From a very young age my mom instilled the importance of
learning in my and my sibling’s minds and hearts. Being
homeschooled until my 8th grade year, I grew up with the
understanding that a person can learn from anything and anyone; learning was
not limited to school. Due to this, I felt as if the whole world was my
playground, everything I could explore with my five senses was at my disposal,
and it was my ambition to learn from each little thing I encountered.
Observing nature taught me more than anything else I can
remember. I was constantly collecting different species of bugs, reptiles and
amphibians to identify and study. Capturing these little animals in jars or
buckets I would lug them into the house and flip through my mother’s collection
of identification books until I found the specimen I had entrapped. After
discovering the name of the species, I would gather as much information as I
could find on them and learn all I could before running back outside to unearth
my next specimen. Most of the critters I caught I would return to where I found
them, but some of the not so fortunate ones would find themselves plopped in
terrariums for further observation. I did much of the same thing with various
flowers, trees, wild berries, etc. Anything I could find I was excited to learn
from. I had an undying love for nature and all that it taught me.\
Other than observing and identifying, I also learned to
heal and nurture. When I was fairly young my siblings and I would constantly
find baby rabbits that had fallen down into our window wells, and birds that
had broken wings or feet stuck in the grass. We would rescue them from whatever
peril they were in and carry them into my parents. The ones that were too young
or injured for us to properly care for would get taken to the nature center,
while we were allowed to nurse the others back to health. As I got older this
love of nurturing and healing grew with me, I was constantly fixing up farm
cats that had gotten into fights or dogs with various ailments. Anytime I
didn’t know what was wrong with an animal I would research and research until I
found the problem and treatment. Since I always learned from nature I’ve never
had a lack of respect for it, littering and pollution disgust me and I was
taught to always leave a place cleaner than I found it. After all why
disrespect nature when I have learned so much from it?
Nature isn’t the only thing I learned from however, I was
constantly reading anything I could get my hands on. I loved reading
Shakespeare, Edgar Allen Poe, James Herriot and Mark Twain as well as countless
mystery novels and absolutely anything about animals. I would spend
immeasurable hours in my room going through my dozens of books on animal
health, underlining, highlighting and memorizing as much as I could. My mom would
also frequently take us to nature centers, museums, and The Exploration Place
for as much hands on learning as possible. I absolutely loved learning and knew
I could learn from every situation, person, animal and thing I encountered.
However, as I entered 8th grade and moved
through public school, that knowledge that I could learn outside of school
slowly began to disappear. I still loved learning and while all the other kids
chose Family Planning and other skate-by electives I chose extra science
courses and Spanish. I was always excited to learn new things, but as I
continued through school it became less and less about learning and more about
regurgitating meaningless material. When I entered college it only got worse,
even the professors were uninterested in the subjects they were “teaching” and
couldn’t care less if their students were actually learning. True learning was
no longer seemed to be important, all that mattered was if an individual could memorize
pages and pages of useless material, regurgitate it onto a test and then forget
everything. All in order to get a piece of paper that supposedly means that
individual is better for a job than an individual who never went to college but
instead spent countless hours self educating themselves and legitimately loved
learning. Society has brainwashed us into believing this is acceptable, and
society is paying for it. The ignorant frat boy who spent all of college
partying is able to skate by and get his degree because he is able to
regurgitate material. In today’s society that piece of paper somehow makes him
better than a hard working, intelligent man who loves learning, but maybe
couldn’t afford college or realized that the system was inferior to self
education.
“Education
is what remains after one has forgotten everything he has learned in school.”
--Albert Einstein
--Albert Einstein
Just last week, I was extremely discouraged because
everyone I talked to was going back to school. That is everyone except for me.
I had this dying desire to get back in school, because I missed learning so
much. There are so many things I want to learn about and I’ve had it pounded
into my head since 8th grade that unless you’re in school you’re not
learning. So here I was, thinking unless I get back in school I’m going to turn
out to be a failure and I’m not going to learn anything new. That’s when I
began reading a book called Life is So Good by George Dawson. It’s an
amazingly inspirational book about an African American man who learns to read
and write at the age of 98. That in itself is inspiring, but the book also
illustrates the importance of hard work, self education and a desire to learn.
Upon finishing the book, it instantly clicked. What I had been shown as a child
suddenly came rushing back. There is no need to rely on school to get an
education. With determination, hard work and a love of learning a person can
achieve the education they desire without ever attending school.
Once I had this set in my mind it became clear, all I
needed was a plan of action. First of all what am I interested in learning
about? U.S. Presidents, history, poetry, photography, guns, archery, different
cultures, anatomy and physiology, how to speak Italian; the list goes on and
on. So now all I need to do is work on learning about those things by using any
resource possible. My plan as of now is to pick a topic each month and spend
that entire month learning as much as possible on that topic. I want to learn
something new every day and never stop learning. One of my favorite authors,
Mark Twain, once wrote; “I have never let
my schooling interfere with my education.” Never again will I let myself
get sucked into thinking a piece of paper earned for repetition is better than
a desire for true learning. What about you?
