Learning from others

What if someone were to believe everything presented to him? He would end up pretty confused. What if a man was building his house and took advice from everyone passing by. One person said to build a country-like wrap around porch. The builder built this. Another said the exterior walls should be contemporary. Make them out of a mixture of mettle, concrete and bricks. The builder built the walls in a contemporary style. Still another passer by told the builder that the interior should be styled like a Native American hut. Again, the builder built the interior to look like a Native American hut. Needless to say the builder’s house would look very odd. Probably no one would like it. You see the builder didn’t decipherer advice. He just took in everything that came along.

Up to this point I have mainly discussed this topic from the aspect of someone giving advice. However we must also look at this topic from the prospective of one who is receiving this advice. A student may be presented with all the right information that a parent, teacher, or book can give him, and yet if he lives life with a mindset of not believing anything, what good are all those resources to him? To refuse someone else’s advice is prideful. Take the classic example of the man refusing to stop for directions. What is he doing? He is refusing to take the advice of someone else. Why? He is being prideful. What will it cost him? Lost time. As teenagers our pride is put into overdrive. If we’re presented with a difficult math assignment, are we willing to go to a friend who is knowledgeable in math, or are we afraid to ask for help? What will we lose end up asking for help? We may end up being slightly embarrassed, but probably not as embarrassed as we would be if we got an f on the math test.

A good balance is where the parent or teacher realizes that sometimes, a person must learn things for himself. In addition, the other end of that is when the student realizes that sometimes he must let go of his pride, decipherer the information given to him, and realize that he cannot always discover everything for himself.