Learning Unlearning and Relearning

"The illiterate of the 21st century will not be those who cannot read and write, but those who cannot learn, unlearn, and relearn."??

- Alvin Toffler

I remember as a kid waking up at 6 in the morning, to catch my school bus at 7. On days when it was chilly or raining and bed felt so welcoming, getting up for school was in itself a nightmare.

Lucky for my young one Covid has given rise to a new normal i.e. home schooling. No more waking up early, rushing to the bus stand and reaching school half awake. Now they just wake up a min before the session on zoom/teams begins.

Needless to say, over the last few months, parents are now turned half teachers if not full.

So the other day I was teaching my 4 year old ,alphabets and sounds, PHONICS as they call it.

Going back to basics we were all taught A for apple B for Ball etc. etc.

Now we have to teach a apple, b ball (focus on the sound here not the letter). But this A for apple is so deep set in us that it’s like a default setting, so every time I teach her I have to be very cautious and careful.

This may not make a lot of sense to people who haven’t gone through this phase :)

So long story short I realized that to teach her, I had to first make myself UNLEARN my traditional learning.

That got me thinking, what’s more difficult, learning a new skill or unlearning something you took years to learn.

To add Unlearning is not about forgetting. It's about the ability to choose an alternative mental model . When we learn, we add new skills or knowledge to what we already know. When we unlearn, we step outside the mental model in order to choose a different one.

So a shout out to my dear HR connections, while hiring what do you prefer hiring a fresher who can learn and be molded as per the requirement or hire someone experienced who might have to go through a phase of unlearning.

Do let me know in the comments.