Learning how to learn, a life-long skill

Photo: Mike King

Mike King writes, "Remind your student that while the information they are learning in their classes is important, learning how to learn this information is a skill that will help to ensure success throughout their adult life."
 
To be educated. What does this mean? Webster defines to be educated as “having undergone education.”

Photo: FreeDigitalPhotos.net

But this definition leads to another question. What is education? The answer for this last question is not simple, but rather has many different definitions.

To answer that question one has to know what the person is preparing for that is being educated. Are they preparing to be a productive citizen, for the workplace, for higher education, for life, etc.? I believe that we all can agree the answer is “yes” to all of these reasons for education.
 
These reasons are the guiding principles for education in communities across the state of Texas and around our area. The school districts of those communities work in partnerships with parents, businesses, trade schools and institutes of higher education to ensure that students are educated to achieve all of these reasons. None of these purposes of education stand alone, but are all connected and important to the students’ future success.
 
While these purposes/reasons of education are ones that are easy to see as end goals to education, there is another that I would like the reader to think about and add to the list of reasons for education. The creation of a lifelong learner, I feel, is the ultimate goal of education.
 
The skill of learning to learn is one that will go far in ensuring future success. There hopefully will never come a time in our student’s lives where they will not have the opportunity to learn.
 
But, learning is hard work and the abilities to persevere, question and explore are learned best when the person is placed in a challenging environment.
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Source: Orange Leader