Thinking and Learning

There is this wonderful example of a child which spends a lot of time with the mother, before he or she goes to this place called school. The child is with the mother while the mother is mixing atta for the rotis. A piece of that atta is given to the child so that it keeps quiet, and the child in its wonderful innocence goes on making different shapes out of that piece of atta and generally keeps itself occupied and also enjoys itself.in the process thus helping the mother complete her task.

Change of scene: This same child on the first day in school, encounters this new entity (teacher) who, walks-in to class hands over a piece of clay which very much looks like the atta which the mother had given in the kitchen. But here is the difference, while the mother had just let the child be with that piece of atta, this teacher says "Children make that piece round" and shows them how to do it. This sets the first thought into the child which can be very traumatic, it begins to wonder, "hey, I was never told to make it round at home, how come this new twist?" From that day everything that the child has learnt is contradicted with a forced thinking that this is how it should be done. Then there are various justifications given in terms of discipline, order, education, facts and what not.

Take another example: Tell a five year old to draw a line and it draws anything but a straight line, where as tell the same to a supposedly educated thinking individual, he/she will draw only a straight line!.

See how patterns have set in because of our conditioning of thinking and thinking in a particular way! So what the child has learnt through self-discovery, is changed in our education system by wrote memory. While this path of self-discovery is purely intuitive, intellect drives our thinking.

Learning is something that is experienced, it is something that happens in the 'NOW' and gives the 'WOW' feeling, while thinking is mainly driven by our past and the unknown future.

Is there some Learning?