A lifetime of learning is ahead of us

Before the beginning of school in August, my great-grandson was wondering how he would learn to read. I told him that his kindergarten teacher would help him learn words and then he would be able to read. That seemed to satisfy him.

After his first day in kindergarten, I asked him how the day went and he said, "Fine, but I didn't learn to read yet."

I find it so interesting that our children have this innate desire to learn. Their minds are like little sponges, taking in all the sights and sounds around them, and the amazing thing is how they are able to retain it.

Carl Rogers wrote, "I want to talk about learning. But not the lifeless, sterile, futile, quickly forgotten stuff that is crammed in to the mind of the poor helpless individual tied into his seat by ironclad bonds of conformity! I am talking about LEARNING - the insatiable curiosity that drives the adolescent boy to absorb everything he can see or hear or read about gasoline engines in order to improve the efficiency and speed of his 'cruiser'. I am talking about the student who says, "I am discovering, drawing in from the outside, and making that which is drawn in a real part of me." I am talking about any learning in which the experience of the learner progresses along this line: "No, no, that's not what I want"; "Wait! This is closer to what I am interested in, what I need"; "Ah, here it is! Now I'm grasping and comprehending what I need and what I want to know!"

Someone said "Books are friends" - and how true that is! Through books we can travel to all parts of our universe, get to know and understand people we may never meet, understand some of the reasons our world is as it is, grasp the thoughts of philosophers and poets, and move out of parochial thinking that takes us a level of understanding we never thought possible. That doesn't happen on the first day of kindergarten. It takes a lifetime. And just when we think we've learned it all, we realize there is another plateau to conquer.

Hopefully, the insatiable desire to learn will be part of us until the end of our lives.