A friend of mine, and in fact the son of a Dharma teacher of mine, in Singapore wrote the following on learning, and I think it is worth sharing this with you guys:
“Who is responsible for your learning?” Unexpectedly, I had an after-class chit chat with my lecturer on the above topic earlier and it have helped me to view learning from another perspective. I certainly believe that lecturers play a vital role in shaping our learning. However, I am not saying that they are fully responsible for it; whether we score well or not for their module. In Ngee Ann, I used to point the finger at the lecturer when I did badly for a particular module. Or in the case where I did not get the lecturer I want for a certain module in early August this year, I would often go to class with a very critical mindset, and would often feel highly unproductive after class. I finally came to realise the adverse effects of my narrow-mindedness, and how they have [held] me back for the past 3 months. Instead, given such conditions, all the more I should put in the additional effort to read, practice and revise, and find and use different sources and strategies to learn and study from. “We cannot expect to go for 3-hour lecture and think we know it all after we leave the class.” Hence, it is a time I put my narrow-mindedness and constant procrastination to an end and start making conscious decisions towards the outcome I want, and I ask for you my friends to be my witnesses. To conclude, we are responsible for our own learning. We are the captains of our ships. And as the saying goes, “we are free to make choices but we are not free from the consequences of those choices”. To all those who are on the same boat, either struggling to cope or wrestling to catch up, keep fighting!! The fruits of your labour are at the end of the tunnel, don’t give up!
buddhalives 