Quote #13

I had this thought while I was stuck in the jam. Many people, Malaysians in particular are very concerned with studying. Not to mention having a very straight-forward, maybe even naive mindset of "I go to school to study. I shouldn't be wasting time doing anything else, otherwise I would disappoint my parents, become a road sweeper, bla bla bla". I would have to disagree.

I believe that

"We were born to learn, not study." -Le me

Learning is different from studying. Learning comes from many different sources and can occur at any point in time, anywhere, anyhow. Learning is what we make of a situation. It can be an obstacle or a lesson learned. This is different from studying. Studying in itself is not bad, but to say that I go to school simply to study is wrong and should be discouraged!

Besides, the concept of studying is reading, understanding and being able to somehow apply or regurgitate back what we read. Things we read from books someone else wrote. Someone else who thought their way is the best. Someone else who thought the system would fit everyone. Someone else who thought it he understood you better than yourself.

So you see, the "learning" system, or the "education" system is flawed in that it tries to fit everyone into a system designed by one person, who from his point of view would have greatly benefited himself. But not everyone is the same, not everyone fits into the mold, we're not cookies.

This is where learning differ from studying. Learning is questioning something simply because we're curious about the answer. Learning sparks interest. Learning doesn't feel like a chore, or a responsibility, or studying.

 "Learning is not compulsory, it is contextual. It does not happen all at once, but builds upon and is shaped by what we already know. To that end, learning may be viewed as a process, rather than a collection of factual and procedural knowledge." Wikipaedia