We learn well from problems.

We learn well from problems

               

Progress in science and technology has given birth to the massive amount of information that surrounds us today, to the point that it is nearly impossible to manage. New generations will find it increasingly difficult to live a happy life if no new skills are developed to cope with the new world. People who lived 5,000 years ago may have only needed the skill of thrusting spears accurately to manage hunger. Today we no longer need the skill of thrusting spears, but we now need new skills – literacy skills, arithmetic skills, information management skills, health maintenance skills, ICT skills and many other skills – to manage the same challenge of hunger.

One can see that as time changes, old sets of knowledge and skills no longer suffice for living a quality life. To acquire new knowledge and skills, one needs the crucial tool of learning. Learning occurs inside each individual, meaning that even with equivalent external factors, one person may learn while another person may not learn anything at all.

Essential to learning, like igniting a bomb, is creating the passion for learning and inspiring children to realize that learning is necessary, important and relevant to their lives. We have to try, no matter how much effort it takes to explode. Even though children may come from unequal backgrounds, we can inspire a passion for learning within every child, through the teacher’s strategic ways of questioning combined with the teacher’s manner of behaving towards the child, which does not threaten, judge, pressure for answers, or rush to react.

A mature teacher can understand that even though all seeds require only water to germinate, each seed requires a different amount of time to germinate and sprout each leaf.

Maturity gives teachers the clarity to know for themselves what should or should not be done, what is or is not, and how to go about each task.

               

Learning is a way of creating and remolding the mass that is belief, our inner point of reference. A mature teacher is constantly open to perceiving and learning about the changing conditions of the world. Perception and learning will prevent teachers from being deceived by their longstanding inner beliefs, and will allow their beliefs – the points of reference for their thoughts and actions – to become more complete and balanced.

As the world transforms more violently every minute, there is no one without problems. Every problem requires new knowledge, understanding and skills. What matters more is how we view those problems. Do we view them as problems and become fixated, like running into a wall? Or do we view problems as challenges, like climbing over walls? If our minds are constantly open to learning and new perceptions, then we will see the problems as challenges. We will be ready to tackle and learn from those problems with happiness. View every problem as an opportunity for learning. Problem solving is one life purpose. If one day we wake up to find that there are no problems, that is the day we will have nothing to do in life. A mature person will understand that there is nowhere in the world that one can hide from problems. Each day, we are just as likely to run into sadness as we are likely to run into happiness.