Dear Readers,

I think any parent will tell you that it’s pretty common for kids to complain about their education. For that matter, many adults might recall their own complaints about school – or maybe they have complaints about what is being taught in school to their kids because they think it’s useless. People have their reasons for hating on education but it’s pretty common. It’s been on my mind lately between summer vacation for the kids and my own attempts to learn new things.

What I’ve mostly been thinking about is that we waste a lot of time complaining about education or trying to justify the “why” you need to learn a subject. There’s an inability to just accept that you have to learn things to grow as a person or that you need to learn a specific subject in order to learn a subject that seems more interesting to you.

I mean, you have to learn a few things before you can jump into differential calculus, am I right?

As an adult, though, I accept that sometimes I’m learning just for the joy of learning something new. In recent months, I’ve taken on trying to learn the guitar. When I decided to learn the guitar, I started with doing research on the type of guitar I should buy as a beginner and resources for learning. I subscribed to Fender Play and now I practice every day to get better because I want to learn.

Do I need to learn it? Not really. I’m doing it for fun. It’s a choice I made.

I’m also spending this summer trying to learn about gardening. I bought some ebooks via a Humble Bundle sale in the past that cover small-space gardening and I finally decided to move forward on that. Again, do I need to learn this skill? Nope! I’m just doing it for the joy of learning.

Some out there might be inclined to say that it’s different. I’m learning now because I choose to and that makes it better. My response is that I can learn these things now, for fun and faster, because I learned the bare minimums provided to me before. Math helps with music. Math helps with science. These foundational ideas help with art, both visual and auditory.

Music mixing and production is nothing more than making sound waves that appeal to human ears without having too much or too little in any one frequency band. While I don’t need a background in math and science to understand this, my ability to understand this is improved by having that knowledge.

Consider this my plea to change your perception of learning – it’s not a chore, it’s important, it’s fun, and it’ll expand your horizons. Sometimes you have to learn something not directly related to your goals. Sometimes learning is difficult. All that effort, though, just makes it all the sweeter when you come out on the other side having learned something new.

Sincerely,

Achira

P.S. Don’t let this blog fool you, I rot my brain cells with TV too.