Barriers for learning

When we open our eyes, we are told, hey you can’t do this, you are too young, or hey you cannot handle this, you are not the right age. Cant, cant cant, means from the very early age we start encountering barriers. They try to lock your brains with limitation and turn you into a robot that is programmed to do things. I am here to prove, that barriers do not really exist for a keen learner. Now what barriers do, they limit your power of imagination, they forcefully instill limitations in your mind, and they direct your energies to look at your in-capabilities instead of channelizing your energies towards your capabilities and in the end you really start believing it and do not even bother to try.

When I was young, I also encountered these barriers, not from my parents but from other people. I remember one of my relatives said it to my parents, why do you let her use internet, it’s dangerous and she will get addicted to it. Little did they know that I was using computer for learning and it was because of computer I managed to learn many things.

So in a sense sticking to your ideas, really help. I remember once taking an online course, I posted some of my thoughts on a forum and a 51 year old guy said it to me, “You know we do not want to answer you because you are a 12 year old annoying girl trying to be Leonardo da Vinci, Instead you should play with puppets.” For a moment I thought, hey that’s really mean and harsh thing to say but later I thought “Oh wow he is relating me to Leonardo da Vinci, now isn’t it cool.” So I responded him and said, “Well thanks and yes I like Leonardo da Vinci.” Now that’s another thing he later apologized.

So I mean to say I was unaffected by his response which was trying to tell me, I should not speak my mind because I am 12 and I should not be in that class because of my age, so I instead focused on the other part of his sentence, you know the good part which was more amusing for me.

Learning has no age limit, you can learn any time you want, it does not matter how old you are or how young you are, you should have the courage to face these barriers and cross them. Learning is oxygen to your brain which actually keeps you young and alive. People will stop you, patronize you but if you are passionate about learning, no one can stop you.

Now learning does not mean that you learn only the subjects you are taught in school, learning means anything which interests you, learning is not at all about getting a degree.

Now there are many kind of barriers, one is age limit as I told you but there is another one too which is gender oriented, for example, hey you are a girl and girls shouldn’t do it. There is another one; hello behave like a girl OK, or girls do not have the brains to study science etc etc. I would just like to tell all of them, girls can achieve anything, they can be good at anything, they have the equal opportunity to educate themselves so I will not take your sympathies by showing the weaker side of girls that: “Oh we do not have the equal right to get education, I would rather show you how strong a girl can be if she really decides to get education.”

There is another thing which comes under the same category, it’s the cult of too much seriousness in learning, I mean you got to be some kind of zombie with a stern look of seriousness on your face if you need to learn something, “pay attention and be serious is all I hear” and “Can’t you see we are trying to learn something here,” I want to tell them, people learn more in friendly and open environment, restricted learning produce restricted thinking.

Now there is another barrier which you have probably never heard before and it affected me and many others. It’s called “banana barrier” which our government has slapped on us, the same govt which always claims to be the champion of promoting education and that barrier is banning our access to get knowledge from internet. Where our world is evolving with nonstop changing technologies, learning is also evolving; we need “SOME THING MORE!” Something more to learn from and here we are facing an issue which needs to be highlighted. It is YouTube ban, you all know it is banned in Pakistan and thus limiting our fundamental right to access “learning materials”. Now the most important question arises, how on earth we can convince our government to lift the ban who has perceived banning is the only solution. Who will tell the “GENIUS “behind this decision that we are endangering the future of our own youth by playing into the hands of those people who have actually have “no desire to learn or have stopped learning long ago”.

Ironic isn’t it but sadly that’s the way it goes. Who would know the impact of this ban better than those who suffer from it? While students of all over the world are enjoying learning but we are forced to seek less revolutionary ways to study. I hope one day some better sense prevails and this ban is removed because learning is an ongoing process, it is not only fast ,it is changing too .Every day some new physics theories are made ,some new experiments are conducted .We can be a part of it ,we can follow the change. Learning needs not to be “difficult” it can be fun and we can enjoy it. Knowledge has to be passed on and now there are easier and simpler ways to pass it on. So why creating barriers in our path, why not facilitate it. The best gift any one can give to their nation is the gift of “free and easy education” and we shall get it by crossing these barriers because we are not robots, we have brain and the will to succeed. Barriers are proposed by people who underestimate the power of human mind. They thrive on the fears of others. Let no one intimidate you by pointing at your errors because making mistake is the first step of learning,  hold on to your dreams because your dreams can turn into a reality and change the world. This has happened before and it can happen again and that’s the only way which can make you survive. We should refuse to accept these barriers and the people who created it, there is no barrier which cannot be crossed and remember it’s you who has to do it; it’s only you who can help yourself grow.