Learn, Unlearn and Relearn

I watched a clip of Barry White’s interview done in 1983. He was talking about what will happen in the future, the future which is now upon us. The things he said sounded quite farfetched, but it is barely 37 years later. Some of them have already happened and have become mainstream. They have become part of our lives, and we do not look at them as things that were mind-boggling a mere 37 years ago.

Our approach to education exacerbates the danger of getting overtaken by the FUTURE. Education should never be an end itself. It should always be a preparation for life. However, many people learn for the sake of learning instead of learning to know how to live. We take our children to school in most cases because we want them to be “educated”, not because we want to prepare them for life.

Therefore, to prevent the unfortunate situation of being irrelevant in spite of being very educated. We need to heed the words of Alvin Toffler, who said, “The illiterate of the 21st century will not be those who cannot read and write, but those who cannot learn, unlearn and relearn.” This is excellent advice for the times in which we live. Many people, institutions, and organizations will soon become irrelevant because they hold on to what they learned, which worked then but may not be relevant today.

So what is education? It is a process of learning, unlearning, and relearning, as Toffler correctly puts it.

Learning

We need to know what we don’t know to investigate things so we can understand them. Knowledge is simply discoveries of what people have learned over a period. However, advances in technology may render what we held dear to be challenged by new ways of doing things, making what we have learned irrelevant, and requiring us to get to the other stage of education.

Unlearn

When we get used to doing things in a particular way, our success can become our hindrance to the next level of success. When people enjoy success because of how they have been doing things, they romanticise the methods or knowledge that led them to that success. They get stuck in their own ways of doing things and forget that the world is moving and doing so at a breakneck pace. Rendering what they know irrelevant. Necessitating knew knowledge.

Therefore, if you are a leader or an individual who wants to be relevant now, and for the future, know what you know that needs to be unlearned to go to the next stage of education.

Relearn

This is a challenging stage for most people. Because we like to build monuments, we feel uneasy about discarding old things and forms of operation as individuals and organizations. So we hold on to them, jeopardizing our forward movement.

As individuals and organizations, we need to know what we need to relearn. But, to insist that what we know will take us into the future may be our downfall. What worked in 1983 brought you the success you are enjoying today, but may not be what you need going forward. Relearn how to do things.

As an individual, you may have to relearn how to learn. Going to a four-year program versus a one-month free course may be what you need. But because you think of education as a certificate on the wall, you will get your certificate which will cost you an arm and a leg, and then realize you didn’t need that after all.

Organizations may have to relearn how to do the process they have done very well in the past. In addition, these processes may require new ways of doing them, which will require relearning.

Remember, education is for living, not for showing off certificates. Application of knowledge is key, not the storage of it in our minds.

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