Book Knowledge vs. Experience

Throughout the world, people preach about the benefits of going to college. In third world countries, parents hope their children will go to school to become lawyers and doctors. In Europe and the United States, parents have an expectation that their children will get a college degree. College everywhere is held up as the all-important icon of education. Not to say that it’s not important; college has the potential to dramatically increase an individual’s book knowledge. But what about real life experience? People usually don’t talk about what can be gained from experience in the real world. Experience and book knowledge are two sides of the same coin: learning. And learning inside and outside of a college setting can look very different.

My experience in college has been that classes are focused on reading, and enforcing the book knowledge aspect of learning. I’m expected to apply the information that I read about by writing a paper or answering an essay question rather than by interacting directly with the subject. Learning in college occurs more through reading and lectures less than through personal experiences. Not to underestimate the importance of book learning, however. Book learning is like the foundation for all other learning. Books allow us to learn from other people’s experiences, instead of having to go through a series of trials and tribulations to get to the information. If every time we wanted to learn something we had to go out and figure it out entirely on our own (without books), the world would be a very different place.

However, despite the fact that college classes focus primarily on learning through reading, that doesn’t mean that there aren’t any hands on learning opportunities in college. There are fewer than in the “real” world, but most college instructors incorporate some sort of hands on learning experience into their curriculum.

I should probably clarify what I mean by “hands on” learning.

By “hands on” learning, I mean where a person has some sort of personal experience with the subject they’re learning about. The personal experience can range from a simple thought about what they’re reading to actually interacting with the information, like in the case of reading about a country versus visiting the country itself. So in a college setting, hands-on experience could come in the form of writing an opinion-based paper, all the way to interacting directly with the subject material discussed in the textbook. For me, having hands on experience with a subject helps me remember information and be able to apply it in the future.

I was homeschooled, so when I was younger I had a lot of hands on learning opportunities. I practiced my fractions by baking with my dad and learned about the atmosphere by documenting the weather and cloud activity where I lived. Yes, I did read books (lots of books), but what really made the information stick in my head were the hands on experiences that I had. Interacting with what I was learning opened up other possibilities for learning, and I formed connections between a variety of subjects. For example, baking was rarely just about fractions; I learned something about chemistry, and got to practice my reading skills too.

I like to compare the difference between book knowledge and experience to traveling. A person can study Egyptology in college, but until the person actually goes to Egypt, they won’t know the smells and sounds along the Nile or the feel of the streets of Cairo beneath their feet. Although people don’t usually acknowledge these experiences as being as educational as going to college, I believe that they hold equal significance and importance.

So learning is more complicated that just going to college and getting a degree. I have to go out into the world and work to learn and remember what I’m learning. So, whenever I can, I immerse myself in whatever I’m learning about in my college classes. I develop my own opinion, and have experiences with the subject. The whole point of college is to increase one’s abilities and book knowledge, after all, so why not go for it and really learn?

Lydian Shipp

Webzine Team Member