Teachers are wonderful in two aspects…
- What you have learned from them that you take and apply for yourself.
- What you have learned from them that you would do differently.
But the only real learning that happens, is beyond the consumption of “information“.
It occurs through questioning what we receive or observe from our teachers, parents, or even our own thoughts.
“The important thing is not to stop questioning. Curiosity has its own reason for existence.”
– Albert Einstein
Curiosity is important for our minds and well-being. We even see, in the business environment, investments in coaches and consultants to help create a curious, innovative, and creative work environment.
However, as kids, how we learn in traditional education systems often deprives us of our curiosity. We say that asking questions is important, yet we are graded based on answers.
It’s as if we were taught from an early age to be afraid of questions, and conditioned to always need answers, under the belief that answers offer clarity, certainty, or comfort.
“We are so eager to find an answer that we cannot study the problem; it prevents our silent observation of the problem. If we look for an answer, we will find it; but the problem will persist, for the answer is irrelevant to the problem. “
– J. Krishnamurti