Take the time to learn

By Lateef Hodge


“The goal of education is to build character plus intelligence”, Martin Luther King Jr. I start off with this quote to remind people that learning requires responsibility, which is equal to character and intelligence has to do with the ability to gather, compare, and contrast information. So when all of these concepts are combined is when education is achieved. With this being said how does one begin to take responsibility and use intelligence for what they are learning?
Is your method of learning working? One of the first steps is to understand how you learn. For instance do you need visual ads, do you have to rewrite information, do you have touch it, etc. Once you can understand how you learn, then you can begin to diversify ways you input information into your brain. By doing this you are committing information to your long term memory vs. your short term memory. Your short term memories have the least amount of neurological connections attached to it. For example, one of the first topics of discussion when learning a new subject is to learn vocabulary and/or terminology of the subject. When we get these set of words we usually learn them well enough to regurgitate them for a test. Have you ever study for a test to discover that the test is not written in the way you memorized the information you being tested on? This method of learning requires us to be dependent on a key word that triggers the recalling of information in its learned sequence. So, for you to be success in taking test is now going to be dependent on whether the test is given in multiple choices vs. a critical thinking format. Keep in mind that you have hard wire your memory with one connection or pathway, which can only be found once you access it in the way you train or wire your mind to retrieve it. What I am simply stating here is to train or wire your memory with multiple ways to access its contents. This comes from learning within and outside of your normal learning style, therefore diversifying the ways your brain can access information that is stored inside of it. So back to our example, first just get familiar with each term, its meaning, and how it applies to the whole function of the subject at hand. Then learn it in many different sequences, not just one. Finally question yourself as to whether or not you can explain the terms to someone who has no knowledge of the subject. This step requires you know the information, to apply the information and to be able to explain the information.