The Art of Learning and Unlearning

by Joan Marques

Published on this site: May 10th, 2004

Any act at any time is a result of personality, circumstances, learning, and unlearning.

One’s personality is created while growing up. The circumstantial factors will have to be dealt with when they surface. But learning and unlearning are lengthy and ongoing processes. And very confusing and personal ones too!
For, as many different teachers as one will encounter in life, as many different teachings will one come across as well.

There will be valuable teachings about the advantages of being thoughtful and conservative. And there will be valuable teachings about the advantages of being fast and radical.

There will be valuable teachings about the advantages of organization. And there will be valuable teachings about the advantages of chaos.

There will be valuable teachings about the advantages of being assertive.
And there will be valuable teachings about the advantages of being introverted.

There will be lessons that preach the quality of diversity. And there will be lessons that preach the quality of homogeneity.

There is sense in selectively learning all these things, as much as there is sense in selectively unlearning all these things.

How, then, should one know which lessons are acceptable and which are not?
How should one know which lessons should be preserved and which ones should be discarded? No direct answer is possible to that, as it all, again, depends on one’s circumstances and perceptions. Different situations may require entirely opposite approaches for succeeding, while different perceptions may lead different people to make different selections of approaches for similar circumstances.

The art of learning is to know how to be selective. The criteria for selectivity are nurtured by one’s personality. One’s personality, finally, is determined by one’s character, culture, gender and experiences.

No one will therefore be able to provide another with guidelines for the levels or criteria of selecting what parts to learn and what parts to unlearn. It all lies in the center of one’s own being, along with one’s value system, which will tell one “this is what I will remember; this is what I will forget; this is what I will apply; and this is what I will discard.”

Whether, then, one decides to immerse into business, engineering, writing, healing, law-enforcing, or serving in any other way: one will instinctively unpack the perceived proper set of learned minus unlearned behaviors, combined with the perceived proper set of natural behaviors, and one will apply this blend to one’s best capacities.

This, may serve as the proof that any act at any time is a result of personality, circumstances, learning, and unlearning.

It has been this way so far; it will be this way forever.

Joan Marques, Ed.D.
Burbank, May 8, 2004

Joan Marques emigrated from Suriname, South America, to California, U.S., in 1998. She holds a doctorate in Organizational Leadership, a Master’s in Business Administration, and is currently a university instructor in Business and Management in Burbank, California. You may visit her web sites at http://www.joanmarques.com and http://www.spiritcounts.com. Joan's manual "Feel Good About Yourself," a six part series to get you over the bumps in life and onto success, can be purchased and downloaded at:
http://www.non-books.com/FeelGoodSeries.html