Atlanta tri-weekly journal. [volume] (Atlanta, Ga.) 1920-19??, 1923-08-16
THE WAY TO LEARN
BY H. Arlington Bruce

~HERE is just one way to learn any
thing. That is by thinking about It,
Which would seem truism so trits
as not to call for utterance. But the fact Is
that innumerable people from laziness or for
getfulness ignore it completely.
For that matter it often is ignored even by
those whose business it is to help people to
learn.
/ Learn by doing" is a teaching slogan
frequently heard. Learn by listening, 1s
another, and yet another is, Learn by look
ing"
No doubt looking listening, and doing are
all of them helpful and necessary to learning.
But one could look listen, and do till dooms-
day without really learning anything unless
one at the same time thought
And this is precisely where no end OF
would.be learners fall pathetically short.
They go perhaps to educational movies
or inspect models designs, and pictures relat'
ing to the things they wish to learn. Perhaps
they attended lectures with great regularity,
and faithfully take notes. Or perhaps they
90 through the motions of this or that ac
tivity which is strange to them and mastery
of which they would acquire.
In any case the time thus spent by them Ia
mostly time wasted, unless the looking, the
listening and the doing are accompanied by
thinking.
Daily observation demonstrates the truth
Of this.
Parents, teachers, employers OF labor have
the truth of it disagreeably impressed upon
them again and again From those who want
to learn but fail to think comes never
ceasing chorus:
II did study. read for hours at a time.
watched instructors with the greatest in
tentness Yet | am as badly off as ever.
What l to do"
And the answer, the one correct answer IS:
Think. Use the mind that was given to
you as the great Giver intended you to use 1t.
Don't be content with exercising your sense
organs, your eyes, your ears your hands.
Exercise your reasoning powers, too"
In learning anything make haste slowly
should be the rule. Perpetually one needs to
pat to oneself the question, DO I really UNI
derstand this, do 1 truly know it?" If the
answer has to be in the negative there should
follow questioning Of other people who can
clarity the understanding. Also there should
follow patient, plodding bordering of the sub
ject with the aid OF Illuminating books.
Or in the words of one who has specialized
in the psychology Of learning:
Make the ground good as you go along.
II there is anything, however minute, you do
not understand, bend your mind until you
grasp it, Do not be satisfied with surface
impressions; probe to the bottom
1T is only by deliberateness that you can
properly consider, mediate or reflect upon q
difficult subject. Deliberateness includes
both slowness and carefuness, and means take
ing all the time necessary properly to con-
slider a matter"
OF course this means hard work-which
is perhaps one reason so many people try to
learn without thinking. But if learning is to
be insured it is hard work which must be
undertaken, make no mistake about that.
And if it be not undertaken, if semi-learn
ing be thought sufficient then one cannot
complain if the penalties of only half learn
ing thing are imposed, penalties which in
clude perpetual disappointment at ones
failure to rise in the world.
Copyright, 1929