationship between education and learning. After all learning can be independent of education however learning and knowledge, now that is a different cup of tea. I can certainly say that learning is a process of acquiring knowledge through experience ? Or can I ? Back to google!!

Oh Calamity!!. I find the words of Henry David Thoreau who says “It is only when we forget all our learning that we begin to know.” And Dr Claude Bernard goes so far as to say “It is what we know already that often prevents us from learning.” Does this mean that learning and knowledge are mutually exclusive ? The mind goggles!!

Listlessly I scroll down the page coming across Alaxander Pope’s words “A little learning is a dangerous thing; Drink deep, or taste not the Pierian spring.” Closely followed by George Bernard Shaw who had his own take on that, “A little learning is a dangerous thing, but we must take that risk because a little is as much as our biggest heads can hold.” These and numerous other such contradictory pearls of wisdom no longer shock me, there is only so much that the human mind can take.

I remember reading somewhere that Learning is progressing from cocksure ignorance to thoughtful uncertainity. After having spend a couple of hours trying to understand what learning is all about I can certainly say that I am thoughtful and uncertain about what I have achieved.

Ignorance is Bliss!!