Importance Of Learning

Learning is often confused with education, which is, in fact, only a part of the whole learning experience in life. Learning is a constant process which involves learning to live, to socialize and to behave. Not all learning that we indulge in is conscious. We learn a lot of things unconsciously as well. Learning starts at birth, when we learn to breathe and feed. Then, we learn to walk and talk as a child. As we grow older, we learn newer and newer things, which help us live every day, and constantly grow as a person. Learning is actually the acquisition of knowledge through experience and education. Only when people develop, does the society develop and rise. Thus, learning plays an effective role in the development of the overall human populace. Even though common to all animals, the effect of learning is much more evident in human life. It is our refined sense of learning that has helped us utilize the environment and resources so efficiently that even though we are not the most lethal or powerful living beings on earth, we still rule it. Let us study the need of learning in basic terms.

Significance Of Learning In Life

Firstly, learning is essential to all organisms and without learning, a living soul is of no use. One who doesn’t understand his environment at least will be dead in no time. Imagine being born and not learning to breathe in the open air! You would be dead in no time.
Learning helps us understand basic necessities of life, and gives us a way of acquiring and mastering them. A lion that cannot prey or a gazelle that can’t run fast are both going to have a swift end, unless they meet each other and one survives. Similarly, a person cannot be spoon fed throughout his life. As he grows, he needs to learn how food is eaten and then find ways to earn his food.
Learning helps to adapt to a new environment. If only we know how to change our ways according to changes in our locale, will we survive. This is evident in the rise of modern humans as opposed to the Neanderthals and other primitive humanoids. This can also be demonstrated with the spread of human beings to arctic regions and the deserts where the people have adapted their lifestyles to match their environment. Not just extremes of temperatures or conditions, we have to adapt ourselves every day to new people, places, jobs and relations. Only learning can assist us in this.
Learning helps respond to dangers and react. If you ever see a child stuck in the middle of a road, you will find that it sits still when the road is empty, but starts crying as soon as the traffic approaches. However, the reaction of an adult, in a similar situation, is to run and save himself/herself. This is because the grown up has learned to avert danger by action, whereas the baby has only learned to cry and attract attention, so that someone saves it, eventually averting danger. Survival even in normal life is impossible without learning.
Learning helps in becoming more efficient and helps attain great positions. Each time you read a resume and run through the title ‘work experience’, know that the information added reflects learning that the individual indulged in, apart from educational qualifications. This is based on the assumption that the time you spent doing something also helped you to “learn” that craft.
Greater learning can provide you with deeper knowledge of a subject, which cannot be imparted from bookish education. We must remember that some of the most prominent personalities in history were not educated, but learned and well versed in their own trade, just by the virtue of learning and not education. How you learn something can take you from a common man’s position to that of a leader.
In totality your ability and inclination to learn determines the course that your life takes and the success that you achieve. You have to use your learning of concepts, people and situations in handling day to day stuff. Remember, winners don’t do anything different; they just do the same things differently.
Learning is never complete unless we have both experience and education. A lack of either can impair the use of other. For we learn rights and duties of a citizen through education in schools, but good morals come from the family and good behavior from company through experience. Unless we have all of these, we cannot become better individuals.

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