Starting from scratch; now unlearn pt 1

College should ideally be all about learning.

Learning from lectures.

Learning from people.

Learning from experiences.

Learning from the partying.

Learning from sex.

For some it’s through most of them. For some it’s through distilled variations of the above.

The most interesting part is that the learning (process) doesn’t have to be the same for everyone.

Think about it.

People can learn differently from Kendrick Lamar;

Some may reflect to the undertones in his lyrics. Some may introspect. Some may be exposed to new depths of human existence. Some may find a new groove in music. Whereas some may just have a new playlist addition.

Hail hip hop.

Now let’s forget all that and quickly get back to the subject of our discussion.

College should ideally be all about learning.

Different kinds of learning. But learning nonetheless.

What do we do with all that learning though?

Apply it at a job or for further studies, sure. Use it to sharpen certain life skills, sure. Implement it on the world stage, sure. Maybe even venture into spiritual development. Just maybe.

But what learning or skillsets

• are you going to prioritize on?
• will actually bring value to your life?
• are not in alignment with your goals?
• will cause more harm than good?

These are the easy questions. Difficult to follow through, but easy to work out.

I feel the question we should really be asking is; what to do with the less useful learning?

What to do with skillsets that are almost redundant with our lifestyle?

What to do with ideas that don’t resonate with us anymore?

The answer is; let’s do some unlearning baby.

It’s a concept I got introduced to 2 months prior to writing this article. A simple, fun, and rather human concept.

Imagine going to the beach everyday to pick up sea shells. On returning home you realise you’ve picked up a lot of sand as well. Well, that’s normal. But you decide to clean up the sand and keep only the shells. Then you notice small pebbles in the bucket. You get rid of them too. Why? Because all you want to keep are the shells.

Unlearning is getting rid of prejudices and preconceived notions.

Unlearning is getting rid of negative emotions that hold you back.

Unlearning is forgetting the wrong that the world has taught you.

Unlearning is learning from scratch, again.

So far, I’ve noticed that no traditional college propagates discourse on unlearning. Why the fuck not? You teach your students to launch into space but not how they can get back to earth and relaunch again?

That’s kinda messed up.

But to be fair to colleges, unlearning is a fairly unfamiliar and sometimes misunderstood concept.

I mean why the fuck do we learn so much if the end goal is to forget most of it anyways?

Nada mate.

You don’t want to fill your boat with unnecessary goods do you? Especially if you’re going to pick up more awesome goods on your travels.

#beFAIRtoBOATS

Unlearning is for everyone. It doesn’t matter where you are or who you are in life.

Really doesn’t.

Some may even go as far as to say that unlearning is a crucial step to attaining ‘enlightenment’.

From my experiences I’ve learned that unlearning is a great way to get rid of false belief systems. As a (voluntary) college dropout I sometimes feel this sense of entitlement; that I’m no longer obliged to be a part of the everyday rate race.

That I don’t need to work as hard as my college-going/graduate peers.

That I’m ahead of the rest.

Sounds like shit right?

This belief system can make me lazy and unobliged towards finishing my work.

Why? Partly because of a false assurance that I’m always ahead of the rest.

Not true because I’ve also learned that it’s the other way around. There are more people doing things than not.

My sense of entitlement needs to be unlearned or I will simply keep wasting time. It’s a current belief system that can be done away with. Just like any other self-damaging belief system.

Guess we all have a bit of unlearning to do don’t we?