Real Learning

1040 Words3 Pages

A society is only as prosperous as the individuals that live within it and contribute to its success. People interact with one another and through this interaction, individuals begin to formulate a sense of self-definition, as well as the foundations required to form relationships, but more importantly, a society develops the proposal of real learning. Real learning is an understanding of materials through one’s own experiences and understandings, but also through the learning and communication between others. Author Jean Twenge often spoke about the idea of the self through a deeper appreciation of others and not just oneself in her essay “An Army of One: Me”. The author of “The Roots of Debate in Education and The Hope of Dialogue”, Deborah Tannen, similarly proposed the idea that an understanding of others ideas and opinions should be developed in order to achieve an even greater understanding. Author Nicholas Carr of “Is Google Making Us Stupid?” believes that individuals can lose a sense of self, if the development of ideas are proposed by others as well as if one focuses only on what is present and does not challenge that ideas existence. Being socially disconnected is a major contribution and benefit to the formation of real learning. It is only when one begins to develop a full understanding of others ideas and opinions that the development of not only the individual themselves, but also their understanding of learning can truly take place.

Academics has always been a topic of interest to not only individuals but to communities and even society as a whole. By disconnecting oneself from society, there is a tendency to disregard others opinions and focus on the individual. This however, would only be extra “support”, for ...

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...er ability to learn and develop new ideas. Real learning, a desirable goal for any individual, cannot be achieved by those who seek its virtue by believing that they will encounter the answers to all their questions. Anyone can simply pick up a textbook to read and memorize, but it takes true learning to be able to not only read the text, but to analyze and go beyond it; to learn more about the author’s standpoint and truly absorb what the author was intending to convey to the reader. This form of self-learning is something that can be accomplished through the help of others. Our society is composed of people that have different ideas, come from different backgrounds, view ideas differently and it is every individuals collaboration that allows us to absorb, therefore allowing us to prosper and enrich ourselves with a deeper and more insightful learning experience.

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