You Can Learn Anything You Want to Learn

You Can Learn Anything You Want to Learn

If You Are Willing to Learn

A debate rages within educational, schooling and curricula circles about whether people are borne with an aptitude to learn certain subjects and acquire skills.  Once, standardized tests were thought to measure the level of a student’s aptitude for success in college and graduate school.  Specifically, a predominant and vocal sector of the academy insisted that certain students possessed the requisite aptitude for math and science.  Unchallenged, this thinking discouraged generations of learners from pursuing careers in mathematics, engineering, medicine and other branches of the natural sciences.  Students were overheard in the hallways, after receiving the results of the first quiz or other quantifiable assessment, “I guess I just don’t have an aptitude for math or science.  I’ll drop this course and find a throw away class to fulfill this requirement.”  Introductory pre-med courses became graveyards for aspiring physicians.  Hardly anyone questioned this policy or the pedagogy of teaching these courses from a theoretical standpoint.  Underrepresented communities were deprived of cadres of potentially good doctors and other health professionals.  Still, this fierce debate fulminates as we consider the future of standardized testing in higher education admission.  Should each student who aspires to college deserve entrance to an institution of higher learning?  Conversely, should we reserve public resources and allocate them only to students who exhibit undeniable acumen for success in college, graduate and professional school and learned professions?  Judiciously parsing both sides of the issue with data, research and citation to relevant evidence lies beyond the scope and purpose of this blog entry.  However, I elect to err on the side of personal application and work ethic instead of aptitude.  I posit anyone can learn anything that he wishes to learn and if he is doggedly willing to apply himself until he learns the subject.

Anecdotes from my recent teaching stint at an inner-city parochial high school determine my position.  A faculty colleague and I were speaking with a group of African American and Latino males during our monthly advisory session.  Midterm examinations loomed on everyone’s mental horizon.  We teachers had to write them and prepare to grade them in a timely manner.  The students had to develop a study plan to prepare to earn the best possible grades on the exams which equated with ten percent of an overall grade in a course.  My fellow faculty member and I listened to our advisees’ complaints.  Naturally, they blamed their other instructors for their low grades and unpreparedness for their forthcoming mid-terms.  The breadth and depth of their criticisms would have been helpful for curricula and pedagogical writers.  When the last student finished sharing, I asked about their study habits and time.  How do they study?  When do they study?  How much time do they commit to studying?  Do they allot the lion’s share of their study time to the subjects in which they are not doing well?  Answers to those and relevant questions revealed that these students were not lacking in aptitude but self-application.  The students’ failure to apply themselves with any diligence and discipline most reasonably explained their minimal achievement specifically in math and science courses.  Subsequent to that advisory session, I had an impromptu conversation with a school administrator who had recently done a presentation for senior staff and faculty department chairpersons on the role of expectations, characterizations, esteem and application amongst students of color.  Her perusal of recent educational and instructional literature inclusive of recent studies and data essentially proved my hunch.  I said before leaving her office, “Our students are not lacking in intelligence and aptitude.  They need to apply themselves to strengthen their knowledge and develop greater acquisition in their studies.”

Those experiences reaffirm my primary premise for this blog entry.  You can learn anything that you want to learn if you are willing to learn.  Wholeheartedly, I believe in lifelong learning.  Anyone can learn anything at any age if he or she is willing to learn.  If a person is honest about what he does not know, his lack of knowledge ideally prepares him to learn from a master teacher.  In turn, honesty yields humility which is a necessary attribute to acquiring new knowledge in any field.  Usually, a person’s admission that he does not know anything about a subject but is willing to learn from someone with expertise garners a teacher’s graciousness and willingness to teach an eager and willing student.  Open-mindedness follows honesty and humility.  To learn something new, it is necessary to discard anything you thought you knew about the subject.  The combination of honesty, humility and open-mindedness culminate in willingness to commit whatever necessary time and resources to learn a new subject.

Dismiss the idea that you need a certain level of aptitude to learn something new.  You first need to admit that you do not know anything about the subject.  That admission is an eraser that cleans the canvass of your mind.  A master teacher then can create a beautiful work of art.  It is as if you stood at the dawn of creation.  Out of nothing, you can create an impressive and priceless portrait of knowledge and expertise which can enhance anyone’s quality of life who encounters it.  Honesty empowers you to begin the journey toward new, deep and wide knowledge.  You admit that you do not know anything meaningful or substantive about the subject.  Two examples from my childhood years in an impoverished neighborhood in the American South vividly illustrate the need of frank admission of ignorance.  Before the current engineering of automobiles which link a computer and engine with electronic devices, leather, steel, aluminum, fiberglass and technological features, cars were manufactured more simply.  Anyone with a passion for car engines and minimal knowledge of their structure and operating systems could be a “shade tree” mechanic.  Each Southern neighborhood had at least one such “professional” who could either “fix” your car or “get it running.”  Utilizing their zeal for cars and increasing experiential knowledge, these guys welcomed the opportunity to work on cars.  However, many of them could not withstand auto diesel college when it began.  As the market, technology and consumer demands transformed the design, research and development of cars, the “shade tree” mechanic resisted these fundamental changes.  Time has left him decades behind the current generation of automotive technicians.  The “shade tree” mechanic was not lacking in aptitude to repair cars but was unwilling to admit he did not know anything considerable about this generation of cars.  His failed to honestly recognize his need to start from the beginning and learn a new method of engineering and repairing cars.  Still, he had to be honest about his need of new knowledge.  In turn, he became unwilling to apply himself.  The “shade tree” mechanic could have acquired expertise in his field notwithstanding the market shifts.