LEARNING FROM EXPERIENCE

“All true learning is experience.

Everything else is just information.”

These words recorded by Albert Einstein, the German born, American Nobel Laureate theoretical physicist whose Theory of Relativity is considered to be one of the two pillars of modern physics (the other is Quantum Mechanics). He expressed this opinion in the 1990’s during a discussion on the role of experience in learning. The statement very effectively and definitively condenses one of the most   important principles in learning, that without the benefit of experience, learning is ineffective. This principle surprisingly is still challenged by a number of authorities who believe that learning is more strongly correlated to inborn, genetic characteristics, than it is to appropriate experience.

 Learning is generally defined as a “process of acquiring new knowledge or skill through study, experience or teaching”. But to me, true learning is much more complex than this.  It can only be considered meaningful when it is accompanied with changes in basic understanding and behavioral potential of the individual. It is not merely the acquisition of information but rather the assimilation of such information and its subsequent incorporation into the individual’s psyche and behavior. In truth, we are what we learn.

Over a person’s lifetime, there is no doubt that the experience of Living is by far the greatest and most effective source of learning. This is a fundamental fact has been universally and consistently recognized and accepted throughout the ages by the majority of the great thinkers and philosophers of all cultures.  The renowned ancient Roman philosophers Pliny and Tacitus, both strongly insisted that:

 “Experience is the most efficient teacher”,

 and Julius Caesar publicly acknowledged that:

 “Experience is the teacher of all things.”

 Mahatma Gandhi went further and noted that:

  “Knowledge gained through experience is far superior and many times more useful than bookish knowledge.”
        

Formal education, though extremely important in assisting us to obtain the best opportunities in our lives, is not necessarily always the most important component. The history of the world is replete with examples of people who have become very successful in every conceivable aspect of life without ever completing their appropriate formal education. This should not be surprising since in many such instances their success is based primarily on their innate ability to maximize their life experiences. The following are some of the endless examples of people whose contributions have changed the course of history:

-Abraham Lincoln, considered one of the greatest U.S. Presidents, finished 1 year of formal schooling then continued his education by self-teaching to become a lawyer.

-Andrew Jackson, successful as a soldier, lawyer, judge and U.S. president, was essentially home-schooled, without receiving any formal school education.  

-Benjamin Franklin, one of the greatest sons of America, a founding father of the nation, inventor, scientist, author and entrepreneur relied primarily on home-schooling.

-Christopher Columbus, the great explorer who discovered the Americas, was essentially self-taught, learning all the intricacies of sailing from experience.

-Frank Lloyd Wright, possibly the most famous architect of the twentieth century, never continued beyond primary school.

-Henry Ford, the father of the assembly line for car-making never completed high school.

-Winston Churchill, considered one of the greatest British statesmen, historian and artist, failed high school and never attended college. He was credited with saving Britain during WW11.

In my own lifetime many of the very successful inventors, entrepreneurs and game changers I have encountered or have read about have been high school and/or college dropouts who chose to abandon the formal programs of learning to go their own way. These include, Bill Gates and Paul Allen (microsoft), Steve Jobs (apple), Michael Dell (computers), Larry Ellison (oracle), Larry Page and Sergio Brin (google) and Mark Zuckerberg (facebook). They  succeeded without the benefit of formal education but by their individual and joint efforts to change the world in dramatic and unimaginable ways over a period of just over a decade. In all these cases, these exceptional people chose to forego the conventional road to enrichment and trusting their instincts, go forward on their own learning, acquiring the experience as they moved on.

This does not, in my mind, argue for the condemnation of an organized schooling system as a primary source of education. The overwhelming majority of students require an organized, structured, orderly milieu to be able to learn and to grow. For these students it is therefore imperative that they be offered the best possible opportunity to learn and acquire knowledge. But there will always be a special group of individuals who will rise above the conventional standard and choose their own road, using nothing but experience and their innate ability as their guide.

        

Unfortunately the true failing of our educational systems is that they do not make allowance for the needs and variations of individual students. They cannot provide the flexibility that allows the individual to learn from experience in the group setting of formal teaching. Instead students spend their learning years locked in a proscribed curriculum, held within boundaries laid down for the majority, which are zealously guarded under the pretext of being the only efficient way. It is no surprise therefore that the majority of students complete their education full of knowledge but unwilling to venture out and risk failure.

Within the last twenty years however the situation has been changing as educationalists search for ways to effectively incorporate experiential learning into the conventional systems. This is very definitely facilitated by the universal availability of computers, the increased use of interactive procedures by teachers and students and the rapid development of electronic based programs. This, to my mind, is clearly the direction to follow since it provides a range of meaningful opportunities to satisfy the different needs of the students and allows them to develop to their maximal potential at their own pace.

All this in keeping with the famous quotation by Xun Kuang, a Chinese Confucian Philosopher who lived from 312 – 230 BC, which is still considered to be the banner of Learning from Experience:

“Tell me and I forget.

Teach me and I remember.

Involve me and I learn.”

                  

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