LIVING AND LEARNING

I remember after finishing secondary school, during my last days in the boarding school, My friends and I sat down to think, gist and laugh after the burnfire. Someone asked a question among us, in his words he said; “Does it mean that we have escaped illiteracy now?” We all took some minutes to assimilate that question when one of us replied, we will continue to be literate as long as we continue to learn. According to him, those were the words of his father to him some time ago who happened to be a professor. Now I think back at that conversation and admit that there have been times when I felt like an illiterate. Not because I didn’t go to school, but because I did not know what to do with the knowledge I have. When I think about it, I realize that 7 out of 10 times, school doesn’t really teach us anything new, especially when we have gone through the basics. It only helps us to better understand the knowledge we have already acquired and that is why it is very important. To be honest I’m not even a fan of the conventional school system, I prefer a learning and practice process which is usually more valuable to a person than the normal conventional school.

Photo by 🇸🇮 Janko Ferlič on Unsplash

The conventional school only certifies you to be a professional, the unconventional school is what teaches you how to face day to day challenges and succeed. But both are crucial depending on the area of life a person has chosen. If one wants to be successful in the corporate world, then only learning the skills and having the right understanding of a career part makes one illiterate. This is because the corporate world requires certifications to succeed, but if one wants to succeed in the general world, then having certifications might not even be necessary. We hear stories of successful people like Mark Zuckerberg who dropped out of Harvard University to pursue his dream. Looking at a school like Harvard that offers both conventional and unconventional learning processes, you can say that Mark wasn't illiterate in any way. In Nigeria there is a stereotype of the Igbo and Yourba people, while the Igbos are known to be rich business men, the Yorubas are known to be intelligent and well learned. But then it’s not a stereotype that the majority of businesses that make the economy flourish are owned by the Igbos, and the majority of successful politicians between the Yorubas and Igbos are Yorubas.

This comparison Justifies the fact that there are two worlds we live in, The corporate world, and what I call the general world. Depending on the kind of success a person wants to achieve, they will need to be either learned in business which is more about the general world, or in the corporate world. But mind you, in different ways the corporate world controls the general world because in it is government and a more systematic form of business. This is why I do not judge people by their ability to speak well, I judge people by their level of success. An academic professor is poor because although well learned in academics, he is illiterate in business. My mum always says what you don’t know is bigger than you, I say until you can apply what you know consistently to produce results, you don’t know it and thus you are illiterate. This means that we might be literate in one thing and illiterate in something else and it is why we must always strive to learn to catch up with the speed at which the world is moving at.

THIS IS MY RESPONSE TO HIVE LEARNER'S PROMPT FOR WEEK 174 EPISODE 2