I saw this tweet a few days back and it said something like:
"I like learning, but i hate studying"
well, you can say that the person siao or something la, where got different thing right? To learn, means need to go school. Need to go school means need to study. So at the end of the day:
Learn=Study.
well i dont think so. I agree with the person who said the earlier sentence.There is a really fine difference between two of these. Between studying and learning. And let me explain why:
Studying= Stu(dent) dying
This phrase seems to ring a bell? well, other than the well-known lame jokes circulating the internet, i must say that this is really the truth. Let me ask you guys, how many of you actually look forward to going school? Kee chiu! *act as if i didn't hear the question* and for those who said
"YES OMG I LOVE SCHOOL I WANNA GO SCHOOL SO BADLY."
I would highly recommend you guys to go and see a counselor. Okay just kidding. what i was gonna ask was, for you guys, what is the motivation to go to school? Because you can see your friends? Because you can eat your favourite food from that canteen in your school? Because your chio/yandao gf/bf is in school and you cant wait to have "school" as an excuse to see them because your parents forbidden you from dating? well, i dont really care what your reason is. But what i want to know is, have any other answers fly past your mind? A genuine and sincere answer like:
"Because i am going to learn new things today"
dont get me wrong, im not going to say that these people are psychos or freakos or geeks. I actually envy them. Because they have not allowed themselves to fall into the trap of "Studying". They are genuinely wanting to go to school, broaden their horizon and get something out of the time that they spend in school. But for most of us, walking to school is like mission impossible Tough. it is almost as if there's an invisible force pulling you back into your bed (especially when you have ll 8am lessons and you have to wake up at 6am because your house is an hour and a half away from school...) Well? Ask yourself:
Are you going to school to STUDY or LEARN?
I don't expect your answers, but here is mine. I go to school to study and I hate going to school to study. but I like learning. I like the feeling of learning something new. It makes me feel intelligent. But when im studying, i feel stupid. Studying gradually made me hate school a lot. Some can blame their hatred for school on the education system. Yes, the education system is too rigid for me but that doesn't mean that it isn't good. What i mean is that, the current education grading is a little biased. Don't think that i am a girl with really bad grades and thats why i am saying this. my grades are acceptable.So why am i writing this? I mean, you guys must be thinking:
"if you can do well in school, in today's education, then you talk so much for what? you aren't not on the losing end anyway"
But i see my friends struggled. Because they aren't book smart or exam smart. Because they do better in practicals but written tests are the ones that constitute 40% of your entire grade. Because they already tried their best, but their utmost best is not in books, so what can they do? burn the book and drink? eat the pages? NO. It is almost as if you are testing the ability on how to climb a tree among a monkey, elephant and fish. But rather than that, if you are going to hate going to school or the education system because of this, i would have to say you are only partially correct in your opinion. Because what determines your hatred towards school shouldn't be if it is fair to you or not. The education system has all the exams and focus on the grades because it trust us to have grasps the underlying principle and able to answer all the questions. What makes you guys think it is biased is because WE focus on the grades ourselves. because people compare results. Its like if a clock dont exist, time doesn't exist. If currency doesn't exist, then the difference between the rich and the poor doesn't exist. So likewise, if we don't compare, then where does the unfairness comes from? I can fail my test and use it as a wake up call to go back and learn what i was supposed to, but with comparison, i am compelled to not fail. And this is why we hate on education system but then it has something to do with us too. Education system provided a loophole for comparison, and we humans make use of it to make ourselves feel better and others worse. But thats beside my point. What i want to point out is, the what determines our hatred towards school, should be something that is related to going to school and equipping yourself with knowledge. like if you get lousy teachers who cant teach thats why you hate it then its fine. But singapore have good teachers. And i do mean really good. But if you want to go like:
"okay fine. i just wanna be a bimbo/himbo and not learn anything because YOLO/Im cool like that/it is okay that i have nothing in the brain that i have been gifted with when there are kids who are born without one."
