What You Still Need to Learn About Learning

(And Why it’s a Bigger Deal than You Realize)

I sat at a table on Waffle Friday at the university. Naturally, I was eating a waffle next to some fellow students I had yet to meet, and I turned to chat with the girl next to me. We began with the typical college student small talk, and I became fascinated with her story, and everything that led to her attendance at that school.

She explained to me that she grew up in California, in a family of eight children, none of whom attended school growing up. At all. At first, I assumed she simply meant they were homeschooled. Nothing wrong with that-I myself was homeschooled until fourth grade. I loved my homeschool experience, and am extremely grateful for the fantastic teaching skills and patience of my mother in facilitating that phase of my education.

But no. Upon further conversing with my new friend, I discovered that she was essentially deprived of an education as a child. Her parents didn’t believe in education. They were actually convinced it was evil. So they neither encouraged nor facilitated any learning experiences for their children. This girl relayed to me that she grew up in a home of siblings who basically played video games all day, every day.

“Then how did you come to be here, attending college?” I asked, intrigued. She told me that, unlike her siblings, she had always craved learning. She taught herself to read, and would spend much of her time at the local library, consuming all the knowledge she could. Of course, her parents did not approve, but she was driven by an insatiable motivation. She continued her studies despite the obstacles, because she believed in the value of education as the key to a fuller, better life.

She had decided upon the goal of attending college, and after sending out applications, she was thrilled to be accepted to this school, and was even allowed to finish working toward her GED while attending college. Grateful for the institution’s generosity and understanding, she jumped at the opportunity, and was enjoying her time as a freshman in college, voraciously learning all she could.

I asked how her family-especially her parents-felt about her enrollment. She reluctantly admitted that they did not approve of her decision, and had essentially disowned her. She had gone against the one thing they ever bothered to teach her-that education was evil.

At that time, while enjoying the social life of college, I, like many other students, was often inclined to complain about teachers, classes, and assignments. But this enlightening conversation with my new friend opened my eyes to what I was missing out on-the wonderment and privilege of learning. This was a girl who had had to fight for her right to be educated. And then there was me, to whom education was basically handed on a silver platter. I suddenly felt both ashamed of my own sour attitude toward schooling, and inspired by her drive to pursue an education, no matter what it took.

Education is not preparation for life; education is life itself.

- John Dewey

Too often, I viewed my opportunity to learn as an obligation that weighed me down. Now, I saw just what a gift it really was. It had never occurred to me that someone might actually be restrained from obtaining such a gift. Learning-whether obtained through attendance at a university, or simply obtained independently through one’s personal study-is a privilege, and the opportunity of a lifetime. In fact, it is the opportunity of life. It’s what life really is all about.

Education is not just about going to school and getting a degree. It’s about widening your knowledge and absorbing the truth about life.

- Shakuntala Devi

We are living in a time where education in many ways is being redefined. With the uncertainties presented by the current coronavirus pandemic, many are choosing to homeschool their kids who never would’ve considered it before. Others are attending school part time-complete with unfamiliar territory of masked faces and distanced socializing-and doing online school the rest of the time. Still, other students are learning the ropes of an entirely virtually-pursued education.

Some parents and students may be struggling with these new adaptations. Where school, for many, has too often felt “boring,” it’s now also uncomfortable, new, and awkward. Even some of the most exciting parts of school-such as the social experience-are becoming a thing of the past. How do we find the joy in that?

Let me first say that this quest is a learning curve for all of us. Perhaps one place we could start is by looking at the privileges we still do have, that many throughout the world and throughout history have been deprived of.

Did you know that right now, hundreds of millions of children throughout the world lack access to education? There are a variety of reasons for this, including lack of materials and qualified teachers, poverty, a need for students to work to help feed their family, distance from home to school, conflict within the country, and cultural gender roles (in many countries, girls are withheld from obtaining the same level of education as boys, if any).

Aside from that, an even higher number of those in school face problems with ineffective learning, caused by problems such as hunger, disabilities without enough resources, or concerns about safety and/or family situation. These hurdles to learning hinder already-suffering economies, as children grow up unable to contribute further than the previous generation. Fortunately, there is some hope, as UNICEF and UNESCO organizations are doing much to combat these barriers. (Learn more about how you can support the cause).

Compare those situations to the public schooling that is widely available to children throughout our country. While underserved communities do still have barriers to a complete or effective education, as a whole, education is much more accessible to students in the U.S. than in other developing countries throughout the world.

Sure, the current school system could use a lot of improvements, but with a broader perspective, we see that those flaws fall within the category of our privileged first-world problems.

The point here is to always find joy in discovering new concepts or perspectives. Never stop learning, in whatever way is best for you. Never lose that excitement and hunger for reaching new levels of understanding. And appreciate the privilege that learning truly is.

Develop a passion for learning. If you do you will never cease to grow.

- Anthony J. D’Angelo

Originally published at https://tiffanyparkwriting.com on September 14, 2020.