Many people mistakenly believe that the ability to learn is a matter of intelligence. For them, learning is an immutable trait like skin or eye color, simply luck of the genetic draw. People are born learners, or they’re not, the thinking goes. So why bother getting better at it?
And that’s why many people tend to approach the topic of learning without much focus. They don’t think much about how they will develop an area of mastery. They use phrases like “practice makes perfect.” Yet art and literature lovers emphasize that learning should and can be fun.
If learning can be connected to have fun, then learners will be made, not born.
Here’s one example of a young talent that shows how learning strategies can be more important than raw smarts when it comes to gaining expertise. Mohamed from EYES-SL has introduced him some books in the mini-library where bigger kids were drawing, and now he is having fun without asking:
"Am I good enough?
Will I fail?
What if I’m wrong?
Isn’t there something else that I’d rather be doing?"
The good news from all of this — for both African children and grown-up individuals looking to help their communities — is that learning is a learned behavior. Please help us to share that it is that we have learned how to learn. By using art and literature and then deliberately organizing our learning goals, thinking about our thinking, and reflecting on our learning at opportune times, we in Africa can become a better study, too.