Then i rest my case.
But for the rest, please dont hate going to school. Please don't hate education. Please don't. it is a blessing that you have a functional brain. It is another blessing that you are given an education. It is the utmost blessing that you have people who are willing to teach you and give you quality education too. In fact, we can all love going to school, and love "studying" and this is why and how:
Don't go to school to Study.
Don't go to school as a Student.
Go to school as an Inquisitive Child.
Go to school to Learn.
You may ask, but i still have to go school, and school is hell. No, school is only hell because you perceive it to be. AND I HAVE TO SAY THAT I AM NOT TRYING TO BE A SAINT HERE BECAUSE I THINK THAT SCHOOL IS HELL TOO. but i am writing this because i want to stop perceiving it as one. After 10 years of compulsory education and now progressing into Year 3 of my poly life, i am really feeling tired of going to school. All the morning classes, all the boring lectures, all the annoying assignments and projects, all the deadlines, and of course after all you have been through, your intelligence level is based on a stupid number reflected on your transcript and a certificate that proves my "intelligence" (or rather the meaningful existence of wikipedia, google, redbull, coffee and all possible search engines). Well, so if you have this thinking, then congratulations (not) that you have stepped into the level of STUDYING.(and i admit i am) and this is why we hate it so much.
Why am i studying so much for a number on my transcript? Why am i studying so much certificate? Why am i doing this? Why do i have to study?
Now ask yourself, when is the last time you said "Hey, i learnt something from school that is really great" maybe when you re 5. When you rush home and go like "MAMA! I LEARNT A NEW SONG TODAY!!! TEACHER TODAY TEACH US HOW TO SING BLAH BLAH BLACK SHEEP!" and then you continue to sing it for the rest of the 5 hours with your mom smiling gleefully at you even if you pronounce SHEEP as SHIT, or you just mess up the "have you any wool" as "hair u an ni woo". Well, you were still eager to go to school isn't it? You wanted to go to school the next day so your teacher can teach you another song. You never really had the thought of "no, i dont want to go to school. school is boring. school is annoying"
and then as you grew older, the desire to go back to school just kills you.
What changed? the teachers? the grading? the schools? the songs-to-books transition?
no. it was you who changed.
you say "walao, kindergarten only learn ABC. so simple. of course i want to go school la". do you want to go school back then because it was easy? no. It was because you genuinely wanted to learn something. Yes, ABC is easy. But then, at 5 year old, when all you first see those alphabets, do you think they were easy? They are still new things to you isnt it? Have you never forgot how to write or spell or word? have you never forgot how to do simple addition/subtraction? Have you never failed a simple test that only required you to answer multiple choices? All of these only seem easy because we have been through them. But then life doesn't stop there. Life expects you to grow, physically, mentally and intelligence wise as well. They expect you to learn greater things. Like how it used to be "Cytoplasm, Cell membrane and Nucleus" to now it is "Plasma membrane, Cytosol, Nucleus, Nucleolus, Nuclein, Mitochondria, Cytoskeletons, RER, SER, Golgi apparatus and so many more" (pardon me. im a science student).
Well, but we complain. "wah, very tough ah. i dont want to study liao" well, it is the same thing as when you were young what. You were expected to learn new things. It is always new and it only when you learn, it becomes part of the wealth knowledge that you possess. but then we reject to study, we hate it to the core. why?
Because studying means studying for the sake of it. for the sake of the cert. for the sake of the grades. for the sake of graduating from college, university. studying means i am doing my job as a student. No. students are not supposed to study for the sake of studying. Students are supposed to be learning. but why do we hate it so much? (ive asked so many why now you should sense my strong agony). It is because studying to us means grades. When was the last time someone told you "it is okay, you tried your best, you will do better next time because you learn something from this test" when you failed that particular test. "Studying" means memorizing my entire textbook and regurgitating during exam so that i will have the perfect answer and i will top my school. and for many of us, memorizing is taxing on our brain. It really is. I always ask:
"Who the hell (can) stores so many information in the brain?!"
