In my upcoming book, What is School For? A Manifesto for Parents, I talk about the difference between studying and learning. There are many differences between the two, and one of them is memorization versus interests and curiosity. What goes beyond that is how they affect our thinking and habit-forming, which goes into everything we do.
When studying has become the only way to move forward, we rarely ask or even understand why. We are more likely to repeat what we were told and move on to the next thing. So if we are misinformed, even from a source that we trusted, we are less likely to question it but follow. Instead of learning with curiosity, we rely on others to think for us.
We hand our critical thinking skills over to someone else, so why are we surprised that we keep falling into traps without realizing them?
It's essential to see the differences between learning and studying because, at some point down the road, we'll see how growth mentality and fixed mentality lead to different lives we choose to lead.
