What is A Love of Learning?
Since I was a child I’ve always loved learning, but I’ve often wondered why I have. I hear often that one of the goals of a school is to ensure that students love learning, so it seems worth thinking for a moment about what it means.
I think there are at least three things that make up a love of learning, which I’ll state in the abstract for your consideration. If I have a chance, I’ll try to illustrate each if they seem to need it.
First, let it be said that learning is not the same as the honor received for learning or the pleasures that are often used to seduce students into learning. Rather.
Love is cultivated by the satisfaction of an appetite. Thus love of learning is experienced when the student actually learns something. This means,
- Perceiving a truth not previously perceived
- Recognizing a relation or connection not previously known (such as a cause or an effect)
- Recognizing a likeness or distinction not previously identified
This is not academic but human. When we experience any of these three with our own minds we feel happy, and we want more of them. When we are prevented from experiencing them or convinced that they are impossible (the definition of despair), we come to believe that we hate learning – when in fact, what we hate is being ignorant.
This is really great, Andrew. I think that last bit is especially applicable for teachers (and parents) of Latin students. They love the language when those three activities are taking place, but hate it when they are “doing work” and there is no actual learning taking place.
Michael,
That’s a very important distinction you draw and I appreciate your doing so. It shows how important it is for the teacher to be able to distinguish “work” from learning.
Thanks for this article. I have always loved to learn from a very young age, but I have always hated school also from a very young age. I think my main issue with school is that it was forced upon me. Most of what I learned was on my own time, not when someone was telling me to do so. I have noticed that I can pick up a history book and be immediately engrossed in it, even when I was young, but with one exception: when the reading of a history book was assigned. Then I find it almost unbearable to read. It must be a rebellious attitude on my part. I have raised this question with numerous people and have found general agreement. So if it is true, that assigning students to learn some thing, kills the the love of learning that thing, what should we do as educators? ( I realize this is a gross generalization)
I have noticed this very thing in some students, as well. I have not noticed it in myself as much, except if it encroaches on some other “thing” which I had planned for myself rather than a particular assigned “thing.” Then it becomes a matter of altering my plans and expectations to suit the assignment.
I would be curious to hear “what should we do as educators?”