Why learning is good for us

Finals week is almost here, and with it comes the question I hear every single year: Why do I have to learn this?

This question has always bugged me, especially now that we’re all out of the educational hell-hole known as high school. In my mind, this hatred of learning cuts right to the center of what’s wrong with how people experience life. For me, learning is growth. If I know the same amount today as I did last year, I consider my year wasted.
I’ve always been a voracious learner, doing my best to get my hands on knowledge I didn’t have, and it still surprises me most people aren’t this way.

Aside from growing as a person, filling your brain with as much knowledge as possible has definite benefits. In a study of elderly subjects, researchers found that the more education a person received in his or her life, the easier they could deal with or stave off the effects of dementia in their later years.

Basically, the more you learn now, the less time you’ll spend trying to relearn the names of your grandchildren.

I understand the stress associated with so much learning can turn some people off to the idea of pushing themselves to learn. Believe me, I’m not much of a test taker.

But think about it this way: The only way we as a society can continue to be relevant on the international stage is if we keep making ourselves smarter.

Sure, you probably won’t need to remember that differential equation, and your future boss probably isn’t going to make you recite “Macbeth” for him. But as we go through life, we’re all going to be confronted with new ideas and technologies. We’re all going to have to change the way we think about things and how we view the world.

The best way to practice that is to constantly push ourselves to learn more.

­— kevsjack@indiana.edu