LEARNING TO BE INTELLIGENT ! - Ms. Priti Doshi

       The illiterate of the 21st century will not be those who cannot read and write,

       but those who cannot learn, unlearn, and relearn'.
       - Alvin Toffler

 You may have had a good education but did you learn anything?
 What is the difference between education and learning?  
An education is something you acquire in an institution whereas learning is a continuous dynamic in a process called life.   Unfortunately most of us learned to confuse one with the other when 'they' taught us that learning was memorizing and life was a stroll in the park.  As soon as we finished with school, college or university many of us could be heard rejoicing with the words, "Thank goodness that learning stuff is over, now I can go and make some money"!   Little did we realize the learning had just begun.

What's the difference between education and intelligence ?  Education is based on a worldly knowledge and academic development, whereas intelligence is based on self-awareness and self-development.  Once again we are confused when we believe our academic qualifications are a route to self-development. They are merely a measure of our knowledge at a particular point in time, often within a narrow specialist area, not a sign of how well we know ourselves, or how well we are able to manage our thoughts and emotions or   build loving relationships with others.

What's the difference between learning and intelligence?  
Learning is something you do, whereas intelligence is something you already have.   Unfortunately our confusion between these two means we believe we are becoming more intelligent when we learn, whereas the reverse is more likely to be true.   It is often more intelligent to unlearn what we have been taught! The level of intelligence used in our formal education is fairly easy to develop.  

 Known as 'rational intelligence' it is a mechanical and sequential process within our consciousness in which we use reason, logic and analysis, while drawing on past experience, to make decisions, choices and take action.   It takes time, requires much 'thinking', and easily drains our mental energy.

Youth of the world do have a larger quest quotient than the intelligence quotient. They have always something to learn. They keep learning because they enjoy challenges. They believe ‘ who so neglects learning in his youth, loses the past and is dead for the future’ They know learning is not compulsory neither the survival’ Agreeably the whole world is a laboratory to the inquiring mind.

Priti Doshi
Vice Principal
Russell Square International College