How to Stay Sane (The School of Life) by Perry Philippa

Author:Perry, Philippa [Perry, Philippa]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781250030641
Publisher: Picador
Published: 2012-12-23T18:30:00+00:00

Learning Styles

There are many different ways of learning. Some of us absorb best when we read, while others prefer to learn visually from diagrams, videos and demonstrations. Auditory learners prefer to learn through listening, via lectures, talking things through and hearing what others have to say, gaining extra information from the tone and the nuances. There are also kinaesthetic learners, who learn through moving, doing and touching, preferring a hands-on approach through which they actively explore the physical world. So if we have always thought of ourselves as not being able to learn easily, it may be that we have not yet found the style of learning that best suits us; and, as the brain is plastic, we can, with practice, develop new styles of learning. The more we learn, the more we are able, by linking our areas of knowledge together, to come up with creative ideas. We would not know how physics and skydiving go together unless we knew a little bit about both. Thus the more we know, the more we can create.18

I left school at fifteen and it took me a few years to come around to and enjoy learning. In my early twenties I had a repetitive administrative job. I knew that I felt under-stimulated. Boredom drove me to a College of Further Education recruitment evening. I signed up for Psychology and English A-levels and made new friends at these classes. I remember going round to a friend’s house for the first time and being excited by her enthusiasm. She said, ‘I’m not bored any more; I find myself thinking about the different motivations of characters in Twelfth Night.’

This is what learning does. It gives us more things to think about so we have less time to get bored, depressed and under-stimulated. It builds on our existing knowledge and expands it. It leads us to make more connections by linking together more neural pathways. It also connects our brains to other people’s brains.

The next year I did Art and History. These became subjects that I have continued to build on with further reading and, in the case of Art and Psychology, further courses and a degree. Nothing but good has come from my taking a class. One year I did two evening classes, one in Film Appreciation and the other in Creative Writing. In the former I learnt that I disliked listening to people talking about film plots, while in the latter I did much better. In that class I met my husband. Learning new subjects not only builds new connections in our brains, but in our lives as well.

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