Learning Is Enjoyable

I come from a family of librarians. My mom and her four sisters were all librarians and her brother worked at a bookstore for part of his career. Surprisingly, perhaps, I was slow to enjoy reading probably because I was, and still am, a slow reader. It’s taken a long time to learn to read for pleasure.

Recently, while clearing out my parents’ home of 57 years, I came across a retirement book given to my mom and it had this newspaper clip:

What stuck me about this clip is that is you substituted the word Mentors for Librarians in all instances (with perhaps the fifth one being an exception) it would describe the self-directed learning environment found at centres like Passages.

The last word, enjoyment, is key. Often we think that if something is worth learning, it needs to be difficult or hard. Sometimes learning can be difficult, but that shouldn’t be the main indicator of success, enjoyment should. Because if you enjoy something you are more likely to remember the experience and apply what you gained from it in the future. And that is what good learning is all about.

Written by: Ivan Beeckmans