Learning is an important force in our lives from the moment we are born. When we are thrust from the warmth and safety of the womb into a cold, sterile hospital room (or the back of a taxi, or a bathroom, etc.), everything is new to us. Then we come home and everything is new again. We are born with big, empty brains, just waiting to absorb all the knowledge we can. In the first years of our lives, almost every second is spent learning, because we don't yet know what something is. We want to know how loud we can scream, what every object in the house tastes like, what happens if we drop food on the floor instead of eating it. Then we learn to walk and talk, mostly by imitating the patterns of our parents and others around us. At first we know nothing about language or words, only the sounds. Then we learn the meanings behind the sounds and how to put different ones together to create stories or questions. Once we know how to do this, we spend much of our time asking questions so we can learn even more about the world around us. "What is this?" "What is it?" "Who am I?" "Why did this happen?" Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on "Why Violent Video Games Shouldn't Be Banned"? Get an original essay I have been going to school since I was five years old. I don't remember anything about how it started, it's just something that has always been present in my life. For the most part, I have always enjoyed school. I never cared about my grades, so I never stressed out, so I always did well. Many of my classmates would confuse this with me being "smart", but the truth is that I am simply a great test taker. It's pretty much the only thing I've been taught for the last 13 years or so, so obviously I've learned a few tricks along the way. For me, "learning" in a classroom setting has always been more about memorizing material than trying to actually understand it. I was fortunate enough to quickly realize that most of the things we studied, like any kind of math beyond elementary school, or the exact dates of every single Civil War battle, would be of no use to me after taking the course. SOL, so I had no trouble purging it from my brain to make room for new information. I'm not saying that everything you read in a textbook is useless. There are many things you learn in class that are very important in your daily life, such as understanding how to write in proper English (or whatever your native language is), basic mathematics and a very significant part of everything that has been covered in the course of health. Learning in the real world about things that might actually be useful in my life one day, however, is very different. As far as life skills go, every day could potentially be a “test”, so it is more important to be able to really understand things to the point where they are internalized in your brain and remain a part of you forever, rather than storing them temporarily. random facts that will then be regurgitated and then never used again. Many of these skills are acquired by observing and analyzing the world around you: the behavior of your classmates, watching the news, researching topics you find interesting on the Internet. I spent a lot more time in my childhood (and even now) watching my peers do stupid things than I did going out and doing stupid things myself, so I had the opportunity to learn from their mistakes, which can be just as effective as learning from yours. Own. My classmates were great for me.