Learning is a complex phenomenon with multiple layers. It needs judgement, sensitivity, foresight and a strong will to absorb new ideas

The real world can be tricky to negotiate.  This is because a lot of early childhood learning needs substantive modification when it comes to real life.  Illustratively, a child is taught many principles which are simply impracticable as he grows up.  Typically, a child will be told never to do something without informing their parents, whereas in real life this is neither feasible nor practicable.

The truth is, that childhood learning is about basics; one learns to modify or calibrate it as one goes along. It has to do with a child’s mind and establishing certain principles that life experiences may define or modify.  Consider the case of teaching a child about parallel lines. The child is taught that parallel lines are lines that never meet.  That’s good enough for his purposes. As one matures and gains a few years, the child transitioning into adulthood learns that parallel lines do meet, but they meet at ‘infinity’. Similar examples can be cited elsewhere.  However, more to the point is a simple proposition, namely that learning has to do with the capacity and capability of the learner. 

The same principle can undergo several modifications or even alterations. As one emerges into adulthood, one learns many other intricacies about life, and several of them can only be re-learned only through experience.  Here is the need to sharpen a person’s capacity for continuous learning and absorption.  Typically, the adult, as he goes through life, meets different types of people, and there is a clear need to coexist with several others.   One’s judgment becomes a crucible for deciding what the truth is and where one has to steer clear or walk through it. 

This is what adult learning is about, and it is a lifelong necessity that is felt at each stage.Sometimes strange situations can occur, especially if one learns through aphorisms/proverbs/ folk sayings, and even the wisdom of elders. 

An illustration of this could make the point clear.  In Sanskrit, there is a saying “Satyam brooyat, priyam brooyat, na brooyat satyama priyam”. “Broadly translated, it means, speak the truth, but speak it pleasantly.  If a truth is bitter, it need not be spoken”.  Whether this is desirable or not is a moot point.  What is more, is that other sayings can be found to be very different than the one quoted above.  For example, there is another Sanskrit statement “Satyameva jayate” “A free translation into English would be that “truth alone triumphs”.  The two statements are clearly in two different contexts and mean two different things. 

There is an element of contradiction between the two.  It is here that adult learning acquires a special veneer of its own.  What that special something is a matter of experience and exposure.  Some people who repeatedly emphasised in their childhood that they must always tell the truth get so much in the habit of only telling the truth that they become offensive in conversations. 

This is not because of their ill intention, but their style itself became ‘offensive’.  Such offensive behaviour can have a heavy price.  After all, tact is something that is not an optional extra, it is essential to life.Being tactful does not end up lying or being untruthful.  It only trains a person to be sensitive to another person’s feelings and sentiments.  

It also raises the importance of recognizing that all inputs contribute to better and improved behaviour. Creating a situation in which everyone gains and a better environment is established is essential. If bluntness causes hurt rather than improvement, it could lead to deterioration of quality of life, which cannot be the objective of any action.

The obvious conclusion is that learning is a complex phenomenon with multiple layers.  It needs judgement sensitivity, and foresight. In the absence of any of the above relationships, they can become compromised. After all, if the relationship itself is lost, one might ask: what is the input about?

This issue is fundamental to the act of living.  This is so because man is a gregarious animal, and the act of living requires a collective experience.  Learning therefore is a lifelong exercise requiring continuous involvement and the capability to evolve.  External inputs to learning are of course critical, but internalization of the same is the core.  Unfortunately, whereas much attention has been paid to teaching, an equal amount of attention is due to the ways of the learning process.  There are indeed definite limits to the capacity to learn and methods of learning.

This is something that needs to be more widely recognized than before, especially since it does not seem to be integrated into the larger theories of learning. Indeed, one needs to pay attention to also when and how a revision of the learning process becomes seminal.

To sum up, it is important to recognize the continuous nature of learning and one’s central role in keeping that learning alive.  A teacher can only help the process but cannot substitute a learner’s learning.

(The writer is a well-known management consultant of international repute. The views expressed are personal)