You're Never Too Old to Learn

Many adults believe that learning ended when they graduated high school. If that's the case, it becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy, and they miss out on one of the best parts of life's journey. Sometimes we believe that learning and study are for the young, for students, for those preparing for a career. What makes us think this way? Fear, busyness, self-doubt, misunderstanding, weariness?

Learning new things - scholastically or along life's path - makes us a better person, opens up new opportunities, and gives us an awareness of the world. It broadens our horizons. We become more culturally refined, well-rounded, and well - human.

We enrich our life by engaging in new experiences, reading interesting books, attending informative lectures and programs, visiting educational sites and museums. We meet new people, find new ways to do things, discover new interests and hobbies, become active and informed citizens, give us potential job and home management skills, and transform into better learners with each new experience. And whether we know it at the time or not, we will be able to use what we learn someday, somehow.

Happening upon a new topic can guide us to a hobby previously unexplored. When my children were little, I had little time or stamina for learning new pastimes, let alone reading a good book. (At that point, thumbing through a picture book was about all I had energy for.) One summer vacation, I took my small kids to the children's craft-story hour at the local library. I took the opportunity to look through the stacks. I wandered a bit, then found the biography section. My eyes were attracted to the title of a book on the wives of the presidents. I grabbed the book and plunked myself down on the rug for a good hour's sit. Each wife's story was short enough for me, and eventually I came upon the trivia that Theodore Roosevelt had had two wives, having lost one to disease. I suppose that's common knowledge, but it wasn't to me, and I was drawn in. Then I snapped up a book about Theodore himself, reveling in a new discovery. By the end of the hour, I was hooked on a new pursuit, and a longtime hobby was born. Since then I have collected and read many books on Roosevelt and his family, and visited all his historic sites in New York State. The mental malaise I had allowed myself to fall into gave way to the freedom and exhilaration of learning that propelled me onward to this day.

Studying new topics and reading good books helps us develop our vocabulary and cultural knowledge base. A better command of the language about various topics is useful for engaging in conversation with a wide assortment of people. We can talk on topics that aren't our favorite with people we meet, and take an interest in what they have to say, and use the correct words to do it. This makes us more accessible and interesting with new friends and colleagues. And we enjoy ourselves more, too! Sometimes, too, chatting with someone about a topic can deepen and/or broaden our knowledge of it. It can also lead to joining an organization, workshop, or club with that focus, bringing us to new experiences and new friends. Remember, too, that many of the things you studied about in your youth have changed with new discoveries.

The act of learning actually has physiological benefits to the brain and its function. Continued learning in later life helps positively affect brain function, thus leading to structural changes; "these structural changes are believed to encode the learning in the brain" (Bransford, Brown, & Cocking, 2000, p. 126). It stands to reason that allowing the brain to lie dormant for years may affect its later ability to learn and recall memory. Just from a practical, functional point of view, it pays to keep up with ongoing learning so you can do the stuff you need to in your daily life.

Studying something new need not be an arduous chore. Stopping in different departments in your city library - perhaps one section per week - is a painless method of learning something new. Pick up a magazine (without having to pay for a subscription!). Check out a biography or how-to book. Picture books can give you a quick overview on just about any topic from bee-keeping to skyscrapers. Take a look at the bestseller's list the library keeps to see if there's a book that captures your interest.

Here are some fitting quotations from Happy Publishing that illustrate the power of learning - and its absence.

Only the educated are free. - Epictetus

What you don't know can hurt you. - Lord Chesterfield

It's what you learn after you know everything that counts. - J. Wooden

When you're through learning, you're through. - Vernon Law

Knowledge is power. - Sir Francis Bacon

The unexamined life is not worth living. - Socrates

Nothing in life is to be feared, only understood. - Marie Curie

And let's not miss this gem from my fifteen-year-old daughter: "It's good to know things."

References

Bransford, J. D., Brown, A. L., & Cocking, R. R. (2000). How people learn: Brain, mind, experience, and school. Washington, DC: National Academy Press.

Shawn, (1999-2009). Happy publishing: Helping you to think thoughts you've never thought before. Retrieved August 28, 2009, from Education quotes Web site: http://www.happypublishing.com/quotations/education-quotes.htm