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Why ‘I Know’ Are The Two Most Destructive Words To Learning.

Sunday, January 25th, 2009

How many times do frustrated parents correct their kids, only to be told ‘I know that’ by their half-listening offspring? Every mum and dad in that position knows the message hasn’t got through; the child obviously neither knows nor cares, and nothing of value has been learned.

To really get to grips with a subject, it’s vital to always be receptive and open-minded. It’s a common observation that the more you learn, the more you realise how much you don’t know – it’s a sobering thought that every single person in the world knows more about something than you do! This isn’t said to make you feel small, but simply to encourage a thirst for knowledge, rather than being a closed book.

Mentally assuming ‘I know’ is a directive to our inner consciousness that all is well, and there is nothing more to be learned about a subject. Adopting such an ‘ignorance is bliss’ type attitude is hardly conducive to learning and study, as our depth of understanding will always remain shallow.

Going through lessons just to say we’ve done them will achieve nothing if we’re convinced that we know it all. Mentally, the gate is locked, and so new material will go straight over our heads, as if it wasn’t actually there at all. A closed mind won’t even recognise knowledge when it’s presented.

School’s never out for the professional, and it’s a fact that everyone in the world knows something that you don’t know, however clever you are. Keeping an open mind yields new perspectives and avenues that weren’t seen before, and this can lead to a deeper understanding all-round.

If you really want to squeeze everything out of a subject, then repetition is key. Go over the same thing at a different time of day, and see how much more you can pull out of a lesson – there’s always a new angle you can see. Just like watching a good murder mystery on television; when the repeats come round we see so many more clues and ‘co-incidences’ that make up the whole plot than the first time around.

Occasionally we can experience a revelation when objectively going over previously learned material. A different approach to teaching might throw into question our perceived wisdom on a subject, and lead us to better comprehend that which we’d mis-interpreted in the past.

Society has developed over the years because of open-minded people keen to progress the thinking of their age. Those who ‘know everything’ can never improve, and their ‘knowledge’ becomes stagnant. Those who embrace the ideas and wisdom of others become the most valuable people on earth.