On The Art Of Learning How To Think For Yourself

By Tony de Silva –May 13, 2015

Tony de Silva

Let’s face it, most people who initially saw the title of this article (you could be one of them), clicked on it with the underlying notion that I would be going off on a tirade on something that should be so simple and familiar to the average human being. I’ve spent many days wondering if I should even broach the subject with others, afraid of their reactions to the accusation that most of us merely drift through life subjected to the influence of external entities.

Clearly, the fact that this article exists here means that I’ve reached the stipulated conclusion that most people do need to be reminded, even if just for a brief moment, to pause and think about the course of their lives and their place in this lonely blue planet. I do not intend to spin off on an existential narrative, but I do think it is important to put things into perspective. So, please bear with me if I do introduce the abstract now and then, as my sole purpose is to leave you, the reader, with nothing more than a few simple thoughts that may hopefully help you critique your life’s own discourse for the better.

First of all, let me begin with formal education as this is where our discovery and curiosity of the world is meant to commence and blossom. It sounds beautiful doesn’t it? You take a young child of around four years old, and guide him through the discoveries of many a man who trudged through the Earth, building upon theories and knowledge in order to help sustain humanity for generations to come, so that he in turn can one day venture out, once capable enough to do so, and contribute to the understanding of our surroundings.

In addition to being immersed in this learning environment, the child is also encircled by peers his age to aid in the development and maturity of key social skills necessary to coexist in future communities. As I can only speak from my personal experience of early education in Sri Lanka, unfortunately my subjective affirmation of this experience cannot be more far removed from this contrived description. I recall not so fondly an educational system that solely placed an emphasis on performance, subordination, and conformity. Material that yearned to be apprehended and understood was instead forced into the guts of bewildered students, not to be consumed and digested, but to resurface as regurgitated matter on a test paper. ‘Learning’ took place in the classroom, six hours a day, confined to the walls of a room only slightly larger than your average bedroom. Restlessness was not tolerated. Neither was the query of questions. “Speak when spoken to,” are words I became all too accustomed to. It speaks magnitudes on the atmosphere dedicated to educating our children, when a child would rather go home and engage in private tuition than solicit an answer from a teacher at school.

                           Read More