700 Common Words Exercise No. 5
It seems
to me that there are three principal ways in which we can learn to do things or
to understand things looking reading, or hearing. We can watch things done by
other people, and copy their movements and actions. This is the way in we learn when we are very
young. Babies, and all young animals, of course, are very quick to copy the
acts of their mothers, and in this way they learn a very great amount in a
remarkable short time. We continue throughout our lives to learn in this ways
and then making some attempt to carry out like acts ourselves. When we grow up,
however, we are able to make observations within much wider limits, and we are
free to learn great numbers of things simply by watching. Not only can we see
the life going on round about us, but we have also brought right into the home
the moving picture and the TV set. There is, perhaps, no more interesting and
successful method of learning about other countries than to watch moving
pictures that have been taken in those places. Most of us find it much easier
to remember what we have seen than to remember what we have read in a book or
have been told. Even a very good writer, telling us of scenes and doings in far
off lands, cannot bring to our minds so clear a picture of those countries as
can a quite short moving picture in the course of instructions in subjects as
different from one another as history and science. In such subjects mere
reading is not enough to give a complete picture of the material under consideration.
We can, then, use of eyes when we want to learn, using our powers of seeing and
observation. We must also, however, use of powers of hearing. To most of us
this is a difficult way of learning, and we have often to work quite hard to master the art of learning through hearing.
An exception is, of course, the subject of languages, for clearly there is no
better way to learn a language than to hear other people speaking it. Mere book
knowledge of a language is a poor thing, for a language does not really live
until it is used. When, however, we are dealing with ideas learning through
hearing becomes more difficult. We have to learn first to pay attention. How
often does a teacher say: Pay attention, please!” And how necessary are the
words. If no notes are being taken the words once said have gone forever. If
they live at all it must be in the memories of those who have heard the words.
When we first go to school we think we are learning to write and to read and to
do little sums, but in fact we are also
learning something of even more importance: we are learning to pay attention,
to hear what the teacher says, and to hold it is our memories. The person who
is able to pay attention is a much better learner than the person whose mind is
always going off into other fields of thought, even though the two people may
have equally good minds in other respects. Many people who attend public
meetings find that their attention is not always given to the person speaking,
and it is indeed a good man or woman who can hold our complete attention for
half an hour or more. It is probably true that most people learn most things
most easily through reading. They can read the material they wish to learn, and
can read it again many, many times if they do desire. They can memorize the
written word with a reasonable degree of ease, and can usually master a far
larger amount of material in this way in a given time than would be possible by
another method. Seeing, reading, and hearing all pay their part in our complete
development as we grow into men and women.
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