Ways to Learn Outside of School
This idea — attributed to American humorist Mark Twain — tickles alluringly at the imagination of students all over the world. Twain’s idea takes issue mostly with the way most schools are structured. There’s a predictable rhythm to the whole enterprise. He hints that there is more to learn outside of school.
This is because school begins and ends at the same time each year. It is carried along by a gradient of increasingly difficult instruction (grades) and assesses students somewhat narrowly with tests and papers that limit the full capacity of intellectual or creative talent to express itself. Life beyond the school’s walls operates differently. It’s less predictable and calls on the whole self to solve problems, to make a living, indeed, to make a life.
In other words, the education a school offers, though important, is not complete. Leonine 18th-century literary critic, Dr. Samuel Johnson, echoes the great Twain when he writes that young people seeking a full education must “mingle in the living world”. Moreover, 20th-century philosopher Bertrand Russell defines education as the relentless pursuit of love and knowledge. These are active approaches to education that empower the student to take ownership of their own passage towards better versions of themselves. They have in common the necessity of experience.
Below is a collection of advice for students in school who are looking to become students of the living world. These are different ways students can learn outside of school.
Travel
We are bombarded at every turn with notifications and news reports telling us how the world operates and why things are the way they are. If we stop our search for truth there, the world becomes suddenly very flat. To travel, even if it’s just to the other side of town, is to put received knowledge to the test of lived experience. But the traveling must be done with intention — with a commitment not to luxury or ease, but to experiencing other communities,’ other cultures’ conception of the good life.
Journal
I wish this were a requirement of all schools. One of the sadnesses of growing up is that memories of the past, particularly of childhood, are shed and lost, and so are the versions of the self as it was. There is a piece of advice held dear by the Ancient Greeks: “know thyself”. This imperative is the ultimate goal of anyone’s education. Learn outside of school and keep a record of the person you’ve been and help mold the person you’ll become. In order to do this, take some time every day to write anything that comes to mind. You will be glad you did for the rest of your life.
Make some money
It is the unifying responsibility of (almost) every person alive on the earth that they will have to make a living. Whether we like it or not, the exchange of money for goods and services is the engine that allows everything else in our lives to move. To learn how to participate in this vast matrix before one needs to is a really good idea. So, get a job. Even if it’s a once-a-week gig, learn what it feels like to spend a dollar you’ve made.
Cook
Cooking is one of those activities that most remind us we’re human. It connects us to the deepest and most primal parts of ourselves, and to our family histories and heritage. Most importantly, it gives us, and the people we cook for, sustenance. It boggles my mind how many people leave college without knowing any culinary basics. Learn to cook a few dishes while you’re still at home. By doing so, you will prepare yourself for a life punctuated by creativity, generosity, and a warm feeling of self-reliance in the belly.
Volunteer
Any truly educated person will have to contend with the fact of global suffering. It’s out there, and it should be the role of an educated person to limit it in whatever ways they can, even if they’re small. Volunteering for causes that reduce suffering remind us that we share the planet with an unfathomably large and diverse community of other lives. All of them are the center of their own stories. In school, organized as it is around our individual growth, we can easily forget this truth.
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