The spirit of active learning
The spirit of active learning
There's a Chinese idiom (or is it a phrase??) that goes "活到老学到老" (continue and progress in your learning, even when you are old) and I witnessed this today =)
I brought my car for servicing - yup, better do it before the semester begins and I'm caught with all the readings and tight schedule again ... - and was sitting down waiting for my queue number to flash and attended to. Beside me was an old lady, probably in her 60s?? that was holding on to a small little book with a pencil in her hand. For a moment, I thought she was flipping through horse punter's guide, analyzing which horse she should bet .. haha, but behold, I was WRONG!! As I turned in her direction (somewhat out of curiosity and also to check if the internet terminals towards her side were available for use) I saw her working on puzzles!! That aroused my curiosity even more so I used the corner of my eye to "peep" (I know lah, not very courteous, but curiosity kills the cat lah!!!) and I saw her working on Sudoku puzzles and I'm just amazed!!
My amazement comes from the fact that even though she's old, she did not let her brain become idle. I guess she knew the importance of keeping her brains active and exercising it to keep it alert?? That just reminds me about most of us in our attitude towards learning and growing. A great deal of us have the opportunity for good education, but instead of looking at the positive benefits education brings, many times we agonize over the piles of reading .. complain about exams ... etc, etc. Well, these do cause stress, but it does exercise and keep our brains active, besides helping us acquire knowledge that is beneficial to, not anybody else, but ourselves.
The spirit of learning ... I have learned it afresh ... today - from an old lady, which I would say I admire greatly, even though I don't know her personally.
There's a Chinese idiom (or is it a phrase??) that goes "活到老学到老" (continue and progress in your learning, even when you are old) and I witnessed this today =)
I brought my car for servicing - yup, better do it before the semester begins and I'm caught with all the readings and tight schedule again ... - and was sitting down waiting for my queue number to flash and attended to. Beside me was an old lady, probably in her 60s?? that was holding on to a small little book with a pencil in her hand. For a moment, I thought she was flipping through horse punter's guide, analyzing which horse she should bet .. haha, but behold, I was WRONG!! As I turned in her direction (somewhat out of curiosity and also to check if the internet terminals towards her side were available for use) I saw her working on puzzles!! That aroused my curiosity even more so I used the corner of my eye to "peep" (I know lah, not very courteous, but curiosity kills the cat lah!!!) and I saw her working on Sudoku puzzles and I'm just amazed!!
My amazement comes from the fact that even though she's old, she did not let her brain become idle. I guess she knew the importance of keeping her brains active and exercising it to keep it alert?? That just reminds me about most of us in our attitude towards learning and growing. A great deal of us have the opportunity for good education, but instead of looking at the positive benefits education brings, many times we agonize over the piles of reading .. complain about exams ... etc, etc. Well, these do cause stress, but it does exercise and keep our brains active, besides helping us acquire knowledge that is beneficial to, not anybody else, but ourselves.
The spirit of learning ... I have learned it afresh ... today - from an old lady, which I would say I admire greatly, even though I don't know her personally.
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