And then i realised. I can store so many information in my brain. It is just that i refuse to "study" to make it happen. Studying doesn't mean i am learning new things you know. Students be like "i must score for this test because i studied for this just 5 minutes ago and successfully cramped everything in my head" but shouldnt it be like " I must score for this test because i have fully understood the concept and because i actually learnt something and it is now in my head".
Yes, you can say "I am studying for my quiz" and not "I am learning for my quiz". but you find yourself procrastinating (like i am now). Because you don't want to study. you dont want to go back to the notes that make you sleep. You don't want to stay up the night and study something that you know you will still fail at the end of everything. You can say "I am going to school to study today" and then you find yourself just dozing off during lectures and getting frustrated all the time because you have to study. why cant you just stay home and all the information just goes to your brain? why can't you be the lucky one with high IQ and photographic memory? You are just so sick and tired of studying. whats the point?
Now i am telling you, stop studying. Start learning. it is actually the same mechanism. You are putting information into your head. You are still trying to pass that test you have tomorrow. But the difference is, you will find yourself so much motivated to go to school. because you aren't studying. you are learning something new. It is always more fun to learn something new isnt it? Is it fun to learn how to swim? Is it fun to learn how to dance? Is it fun to learn how to knit? So why can't it be fun to learn how the body works?( instead of purely trying to memorise how this pathway goes and how the other pathway goes)) Why can't it be fun to learn how people thinks so that i can market my ideas to them more effeciently? (instead of studying and cracking that poor brain on your business modules and trying to crap something out for your project because you didn't grasp anything in class) Why can't it be fun to learn new things in school, like how it was fun to learn new things in kindergarten? To make studying more fun, is to make it a learning process. maybe you say that learning new things tolerates more failure (like how you can fall from a bike a million time before learning it and it is totally fine) but today's education doesn't. I tell you, it is easier to learn than study.
How in the world do you even remember how to sing that nursery rhyme when you heard it at 5 and havent been hearing it since your youngest sibling outgrew them? How in the world do you remember how to write alphabets, numbers and spell? How in the world did you remember all these things throughout the years when you can't even remember what you studied just a year back? Because a year back, you were studying. and i can tell you this because this is what is happening to me now. I purely studied. I purely regurgitated. which is why when people say i am smart, i say i am not. i only regurgitate. So whats so smart about me? Being smart is being knowledgeable. is about knowing a lot of things. But seriously, you ask me questions about modules a term back i would tell you i cant help you. even if i have scored a distinction for it.
and i am really afraid of this. because i know this "studying" process isnt gonna bring me far. I need to learn. I need to keep these information in my head. even though in the near future, i won't be able to fully get how this "learning" process works... but let's just start by being positive about schoolwork. lets not call it school work anymore. Let it be.... idk. practice. practice to perfect your learning. like how you would try to sing "Blah Blah Black Sheep" for 5 hours to perfect the lyrics. To learn the lyrics. Not study the lyrics. but learn it. lets just bring back that excitement and inquisitive child we were when we were 5.
To Learn or To Study
Your Choice.
I choose to start learning and make full use of the remaining education that i have. It is a blessing dont waste it.
p/s: thanks for reading my penny worth of thoughts (:
pp/s: It is only my opinion. you dont have to agree. you dont have to correct me either. I know very well that i am still a youngster who cant look at things objectively. but then if you think i am so wrong, like on all levels then... okay lo. i cant do anything also. Maybe just let it be a sense of achievement to you that you are smarter than one more girl on this planet kay. byebye~
pp/s: It is only my opinion. you dont have to agree. you dont have to correct me either. I know very well that i am still a youngster who cant look at things objectively. but then if you think i am so wrong, like on all levels then... okay lo. i cant do anything also. Maybe just let it be a sense of achievement to you that you are smarter than one more girl on this planet kay. byebye~
Great insights
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