True Learning

In his book How to Develop Self-confidence & Influence People by Public Speaking, Dale Carnegie told a story of a banker in his public speaking class who was assigned a task of giving a speech before the class. Come the day the banker was to deliver the speech, he realized he had nothing to talk about. He hastily bought a Forbes magazine and saw an article in it titled "You Have Only Ten Years to Succeed". On the way to class, he read it, not because he was interested in the article but because he wanted to have something to say during his turn to speak.

When the time for him to speak reached, he stood up and attempted to talk convincingly and interestingly on the contents of the article. But he had not digested and had not assimilated what he was trying to say. Consequently, there was no real message in him seeking an outlet, and his whole manner and tone revealed it unmistakeably.

There was a surfeit of Forbes magazine in the banker's speech but regrettably, little of him, for he had superficially gleaned his facts from the magazine. He had not thought over his subject adequately. It had not elicited his enthusiasm. He did not feel what he was saying deeply enough and make it worthwhile expressing. His speech was flat, flavourless and unprofitable.

Upon reflecting on that banker's experience of giving a dry and disconnected speech as a result of not digesting what he was talking about, I have discovered it bears resemblance to the kind of learning most of us undergo in school. We don't learn with the intention of understanding ourselves and the world around us better. Instead, we fill our minds with facts for the sole purpose of passing exams, only to soon forget what we have crammed. That's not true learning.

True learning, the kind that makes us wise, creative and knowledgeable, is intellectually and emotionally arousing. I just like the way Albert Einstein, the greatest genius who ever lived, described the best way to learn. He wrote:

That is the way to learn most, that when you are doing something with such enjoyment that you don't notice that the time passes.

As for me, I first began to learn with enjoyment when revising biology during my fourth form year in 2005. I found it exhilarating to learn the biological processes that take place in living things. Little wonder that I scored an 'A' in biology in my KCSE exams.

I also had fun when pursuing a diploma in information technology at Starehe Institute in 2006. One night during my first days in the institute, I became very excited as I learnt how to make a slideshow presentation with Microsoft Powerpoint. And later on, I enjoyed learning how to create computer programs using Visual Basic programming language.

Besides computer programming, the other stuff I enjoyed learning during my time in Starehe Institute were quotable quotes. At one time in 2007, I came across a document of quotes while navigating my way through the folders on a computer of the institute. And wow! The quotes inspired me beyond measure.

Unfortunately, I was unable to replicate such fun when pursuing a degree in electronic & computer engineering at JKUAT. I had a hard time grasping calculus and some other subjects that were to help us understand how electronic gadgets work. That engineering course was in a word, harassing.

Drawing from that experience, I would advise youngsters about to enter university not to choose a degree course because it is marketable but because they have a passion for it. And once they begin studying for their courses, they shouldn't just study to pass exams but to also develop an educated mind. In short, they should practise the kind of true learning that I have said makes us wise, creative and knowledgeable.