The Inquisitive Mind— what it really means to be a “learner”
Take a look at a 1 year old. A 2 year old. A 5 year old. You get the gist. They are very inquisitive in nature. Then, watch that same child get older. Now they’re 11, and they have started to get a hang of things. Now, imagine them 15. All inquisivity in their learning has now subsided. That is a major problem, but why? Why do we become less inquisitive learners as we grow older? Let’s find out.
Why do young children seem to get it better than older folk?
As young children, we are all inherently naive, having no understanding of objectively why one must learn. We learn because we are curious, or because it allows us to express ourselves, or merely because learning is fascinating. In other words, learning is inherently pleasurable. So since when did learning turn into an obligation? There are many answers to that, and a lot of it has to do with societal conditioning. Now we view learning as this duty, this obligation, this thing that needs to be worked on and a task meant to be performed. If we call this ‘false learning’, then there must be an equivalent — there must be a ‘true learning’, so to speak. I believe this ‘true learning’ is best expressed in our youth.
To understand this, one must consider one of the most famous experiments in the field of psychology:
The child-adult experiment of spaghetti. While one can oftentimes find adults elaborately planning the activity at hand and competing with one another based on their knowledge, the kindergarteners were found to use their imagination and inquisitive nature to try and fail multiple times to build the same structure. This is an example of the desire to create, envision, and persevere is far more important than having statutory knowledge. The kindergarteners were also found to take the situation as an interesting challenge — they were curiously experimenting and having open feedback as to how the challenge progressed. They remained curious throughout the construction, prioritizing that and the desire to keep trying new things over what the adults valued — getting the ‘right answers’ and winning that prize as efficiently as they could. Most of this discussion would be irrelevant if it were not for the group of people that consistently beats the marshmallow challenge — yes, it is indeed, in a manner many find ironic, the kindergarteners, many of whom are not yet fully comfortable reciting their ABCs.
The true purpose of learning:
Aside from practical reasons like I had mentioned above, there are also more philosophical reasons to support my belief about learning. For the first few years of life, a child experiences the power of learning — it helps one do more and understand their environment and their place in it better. It gives them more to do and gives them a sense of purpose. Eventually, many people let more complex concepts drown them out, and the mentality imposed unto them by their surroundings suddenly starts to creep into their minds. Many people fall to this mentaility, which leads to a lifetime of thinking learning as an obligation. Fortunately for me (and for others), many people on the Internet agree with me and my belief about learning. Learning is a form of discovery, and to me, it should be a fascinating and collaborative experience. Everything you learn connects you more with the vast array of information obtained and deduced by humans, and everything you discover adds to that array. In my belief, I refuse to make a distinction between learning and discovery, since true learning is nothing but the discovery of a novel idea or concept, albeit only for oneself. We are each our own individual, meaning that even if the discovery logic only applies to oneself, it is still a valid and crucial logic nonetheless.
Modern-day challenges and what we can do:
In our modern, ultra fast-paced, competitive world, everyone follows the set system to be better than their peers. Essentially, the goal here is to be winning the game, and the only way one can win is if one perfomes a set of tasks better than their opponent, and learning has become one of these tasks. This appears to be unavoidable. However, even while some level of conformity to the modern world is needed, it is still crucial to see learning, for the most part, as a pleasurable and fascinating activity rather than something to dread.
How I’m taking action (and how you can too):
Start by inspiring one person, and see for yourself the power of the ripple effect. Soon, you wil be looked at as a person with a strong passion and with an inquisitive mind, all traits needed to understand the world we live in, contribute something to it, and as they say, to ‘be successful’. I am in training to become a tutor teaching younger kids mathematics, writing, and science, and I try my hardest to instill the inquisitive mindset in as many kids as I can. The inquisitive mind allows one to learn so many new concepts, no matter how daunting or challenging they may seem at first.
In short, curiosity is the only learning style.
And with that, I conclude by saying quite meaningfully:
STAY CURIOUS, STAY PASSIONATE, STAY INQUISITIVE, AND WATCH AS LEARNING IRRESISTABLY COMES YOUR WAY.
Thank you for reading this blog entry.
-Vishal Janamanchi